In Wildest Africa ^ 



when only a few yards from me, though hidden by bushes. 

 Perhaps he is still at large in this same locality ! 



Lions — generally several of them together-— killed my 

 decoys on several occasions without themselves getting 

 caught. I once surprised a lion and two lionesses at such 

 a meal in the Njiri marshes, in June 1903. Unfortunately 

 the animals became aware of my approach, and now began 

 just such a chase as I had already successfully undertaken 

 on January 25, 1897.^ 



I was able by degrees to gain on the satiated animals. 

 A wonderful memory that ! Clear morning light, a sharp 

 breeze from over the swamps, the yellowish velt with its 

 whitish incrustation of salt — a few bushes and groups of 

 trees — and ever before me the lions, beating their reluctant 

 retreat, now clearly visible, now almost out of sight. 



I try a shot. But they are too far — it is no use. 

 Puffing and panting, I feel my face glow and my heart 

 beat with my exertions. At length one lioness stops 

 and glances in my direction. I shoot, and imagine I have 

 missed her. All three rapidly disappear in a morass near 

 at hand. All my efforts seem to have been in vain. . . . 

 Eight days later, however, I bag the lioness, and find that 

 my ball has struck her right through the thigh. 



It may happen that a lion caught in a trap gets oft' 

 with the iron attached to him, and covers vast stretches 

 of country. The pursuer has then an exciting time of it. 

 If the animal passes through a fairly open district the issue 

 is probably successful. But I have sometimes been obliged 



1 Heir Niedieck also underwent a similar experience. See his book 

 Mit der Biichse infilnf Weltteilen, and my own With Flashlight and Rifle. 



502 



