CHAPTER XIX 
ON THE STONY ATHI 
JANUARY—FEBRUARY 1906 
Not having heard a single lion by night since the 
18th, on January 23 we shifted camp to the Stony 
Athi. While the safari held the line of the rivers, 
W- and I crossed over by the Lukenia Heights, 
where in a steep rocky glen we observed a hyena 
slinking away. Having by a flank stalk reached the 
exact spot, and seeing nothing of the beast, I feared he 
had slipped away (though how I could not see), and was 
searching the ground minutely, when he jumped from a 
wet drain in the hollow below and galloped up the 
opposite slope, distended with meat to double his proper 
breadth. After over-shooting with the right, I got him 
stone-dead with the left, going for all he was worth, at 
100 yards. This was a male in his prime, and the best 
I have seen, being perfect in both teeth and fur, the 
latter heavily spotted, clean and without the least touch 
of mange. Length, taped along back, 57J ins. ; 
weight, full as he was (we could barely lift him to pose 
for his photo, see p. 232), reckoned at nearly 200 lbs. ; 
irides dark; inside of mouth, lips and tongue, livid blue 
or lavender colour. 
Stony Athi , January 24.—-Lions roaring splendidly 
near camp at 4 a.m., so we set out at dawn, with two 
Wakamba savages as guides, and tried a great extent of 
likely cover—wood, scrub and reed-beds along the river 
—but without seeing anything bigger than a bushbuck. 
I shot a zebra for meat, a photo of which (showing 
225 q 
