A NOTABLE LION HUNT

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 101, 14 September 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

A NOTABLE LION HUNT

THRILLING ADVENTURES IN l ' ABYSSINIA. c . h LAST FATEFUL CARTRIDGE'S s FORTUNATE BILLET. £ i, To »eiik to come to death grips with the King of Beasts a man must needs 5 himself ue nothing short of lion-hearted. \\ i 1 j 1 111 Northup McMillian, who has spent eight or nine years in exploration 01 the Blue Nile and in travel through Abyssinia and British East Africa, is such a man. lie is the owner of Jupa Farm, not far from Nairobi, which Mr , Roosevelt and party made headquarters during much of tlie time they were in that vicinity on their hunting trip. While 1 was a guest at Jupa Farm, \ prior to going on safari "In Closed Terri- r tory," a friend of Mr McMilliaii'g told p me the following stofy of one of iiis n hunting experiences; j The Jig-jigga country, a province of. o Abyssinia, lying n;ar the border of |Bri- ij tisli Somalilana, and governed by 4.()|dul- f iak Down, an Arab sfoiek owning alleg- b iance to King Menelik, is the best lion f; country in all Africa. Jig-Jigga is an arid plateau averaging ii five thousand feet above sea level, poorly Ji watered but generously grassed, sparsely e timbered with the thorny mimosa, and J Bwarming everywhere with innumerable h varieties of the wild game on which the ii lion preys and fattens—eland, kudu, t oryx, harbeeste, gazelle, zebra, etc, a WAYS OF HUNTING THE LION. q There are two ways of ihunting lion. First, from the perfectly safe shelter of a zareba, a tightly inclosed cover built pf thorny mimosa boughß, with no opening but a narrow porthole for rifle fire. Within the zareba the hunter is shut in at nightfall by his shikaris, usually .with ® one sftikari with .him,.sometimes with a goat as a. tlhird companion and as-lure lor lion j an occasional bite of the goat's ear by sharp shikari teeth inspiring shrill J bleats sure to bring any lion lurking near in range of che hunter's rifle. At other time?, goa,t ears are spared, and tflie, loudest braying donkey of the caravan is D picketed immediately in . front of the ii zareba's porthole, 'his normal vocal ac- 1, tivities stimulated by an occasional prod of a stick poked through the porthole. jj Sometimes several weary, sleepless „ nights are spent without result,' ' but sooner or 'ater, stolen close, without the t , slightest sound hinting his approach,.sud- j, deuly a great yellow body flashes out-of v the darkness and upon the cringing lure. r For an instant there are the sinister Cl sounds of savage snarls,, rending flesh, 0 cracking bones, and screams of pain ,and fear, and then a dull red flash heralds p the rifle's roar, and .the tawny. terror a falls gasping his life out across the prey. £ The second, and the only sportsman- t like way of lion hunting, is by trailing <3 him in the open. The pony men circle j till they find a trail; follow it till .close n enough to the game to race ahead and f] bring it to bay; circle about it whjlea 1< messenger brings, up the saihib, who dismounts and advances afoot to a combat ti] wherein the echo of a .nisplaced shot 0 riiay sound his deatk knell. c( BRAVERY OF THE SOMALI GUIDES. I One morning when camped in the JigJigga country, William' Marlow, our ti Sahib's valet, was out with the pony men trailing a wounded oryx, while the Sahib hjmself was oft' shooting eland n three miles away. tl In midforenoon Marlow's men struck P the fresh track of two great male lions, n plainly out on a hunting party of their a own..lnstantly Marlow rushed a messen- w ger away to bring the Sahib, and'he and 0 the pony, men then took the trail at a w run. Within two hours the pony men succeeded, in circling the quarry, and s( stopping it in a mimosa thicket. Shortly i -thereafter, , while circling and-shouting ;S1 about the thicket to prevent a charge before the Sahib's arrival, an incident Sl occurred that proves alike the utter d fearlessness and marvellous knowledge f of the ga;me of the Somali. ii Suddenly out of the shadows of the thicket sprang one of the lions, and a launthed himself like a thunderbolt up- e on one of the pony men, bearing horse t and rider to the ground. Losing his t spear in the fall and held fast by one leg r beneath his 'horse, the rider was defence- 11 less. However, he seized a thorny stick a and began beating the lion about the 0 face, while the lion tore at the pony's A flank and quarters. Then down fr.om his 5 horse sprang another pony man, and, <1 knowing 'he could not kill the lion with ' his spear quickly enough to save his companion, approached and crouched di- a rectly in front of the lion till his own ' face was scarcely two feet from the lion's 1 own. and there made such frightful grini- 1 nee* and let off such shrill shrieks that, 1 frightened from his prey, the lion slunk snarling to the edge of the thicket. ( THE SAHIB'S ONLY CARTRIDGE AND SOLE PROTECTION. f Just at this moment the Sahib raced upon the scene, accompanied by his sec- j retary, H. Morgan Brown. Tn the run he had far outdistanced his gun bearers, J Marlow was unarmed, and Brown carried nothing but a camera. Time the Sahib's t single shot .577 rifle was the only effect- | ive weapon in the party, and for it he did not have a single spare cartridge. The one little cylinder of brass within the chamber of his rifle, and the few grains of powder and nickelled lead it held, were the onlv certain safeguard of the group against death or mangling. All this must have (lashed across the Sahib's mjnd as he leaped from his pony and took stand in the open, sixty steps from where the lion stood roaring and savagely lashing his tail. A little hehind the Sahib and to his left stood Brown with his camera: beside him Marlow. Instantly planted 011 his feet, the Sahib threw his r'flc to his fare for a steady standing shot. But, quicker even tlmn this act, instinctively. the fnrious King r>f Beasts had marked the giant bulk of the Sahib as the one foenian of the half-score round him worthy of his gleaming ivorv weapon, and at him straight he charged the very instant the gun was levelled, coming in great hounds that tossed clouds of dust hethind him. coming with a hoarse roar at every bound, roars to shake nerves not made of steel and still the heating of the stoutest heart. On came the lion, and there stood the Sahib—on and yet on —till it must have seemed to his j ■ companions the Sahib was frozen in his tracks. But all the time a firm hand and a true eye held the head of the rifle sight to close pursuit of the lion's every move, so held it till only a narrow sixteen yards separated man and beast. Then the Sahib's rifle cracked and, with marvellous nerve. Brown snapped his camera, a second later and caught the picture of the kill. A PLUCKY AND SPLENDTD SNAP SHOT. Hit squarelv in the forehead just at the take-off of a hound, the heavy .577 bullet cleaned out the lion's brainpan and killed him instantly, his body turning in midair and hitting the ground inert. A better rifle sh.it would he impossible and as c;ood a camera snapshot has'certainly never been made in the very face of instant, impending deadlv peril. A half-hour later, lion No 2. slower of resolution than his mate, fell to the Sahjb's first shot with a broken neck iiimcplf into fit fury for a

This was more even than a royal kill, Hoth lions Wire, in -ize, a record among the Jig-Jigga hunte.'s, the ,fiist measuring eleven feet one inch from tip of nose to tip of tail; the second, eleven feet. And then the party marched back to camp with its trophies, Djama Aout, the head shikari, chanting paens to his Sahib's prowess, while his mates roared a horse Somali chorus. And all night long, by ancient law of shigar, the camp feasted, chanted, and danced in celebration, one sable saga maker after another chanting his pride to serve so valiant a Sahib.