THE LION 177 



and pugnacious disposition. In these circum- 

 stances it seems to me most unsafe to generalise 

 upon a matter fraught with so much personal risk. 

 When, therefore, everything points to the proba- 

 bility of there being but little similarity between 

 the precise course of action which as a whole these 

 animals will follow, I find it preferable, and cer- 

 tainly safer, to look upon each lion encountered 

 as likely to be governed by his own personal views 

 of the situation, and to be carefully dealt with 

 according to the merits or otherwise of the attitude 

 he may assume. 



Lion-hunting is a form of sport possessed of 

 fewer attractions than any I know. To hunt 

 these beasts by daylight, unless one should come 

 unexpectedly upon them or their fresh spoor and 

 follow it in favourable circumstances, is the most 

 exasperating and disappointing form of fruitless 

 toil to which the hunter of great game can possibly 

 condemn himself — unless, of course, he hunts with 

 dogs, a poor and unsportsmanlike amusement. 

 There is only one royal road to lion-shooting, and 

 that is to undertake it by night, or, in a word, to 

 "sit up " for them. We have all done it, I sup- 

 pose, and few of us there assuredly are who do not 

 look back with a grimace upon the miserable dis- 

 comfort, the cold cramped limbs, the nervous 

 tension, and finally, as the uneventful night ad- 

 vanced, upon the waning interest and the ir- 

 resistible desire to go to sleep. The most 

 promising circumstances in which to sit up for 

 lions is to do so over their own kill, if the hunter 

 should be lucky enough to discover it. At times, 



