xvin LIONS ON THE ATHI PLAINS 203 



moved after this ; but for safety's sake, I made no 

 attempt to go up to him for a few minutes, and then 

 only after Mahina had planted a few stones on his 

 body just to make sure that he was really dead. 



We both felt very pleased with ourselves as we 

 stood over him and looked at his fine head, great 

 paws, and long, clean, sharp tusks. He was a 

 young, but full-grown lion in fine condition, and 

 measured nine feet eight and a half inches from 

 tip of nose to tip of tail. My last shot had entered 

 the spine close to the shoulder, and had lodged 

 in the body ; the first shot was a miss, as I have 

 already said ; but the second had caught him on 

 the forehead, right between the eyes. The bullet, 

 however, instead of traversing the brain, had been 

 turned downwards by the frontal bone, through 

 which it crashed, finally lodging in the root of the 

 tongue, the lead showing on both sides. I cut 

 out the tongue and hung it up to dry, intending 

 to keep it as a trophy ; but unfortunately a vulture 

 swooped down when my back was turned, and 

 carried it off. 



From the time I knocked the lion over until he 

 first staggered and fell not more than a minute 

 could have elapsed quite long enough, however, 

 to have enabled him to cover the distance and to 

 have seized one or other of us. Unquestionably we 

 owed our lives to the fact that we both remained 



