690 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May I, 1909. 
larger in geometrical proportion as he drew 
nearer. While he was large at first he now 
became mammoth. 
The K. O. was firing as fast as he could load 
his rifle, with but little apparent effect. The In¬ 
dian stood with the little rifle across his arm, 
a seemingly disinterested spectator of the 
comedy. It is impossible to state just now 
whether it was the Briton or the Medicine Man 
who first thought out the plan of killing that 
bear from the point of rocks. Possibly the idea 
occurred to them simultaneously. At any rate 
they both reached the pinnacle of that cliff 
at exactly the same moment. Turning, they saw 
the bear still arriving, the K. O. and the Indian 
in relatively their former positions, watching 
him do it. When he was less than twenty feet 
away the savage swung half around, jerked the 
little rifle to his shoulder and began raining 
lead into the bear. In ten seconds it was all 
over. The impact of the first bullet brought 
from the great animal a cry of pain and rage. 
He stopped bewildered, and with the next bullet 
slowly sank down, rolled over and came tumb¬ 
ling down the hill stone dead before he ceased 
rolling. 
The Duke and the Medicine Man. crestfallen, 
crept off their perch and sneaked back to wher,e 
the Indian and the Colonel stood. 
“Blawst me,” asked the Briton, “why did you 
not flee when you saw that brute coming?” 
“Run!” retorted the K. O.; “damme, do you 
suppose I was going to run while that Injun 
M y proposed hunting trip with the Boer, 
to which I referred last week, did not 
materialize, but it was only a short 
time before I was again out and away; this 
time with a companion who, though very keen 
I confess, did not think would stand the hard¬ 
ship of a trip on foot which was then our only 
mode of locomotion, for horses were out of the 
question on account of tsetse flies. Our direc¬ 
tion was northeast to Northeastern Rhodesia. 
It proved that my fears were groundless, for 
A., as I shall call him, made me positively take 
a back seat and feel ashamed of myself in the 
matter of endurance. Walk! He never seemed 
to get tired, and on reaching camp he was al¬ 
ways helping the boys pitch the tent and never 
seemed contented if he was not doing some¬ 
thing. As I have before written, I generally 
prefer going alone on hunting trips, but A. cer¬ 
tainly proved an exception to the rule of com¬ 
panions and we hit it off together. 
A. had had no experience with big game and 
was just out from England. He had a most 
perfect double .400 rifle, not heavy, but large 
enough for any game. We shared the same 
tent and traveled as light as possible. We sent 
the porters on ahead and ourselves journeyed 
stood there? If Td run I’d never have heard 
the last of it.” 
“But weren’t you scared?” asked the Duke. 
“Scared! Why, man, I was scared stiff—too 
stiff to run if I’d wanted to.” 
The Medicine Man saw the K. O.’s point of 
view, but then he had no reputation for bravery 
to sustain. 
Through it all the halfbreed was the coolest 
man of us all. He was down on his knees be¬ 
side the fallen bear, looking for the bullet holes. 
To him it was all in the day’s work. He had 
come out to kill the big bear and the big bear 
was dead. Turning to the Medicine Man he 
remarked, again in his own tongue, “Maybe 
King George man kill a bear. Ugh! His big 
hole gun no good.” This last in vindication 
of an opinion long before expressed by him in 
private to the Medicine Man regarding the 
capabilities of the elephant gun carried by the 
British brother. 
The great hide, head and claws were a load 
for two men to carry to camp. It was shipped 
to England and mounted and now adorns 
the dining room of one of Albion’s proudest 
baronial halls, for the Duke came very near 
being a duke, indeed, and only his reluctance tO' 
have his name made public forbids its mention. 
To all of the foregoing I can solemnly swear 
and affirm, for I was the Medicine Man and 
my good friend Charley Allen sits beside my 
study fire while I write this, an account of my 
first grizzly hunt — and my last. 
by stage to Kalomo. This stage was a rough 
two-wheeled cart drawn by six trotting oxen 
which were changed about every twelve miles. 
