332 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
up acontinuous loud hoarse growling, which can be heard at a 
considerable distance. 
It has always appeared to me that lions succumb more 
quickly to wounds in the front part of the body, in the neigh- 
bourhood of the heart and lungs, than do any of the antelopes 
living in the same country ; but, as with all other animals, shots 
through the stomach, intestines, or hind-quarters do them little 
immediate harm, unless indeed the back or leg bones are 
injured, when they are at once disabled. Although, as I have 
said earlier in this chapter, lions almost always retreat before 
the presence of man, they become very savage when wounded, 
and it is undoubtedly highly dangerous work following them 
into long grass or thick cover without dogs. My experience in 
Southern Africa has shown me that wounded lions are far 
more likely to charge than wounded buffaloes, and although 
they may be more easily stopped, they are much quicker and 
more difficult to hit than those animals. 
I have only shot lions with two kinds of rifles, a single 1o- 
bore carrying a spherical bullet and six drachms of powder, and 
a ‘450-bore Metford rifle by George Gibbs of Bristol, carrying 
either a 360-grain expanding bullet and ninety grains of 
powder, or a 540-grain solid bullet and seventy-five grains of 
powder ; and in my opinion the -450-bore with the heavy 360- 
grain expanding bullet was the more deadly weapon. These 
expanding bullets, having but a very small hole at the point and 
a good solid base, possess great penetrating power, as may be 
believed when I say that they will reach the brain of a hippopo- 
tamus, should they enter at the side of the head between the 
ear and theeye. They will go clean through a lion behind the 
shoulders, after first making a very large hole through his 
lungs ; and if the animal be struck in the shoulder, the bones 
will be smashed and the solid end of the bullet will go right 
through the cavity of the chest, probably piercing the heart, and 
lodge in the further shoulder. I think that the effectiveness of 
a rifle depends more on the bullet it carries than on its bore, 
and should consider a ‘450-bore rifle such as I have described 
Duttivtisce cc iti 
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