LION HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 77 



charged straight home, hit Slatter, knocking him flat and 

 rolling him over and over in the sand, and then went after 

 the native gun-bearer, who was running away the worst 

 possible course to follow with a charging lion. The mech- 

 anism of Slatter's rifle was choked by the sand, and as he 

 rose to his feet he saw the lion overtake the fleeing man, 

 rise on his hind legs like a rearing horse not springing 

 and strike down the fugitive. Humphery fired into him 

 with buckshot, which merely went through the skin; and 

 some minutes elapsed before Slatter was' able to get his 

 rifle in shape to kill the lion, which, fortunately, had be- 

 gun to feel the effect of his wounds, and w r as too sick to re- 

 sume hostilities of its own accord. The gun-bearer was 

 badly but not fatally injured. Before this, Slatter, while 

 on a lion hunt, had been set afoot by one of the animals he 

 was after, which had killed his horse. It was at night and 

 the horse was tethered within six yards of his sleeping 

 master. The latter was aroused by the horse galloping off, 

 and he heard it staggering on for some sixty yards before 

 it fell. He and his friend followed it with lanterns and 

 drove off the lion, but the horse was dead. The tracks and 

 the marks on the horse showed what had happened. The 

 lion had sprung clean on the horse's back, his fore claws 

 dug into the horse's shoulders, his hind claws cutting into 

 its haunches, while the great fangs bit at the neck. The 

 horse struggled off at a heavy run, carrying its fearsome 

 burden. After going some sixty yards the lion's teeth 

 went through the spinal cord, and the ride was over. 

 Neither animal had made a sound, and the lion's feet did 

 not touch the earth until the horse fell. 



While a magistrate in the Transvaal, Pease had under 

 him as game officer a white hunter, a fine fellow, who under- 

 went an extraordinary experience. He had been off some 

 distance with his Kaffir boys, to hunt a lion. On his way 

 home the hunter was hunted. It was after nightfall. He 

 had reached a region where lions had not been seen for a 

 long time, and where an attack by them was unknown. 



