METHODS OF LION HUNTING 
337 
away up the hill. It was on the opposite side of the 
reeds from Stephenson, but his first shot hit it and 
it stopped and turned angrily. In another instant 
it would have charged, but a second shot from his 
rifle killed it instantly. Both of the animals were 
young lionesses of the same age and nearly full 
grown. 
Sometimes, when a lion is driven to bay in the 
tall grass at the end of a swamp, the beaters refuse 
to advance, and it then becomes necessary for the 
hunter to go in and take the lead. An occasion of 
this sort was among the most thrilling of my Afri¬ 
can experiences. 
An immense swamp had been beaten out and 
nothing had developed until the beaters were almost 
at the end of the swamp. Extending from the end 
and joining it was a patch of wire-like reeds, eight 
or ten feet high and covering two or three acres. 
This high grass was almost impenetrable by a man, 
and it was only possible to go through it by throw¬ 
ing one’s weight forward and crushing down the 
dense growth. The grass grew from hummocks, 
between which were deep water channels. An ani¬ 
mal could glide through these channels, but a man 
must batter his way through the stockade of dense 
grass that spread out above. 
It was in this place that the lion was first heard 
and the beaters refused to follow it in. Guttural 
grunts and snarls came from that uninviting jun¬ 
gle, and we knew that the only way to force the lion 
out was to go in and drive it out. 
