April 24, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
649 
the boys hard at work cutting out strips of his 
hide to be manufactured into kibokos at a 
future date. The birds had already spotted the 
kill and when we left the carcass they descended 
and started making short work of it. 
Two nights later we had lions round the 
camp. They were not grunting, but roared oc¬ 
casionally. I have always understood from peo¬ 
ple who ought to know that a lion roars when 
he has fed and grunts when he is hungry. How¬ 
ever this may be, these lions did not come very 
close, although I noticed that the boys kept up 
large fires, evidently not caring to run any risks. 
The next morning we hunted, or rather I made 
the boys beat out all the surrounding reed beds, 
but without success. For a few minutes there 
was great excitement. In one we had come al¬ 
most to the end of it, and by the movement of 
the reeds could see that there was game of some 
kind there. I thought of course that they were 
lions, when out went two large pigs on the far 
side. They were altogether too quick for me 
and I did not get a shot. 
The lions were around again that night and 
the next da}' we did the same thing. Where they 
laid up during the heat of the day was an enigma 
which was solved in rather a sudden manner the 
following day. I had got the porters strung out 
and well started and went on ahead, as I al¬ 
ways do on the march, in order to get first sight 
of anything worth seeing. On reaching a rise 
and looking down on the flat, I saw there a 
bunch of zebra and kongoni all bunched up as 
if startled, and looking in my direction. I re¬ 
alized that this could be caused only by a lion 
or a leopard, as they take very little notice of 
hyenas. In a moment I saw the cause of their 
fright—a lion and a lioness leisurely walking 
along not more than 150 yards from me. They 
saw me as quickly as I did them and were off 
in a flash, but not before I had a snap at the 
lion, which was answered by an angry growl, 
but nothing more, and the pair gaining the 
shelter of some long grass were lost to view. 
On getting to where I had last seen them I 
found a small blood spoor, but very faint, and 
decided that it was not worth while to follow 
up a wounded lion in long grass where the odds 
are in his favor. I suggested that the porters 
put down their loads and make a drive, but this 
they declined to do. I could not blame them. 
In cases like this really good dogs might be of 
use, but it is hard to be sure. 
It was ten days afterward that I got my first 
lion in that part of Africa and then he stalked 
out of a patch of reeds right in front of me, 
giving me an easy shot, and in a part of the 
country where I never expected lions to be. 
I had been a long way with AH. had killed a 
very good eland bull and we were hurrying 
back to camp to get the boys to carry in the 
meat before dark. There was a watercourse 
which was dry in places and in others were deep 
pools surrounded by reeds. We were follow¬ 
ing this down on our way when I saw an 
animal, which I took to be a pig, disappear in 
a bunch of reeds half a mile off. I thought no 
more about it until, as we were going past the 
spot, out came a lion. On seeing us he stopped 
long enough to enable me to take aim at his 
shoulder. He was barely fifty yards off. My 
first shot knocked him down and I finished him 
with a second in the head. His mane was mag¬ 
nificent, almost black, and his skin was in the 
pink of condition; in fact, he was as good as 
I have ever seen, but not very large. I have 
seen many larger, but none whose skin as a 
trophy was in better condition. We set to work 
and skinned him ourselves with the result that 
when we got back to camp it was too late to 
send out the boys for the eland meat, and the 
next day there was not a vestige of it left. 
Hyenas and other beasts had polished off every¬ 
thing. We did not move camp, as I was de¬ 
termined to take no chances on curing the lion 
skin, and took great pains in having it prop¬ 
erly pegged out and dried. Here there were 
great numbers- of those very graceful little ante¬ 
lope or gazelle, Grantii and TJiomsoni, com¬ 
monly called Tommies. These I had never met 
with before. They carry very pretty little heads 
which look especially well when mounted. 
A few days after this wc met with three 
Dutch families who were trekking up to the 
line to cross over to British East Africa. We 
had a long talk and they told me that they did 
not like the German laws. They had wandered 
north all the way from the Transvaal in th'eir 
wagons, taking years for the journey. They 
are, indeed, a marvelous race. The Dutch are 
great hunters, but are a bit inclined to slaughter. 
