ch. ix] MEARNS AND THE WOUNDED 208 
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 into 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 second ; 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 past 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 having pulled the flesh 
loose from the bones with her fixed teeth. The Doctor 
attended to all three cases. The gun-bearer recovered ; 
