LION-HUNTERS STORIES.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13639, 6 July 1908, Page 6

LION-HUNTERS STORIES.

SOME EXCITING ADVENTURES. " Mr. Selouc is the last of the big game honttit. of South Alncu ; me lwoi. of the mighty hunters whwie exptmnceo lay iii-the greatest hunting ground which • Ins world lias ever seen siuc-e civilised man has appeared therein. . . . Mr. Seious iu muui more than a big game hunter, however; he is by instinct a keen lield naturalist, an observer with a power of seeing and. remembering what he has Sfc.cn; and finally ha is. a writer who jwsaess in a very marked and unusual degree the power vividly and accurately lo put on paper his observations." The interesting personal sketch by President. Roosevelt, liinu-;elf a hunter of big game, will lind an echo amongst, all who have followed with attention tin; caie.r of Mr. F. C. Seious. The sketch appeals in a foreword, contributed by America's s.rong man to Mr. .Seious' new buok, "African Nature Notes and Experiencus," just published by Jiacmillan and (Jo. at the price of 10s. The book is good reading, as good uu anything Mr. Seious has hitherto published. Its scope is broad. There L> in it much of the peisunal roni.in>e necessarily associated with the pursuit of big game. 15uc there fa a'.so a great dual ci matter of especial inteivst ; to the nati'ia--list, to the man who thinks le.-s of the i.ensational side of the chaw tinn of he nature, the habits, tlie influence of environment, and the lite hi:-lory generally, ot animals and birds. MONARCH.S OF THE WILDERNKSS.

One. of the niefct fascinating sections of -the book is that devoted 10. the lion, the monarch of the African wilderness, by night at least, "whose life oilcans constant death to his fellow brutes, from the pwuL-rons bulfalo to the light-footed gazelle, and fear and oftin distinction. ioo. t othe human inhabitants of the .countrim through which he roiiinn." Than Mr. Sclous no one we should think has made a deeper study of he gr«it jiiLiit-iuting cat, or has had more opportunities of doing so; and his notes thiow much light on poinfo which have in the past been surrounded bv much doubt.. LION AND SLEEPING MEN..

"As a rule, I think, a, lion seizes a sleeping man by the head, and in that esse', unlets i: is a, very old and weakly animal, death must be n-ually i'-slanfaii-eous, as its great fang teeth will be driven into the brain through the thickuit negro skill'.

" I have known of two ins aives id men Tiaving been seized at night by the shoulder. This, I think, is likely to happen to a. sleeping num lying on his sidewith one r-boulcler raised, ' especially if his recumbent form should happen to be covered with a. blanket, in -which cas"e the most prominent part of him would very likely be mistaken for his head.

" In the early nineties of the last century, two troopers of the British South Africa Company's started one af'ernoon from the neighbourhood of Lo Magondi's kraal to ride into Salisbury, the capital of iMashunaland. a •distance* of about seventy niiks. They rode until dark, and then off-saddling their horses, tied them to a tree, and after having had something to eat and cooked a pot of tea, lay down by the side of the camp fire they had kindled, intending to sleep until the moon roe and then continue their journey by its light. About midnight, however, and when it was dark, for "the moon had unt ytl risen, a, prowling lion came, up to their lonely.bivouac, and .disregarding their horse*, seized one of them by the t-h'iuldi-r. and at ot\ce dragged him away into the darkno>s.. '.His companion awakened by his ' eric*, quickly realised what had happened: "ajid. snatching . up hit rifle, rati - up t<>. Tiis friend's afisifitantie and fired two or three" shots into ;tlxi. air in quick succession, 'litis' so startled tlie lion that it dropped its -.prospective supper and'made nfly The wounded man, it was found.. had received a- severe lii «• •n shoulder when. the. lion finst seized him. bnt fortunatejy*-had'nof. suffered aiiy further injuries, and was able to proceed with his friend to , Salisbury as soon Vats the moon had. : risen. He..had-.to be- ssnt to thp hospital on his arrival there,' as,

although his hurts were not very serious, any wound inflicted by the tooth of a. lion is, as a rule, veiy liiiiicult 10 heal unless carefully attended to at once aud cauterised with a strong lotion of carbolic acid." A CUNNING Blium "In April, 1878, a lion entered a. small Banyai village- near the river Umay, in Northern Matabeleland, a short time after 1 had left it, und, not being able to make its way into any of the huts, through the small doorways, all of which had been very ' carefully barricaded, climbed on the roof of one of thtmi, and tearing away the grass thatching, forced its way in from the top. There were three or four women inside the hut, and it killed them all; but, having gorged Lself, was apparently unable to make its escape through the roof again, and and was rpeared to death by the men of the village the next morning through the framework of the hut, after the mud plasted had been ItHioved in places." WHAT LIONS KNOW.

