THE LAND OF FOOTPRINTS 



For this reason a good deal of the wise conclusion 

 we read in sportsmen's narratives is worth very 

 little. Few men have experience enough with lions 

 to rise to averages through the possibilities of luck. 

 Especially is this true of lions. No beast that roams 

 seems to go more by luck tha.nf elis leo. Good hun- 

 ters may search for years without seeing hide nor 

 hair of one of the beasts. Selous, one of the greatest, 

 went to East Africa for the express purpose of get- 

 ting some of the fine beasts there, hunted six weeks 

 and saw none. Holmes of the Escarpm.ent has 

 lived in the country six years, has hunted a great deal 

 and has yet to kill his first. One of the railroad 

 officials has for years gone up and down the Uganda 

 Railway on his handcar, his rifle ready in hopes of 

 the lion that never appeared; though many are there 

 seen by those with better fortune. Bronson hunted 

 desperately for this great prize, but failed. Rains- 

 ford shot no lions his first trip, and ran into them 

 only three years later. Read Abel Chapman's 

 description of his continued bad luck at even seeing 

 the beasts. MacMillan, after five years' unbroken 

 good fortune, has in the last two years failed to kill 

 a lion, although he has made many trips for the pur- 

 pose. F. told me he followed every rumour of a 

 lion for two years before he got one. Again, one 

 may hear the most marvellous of yarns the other 



126 



