LIONS BEFORE BREAKFAST.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9110, 1 April 1908, Page 6

LIONS BEFORE BREAKFAST.

A MAJOR’S EXCITING AD- S VENTURE. -Major G. O. Biixton, of Dnnston c Hall, Norfolk,has had an exciting lion-hunting experience in British Bast Africa, where he had been travelling since November. In a letter which reached England recently he says that on December 1 13th he heard a lion grunting- near his camp early in the morning. After . a pursuit of three miles he saw the beast sixty yards off behind a bush, and fired at him with a rifle. The ‘ lion dropped, and then stood bolt upright. A shot from a Mauser knocked him over for good. Suddenly another grpat head and mane peered over the hush. A steady shot with the rifle dropped the second lion, whereupon a lioness immediately sprang out of the bush, allowing a £lear shot. Major Buxton hit her with a shot from the Mauser. She dropped but got up again and twisted round and round, biting her wounded shoulder. Another shot followed with the rifle, and the-major, as he lay concealed in the long grass, heard the bullet reach its mark. The lioness stood up, looking for her assailant, but a third shot with the Mauser sent her off severely wounded. Only half a minute elapsed between the shots. On reaching the bush Major Buxton found two lions dead. Then he searched for the lioness. Suddenly he heard a terrific roar, and the beast charged him from a distance of thirty yards. He fired at ten yards, and she staggered and fell dead, the bullet having gone down her throat and put at the back of her head. A second lioness which was seen in the bush bolted. Major R. Buxton remarks that his rifle is “a ripper, as handy asashotgun,” and he adds, ‘One cannot complain of going out alone before breakfast, seeing four lions, and bagging three. ”