36 IN AFRICA 



Tsavo. These two lions absolutely stopped all work 

 on the railroad for a period of several weeks. They 

 were daring beyond belief, and seemed to have no 

 fear of human beings. For a time all efforts to kill 

 them were in vain. Twenty-eight native workmen 

 were eaten by them, and doubtless many more were 

 unrecorded victims of their activity. The w r hole 

 country was terrorized until finally, after many fu- 

 tile attempts, they were at last killed. 



No book on Africa seems complete unless this 

 incident is mentioned somewhere within its pages. 



We looked out at Tsavo with devouring interest. 

 All was still, with the dead silence of a tropical 

 night. Then the train steamed on and we had sev- 

 eral hours in a berth to think the matter over. In 

 the early hours of morning, we stopped at Simba, 

 the "Place of Lions," where the station-master has 

 many lion scares even now. In the cold darkness of 

 the night we bundled up in thick clothes and went 

 forward to sit on the observation seat of the engine. 

 Slowly the eastern skies became gray, then pink, 

 and finally day broke through heavy masses of 

 clouds. It was intensely cold. In the faint light we 

 could see shadowy figures of animals creeping home 

 after their night's hunting. A huge cheetah 

 bounded along the track in front of us. A troop 

 of giraffes slowly ambled away from the track. 

 A gaunt hyena loped off into the scrub near the 

 side of the railroad and then, as daylight becan?e 

 brighter, we found ourselves in the midst of thou- 

 sands of wild animals. Zebras, hartebeests, Grant's 



