The Lions of Lake Edward 



at Kabare village and having gone out to shoot a buck with 

 his famous ex-askari, he had seen a troop of ten lions, two 

 of which he reported as having wounded. But like Cecil 

 Rhodes' favourite lion yarn, we took this cum grano salts. 

 The great man's lion story will doubtless bear repetition, 

 so I give the gist of it, which is as follows : A native, as he 

 walked out one day, met a lion, and seeing that it was about 

 to spring on him watched his opportunity, and diving beneath 

 it, managed to escape. The native continued to evade the 

 infuriated beast in this manner until the lion, becoming 

 tired of its fruitless efforts to capture the wily savage, gave 

 up in disgust and retreated to its lair. The following day 

 the native was again out walking and suddenly turning the 

 comer of the path came once more on his old enemy, but 

 this time the lion was too preoccupied to notice him, for 

 he was intently engaged on practising short jumps !) 



On the morning of the twenty-seventh of November, 

 1919, we were all aboard the haleiniere, which we temporarily 

 christened the Betty in honour of my intrepid spouse, and 

 with our tent as awning, and baggage, boys and two native 

 policemen with their wives stowed away aft, we punted and 

 paddled northward along the wild western shore of the 

 Edward Lake. 



The scenery bordering the western shore of this lake 

 has a quality quite its own, and I do not remember to have 

 seen anything resembling it along the shores of other African 

 lakes I have visited. The foreshore is of a rocky descrip- 

 tion backed by a thick line of evergreen forest trees and 

 giant creepers of the rarer kinds, whilst behind this belt 

 of greenery tower the steep spurs of the Rift Mountains. 

 These belts of tropical foUage along the lake harbour an 



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