THE LION 
dangerous game, but even so, a considerable number of Englishmen 
have been either killed or injured by lions during the last few years; and 
although it is possible to kill lions in various ways with very small risk of 
accident, yet the man who attacks these animals single-handed and 
follows them into thick cover will be sure sooner or later to realize that 
lion-hunting may be a very dangerous pastime. Like men, lions differ 
individually very much in temper and disposition. Some lions may 
be very unaggressive, and may appear to be very cowardly, but others 
are undoubtedly very savage, and it is not well to treat any lion too 
contemptuously. Speaking generally — although there are exceptions to 
the rule — lions, when encountered in the daytime, retreat before the 
presence of human beings, even when found feeding on the carcass of 
an animal they have just killed; nor, if fired at when retreating, are they 
likely to turn and charge immediately on being hit. They will run off into 
cover. To follow a wounded lion into bush or long grass may, however, 
be a very dangerous undertaking, as the wounded animal will probably 
very soon face round on its tracks and lie down and wait for its pursuers. 
So close will it lie to the ground that the smallest bush or a quite 
insignificant tuft of grass will completely conceal it, and when it charges, 
it will come on at a terrific pace, not in great bounds, but close along the 
ground, just like a great dog galloping. 
Should lions be encountered in the midst of a bare, open plain, far from 
cover, by a well -mounted man, they may usually be killed without much 
difficulty. When, having been caught in such a situation, lions first see a 
horseman approaching in the distance, they will walk away from him, 
and then, as he gallops towards them, break into a gallop themselves, 
soon, however, relaxing to a trot, and perhaps when he is some two 
hundred yards away, they will turn and face him growling and whisking 
their tails from side to side, or else lie down and watch him with their 
heads on their outstretched paws. Once they have come to a stop, the 
horseman may ride round them and then edge away to a distance of 
three hundred yards. They will still remain lying watching, and as they 
will not charge from such a long distance, they can easily be shot with a 
modern long-range rifle without the slightest danger. This is the method 
of shooting lions which has often been successfully employed by the 
experienced settlers on the Kapiti plains in British East Africa. But should 
an inexperienced or impetuous man still gallop on after a lion has turned 
to bay on an open plain, let him remember that it will almost certainly 
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