180 THE LAND OF ‘THE LION 
Five miles that morning we had ridden, fast as good 
horses could go. Our game in full view all the time, not 
a bush, nota rock to hide it for a moment, no cover of any 
sort, till the long start the second lion had on us, enabled 
him to gain the swampy ground and bordering reeds that 
fringed the stream. H. said he never had had quite so 
ideally perfect a ride, and as we again grasped hands over 
our lion, safely down, we agreed that there is not, there 
cannot be, anything in all the world quite equal to riding 
lion on Sergoit plain. 
As they lay, the lions measured nine feet four inches 
and nine feet five inches: full grown males. 
It is interesting to note the way a ridden lion advances 
on his enemy. ‘These two, and the others that were ridden 
and shot, stood or laid down for a moment to rest and get 
their wind, and then rose and faced us. None of them 
growled loudly, as did my first lions when hit, none of them 
attempted such a roar as the wounded beast that mauled 
Mombo gave utterance to, as he was roused from his pain- 
ful lair, and came for his tormentors. These snarled and, 
thrusting the head forward and the ears down and back, 
just as an angry cat will, advanced rather slowly at first 
with stiff tail, Mr. Hoey who had killed and helped to kill 
many lions, tells me if they are missed or only slightly 
wounded, they increase steadily the pace of their advance. 
Generally speaking, lionesses seem to crouch lower than 
lions, and to come more quickly, too. This renders a 
really charging lioness one of the most difficult shots that can 
bemade. Noneof mylions bounded in, after being wounded, 
except the first, and he stopped and raised his head at fifty 
yards distance from me. From what I can learn from 
those who not only shoot steadily, but observe the beast 
they are shooting at (and there are not a great many hunters 
who really do this carefully and constantly — nine times out 
of ten the accounts one hears are the unreliable fancy 
