-*> More Lion-Hunting Experiences 



their unexpected appearance has put me in a tight corner. 

 One lioness I can still see standing a few paces away from 

 me, outlined clearly against the dun-coloured, sun-scorched 

 velt, her yellow eyes gleaming as they watch me. But 

 the traveller may have to wait years and years for such 

 an experience. Among sportsmen who have been lucky 

 in this respect may be mentioned Duke Adolf Fried- 

 rich von Mecklenburg, who shot a fine lion on his very 

 first hunt in German East Africa. This is a record feat. 

 Never shall I forget the exciting hours I spent one 

 day in 1899 following up the tracks of a party ot no less 

 than fourteen lions. Five hours it took me to get within 

 sight of them, in a thorny jungle w r ith an undergrowth of 

 bowstring hemp. I had never come across so large a 

 party before. The tracks of their mighty paws stood out 

 clearly in the fine dust of the velt. 



j 



There is an extraordinary fascination in following up 

 tracks of wild animals in this way, more or less hap- 

 hazard. As you move forward your imagination goes 

 ahead of you, picturing in a hundred different fashions the 

 way in which you will at last come upon your quarry. In 

 this case perhaps it was just as well for me the lions 

 became aware of me as they lay in the shade of some 

 acacia-trees, just as I was scrambling up a hill, and in a 

 moment they had all disappeared 



When I got to the spot where they had been lying, I 

 was just in time to catch a last glimpse of them disappear- 

 ing into a thicket at the bottom of the hill. A strong smell 

 of lions was there to reinforce the tracks and prove to my 

 senses that 1 was not the victim of an illusion. Such 



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