Part 16

C. G. Schillings, phot.

THIS LION, AN OLD ANIMAL WITH A FINE MANE, HAD DRAGGED AWAY THE IRON TRAP SOME DISTANCE. HE MADE FOR ME THE MOMENT I HAD TAKEN THIS PHOTOGRAPH AT NEAR RANGE, BUT THE TRAP IMPEDED HIS MOVEMENTS AND A WELL-PLACED BULLET PUT AN END TO HIM.]

C. G. Schillings, phot.

CARRYING IN TRIUMPH TO MY CAMP A LION WHICH I HOPED TO BRING BACK WITH ME TO EUROPE.]

In spite of my want of success, I decided to try my luck once more, though the surroundings of my camp were not very alluring and game was very scarce with the exception of a herd of ostriches, which for hours together haunted the vicinity. I hoped this time the lioness would be bagged. But no, I never came across her or her young again.

Instead, on the fourth morning, I found a good maned specimen--an old male--at my mercy. Loud roars announced the fact of his capture to me from afar. The first thing was to discover whether he was firmly held by the iron, and also whether he was unhurt. I assured myself of both these points after some time, with great trouble and difficulty, and, needless to add, not without considerable danger. I leave the reader to imagine for himself the state of mind in which one approaches the King of Beasts in such circumstances. I can vouch for it that one does so with a certain amount of respect for His Majesty.

The roaring of an enraged lion, once heard, is never to be forgotten. It is kept up by my captive without intermission, a dull heavy rumble suddenly swelling to a tremendous volume of sound. The expression of its face and head, too, show fierce anger and threaten danger. The terrible jaws now scrunch the branches within reach, now open menacingly.

It was now necessary to free the lion from the trap and to bring it into camp. It would take a week to get my cage, but meanwhile I decided to fasten the animal by means of a strong chain and with a triple yoke specially made for such a purpose in Europe.

But even the bravest of my men absolutely refused to obey my command. It needed the greatest persistence to persuade some of them, at last, to lend a helping hand to me and my assistant Orgeich. As usual they required the stimulus of a good example. After some time I had, as can be seen on pages 485 and 499, set up my photographic apparatus right in front of the lion so as to take several photos of him at the distance of a few paces.

Then we cut a few saplings about as thick as one’s arm, and with these we tried to beat down the lion so as to secure him. At first this did not succeed at all. I then had recourse to strong cord, which I made into a lasso. It was wonderful, when I caught the head of the prisoner in the noose, to see him grip it with his teeth and to watch the thick rope fall to pieces as if cut with a pair of scissors after a few quick, angry bites. During this trial I made a false step on the smooth, grassy ground, so well known to African explorers, and was within a hair’s breadth of falling into the clutches of the raging beast had not my good taxidermist happily dragged me back. After various further efforts, during which my people were constantly taking fright, I at length succeeded in fastening the head as well as the paws of the beast. With the help of the branches the body was laid prostrate on the ground, a gag was inserted between the teeth, the prisoner was released from the trap and, fastened to a tree-trunk, was carried into camp.

But what takes only a few words to describe involved hours of work. It was a wonderful burden, and one not to be seen every day! In my previous book I have already described how we carried a half-grown lion in a similar manner, and I have given an illustration of the scene. Unfortunately some of my best photographs, showing my bearers carrying this full-grown lion, were lost while crossing a river.

I was full of delight at the thought of my captive as he would appear in my encampment. But to my great chagrin the lion died in it quite suddenly, evidently from heart failure. We could find no trace of any wound.

There was something really moving at this issue to the struggle, in the thought that I, using wile against strength, should have overpowered and captured this noble beast only to break his heart!

This failure made me fear that I should never succeed in capturing a lion by such methods. It seemed almost better to use a large grating-trap in which it could be kept for several days and gradually accustomed to the loss of its freedom. But this meant an expensive apparatus which was quite beyond the funds of a private individual with narrow means like myself. My efforts to capture lions by means of pits dug by the natives were quite unsuccessful, because the lions always found a way out.

A younger male lion which was entrapped lived for nearly a month chained up in my camp. This one had hurt its paw when captured, and in spite of every care a bad sore gradually festered. It wounded one of my people very badly by ripping open a vein in his arm when he went to feed it.

