NOVEL LION HUNTING.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 65, 15 August 1874, Page 3

NOVEL LION HUNTING.

Lion hunting on board a steamship is certainly a novelty, yet the passengers and crew of the Euphrates and Tigris Stnam Navigation Company's vessel City of London seem" to have had a most exciting and successful lion hunt on the 19th of March last. From the account given by a correspondent of the Times of India, it appears that on the morning of that day, when at the junction of the two rivers Euphrates and Tigris, where the rivers had overflowed the embankments, three full-grown lions were seen walking along the shore in the water, about a mile ahead of the steamer. On nearing the beasts one was shot dead while trying to swim towards the ship. The launch was manned to pick up the carcase, and the steamer pursued the two others, who turned round to charge the vessel. After many shots had been fired at them one was struck dead by the commander, and the other was shortly afterwards despatched by a bullet from a Snider. The steamer then approached the bank, and the dead lions, or rather lionesses, for such they proved to be, were taken on board. About ten minutes later a large male lion was observed crouching down on a small tract of ground surrounded with water and waving iiis tail, perhaps as a signal of distress. On being fired at he gave a tremendous roar, and with his mane standing on end advanced to charge the ship, when a fresh volley laid him low. Ho, too, was carried on board when thoroughly dead, and his dimensions were was follows :—Length from head to end of tail, 9ft Gin ; length of body, Gft 7in ; height, 3ft 9Jin ; weight, 4201 b, The like of this incident, it is stated, had never occurred before in that part of Mesopotamia.