NOTES ON SPORT IN SOMALI LAND. 95 
measuring, respectively, 4 ft. 1 in., 8 ft. 113 im., and 8 ft. 11 in., from nose to 
the insertion of the tail (I leave out all mention of the measurement of the tails, 
because the length of an animal’s tail has nothing whatever to do with his size 
and strength). None of these were particularly small animals, but the fact that 
they confine their attention to small animals, like sheep and goats, seems to show 
that ponies and donkeys are too big for them. 
The lion is, undoubtedly, the animal most in request among sportsmen in 
Somali Land. Large numbers have been killed, and, before much longer, it will 
be necessary to go very far inland for them. I did not see one until I had 
travelled nearly 200 miles in one direction and another, and was about 100 miles 
in a straight line from Berbera. ‘The lions depend very largely for food upon the 
sheep, donkeys and camels belonging to the natives of the country ; they are, 
consequently, generally to be found somewhere in the neighbourhood of the 
Somali “ karias” or temporary settlements. They can be shot either by day, by 
means of tracking and beating, or by night, the sportsman lying hidden in a 
small thorn enclosure, with a live donkey or, better still, an animal that has been 
recently killed by a lion, close by outside, and with a hole in the enclosure to 
fire through. I never had a liking for night shooting, and though I tried it three 
or four times in Somali Land, soon gave it up. All the sport I had with lions was 
in the daytime. The country is mostly excellent for tracking, and, provided one 
can find fresh tracks fairly early in the morning, there is every chance of, at all 
events, seeing the animal before the evening. ‘The lions sometimes lie up during 
the daytime in the cool shade of patches of long grass or of dense thickets of 
bushes. When a lion is marked down in some such place as this, he can be 
driven out by beaters or, if necessary, by means of fire. In the country in which 
I was there were very few places to which one could point as being more likely 
to hold a lion than others : the ground was covered with small bushes scattered 
here and there, and a lon might lie up anywhere. The result was that, when 
tracked up to, the lions, which were practically out in the open, constantly sprang 
up before me and galloped off. They, however, never went far, and by dint of 
constant tracking, it was generally possible to come up to them again and again 
until by stalking and running forward a shot could be obtained. Such shots 
are, however, apt to be fairly long. J found men mounted on ponies to be of 
great assistance in this style of country. If the lion takes alarm and makes off, 
the horsemen follow him and try to keep him in sight. By shouting they save 
the trackers and sportsmen a great deal of trouble, as the latter merely have then 
to follow the sound ; and if the country is at all open, the horsemen can generally 
head the lion and either drive him back to the gun, or, what I found generally 
to happen, the lon, finding that he cannot escape, lies down and lets you come 
up and have a close shot at him. As compared with a tiger, I consider the lion 
in no way physically inferior ; on the contrary, the lion’s hind-quarters appeared. 
