THE ATHI PLAINS 207 



imacrined. A minute's reflection and the law-aljidinsf 

 tradition prevailed ; besides, am I not a member of the 

 Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the 

 Empire ? which (despite the handicap of a long-drawn 

 title) w^orks hard to safeguard threatened creatures and 

 to secure the provision of just such sanctuaries as that 

 which now confronted me and my keenest aspirations. 



After a prolonged survey with the binoculars, I left 

 the gnus in peace, but with the determination to return 

 another year to the beautiful plains of the Athi River. 

 With my last shot in Africa I killed a Thomson's 

 oazelle, and reached Athi River station in time to clean 

 and pack rifles and enjoy a last al fresco breakfast ere 

 the 12.30 train bore me coastwards. I had a travelling 

 companion as far as Kiu in Mr. J. Donald, w^iom we had 



met six wrecks earlier. D had just secured a lion on 



the Athi under the following circumstances : — Hearing a 

 roar before dawn, he set out at once, and after daybreak 

 heard it again. The lion was half-a-mile away, moving 

 across the plain. On reaching an ant-hill, whence he 

 hoped to find the beast within shot, as a precautionary 



measure D first peeped round the shoulder of the 



mound, and there, close at hand, espied the lion crouch- 

 ing towards him — each, in fact, stalking the other. The 

 lion had mistaken the creeping figure of a man for some 

 low-moving game — probably a w^art-hog. A "SOS bullet 

 rather below the eyes settled the cpiestion. 



Leaving Mombasa on September 22 by the German 

 East- Africa Line s.s. Kanzler, and transhipping to the 

 P. and 0. Marmora at Aden, I reached home, and was 

 salmon-fishing in Northumberland just three weeks after 

 firing my last shot in Ecpiatorial Africa. 



