The Lions of Lake Edward 



to the set of the wind, was entirely unsuspicious of our pre- 

 sence. As my wife wished to watch the subsequent proceed- 

 ings I placed her in a position of comparative safety on a 

 high ant-hill. Meanwhile our Belgian friend and his black 

 ex-soldier gun-bearer, having no fancy for buffaloes at such 

 close quarters, climbed with considerable alacrity (though, 

 I should imagine, not without pain) a small thorn tree still 

 farther in the rear, from which elevated but precarious position 

 (with their swaying rifles at the ready) they bravely viewed 

 with scorn and derision the baffled buffaloes. 



Advancing carefully with my camera, by short stages, 

 I managed to get up to the animals and took some unique 

 films of them at close range. Eventually they got alarmed 

 and thundered away, disturbing as they did so a very large 

 herd of mixed topi and kob which I had not noticed until 

 then. I attempted to film these antelopes but unsuccessfully, 

 after which we walked the short distance to the small river 

 near at hand, where we camped 'neath some fine old acacias. 



From this camp I made several short excursions into the 

 surrounding district in search of insects and to take pictures 

 of game. Lions were frequently seen but I never managed 

 to come within camera range of any of them except once, 

 and then, as luck would have it, I was without my apparatus. 

 However, I bagged two fine maned lions on this occasion 

 and so was compensated to some extent for the loss of a 

 unique chance to film them. 



Our Belgian friend, although a delightful camp companion, 

 was a broken reed as far as hunting or filming dangerous 

 game was concerned. When it came to the point of facing 

 a lion or a buffalo, even at a reasonably safe distance, as 

 he liimself remarked, he had not lost any and therefore was 



113 ^ 



