THE FIRST LION 



Below us, about fifteen yards away, was the car- 

 cass of a waterbuck half hidden in the foot-high grass. 

 A lion and two lionesses stood upon it, staring up at 

 us with great yellow eyes. That picture is a very 

 vivid one in my memory, for those were the first wild 

 lions I had ever seen. My most lively impression 

 was of their unexpected size. They seemed to bulk 

 fully a third larger than my expectation. 



The magnificent beasts stood only long enough to 

 see clearly what had disturbed them, then turned, 

 and in two bounds had gained the shelter of the 

 thicket. 



Now the habit in Africa is to let your gunbearers 

 carry all your guns. You yourself stride along hand 

 free. It is an English idea, and is pretty generally 

 adopted out there by every one, of whatever na- 

 tionality. They will explain it to you by saying 

 that in such a climate a man should do only neces- 

 sary physical work, and that a good gunbearer will 

 get a weapon into your hand so quickly and in so 

 convenient a position that you will lose no time. I 

 acknowledge the gunbearers are sometimes very 

 skilful at this, but I do deny that there is no loss of 

 time. The instant of distracted attention while 

 receiving a weapon, the necessity of recollecting 

 the nervous correlations after the transfer, very often 

 mark just the difference between a sure instinctive 



"3 



