HUNTING ON THE SIMBA RIVER 239 
plied ; but, if so, they did not make a deep impression 
upon the lions, for in August another hair-raising 
telegram reached the traffic-manager, as follows— 
“ * Simba, August 17, 1.45 a.m. 
« e Urgent. To Traffic-Manager. 
“ ‘ A lion is on the platform. Please instruct guard 
and driver to proceed carefully and to expect no signals 
in the yard. Tell the guard to advise passengers not to 
get out here, and to be very careful himself when he 
comes into the office.’ 
“ It is not quite certain whether the babu was chiefly 
solicitous for the safety of the guard or whether he 
thought that the lion might take advantage of the open 
door to come into the office. However this may be, the 
distress-signal from Simba had the immediate result of 
starting a British sportsman in that direction. He took 
the next train for Simba, and under the water-tank he 
and the railway-men erected a platform about ten feet 
above the ground, where the Nimrod spent several days 
waiting for the visitors. His patience was at length 
rewarded. 
“ The first animal he saw was a lioness, that came 
walking out of the scrub, very likely for the purpose of 
quenching her thirst at the little stream that was leaking 
from the tank. When she was within about fifty yards 
of the platform the hunter put a cordite bullet into her 
and stretched her on the ground. The hunter did not 
leave his perch, for he thought something more would be 
doing. He was not mistaken. A little later two lions 
came out of the high grass, and were soon in great 
mental distress over the strange attitude of the dead 
female. They kept circling around her body, now 
growling, then whining. They hit the body with their 
paws, and at last began to drag it away, perhaps with 
the idea of awakening her. Just then a bullet ended 
the life of one of the brutes, and the other, wounded by 
the second shot, sprang into the bush. For half-an- 
