I Repeated The Whole Operation
Time After Time, But Always With The Same Result.
Eventually I Came To The Conclusion
That there
must be some mistake in the table of angles from
which I had been working, so I started
To work
them out for myself and soon discovered a serious
misprint. This being rectified in my calculations,
I proceeded to lay out the curve again, when at
last everything came out accurately and to my
satisfaction.
After I had pegged out this temporary
diversion of the line, I thought I richly deserved a few
hours' play, and accordingly determined to try my
luck after lions up-stream towards the source
of the Athi. The river - which runs almost due
north here, before taking a turn eastward to the
Indian Ocean - forms part of the western boundary
of the Athi Plains, and is fringed all along its
course by a belt of thorny hardwood trees. In
some places this fringe is quite narrow, while in
others it is about a quarter of a mile wide, with
grassy glades here and there among the trees.
Every now and again, too, the stream itself
widens out into a broad stretch of water, nearly
always covered over with tall reeds and elephant
grass, while along the banks are frequent patches
of stunted bushes, which struck me as very likely
places for the king of beasts to sleep in after
having drunk at the river. I had noticed that
after having eaten and drunk well, a lion would
throw himself down quite without caution in the
first shady spot he came to; of course nothing
except man ever disturbs him, and even of man
the lions in this part of the country had as yet
no fear, for they had rarely if ever been hunted
previous to my time.
As I felt rather tired after my morning's work,
I decided to use my pony on this expedition,
although as a rule I went on foot. Mahina and
half-a-dozen natives to beat the belt of trees were
to accompany me, and after a hasty lunch off we
started up the left bank of the river. I walked
for some distance at first, partly because the
ground was very stony and partly because I
thought a lion might suddenly bound out of
some likely patches in front of the beaters; but
after having gone about six miles in this way
without adventure of any kind, I decided to
mount again. At this time the beaters were in
line about a hundred yards behind me, shouting
and halloing with all their might as they advanced
through the scrub and undergrowth, while I rode
well to the flank so as to be ready for any
emergency. Just as the men got up to a rather
thicker piece of jungle than usual, I fancied I
saw a movement among the bushes and pulled
up suddenly to watch the spot, but did not
dismount. The next moment out bounded a lioness,
who raced straight across the open strip into the
next patch of jungle, quickly followed by another.
Throwing myself off my pony, I seized my rifle
to get a shot at the second lioness as she galloped
past, and was just about to pull the trigger, when
to my utter amazement out sprang a huge black-maned
lion, making all haste after his mates.
Before he could reach the further thicket,
however, I fired, and had the satisfaction of hearing
the deep growl that tells of a serious hit.
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