* COMPLETION OF THE TSAVO BRIDGE 113 
against the cutwaters of my stone piers. The shock 
was great, but to my immense satisfaction the 
bridge took it without a tremor, and I saw the 
remnant of the temporary crossings swirl through 
_ the great spans and quickly disappear on its journey 
to the ocean. I confess that I witnessed the whole 
occurrence with a thrill of pride. 
We were never long without excitement of some 
kind or another at Tsavo. When the camp was 
not being attacked by man-eating lions, it was 
visited by leopards, hyzenas, wild dogs, wild cats, 
and other inhabitants of the jungle around us. 
These animals did a great deal of damage to the 
herds of sheep and goats which were kept to supply 
the commissariat, and there was always great rejoic- 
ing when a capture was made in one of the many 
traps that were laid for them. Leopards especially 
are most destructive, often killing simply for pleasure 
and not for food: and I have always harboured 
animosity towards them since the night when one 
wantonly destroyed a whole herd of mine. I hap- 
pened at the time to have a flock of about thirty 
sheep and goats which | kept for food and for milk, 
and which were secured at sundown in a grass hut 
at one corner of my doma. One particularly dark 
night we were startled by a tremendous commotion 
in this shed, but as this was before the man-eaters 
were killed, no one dared stir out to investigate the 
I 
