1 66 THE LAND OF THE LION 



and water too abundant to permit of its remaining for much 

 longer what it is to-day a no man's land, and only the 

 favourite feeding ground for innumerable game herds. 



The sefari had made camp before we rode in. The 

 men came running up to say that J. J. W. and his hunter 

 had shot a great lion (simba koubwa). Another waved 

 a zebra tail that he carried for the flies. "Mane long and 

 black like this!" he cried. Here was news indeed. Ele- 

 phant seen in the open, and a black maned lion bagged 

 on the very first morning's ride into our old game country. 

 Presently the hunters came in. It seemed that almost as 

 soon as we had ridden away from the sefari, my syce, who 

 was leading my mule, saw a fine lion going quietly along, 

 on the opposite side of the sloping ridge they were marching 

 on. He was about a hundred and fifty or two hundred 



yards away, and in full view. Both J. J. W and his 



hunter shot at him twice without hitting him; a moving lion 

 at two hundred yards, is not an easy shot. He broke into a 

 gallop, and dashed over the crest on to the level veldt 

 beyond. There they had him, for J. J. W.'s syce, a 

 Somali, accustomed to lion riding and very well mounted, 

 rounded him up, in five or six hundred yards. The great 

 fellow must have fed too well that morning, and was not 

 able, or did not care, to run fast or far. Anyway, he came 

 to a stand in short grass. This part of the plateau is ideal 

 country for "riding" the game having kept the rich 

 sod well cropped, there are few holes and no bushes. The 

 lion stood grandly to bay. J. J. W.'s hunter rode a mule 

 that was faster than his, and in his excitement, did what 

 no professional hunter should under any circumstances 

 be allowed to do, unless you want him to shoot the lion 

 instead of yourself. He galloped ahead of his man, and 

 got up within shooting distance some time before J. J. W. 

 did. The latter who got up on his mule, soon as he could, 

 had forgotten to take his rifle from his gunbearer. So here 



