I Do Not Think I Hit Her, But
Anyhow She At Once Made Off And Bounded Away
At A Great Rate On Emerging Into The Open.
I sent a few bullets after her to speed her on
her way, and then cautiously approached the
wounded lion.
He was stretched out at full
length on his side, with his back towards me,
but I could see by the heaving of his flanks that
he was not yet dead, so I put a bullet through
his spine. He never moved after this; but for
safety's sake, I made no attempt to go up to him
for a few minutes, and then only after Mahina had
planted a few stones on his body just to make
sure that he was really dead.
We both felt very pleased with ourselves as
we stood over him and looked at his fine head,
great paws, and long, clean, sharp tusks. He
was a young, but full-grown lion in fine condition,
and measured nine feet eight and a half inches
from tip of nose to tip of tail. My last shot had
entered the spine close to the shoulder, and had
lodged in the body; the first shot was a miss;
as I have already said; but the second had
caught him on the forehead, right between the
eyes. The bullet, however, instead of traversing
the brain, had been turned downwards by the
frontal bone, through which it crashed, finally
lodging in the root of the tongue, the lead
showing on both sides.
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