LIONS 179 



densely clothed with grass or scrub that, unless you 

 go out with the express purpose of hunting them, 

 the chances are very much against catching a glimpse 

 of a lion at all. In cultivated districts, so far from 

 being a source of public danger, lions may be looked 

 upon as the friend of the agriculturist. Like the 

 tigers in some parts of India, their favourite food is 

 the wild pigs and small antelopes which play such 

 havoc among the crops, and their complete extermina- 

 tion would not prove to be by any means an unmixed 

 blessing. It is only very rarely that men are 

 attacked by them ; of course, if a man is foolish 

 enough to walk about after dark, he offers a tempt- 

 ing meal, which no hungry lion would be likely 

 to refuse ; but instances of lions, like the famous 

 man-eaters of Tsavo, acquiring a preference for 

 human flesh, and breaking into huts and tents to 

 seize men, are quite exceptional. 



Like most of the other posts in the east of the 

 Congo Free State, Rutchuru exists only for military 

 and strategic purposes. The Rusisi-Kivu District, 

 as it is called, is a long strip of territory with a vary- 

 ing width of from 50 to 200 miles, and having a 

 length of about 600 miles. It marches with German 

 East Africa and with Uganda, and it includes the 

 northern part of Tanganyika, the valley of the 

 Rusisi River, the Mfumbiro volcanoes, the basins of 

 Lake Kivu and Lake Albert Edward, and the greater 

 part of the Semliki Valley. This, it will be seen, is 

 exactly the strip of country which is required to unite 



12 — 2 



