206 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
We now rejoined Mearns and Loring on the banks 
of the Guaso Nyero. They had collected hundreds of birds 
and small mammals, among them several new species. We 
had already heard that a Mr. Williams, whom we had met 
at McMillan’s ranch, had been rather badly mauled by a 
lion, which he had mortally wounded, but which managed 
to charge home. Now we found that Dr. Mearns had been 
quite busily engaged in attending to cases of men who 
were hurt by lions. Loring nearly got in the category. He 
killed his lioness with a light automatic rifle, utterly unfit 
for use against African game. Though he actually put a 
bullet right through the beast’s heart, the shock from the 
blow was so slight that she was not stopped even for a sec¬ 
ond; he hit her four times in all, each shot being mortal— 
for he was an excellent marksman,—and she died nearly 
at his feet, her charge carrying her several yards by him. 
Mearns had galloped into a herd of wildebeest and killed 
the big bull of the herd, after first running clean through 
a mob of zebras, which, as he passed, skinned their long 
yellow teeth threateningly at him, but made no attempt 
actually to attack him. 
A settler had come down to trade with the Masai during 
our absence. He ran into a large party of lions, killed two, 
and wounded a lioness which escaped after mauling one 
of his gun-bearers. The gun-bearer rode into camp, and 
the Doctor treated his wounds. Next day Mearns was 
summoned to a Masai kraal sixteen miles off to treat the 
wounds of two of the Masai; it appeared that a body of 
them had followed and killed the wounded lioness, but that 
two of their number had been much maltreated in the fight. 
One, especially, had been fearfully bitten, the lioness hav- 
