NOTES ON SPORT IN SOMALI LAND. 97 
body of the antelope ; the neck was not broken and the lioness had not used her 
paws at all, the skin being free from claw marks ; life seemed to have been simply 
shaken and crushed out of the antelope, and I do not wonder at it from the way 
in which the lioness swung the bedy from side to side. It is curious that the 
lioness apparently took no notice either of me or of the first shot which I fired ; 
she must have been close by at the time and have heard the report, for the 
2 shots were fired from almost exactly the same place and the interval of time 
between them was certainly not more than a minute. 
IT obtained two lion cubs from some Somalis who had found them in the 
erass in the absence of their mother ; the men who found them said that their 
eyes were not open when they first came across them ; I got them 3 days later, 
their eyes being then open ; they were probably not more than a fortnight old 
when they came into my possession ; they were at that time each about 20 
inches long including the tail ; the hair of each cub was long and. fluffy, the 
whole body was covered with black spots which were especially dense about the 
head and along the top of the back ; the last 24 or 8 inches of the tail from the 
end were marked by 2 or 3 black transversal stripes like a tiger’s, and there 
were also 2 or 3 similar black bars across the back of the hind lees above the 
hocks ; the cubs had no teeth whatever when I first got possession of them ; but 
after a week the front teeth began to appear; I parted with the cubs abont 
10 days later, 7. ¢., when they were about 4 or 5 weeks old; the front teeth 
were then well forward, but there were as yet no signs of any but the small front 
teeth ; the cubs grew about 3 inches in length during the 16 days they were 
with me, besides increasing considerably in bulk and strength ; I fed them solely 
on goat’s milk, 
Of animals which I did not shoot, but saw, the largest was undoubtedly 
the elephant. Not many years ago, elephants were fairly common in 
the hills South of Berbera, but owing to having been constantly pursued 
of late years by sportsmen, they have retreated far to the west ; those 
I saw were about 160 miles south-west of Berbera; when I got close to 
them, they turned out to be a cow and 8 young ones ; I accordingly left them 
alone. I never came across a bull, not having sufficient time at my disposal to 
stop long enough in the elephant country ; I saw the track of what I was told 
was @ bull, in firm, damp sand ; the impression of the front feet was 18 inches 
long by 14 inches wide, and of the hind feet 17 inches long by 11 or 12 inches 
in width. The elephants appear to travel immense distances every night both to 
and from water ; those I saw must have walked about 10 or 12 miles from the 
water where they drank and from which I followed them, before I came up with 
them ; it was then early in the afternoon and they showed no signs of stopping. 
Considering the weight of an elephant, it is surprising how very trifling an im- 
pression his feet leave on the ground ; on hard stony ground, there is practically 
13 
