334 , 
IN AFRICA 
the dark shadows; he thought it was the male lion, 
shot, and the next morning found a large dead 
hyena. 
Mrs. Akeley went out only once, had a night of 
thrilling experiences, and killed a large male lion. 
The lion appeared early in the evening and her first 
shot just grazed the backbone. An inch higher and 
it would have missed, but as it was, the mere graz¬ 
ing of the backbone paralyzed the animal, prevent¬ 
ing its escape. All night long it crouched help¬ 
lessly before them, twelve yards away, insane with 
rage and fury. Its roars were terrifying. A num¬ 
ber of times she shot, but in the darkness none of 
the many hits reached a vital spot. Once in the 
night two other lions came, but escaped after being 
fired at. 
As soon as daylight appeared and she could see 
the sights of her rifle she easily killed the lion. It 
was the largest one of the eleven killed in our hunt¬ 
ing trip, and was killed with a little .256 Mann- 
licher, the same weapon with which she shot her rec¬ 
ord elephant on Mount Kenia. 
In the tail-grass method, native heaters are sent 
in long skirmish line through swamps and such 
places as lions like to lay up in during the hours of 
daylight. The heaters chant a weird and rather 
musical refrain as they advance and thrash the high 
reeds with their sticks. Reedbuck, sometimes a 
bushbuck, frequently hyenas, and many large owls 
are driven out of nearly every good-sized swamp. 
The hunters divide, one or more on each side of the 
