METHODS OF LION HUNTING 
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us, and at last there was no doubt about its destina¬ 
tion. It was coming to the bait. How my eyes 
strained to pierce the darkness and how breath¬ 
lessly I waited with rifle in readiness! But the lion 
only paused at the bait, and as I waited for it to 
settle down to its feast it went grunting away and 
the chance was gone. Perhaps it had already fed, 
or perhaps it was an unusually fastidious lion which 
desired to do its own killing. 
An hour or two later, both gunbearers asleep and 
one snoring peacefully, I became aware of a large 
animal feeding at the bait. Although no sound 
had preceded its coming, I thought it might be a 
lion, but feared that it was a hyena. I fired at the 
dark, shifting, black shadow and the roar of the big 
rifle shattered the silence like a clap of unexpected 
thunder. Then there was such a dense silence that 
it seemed to ring in one’s ears. 
Had I hit or missed? That could not be decided 
until daybreak, for it is the height of folly to climb 
down from a tree to feel the pulse of a wounded 
lion. 
When daybreak came we made an investigation. 
Only the mangled remains of the carcass lay below. 
Later in the day some members of our party came 
across the dead body of a hyena lying about a hun¬ 
dred yards from the tree, partly hidden by a little 
clump of bushes. Its backbone was shattered by a 
.475 bullet. 
Thus ended my first and only adventure in the 
“tree method.” 
