ROUNDING-UP 



started volley-firing. It got her, and that was Jack's first 

 lion. If I ever have to go through such a thing again as 

 I don't intend to I think it will cure me of all desire to shoot 

 lions. Tarlton has given it up long ago as a bad job, and he 

 is a crack shot. The boma part of it is comparatively safe, but 

 suppose one gets away from you, what may happen if you are 

 fool enough to go in after him. The odds are three to one in 

 his favor even if you do hit him. The range in such con- 

 dition becomes almost even with the muzzle of the gun, in- 

 stead of one hundred yards. Volley-firing is the safest 

 plan if you succeed in locating the lion. Of course, when 

 you get him in fairly open country he's your meat if you 

 shoot at all well especially when you have other guns backing 

 you up. 



Folsom is a remarkably good shot. It is easy to 

 imagine what might have happened to him in his boma 

 if he had shot badly and wounded his lions instead of 

 killing them. A wounded^ lion is the personification of 

 rage and destructive energy. 



Popular opinion would vote the lion most dangerous iy 

 expert opinion would perhaps place elephant and buffalo ^ 

 ahead of lion, especially as you are likely to encounter 

 these animals in numbers. All would agree, I think, that 

 the rhino is least dangerous of these four animals. 

 They are all dangerous, and each sportsman is likely to 

 be guided by his own experience in awarding the palm 

 of danger. 



Colonel Roosevelt, in Scribner's Magazine for October, 

 1913, says: 



As I have elsewhere said, experienced hunters often differ 

 widely in their estimates as to how the different kinds of 

 dangerous game rank as foes. There are many men who 

 regard elephants as the most dangerous of all; and again 

 there are many others who regard the lion and the buffalo 



95 



