A GREAT LION HUNT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 71, 10 August 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

A GREAT LION HUNT.

A NEW ZEALAXDER'S SUCCESS. A Nelson resident has received the appended account o£ a lion hunt from a relative settled in the Nairobi district, in Uganda, Central Africa. The writer left New Zealand for South Africa before the outbreak of the Boer war, being then only a stripling. He served with the colonial forces through the war with some distinction, and at the close of hostilities he moved nortb, settling in Uganda. It is of interest to know that ex-President Roosevelt, of the United States, with his son and party, spent several days at the farm of the writer of the narrative in the course of his famous hunting tour through Africa, and had some good sport there.

The letter reads as follows:—"Two friends of mine living about 40 miles south-east of here having had 'ostriches killed by lions, organised a hunt and invited me over, I drove over, taking my blankets, and after an outspan on the plains reached the farm after dark. We started next morning, five of us altogether, and hunted every donga, bush, and hill for two days and a half. At noon of the third day we drove ten lions out of a small hill, and though they passed fairly close to me I could not get a good shot, and only wounded one. They : all came out on the plain below us with the wounded one behind. C said that we would not see them again, and would not believe me when I said that the fun had not started. We each grabbed the leg of a partridge, and I swung into the saddle for a hunt that beats all the cattle hunts, fox hunts, or any other hunt that I was ever in, beat them all into a cocked hat. I was the only man mounted, and the fun was all my own for the first two miles or so—it was fast and furious. I picked my ten beauties up on the other side of a small donga, and gave them a smart run of about two miles. I then opened the ball, and running another half mile 1 bailed them all up. It was a line sight, ten lions in a row, ten tails in the air like so many piston, rods, and all the beasts waiting to charge. Two of them did come on at this stage, and 1 stopped them from the saddle with .3.30 soft-nose. 1 held up the bunch and kept them busy till help came, but as soon as 11 showed up the lions funked it. They would not face a party till we had' knocked all the wind and all the run out of them. I had live wounded, two so badly that they went oil' to one side, and sat'under a tree which they bit and tore in their rage. 11 and the others came up, and I shot, the lion and C the lioness. ] rounded up the bunch again within another mile, all dead beat, but mil of light. Two badly wounded were behind th,' others, and'one of these I shot. II then came up, and I save him my hor.-e. and ran on foot the'last two miles io the finish. Here -we had six lion- in a row in longish grass. When they lay down we could not see them, hut occasionally up would come six heads and tails. I opened lire, and hit one in the act of coming on. Before I could load two more were coming. I took a left and right and stopped "them both. The other three funked it again, and ran across a small dry creek.' We shot them down from where we stood. The last one, badly wounded, took to cover, and we never saw him, as we had to return seven miles to camp, skin nine lions, besides dressing the wounded dogs, so we decided to let him alone, ft was dark when we reached camp, everyone tired, but gloriously Intppv. The run and fight lasted from noon till about 5 p.m., and we covered about ten miles in a half moon. II was the run of a lifetime, and I never again expect to have, such a time again.' C «it early next morning with three skins, this left me with six. and by eleven o'clock we had them all skinned and cleaned.