They traveled well for oxen and in two days 
we had overtaken our porters, and as the stage 
was not too comfortable, we left it and joined 
our own caravan. 
The first game we sighted was a mixed lot 
of wildebeeste and hartebeeste, so exceedingly 
wild that for some time, we could not get near 
them. Eventually A. shot at a wildebeeste 
which, though going off with the rest as if not 
hit, soon lagged behind, and then turned off 
by himself. Following up, we found him dead. 
The shot was a good one, but a little bit too 
far back. It was quite an ordinary bull, but 
A. was very pleased and kept saying, “It is a 
large one really, isn’t it?” I told him before 
we got back we should kill many a better, but 
he was determined to keep the head. 
Our destination was the southern part of 
Northeastern Rhodesia, where there are a good 
number of elephants not much hunted. Here 
we hoped to have some luck. This part of 
Africa is not so fashionable as British East 
Africa. It is much harder to get at and one 
does not get so many varieties of game or in 
such numbers as there. Still it is a fine shoot¬ 
ing country and has its advantages. There is 
no chance of spoiling one another’s sport and 
it is wild and free to a far greater extent than 
British East Africa. 
We had been out for about ten days when 
we first came across lions; although in camp 
at night we had heard several, but never close. 
A. had gone out early to a large open vlei 
through which we had passed the day before. 
The feed was good, there was plenty of water 
there, and he hoped to find some sable which 
he had failed to get a shot at on the march. 
He had taken with him one of my old boys 
whom I knew to be brave and absolutely trust¬ 
worthy, and I had no uneasiness about him. 
It was my intention to march on that day, but 
I thought that I would await his return before 
striking camp. Nine o’clock came, but no A., 
and as the sun was getting hotter all the time 
I became rather annoyed, but when another two 
hours had passed and he did not return, I gave 
up all ideas of starting that day. At 3 o’clock 
my annoyance had turned into uneasiness and 
I was just thinking of what ought to. be done, 
when, hearing a commotion among the boys, I 
ran out of the tent with some misgiving which 
turned into wonder, when I saw what had hap¬ 
pened. There were A. and the boy, each carry¬ 
ing a lion’s skin, or rather a lion and lioness. 
All A. could ejaculate was, “For God’s sake 
give me a drink,” and after that, “What a day 
I’ve had. I got two, but the third got away.” 
After a time his excitement calmed down a bit 
and he was able to give me an account of what 
had happened. 
It appeared that when they got to the vlei 
they found it untenanted, though by the sign 
quantities of buck had been there during the 
night to water. The boy suggested following 
the tracks, so as to get on the other side of a 
small belt of timber that ran through it. This 
they did. 
When they reached the timber the boy told 
A. to go most carefully, as if there were buck 
on the other side he would in all probability 
be able to shoot without leaving the timber. A. 
went first, telling the boy to wait, and what he 
saw nearly paralyzed him. There, in the open, 
about seventy-five yards off, were two lions and 
a lion.ess eating a hartebeeste they had just 
killed. They were entirely unconscious of his 
approach and for a minute or so he did not 
quite know what to do or which one to fire at. 
The boy in the meantime had joined him and 
made signs to A. to shoot quickly. This he did, 
and was wise to choose the lioness, which rolled 
over to his first shot. Then he fired his left 
barrel at the lion, which was nearest, but they 
both sprang toward the timber, but not before 
A. had had time to reload and fire twice again. 
He confessed that he was not certain whether 
he had shot at the same animal both times or 
not, but both gained the timber. The lioness 
was dead when they reached the place and a 
magnificent one she was, and the boy soon made 
him understand that he had hit the lion also. 
Finding a large blood spoor they followed and 
about ten yards inside the timber they found 
one of the lions, a fine young male, dead. 
To say that A. was elated does not express 
it. Both skins were perfect, but the lioness was 
the larger of the two. It took them some hours 
to skin these out, and then they returned. A. 
An Afrikander’s Journal 
By JOHN A. M. LETHBRIDGE 
IX.—On Foot in Rhodesia—A Double on Lions 
—More Elephant Hunting 
