The Eastern Congo 



It has been told before and will be told again so long as there 

 are Britishers ; the circumstances were as follows : — 



The Ruindi plains at certain times of the year have more 

 lions to the square mile than any other part of Africa (or the 

 world for that matter). They are to be seen here in troops 

 of seventeen to twenty at a time. The natives have fled 

 the district and all save two small villages have been aban- 

 doned on account of them. Lions here are as common as 

 rabbits in a park. This fact being known at Ruchuru, the 

 brothers Foster heard of it and, collecting carriers, immedi- 

 ately proceeded to the spot, camping in the same place where 

 we camped. 



When we arrived the game had shifted down the Ruindi 

 towards the Ruchuru estuary and the lions with them, but 

 some weeks previously, when the Fosters were there, they 

 were extremely numerous and it was only necessary to leave 

 a dead buck or two about to find lions feeding on at least 

 one of the carcases in the morning or afternoon. The brothers 

 had shot five lions in this way, but not content with this 

 fine bag they spoored up — ^with the help of their dogs — a 

 lion which they had wounded, locating it in a dense thicket. 

 Here they did not take the warning their dogs gave them by 

 their evident reluctance to enter this, but the two brothers, 

 advancing shoulder to shoulder, with their rifles at the ready, 

 went in. On reaching the centre of the small wood the lion 

 charged them at close quarters and, failing to kill it, the 

 elder brother was knocked fljdng by the infuriated animal, 

 which gave him a terrible bite in the neck. The poor fellow 

 was carried sadly back to camp with his spine so badly 

 injured that he succumbed two days later. 



io6 



