LION HUNTING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 293, 4 September 1908, Page 11

LION HUNTING.

ft-—, '■ THE MAN-EATER. (81-TEI.EOttAPn.—SI'ECIA!. COItRESPOKDENT.) ' , Auckland, September 3. Mr. A: M. Sedgwick, a South. African wine merehant, '..has been talking i;o a ' pressman on; big;game.. .Mr. Sedgwick rolated.:an in-' terestihg account, of. two trips to.the Northern Transvaal, near the mountains south of this Limpopo River, in 1906. The country therq :is very, .wild, /all heavy thorn bush, some ,of which mako good ?izod trees. It is very ,difficult for, hunters to find- their'way through'this.bush. ■ In this country is found a -.curious'-tree called tho cream -of tartar tree,: which ha,s an enormous bulk. The cream of tartar .'treo_ gets its name from the nut- it bears,' which is about-thosize of an ostrich: egg, "and; contains a white substance resembling -creatti- of tartar, which- is- an excellent preventative of malarial fo'ver. Mi-. Sedgwick spent', some time hunting.' in what is known as- "the lion belt;": iii thb' neighbourhood of tho . Brack River. • It "is called the lion belt because the king ,of beasts is found in'tho country an large numbers.' He follows'.-'the-ganie about from place-to place, and hunts them with great pertinacity. What with being; hunted by lions at night and hunted by sportsmen, during the day, South. African garnet leads a precarious existence that must be, rather trying to the nerves. The.lion by no'rieans confines his attention to game. He has a'weakness for'mulo or dijnkoy- flesh, as travellers through "the', lion : belt" havo learned; by , bitterexperience. Travellers' who go through tho . belt .ire forced to securo'. their mules or donkeys every night in kraals mado of thorn bush'to protect, the animals, from attacks by the great cat.. Huge . fires aro kept blazing all night long, and'the baffled lions slink round and round in the darkness all_ night long. In the daytimo, if tho: mules in the wagon get. . the faintest scent of'a lion, they promptly stampede into the bush, frequently smashing tho wagon to ■ pieces in their mad flight. It is believed by hunters-tll.at lions onlv roar, after a full :feed.. ; .Wh'ei) thgy are hunting they are ailent.s';sq,as,iiot to 'alarm, tho' game, they, aro stalking. Lious generally hunt in, pairs, with » half-grown- cub. ' Sometimes ■ even four to six-lire ,seon together. It is rare to see ono singly.-. The osception to his rule -'.'is tho mandating Jion, which hunts'by himself, because ho-has to. A lion becomes a' man-, hunter from forco of circumstances, rarely from choice. When a lion becomes too old ' to- hunt with full keeiiness tho rest, of tho pack drive him away, and ho -becomes.'a kind of Ishmail. Ho lives by tracking down wounded, game and by visiting - kaffir kraals off cattle. Sooner or later-ho carries off a kaffir, who is perhapsf sleeping with the cattle, and thus gets his 'first taste of human'flesh. Aftor that- he'-frequently becomes a mamcater. .