Astounding Adventure. CYCLIST PURSUED BY A LION.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Issue 34, 14 January 1899, Page 4

Astounding Adventure. CYCLIST PURSUED BY A LION.

The following is (says the British Central Africa Gazette) peihaps one of the most extraordinary adventures that has ever fallen to the lot of a European even in Central Africa, where ad\enturea •with wild beasts are pretty frequent : — Mr 1). C. Robertson, Gala Estate, Namazi, about midway between Blantyre and Zomba, sends the following note :— I rode out on ray bicycle from Blantyre on Monday afternoon, the 22nd August, and reached Mr Slroud'a (Mrs Bruces agent) before the sun went down, and after waiting for a tew imautes, started again just after sunset. By the time I got to the Nama'/.i crossing (where my prmite road crosses the BUutyre-Zomba mam road, beyond Mr Morkel's plantation) it got quite dark, except for a little light the new moon was giving. The road leading to the Gala Ebtate trom the main road h:i3 only just recently been made, and it is quite soft and lumpy, besides being very steep for at least half its length. The rest of it is fairly level, but none of it is 111 a condition for cycling yet, except the portion Inch extends from my first plantation to my house, which was made some time ago. and is now nice and hard. When I left the main road I dismounted, and staited pushing my bicycle up the lull, but before T had gone far I heard a heavy body pushing its way through the bush on my left. I thought it was some big game, possibly an eland or buffalo, but as 1 felt a certain amount of uneasi-nc-ss I went to the other side of the road and pushed away as quickly as I could/ hen T had gone a short distance up the slope I looked round, and almost had a fit when I saw a full-giown lion standing across the road, broadside on, with his head turned towards me, and, as I looked, he started in pursuit. I attempted to mount my machine, but owing to the slope and my excitement I failed twice. The thud tune J succeeded in getting away and I did pedal for all I was worth, but the machine kept wobbling across the road, and I saw that the lion had lessened the distance between us by about half, though I was still fifty pards from the top of the slope. He kept up a low growling all the time, and I could hear him more and more distinctly every time as he still lessened the distance between ns^ I think I could easily have outstripped him if it had been level, but the machine kept up a rattle rattle over the inequalities of the road, and once or twice I was almost thiown off. I did not dare to look b.tck ; indeed there was no need, as the growl plainly told me that he was almost upon me, but at last I reached the erett, and flow down the opposite slope. I then suddenly remembered that there was an open culvert across the road some two hundred yards ahead, but there -was no time to dismount, so I rode into it, and the shock flung me high out of the saddle, but I fell back on it without being knocked off. Fortunately, the side of the dram next the hill was high, and the opposite side low, so that the machine ■was not stuck in the culvert, and though the front fork was twisted and the front ■Wheel grated against it, it was not quite jammed, and I was able to ride on. When I reached the smooth part of the road near my first plantation I was able to get up a good rate of speed, but I no longer heard the growl in the rear. Next morning I went back along the road, and I found the lion had come as far as the culvert, and there came to a stand. The chase therefore lasted along the whole road from the main line through the forest to my house, a distance of about two miles. No more moonlight rides for tnel

A little eucalyptus rubbed over the face ■will keep off flies in hot weather. The longest plants in the world are seaweed. One tropical variety has been known to reach 6Coft in length.

, tfhis mirror is about 13in thick, but it hM not yet, been completed. When finished it will weigh 3,600 kilogiammes. The telescope will hare a photographic and a visual objectire, which will be interchangeable at will. The ordinary magnifying power of the* iastrument will be about 6,000, but on ofccaeisn a power of 10,000 may be used. As the laigest existing teles Cops only has a power of 4,000, it maj readily be judged what a gigantic instrument it is that M. Gautitr W engaged in making.

Among the many gieat features of the Pans Exhibition of 1900 will be the giant telescope, which is now being constructed by %i. Gautier. J The aperture of the telescope will be49-2in, and the focal length 196 ft 10in, while th« estimated cost is 1,400,000 francs* An equatoiial mounting and dome for such % gigantic instrument may well be consideied impracticable, and accouhngly the telescope itself will be rigidly fixed in a horizontal position on supports of masonry, and will receive the light of the heavenly bodies after reflection from a moyable plane imiroi two metres in diameter.