V' 



42 After Big Game in Central Africa 



One can understand with what anxiety I hear 

 these words. Following his advice I retire two steps. 

 My men are behind me with their weapons ready. 

 " Only fire in case of necessity," I tell them. . . . 

 "Don't hurry yourself," murmurs Tambarika. 



The rustling grass bends forward, then opens on 

 either side, and the lion walks out eight yards away 

 from me, looking behind him, engrossed by the noise 

 of the voices. Upon turning his head he sees me 

 standing motionless, shows his teeth and snarls with- 

 out deviating from his path. At the same time his 

 tail rises, he flattens his ears, and I see he is going to 

 charge at the very moment when, having followed 

 him with my rifle and aiming at the nape of his 

 neck, I pull the trigger. . . . His four feet give 

 way under him, and he falls stone-dead without a 

 movement. 



I had counted upon the precision of my 303. It 

 was with a hollow bullet that I had made this magnifi- 

 cent shot. I have often used it since with the same 

 success. The animal must be hit at the point where 

 the neck finishes and the skull begins, well in the 

 middle of the thickest part of the neck, and it will fall 

 dead. When one fires as near as under the circum- 

 stances above related, it must be remembered that all 

 these rifles shoot high, and the Metford higher than 

 any other ; one must aim, therefore, well below the 

 point one wishes to hit. Beyond 120 yards the bullet 

 no longer rises. 



My victim was a very old animal, of average 

 size, and of extreme thinness. The following are 



