LION ADVENTURE IN SOMALILAND.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2371, 18 June 1892, Page 3

LION ADVENTURE IN SOMALILAND.

Captain Swayne, R.E., in a letter to Mr P. L. Sclater, secretary to the Zoological Society and published in the Field, gives the following graphic description of a lion-hunt in Somaliland ;

Last June, when on a shooting excursion in Northern Somaliland, my brother Lieutenant E. Swayne, and I and two gunbearers found two lions and a lioness in the open, 10 miles from any bush in short green grass. The two lions Walked away slowly, looking over their shoulders at us ; but the lioness croiicbed and would not Jet us pass her. My brother shot at her, but fired too high, and wounded her in the withers, making her spin round like a top in a cloud of dust, so that I could not see nothing to flre at, My brother and I were QOyds apart, and the lioness 60yds from both of us, the three forming a triangle. Suddenly out of the dust came an apparition of a charging lionness, ventre a terre, coming straight at me. I fired both barrels, reserving the second till she was only five yards away, and I still had the rifle at my shoulder when she struck me, sending me over and over with such speed that I altogether lost consciousness. Both of my bullets (.577) had passed through her foot. The two gunbearers had bolted, and we were so mixed up that my brother could not fire from where he was, so he ran up close to me and shot the lioness in the chest as she sprang at him, killing her instantly. You will see, therefore, that it was a very narrow escape, as I was unconscious, and the lioness had already given me six fang-wounds in my right shoulder. It was 12 days before I could get medical assistance; but luckily my brother was with me, and nothing had come of it. My brother, seeing 1 was all right, mounted a pony which he borrowed from a native and followed up and shot one of the large lions. The third, escaped., ;is, siq §qmalis were shocked at the mauling I had received and would not follow. The larger lion charged my brother's pony for over 60yds, after having betm shot through the, heart. We cut its rtear-t gut, and found the hole made by the bullet through it.