LI ON-SHOOTING. 
217 
weight, which is apt to make the hand unsteady, 
and thus destroy the aim, it is perfectly certain that, 
when the lion makes his rush, the sportsman, if 
provided with one, would be knocked over by the 
shock; and even supposing the vital parts to be 
pierced, the man would, in all probability, be torn 
to pieces by the infuriated beast before its life was 
extinct. 
Pistols, in lion-shooting, I take to be nearly as 
valueless as the bayonet; and they are, moreover, 
much in one’s wav whether mounted or on foot. As 
*/ 
Kotje - Dafel, a famous chasseur in the Caflfre 
country, told Delegorgue, “ It is not with needles 
that the lion is killed. He is strong, and it requires 
a strong dose to produce a rapid hemorrhage.” 
The best point to aim at, when the lion is facing 
you, and not too far distant, is between the eyes, 
for, should the ball chance to penetrate the brain, 
death is of course instantaneous. 
On one occasion, soon after my first arrival in 
Africa, I may mention that when stalking 
alone, and on foot, a gemsbok, a full-grown lion 
suddenly sprang out of a bush within some forty or 
fifty paces of me. The brute’s unexpected appear¬ 
ance somewhat startled me, but I had so often been 
balked in my attempts to get a shot at lions, that 
I only hesitated for a moment. Accordingly, the 
beast having turned round to look at me, I took a 
deliberate aim at his forehead, and fired, and, as 
good luck would have it, with deadly effect. Indeed, 
so accurate was my aim that the ball almost 
split his skull in two, and, as a matter of course, 
killed him on the spot. 
