HUNTING ELEPHANT AND RIDING LION 167 



he found himself within seventy yards of a bayed lion, 

 and he and his hunter had only one rifle between them, 

 and that, as it turned out later, was loaded with solid 

 bullets. He did the only thing he could do under the cir- 

 cumstances took his man's rifle, and aiming steadily, 

 shot the beast, who had not yet begun to advance on them, 

 full in the chest. 



The lion sank to the shot but, rising immediately, 

 advanced toward them, increasing his pace as he came on. 

 J. J. W. handed the rifle, a .350 Mauser Rigby, to his hunter, 

 thinking he could better stop the charge. Again and again 

 the brave beast was shot, the bullets taking effect in the 

 neck and chest. He came on, nevertheless, steadily on, 

 till he could not have been more than twenty yards away, 

 when the fifth bullet must have taken him in the heart, for, 

 springing into the air to his full height, with widely extended 

 paws, he fell dead. 



I have read of lion so springing upward on receiving a 

 death wound, and I remember in some story book of my 

 boyhood seeing an illustration of such a lion's death. 

 But none of us had ever seen or heard of so splendidly dra- 

 matic an ending to the king of beasts. When the skin was 

 spread the great beauty was evident. It was a blacker 

 lion than even my first, and that was a most unusually fine 

 one, not so large by a good deal, but with heavy, waving 

 masses of rich yellow mane turning to glossy black, 

 covering the shoulders, and falling almost to the ground. 

 Unquestionably no such skin has been shot for some 

 time in the Protectorate. He measured nine feet five 

 inches as he lay, and was an old fellow with teeth a good 

 deal worn. 



He died hard. But this was accounted for, as I said, 

 when we came to examine the bullet holes. J. J. W.'s 

 man had loaded his rifle with solid bullets when we came 

 on the elephant, and carelessly forgot to change them to 



