Sir Samuel TKflbite JBafcer 575 



tracked a lion to its den, crawled in after it, and shot the 

 beast when it was glaring at him not five paces di 

 His experience of lions, however, led him to the belief 

 that the lion is not so dangerous as the tiger, though 

 if wounded and followed up there cannot be a more 

 formidable opponent. 



" I once," he writes, " saw a wounded lion decline a 

 challenge from a single hunter. It is possible that a 

 tiger might have behaved in the same manner, but it 

 would be dangerous to allow the opportunity. I had 

 taken a stroll in the hope of obtaining a shot at large 

 antelopes, to procure flesh for camp, and I was attended 

 by only one Arab, a Hamran hunter armed with his 

 customary sword and shield. Having a peculiar con- 

 fidence in the accuracy of a two-grooved single rifle of 

 small bore, I took no other, and we walked cautiously 

 through the jungle, expecting to see some animal that 

 would supply the necessaiy food. We had not walked 

 half a mile when we emerged upon a narrow glade about 

 80 yards in length, surrounded by thick bush. At one 

 end of this secluded and shady spot an immense lion was 

 lying asleep upon the ground, about 70 yards distant, on 

 the verge of the dense nabbuk. 



He rose majestically as we disturbed him by our noise 

 in breaking through the bushes, and before he had time 

 to arrange his ideas, I fired, hitting him through the 

 shoulder. With the usual roars he rolled several times 

 in apparent convulsive struggles, until half hidden beneath 

 the dense jungle ; there he remained. If I had had a 

 double rifle I could have repeated the shot, but in those 

 days of muzzle-loaders I had to reload a single rifle, and 



