AFRICA 



when within a few hundred yards does one dis- 

 tinguish the stripes. Almost always they are very 

 easily made out. Only when very distant and in a 

 heat shimmer, or in certain half lights of evening, 

 does their so-called "protective colouration" seem to 

 be in working order, and even then they are always 

 quite visible to the least expert hunter's scrutiny. 



It is not difHcult to kill a zebra, though sometimes 

 it has to be done at a fairly long range. If all you 

 want is meat for the porters, the matter is simple 

 enough. But when you require bait for a lion, that 

 is another affair entirely. In the first place, you 

 must be able to stalk within a hundred yards of your 

 kill without being seen; in the second place, you must 

 provide two or three good lying-down places for 

 your prospective trophy within fifteen yards of the 

 carcass — and no more than two or three; in the 

 third place, you must judge the direction of the prob- 

 able morning wind, and must be able to approach 

 from leeward. It is evidently pretty good luck to 

 find an accommodating zebra in just such a spot. 

 It is a matter of still greater nicety to drop him ab- 

 solutely in his tracks. In a case of porters' meat it 

 does not make any particular difference if he runs a 

 hundred yards before he dies. With lion bait even 

 fifty yards makes all the difference in the world. 



C. and I talked it over and resolved to press Scallj^* 



35 