C. G. Schillings, phot.

FLASHLIGHT PHOTOGRAPH OF A LION. THE ANIMAL HAD MOVED SO SWIFTLY THAT THE APPARATUS WAS NOT QUITE IN TIME TO TAKE IN ITS WHOLE BODY.]

Thus terminated my efforts to bring an old lion to Europe.

Much that is easy in appearance is troublesome in reality. Even when the animal is overcome, the transportation of it to the coast is accompanied by almost insuperable difficulties. It means something to carry beast and cage, a burden amounting to something like eight hundred pounds, right through the wilderness by means of bearers. Even with the help of the Uganda Railway it has not been possible to bring home a full-grown lion. I have repeatedly caught lions for this purpose, but have always experienced ultimate failure.

Sometimes the animals would not return to the place where I had tracked or sighted them, or would steer clear of the decoy. One often meets with this experience in India with tigers, which are decoyed in much the same way, and then shot from a raised stand. Interesting information about the behaviour of tigers in such cases may be found in the publications of English hunters, as well as in the very interesting book on tropical sport by P. Niedieck, a German hunter of vast experience. I might perhaps have succeeded on subsequent occasions in transporting old lions, but I never had the strong cages at hand. Now perhaps they are rusted and rotted, as well as the other implements which I hid or buried on the velt, not having bearers enough to carry them, and hoping to find them again later.

I had a most interesting adventure, once, with a lion on the right bank of the Rufu River.

For several nights the continuous roaring of a lion had been heard in the immediate vicinity of my camp. In spite of all my attempts to get a sight of the beast by day I could not even find the slightest trace of it. Moreover, the vegetation in the neighbourhood of the river was not at all suitable for a lion-hunt. I decided to try my luck with a trap. A very decrepit old donkey was used as a bait, and killed by the lion the very first night. But to my disappointment the powerful beast of prey had evidently killed the ass with one blow, and with incredible strength had succeeded in dragging it off into the thicket without as much as touching the trap. Very early the next morning I found the tracks, which were clearly imprinted on the ground. Breathlessly I followed up the trail step by step in the midst of thick growth which only allowed me to see a few paces around me. I crept noiselessly forward, followed by my gun-bearer, knowing that in all probability I should come upon the lion.

The trail turned sharply to the left through some thick bushes. Now we came to a spot where the thief had evidently rested with his spoil; then the tracks led sharply to the right and went straight forward without a pause.

We had been creeping forward on the sunlit sand like stealthy cats, with every nerve and muscle taut, my people close behind me, I with my rifle raised and ready to fire--when, suddenly, with a weird sort of growl it leapt up right in front of us and was over the hard sand and away. It is astonishing how the stampede of a lion reverberates even in the far distance!

C. G. Schillings, phot.

PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AT A DISTANCE OF ABOUT FIVE PACES OF A LION WHICH I CAPTURED ALIVE AND BROUGHT BACK TO CAMP--A SPECIMEN OF THE MANELESS LIONS OF THE MASAI VELT. SOME OF THE VERY OLD LIONS DEVELOP MANES EVEN IN THIS REGION, BUT NEVER TO THE EXTENT USUAL WITH LIONS IN CAPTIVITY, OR WITH THE ALMOST EXTINCT SPECIES OF THE ATLAS COUNTRY OR OF SOUTH AFRICA.]

A few steps further I came upon the remains of the ass. The lion had gained the open when I got out of the brushwood. It was useless to follow the tracks, for they led only to stony ground, where they would be lost. Discouraged, I gave up the pursuit for the time, but only to return a few hours later. Approaching very cautiously to the place where I had left the remains of the donkey, we found they were no longer there. The lion had fetched them away. We followed again, but to my unspeakable disappointment with the same result as in the morning. I managed this time, however, to get near the lion through the brushwood, but he immediately took to flight again--when only a few yards from me, though hidden by bushes. Perhaps he is still at large in this same locality!

Lions--generally several of them together--killed my decoys on several occasions without themselves getting caught. I once surprised a lion and two lionesses at such a meal in the Njiri marshes, in June 1903. Unfortunately the animals became aware of my approach, and now began just such a chase as I had already successfully undertaken on January 25, 1897.