METHODS OF LION HUNTING 
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plicity of an Eskimo igloo. When it was finished 
there didn’t seem to be the ghost of a chance of a 
lion getting in; but at night, as I looked out, it 
seemed frail indeed. Some dry grass was piled 
inside, with blankets spread over it to prevent 
rustling; and when night came we three, myself 
and two gunbearers, wormed our way in and then 
pulled some pieces of brush into the opening after 
us. The rifles were sighted on the bait while it was 
still daylight and at a spot where the expected lion 
might appear. Then we waited. 
The customary nocturne by birds, beasts and 
insects began before long, and several times hyenas 
and jackals came to the bait, but no lions. The 
boma was on the edge of a great swamp, miles in 
extent and a great rendezvous for game of many 
kinds. Theoretically, there couldn’t be a better 
place to expect lions, but nary a lion appeared that 
night. 
Upon a later occasion—Christmas night, it was 
—I watched from a boma near an elephant we had 
killed, but except for the distant grunting of lions, 
there was nothing important to chronicle. 
Lion hunting goes by luck. One man may sit 
in a boma night after night without getting a shot, 
while another may go out once and bring back a 
black-mane. I spent two nights in a boma without 
seeing a lion; Stephenson spent seven nights and 
saw only a lioness. He held his fire in the expecta¬ 
tion that the male was with her and would soon ap¬ 
pear. Presently a huge beast appeared, vague in 
