LION HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS 63 
killed or wounded by lions, buffaloes, elephants, and rhinos. 
All are dangerous game; each species has to its grewsome 
credit a long list of mighty hunters slain or disabled. Among 
those competent to express judgment there is the widest 
difference of opinion as to the comparative danger in hunt¬ 
ing the several kinds of animals. Probably no other hunter 
who has ever lived has combined Selous’s experience with 
his skill as a hunter and his power of accurate observation 
and narration. He has killed between three and four 
hundred lions, elephants, buffaloes, and rhinos, and he 
ranks the lion as much the most dangerous, and the rhino 
as much the least, while he puts the buffalo and elephant 
in between, and practically on a par. Governor Jackson 
has killed between eighty and ninety of the four animals; 
and he puts the buffalo unquestionably first in point of for¬ 
midable capacity as a foe, the elephant equally unques¬ 
tionably second, the lion third, and the rhino last. Stigand 
puts them in the following order: lion, elephant, rhino, 
leopard, and buffalo. Drummond, who wrote a capital 
book on South African game, who was for years a pro¬ 
fessional hunter like Selous, and who had fine opportunities 
for observation, but who was a much less accurate observer 
than Selous, put the rhino as unquestionably the most dan¬ 
gerous, with the lion as second, and the buffalo and elephant 
nearly on a level. Samuel Baker, a mighty hunter and good 
observer, but with less experience of African game than any 
one of the above, put the elephant first, the rhino second, 
the buffalo seemingly third, and the lion last. The experts 
of greatest experience thus absolutely disagree among them¬ 
selves; and there is the same wide divergence of view 
among good hunters and trained observers whose oppor- 
