328 IN AFRICA 



stretch out and sleep while the other one remains 

 awake and keeps guard. 



When I went to Africa I resolved never to climb 

 a tree. Later I resolved to try the tree method in 

 order to get experience in a form of lion hunting 

 that has many advocates among the valiant hunters 

 who want lion skins at no expense to their own. 



Of course, there are some perils connected with 

 this method of lion slaying. Mosquitoes may bite 

 you, causing a dreadful fever that may later result 

 in death in some lingering and costly form. Also 

 the biting ants may pursue you up to your aery 

 perch and take small but effective bites in many 

 itchable but unscratchable points. These elements 

 of danger are about the only ones encountered in 

 the tree method of lion hunting, but then who could 

 expect to kill lions without some degree of personal 

 discomfort? 



My one and only tree experience was not par- 

 ticularly eventful. A large and commodious plat- 

 form was built in the .forks of a great tree in a 

 district where the questing grunt of lions could be 

 heard each night. The platform was comfort- 

 able ; it only needed hot and cold running water to 

 be a delightful place to spend a tropic night. 



I shot a hartebeest and had it dragged beneath 

 the tree. Then my two native gunbearers and I 

 made a satisfactory ascent to the platform. We 

 had a thermos bottle filled with hot tea, and some 

 odds and ends in the way of solid refreshments. 

 We then stretched out in positions that commanded 



