PHOTOGRAPHING A LION 93 



stances compels one to shoot more animals than 

 one wants for trophies, or cares to kill, and the 

 greatest force in these circumstances is the dis- 

 content of the meatless negro. 



The next week was devoted entirely to an 

 endeavour to get photographs of sable ; but at 

 this time, when they were most needed, I never 

 succeeded in taking any good ones. One day I 

 took unwittingly a very rare and curious picture, 

 that of a lion, small and out of focus on the plate 

 it is true, but a lion notwithstanding, walking 

 through the grass, looking crestfallen, as if after 

 an unsuccessful stalk. There had been the spoor 

 of lions in the forest, and the sable had been shy, 

 moving much in the past few days, and driven off 

 their usual haunts. When at last I found them, 

 the photograph failed, as the herd hurriedly 

 galloped away just before it was taken. On the 

 film and hard to recognize, so bad the focus, was 

 the lion. My determination to stop shooting and 

 photograph instead had brought trouble in the 

 camp, for the carriers, who had bartered much 

 of the sable meat to the villagers for small and 

 trifling things, now clamoured for more, and were 

 getting mutinous. 



Without letting my present carriers know, I 

 had sent back to my friends at Chimbango for 

 twenty-five new ones, and they arrived just when 

 things were at their worst. The arrival of the new 

 carriers was dramatic in its moment. The men 

 realized my power, and begged as hard to stay 

 as they had prayed to go. As they had worked 

 well fur v;c in th-; past, ten oi ihe nest were kept, 



