728 JOURNAL, BOMB A Y NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XI. 



A gallant sportsman, who arrived at Berbera just after we had started and 

 followed in our wake, came across what I have every reason to believe was 

 the same lion. He also ran him to the ground in a similarly small strip of 

 grass cover, and tried conclusions with him in the same way, with the result 

 tbat his shooting trip was brought to an abrupt conclusion. Ho, too, orga- 

 nised a beat, and soon after it began, the lion slowly walked out of the cover 

 and looked disdainfully round. My friend had a steady shot at him at about 

 twenty yards, but with no result, except that the lion turned back into the 

 cover ; he soon, however, broke again in the same dignified way a few yards 

 further down, and, if I remember right, another shot was fired, with the same 

 negative result, but this time the lion advanced, evidently becoming excessively 

 annoyed, Not understanding how he could have missed, and coming to the 

 conclusion that he must be shaky, the Nimrod fell on his knee, and with the 

 utmost deliberation put in a third barrel from that position. This bullet 

 apparently grazed the beast's withers, and while the sportsman was still on his 

 knee at the present and before the smoke had cleared, the lion had charged and 

 was on top of him ; fortunately the Shikaris, with spare rifles behind, fired as 

 they saw the beast charge, and this had the effect of sending him on. The only 

 injuries which he inflicted were a bite through the palm of the left hand and 

 a score from the claws on the left elbow ; the left hand and arm, raised as it 

 was at the present, having been the first object to come in the lion's way. 

 Neither wound happily gave much trouble, but necessitated some weeks' care 

 and rest, and put an end to the expedition. The weapon used was a heavy 

 express rifle, and though the owner had tested its accuracy on a range at 

 tbe sighted distances, he found, on retrying it after this mishap, that at the 

 short distance at which he was firing, about 20 yards I believe, it carried very 

 high ; and thus no doubt his shots had passed over the lion's withers, except 

 the last one which must have just seared him. The brute went clean away, 

 and the experience he gained on thai: occasion has, I doubt not, proved useful 

 to him since. 



But to return to our muttons. It was on the return journey to the Coast 

 after our fruitless stern chase of this lion, that our road l9d us through the 

 country where I believed the Baira to exist, namely, the ravine-cut plateau- 

 land between the Assa Bange and Bulbar, on either side of the Issutugan 

 Nullah. The country is difficult to describe. The general level of it is the 

 gradual slope from the foot of the Assa Bange to the sea ; from thia general 

 level rise insulated plateaux of all sizes. I have never heard an expert geo- 

 logist's opinion as to how these plateaux have been formed, and they have 

 always puzzled me much. 



The country which is now as it were studded with them would seem to me 

 to have at some remote period been a compact steppe abutting from the 

 lower slopes of the Assa Range ; this steppe must in course of time have 

 become cut up by the action of watercourses rushing down from the heights 



