TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 75 
I was using the heavy 12-bore, but I kept my fingers 
on the rear trigger as we advanced cautiously to the 
dropped lion. He crumpled up like a toy with the 
mainspring broken, and sank as he finished his last 
spring with his massive head between his paws — a 
majestic and magnificent sight. 
I measured him previous to the skinning operation, 
and, stretched out, from his nose to the end of his tail 
he touched seven feet ten and a half inches. Of 
course this was before rigor-mortis had set in, and he 
may have stretched a little. His mane was shorter than 
our other damaged lion trophy, and entirely clear 
from the patches of mange we found on one or two other 
lions we bagged. But he was infested with ticks. I 
should think life must have been an irritating affair 
for him. 
We were immensely set up, and only regretted that 
the lioness had made good her escape. One of the 
most extraordinary features about lions to me is the 
way so large an animal can obliterate itself ; they sim- 
ply blend into the landscape. Their brownish-yellow 
skins, so similar in colour to the burnt grass, and their 
agile bodies, which can crouch and wriggle like any 
lizard, play parts in the scheme for invisibility. On 
one occasion Cecily and I surprised a lion in a small 
nullah. (We were a trifle astonished ourselves, too, 
but that is a detail.) We ran in pursuit, being out of 
range, and though we kept our eyes fixed on him, or 
thought we did, that lion seemed to disappear as sud- 
denly as though the earth had swallowed him up. 
Then Clarence pointed out to us a patch of brown 
