With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



quite different directions. Free from the every-day levelling 

 influences of the outer world, experiencing such things on 

 a tropical moonlit night a night almost as bright as 

 day it is not difficult to imagine the life of our ancestors, 

 the troglodytes of the ice-world, who must have had the 

 same experience every night ! 



Thus the lonely man in a little camp spins out his 

 thoughts ; the wings of fancy carry him home ; he sinks 

 imperceptibly from consciousness into sleep and dreams. 

 But it is not for long ; loud roars soon waken him again. 



This time the roaring sounds threateningly near ; 

 black sleepy figures take courage and poke the camp- 

 fires into a blaze. Those who are taking their rest by the 

 confines of the camp come in to find greater safety, 

 and the watchful Askari doubles his attention. . . . Next 

 morning, only a few steps from the spot where some 

 carriers had slumbered, we find the imprints of huge 

 paws. Had I not ordered a thorn-hedge to be piled 

 up on this side of the camp who knows what would 

 have happened ? 



I was lucky in having such a number of lions near my 

 camp, but I had to use all my wits to persuade them 

 to come within reasonable distance of my apparatus at 

 night time. My attempts were at first without satis- 

 factory results, until at last I hit upon a method that 

 brought me to the desired goal. 



As my photographs indicate, lions when possible creep 

 along the ground towards their prey. Further, it appears 

 that the lioness is always the aggressive party. The 

 pictures give only single lions, but in reality there 



134 