" There is ho doubt, I think, that lions know that the head, throatj arid the back of the neck are the most vital spots in all animals on which they prey. Human beings are nearly always seized by the head or neck; liorses, donkeys, and zebras are almost invariably killed by bites in the back of the neck just behind the ears, or by bites in the throat; whilst they either dislocate' the necks of heavy animals like buffaloes or hold them in such a way that they can hardly help falling and breaking their- own necks. The lion which broke 1 the neck of one of my oxen, as I have described aboVej escaped punishment when it returned to the carcase the following evening owing to my rifle missing fire. It then visited a mining camp close at hand, ,md forcing its way into an enclosure in which there were fourteen sheep aiid goats and one calf, it killed every one of these unfortunate animals. I shot this lion early the following morning and then examined its victims. Every one of them, the calf as lu.led by a single bite in the head. In eitch case the Upper canine ttc-tli. had been driven through the top of ; the skull or the back of the necK just behind the cars. 1 once came on a young elephant only a few minutes after it had bct-n killed by a lion. The only wounds I could find were deep tooth-markty in the thloa.." . CLAWS THAT CUT LIKE KNIVES. "T have never seen any evidence, of a lions killing its prey by striking it a. heavy blow with one of its paws, and I believe that it always endeavours to kill by biting, and only uses its clawi> for holding or pulling an animal to its mouth. 1 have seen both a. lion and a lioness bayed by dogs repeatedly throw out their fore-paws like lightning-when one of these latter came near them; but the movement was not in the nature of a blow, but rather an attempt to hook one of the dogs in their claws and draw it to tbem. Lions, *I think, must often lose their piev through the very sharpn:ss of their'claws,- which cut like knives through the skin and flesh of a heavy animal m motion. I have known several .instances of a lion overtaking a horse that had only had a short start. In such a case a Hon will not land with a flying leap .right on to a horse's back. _ It gallops "close along the grounu till it is almost under the horse's tail, and then, rearing itself on his hind legs, seizes it on either flank, , endeavouring to hold it with the protruded claws of i s great', fore-paws.. But .almost invariably in such a'case itfails 1 o stop a galloping horse, its claws simplv cutting great, gashes through skin and ilcsli."

" Wliun a lion charges, .it does ..not coine on in great leaps, nor does it strike its adversary a crushing blow with its paw.- It comes close to tli© ground like a. grtat dog and bites, of ten so low that its forefeet can hardly be off the ground. Two Boer'. hunters of nij' acquaintance were both of them first bitten in the thigh. Shortly alter the opening up 01 Masnunaland, too, an' Englishman and a Dane were both seized in tlie saine way by charging lions when hunting hear the- I'ungwe River,' in Portugu'euse Last Africa, the latter dying from his wound.-;. In 1877 an Englishman was charged' by an unwounded Hon in Mashunualaud ana severely bitten in the groin; and in thv lollowing year, in the same locality, an old Hottentot servant of mine was badly bitten in the tin all of tho back wh«u running away from a charging lion which he had previously wounded.'' TAINLESS DEATH.

Ml' Selous thinks that, for a European at any rate, to be killed by a lion is to suffer a. jiractically painless death. " I once made the acquaintance of a fine old Boer hunter wiui whom I finally btecame intimate, just after he had been severely mauled by a lion. On asking him. if he had felt much pain when tuf lion was biting him—he had eleven deep tooth wouncks in the one thigh, besides others on the left ami and hand, and described the. lion as having "chewed" hiui—he answered, "Ja, ik at- byung sair gekrij " (" Yes, Jt felt much pain"); and tome Kaffirs ha\-« told me that they have suffered much when being bulen, but in the- case of Europeans, at any rate, who probably possess, very highly-strung neivous systems, all tlw first-hand evidence I have been able to gather goes to prove that the bite of a lion or a nger is practically painless. 1 imagine that the reason of this is, that the tremendous energy exerted by a lion in biting is equivalent to a heavy blow, which produces stub a shock to the nervous tQ&uem that all sensation is for the time being' as it would bo by a heavy blow from a sledgehammer." .AN EXCITING ADVENTURE. Speaking of a very exciting adventure he once had, the author says: "I have the pictures of four' male- lioiiij that 1 have, chased and brought ,to bay very vividly impiessed on my memory. '1 be--all stood fairly facing ine, their heads held down below their maiie-erowneu; shoulders, their fierce yellow eyey giearning, and their ears laid flat like the ears of an angiy cat. All th« Um« «iky stodd at bay Uiey kept up a ppnslam succession of loud ..rumbling growis, and flicked their tails continuously from side to side,, "throwing them suddenly into the air (before charging with louder, hoaiser growls. xuey stood - thus a eir moutlis held slightly open, itntil two of them charged before 1 fired ; at them. Tin: o'-her two I fired a t and- killed before ihey could makt> up their minds to charge." ■ : ■ ■'■-•'■'