104 
IN AFRICA 
down and watched us as we made our way cau¬ 
tiously in the grass to where her mate lay as he fell, 
stone dead. We afterward followed her, but she 
escaped from view and could not be located. This 
lion was the largest we had seen and measured nine 
feet from tip to tip. 
This was our last experience with lions in the 
Trans-Tana country. After that we went up in 
the elephant country on Mount Kenia, but that is 
a story all in itself. 
Lion hunting is the best kind of African hunt¬ 
ing in one respect. One feels no self-reproach in 
having killed a lion, for there is always the com¬ 
forting thought that by killing one lion you have 
saved the lives of three hundred other animals. 
Every lion exacts an annual toll of at least that 
number of zebras, hartebeests, or other forms of 
antelopes, all of which are powerless to defend 
themselves against the great creature that creeps 
upon them in cover of darkness. So a lion hunter 
may consider himself something of a benefactor. 
