AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



on some high hills, he obtained a good impalla ram, after 

 persevering hours of climbing and running for only one 

 of the gun-bearers and none of the whites could keep up 

 with him on foot when he went hard. In the afternoon 

 at four he and Tarlton saw the lioness. She was followed 

 by three three-parts grown young lions, doubtless her cubs, 

 and, without any concealment, was walking across the 

 open plain toward a pool by which lay the body of a wilde- 

 beest bull she had killed the preceding night. The smaller 

 lions saw the hunters and shrank back, but the old lioness 

 never noticed them until they were within a hundred and 

 fifty yards. Then she ran back, but Kermit crumpled her 

 up with his first bullet. He then put another bullet into her, 

 and as she seemed disabled walked up within fifty yards, 

 and took some photos. By this time she was recovering, 

 and, switching her tail, she gathered her hind quarters 

 under her for a charge; but he stopped her with another 

 bullet and killed her outright with a fourth. 



We heard that Mearns and Loring, whom we had left 

 ten days before, had also killed a lioness. A Masai brought 

 in word to them that he had marked her down taking her 

 noonday rest near a kongoni she had killed; and they rode 

 out, and Loring shot her. She charged him savagely; he 

 shot her straight through the heart, and she fell literally 

 at his feet. The three naturalists were all good shots, and 

 were used to all the mishaps and adventures of life in the 

 wilderness. Not only would it have been indeed difficult 

 to find three better men for their particular work Heller's 

 work, for instance, with Cuninghame's help, gave the chief 

 point to our big-game shooting but it would have been 

 equally difficult to find three better men for any emer- 

 gency. I could not speak too highly of them; nor indeed 

 of our two other companions, Cuninghame and Tarlton, 

 whose mastery of their own field was as noteworthy as the 

 pre-eminence of the naturalists in their field. 



The following morning the headmen asked that we 

 get the porters some meat; Tarlton, Kermit, and I sallied 