I heard afterward that the game ranger met 
this party at Kilimanjaro and escorted them 
through the reserve, perhaps fearing lest when 
they reached the game reserve their natural in¬ 
stincts would perhaps cause them to kill where 
it is strictly against the law to do so. 
As we marched I came across plenty of 
ostriches, but refrained from shooting them, as 
I saw no sport in it. There is a great open¬ 
ing in this country, as in British East Africa, 
for ostrich farming. It pays well in Cape 
Colony; why should it not do so in these coun¬ 
tries where there is land enough and the birds 
are indigenous? People are usually ready to 
go into any farming except that to which the 
country is most suited. Since I left I hear that 
several ostrich farms have been started and 
that at present they seem to be doing well. 
Kilimanjaro was now in sight, and what a 
magnificent spectacle it is with its ewrlasting 
snow cap. I do not really know whether it is 
higher than Ruwenzori or not, but Kilimanjaro 
is 19,000 feet above sea level. On it are some 
very heavy and large forests where can be killed 
practically every kind of game. One of the 
porters told me that there were still many ele¬ 
phants there and so I made my camp with the 
M any years ago we were encamped on 
Branch Pond in Sunderland, a region 
' inhabited principally by wild animals, 
in the Green Mountains in the southern part of 
Vermont. We were on a hunting trip and ready 
for anything that promised sport. When Lin¬ 
coln and myself returned to camp one night in 
winter, we found the remainder of the party 
considerably excited. About sunset they had 
intention of hunting for at least a week. Three 
days passed before we struck elephant spoor 
pretty high up the mountain. It was fresh and 
next day I moved my camp higher up, so as to 
give me more time and chance to hunt, and I 
was glad enough that I had done so, for I struck 
the spoor of a herd the next day. AH and I 
had started at daylight and had found fresh 
sign which we followed north. All that day 
we stuck to it, but never an elephant did we 
see, and the following day the same thing hap¬ 
pened, and as they were now a long way ahead 
of us we gave it up in disgust. The next day 
I shot my second rhino. Pie was alone, and 
getting up within twenty-five yards of him. I 
killed him with my first shot. ‘ We were now 
very near the British line, and not wishing to cross 
over for a few days, I turned south once more. 
For one thing East Africa must be given 
credit; snakes are not numerous, as they are 
in the South, at least I never have seen many. 
There are pythons, but they do not appear to 
be dangerous. I shall never forget how, down 
in South Africa during the war, I once awoke 
and found a black mwamba in bed with me. 
This snake is absolutely deadly. It frightened 
me so that after the whole thing was over I 
went out and was sick. Fortunately I was quite 
ignorant of the fact that it was under the 
blankets with me and rolled out unconcernedly. 
Had I known it was there, in all probability it 
would have struck me. 
Here I shot an exceedingly good wildebeeste 
bull, but secured him only after a long chase. 
My first shot broke his leg and he led me a 
dance before I finally got him. I hate to wound 
an animal and to be unable to bag him. Some¬ 
times it cannot be helped, but one certainly 
should not give up the pursuit as long as there 
is a chance of finishing the poor brute off. 
I met another Dutchman who was bewailing 
the loss of an ox that had been killed the pre¬ 
vious night by Hons. He also was on his way 
to British East Africa and had started from the 
Transvaal and been two and a half years on 
the journey. Plis family was with him and one 
child was born on the trip. After a long talk 
I decided to go on with him and made plans 
to start in two days. His wife—poor woman— 
told me that she had suffered a good deal from 
fever, and in spite of heavy doses of quinine, it 
kept recurring. She had even run out of the 
drug. From my little medicine chest I was 
able to give her what she needed. 
come across the tracks of a bear, and a search 
had disclosed a den nearby, from which he 
had come apparently to make an observation 
of the weather and had then returned. Not 
having the tools to dig him out, they had filled 
the entrance to the cave with trunks of dead 
balsams, thrust in endwise, and proposed in the 
morning to unearth him. 
“If you want that particular bear very bad,” 
Caemp-Fire Tables.—II. 
By FRED L. BALLARD 
