74 THE LAND OF THE LION 



But as I had said I would go up river the evening before,, 

 when we tossed for country, I didn't think it fair to change, 

 and, moreover, if they were at the carcass, the bait was 

 his not mine. So I stuck to my plans, and went up stream. 

 I saw nothing of lion, though I secured what I had wanted 

 a long time to get, viz., a good specimen of the African 

 hunting dog, a fine animal, though very destructive on 

 game. The dogs are the size of large, powerfully built 

 setters, great muscle in leg, back and jaw, with fine brain 

 lobes and broad forehead. The colour is black with 

 brownish stripe down the back, and tan-coloured patches 

 on the side, the tail bushy and ending in a white tuft of hair. 

 I had seen them before, but had never been able to get near. 

 In the Nzoia country I think they are not rare. They hunt 

 in packs, and will run anything on the plain down. If 

 they could be caught young and crossed with either a 

 greyhound, bulldog or setter, something useful ought to 

 be produced. The eyes are fine and intelligent, though 

 fierce and wild in the extreme. I made a lucky shot at 

 the leader of a troop of a dozen. They were feeding on 

 a kongoni they had pulled down. He mounted an ant heap 

 to look round and I killed him with one shot at 318 yards, 

 using, of course, my telescope. The pack then got con- 

 fused and several of them ran on me, when I shot three 

 more. One of them, very badly wounded, was so fierce, 

 and showed such fight, when we approached I had to shoot 

 him again. 



When I got back to camp rather late in the day, I found 

 every one in the bluest of blues. J. J. W. and his hunter 

 had gone down river to the water buck carcass, or what 

 was left of it, and had come on three fine lions taking their 

 ease close to where they had dined. They were sprawling 

 on and round an ant hill and saw nothing of the hunters. 

 It was J. J. W.'s first shot, and most naturally he was nervous. 

 He used his .450, a rifle which he didn't know, and missed, 



