LION HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 



79 



the best kind. From the first moment they and I became 

 fast friends, for we instinctively understood one another, 

 and found that we felt alike on all the big questions, and 

 looked at life, and especially the life of effort led by the 

 pioneer settler, from the 

 same stand-point. They 

 reminded me, at every 

 moment, of those West- 

 ern ranchmen and home- 

 makers with whom I 

 have always felt a special 

 sense of companionship 

 and with whose ideals 

 and aspirations I have 

 always felt a special 

 sympathy. A couple of 

 months before my visit, 

 Harold Hill had met 

 with a rather unpleasant 

 adventure. He was walk- 

 ing home across the lone- 

 ly plains, in the broad 

 daylight, never dream- 

 ing that lions might be 

 abroad, and was un- 

 armed. When still some 

 miles from his house, while plodding along, he glanced up 

 and saw three lions in the trail only fifty yards off, staring 

 fixedly at him. It happened to be a place where the grass 

 was rather tall, and lions are always bold where there is the 

 slightest cover; whereas, unless angered, they are cautious 

 on bare ground. He halted, and then walked slowly to 

 one side; and then slowly forward toward his house. The 

 lions followed him with their eyes, and when he had passed 

 they rose and slouched after him. They were not pleasant 

 followers, but to hurry would have been fatal; and he walked 

 slowly on along the road, while for a mile he kept catching 



One of the native beaters and gun-bearers 

 From a photograph by Edmund Heller 



