72 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



they grow starved and feeble unless they are previously 

 killed in an encounter with dangerous game like buffalo 

 is to be killed and eaten by hyenas; but of course a lion 

 in full vigor pays no heed to hyenas, unless it is to kill one 

 if it gets in the way. 



During the last few decades, in Africa, hundreds of 

 white hunters, and thousands of native hunters, have been 

 killed or wounded by lions, buffaloes, elephants, and rhinos. 

 All are dangerous game; each species has to its grewsome 

 credit a long list of mighty hunters slain or disabled. Among 

 those competent to express judgment there is the widest 

 difference of opinion as to the comparative danger in hunt- 

 ing the several kinds of animals. Probably no other hunter 

 who has ever lived has combined Selous's experience with 

 his skill as a hunter and his power of accurate observation 

 and narration. He has killed between three and four 

 hundred lions, elephants, buffaloes, and rhinos, and he 

 ranks the lion as much the most dangerous, and the rhino 

 as much the least, while he puts the buffalo and elephant 

 in between, and practically on a par. Governor Jackson 

 has killed between eighty and ninety of the four animals; 

 and he puts the buffalo unquestionably first in point of for- 

 midable capacity as a foe, the elephant equally unques- 

 tionably second, the lion third, and the rhino last. Stigand 

 puts them in the following order: lion, elephant, rhino, 

 leopard, and buffalo. Drummond, who wrote a capital 

 book on South African game, who was for years a pro- 

 fessional hunter like Selous. and who had fine opportunities 

 for observation, but who was a much less accurate observer 

 than Selous, put the rhino as unquestionably the most dan- 

 gerous, with the lion as second, and the buffalo and elephant 

 nearly on a level. Samuel Baker, a mighty hunter and good 

 observer, but with less experience of African game than any 

 one of the above, put the elephant first, the rhino second, 

 the buffalo seemingly third, and the lion last. The experts 

 of greatest experience thus absolutely disagree among them- 

 selves; and there is the same wide divergence of view 



