east twenty
feet-preferably more-of neutral zone all about him. No matter how long
it takes, he determines absolutely that the lion is not within that
distance. The rest is alertness and quickness.

As I have said, the amount of cover necessary to conceal a lion is
astonishingly small. He can flatten himself out surprisingly; and
his tawny colour blends so well with the brown grasses that he is
practically invisible. A practised man does not, of course, look for
lions at all. He is after unusual small patches, especially the black
ear tips or the black of the mane. Once guessed at, it is interesting to
see how quickly the hitherto unsuspected animal sketches itself out in
the cover.

I should, before passing on to another aspect of the matter, mention the
dangerous poisons carried by the lion's claws. Often men have died
from the most trivial surface wounds. The grooves of the claws carry
putrefying meat from the kills. Every sensible man in a lion country
carries a small syringe, and either permanganate or carbolic. And those
mild little remedies he uses full strength!

The great and overwhelming advantage is of course with the hunter. He
possesses as deadly a weapon: and that weapon will kill at a distance.
This is proper, I think. There are more lions than hunters; and, from
our point of view, the man is more important than the beast. The game is
not too hazardous. By that I mean that, barring sheer accident, a man is
sure to come out all right provided he does accurately the right thing.
In other words, it is a dangerous game of skill, but it does not possess
the blind danger of a forest in a hurricane, say. Furthermore, it is a
game that no man need play unless he wants to. In the lion country he
may go about his business-daytime business-as though he were home at the
farm.

Such being the case, may I be pardoned for intruding one of my own small
ethical ideas at this point, with the full realization that it depends
upon an entirely personal point of view. As far as my own case goes,
I consider it poor sportsmanship ever to refuse a lion-chance merely
because the advantages are not all in my favour. After all, lion hunting
is on a different plane from ordinary shooting: it is a challenge to
war, a deliberate seeking for mortal combat. Is it not just a little
shameful to pot old felis leo at long range, in the open, near his kill,
and wherever we have him at an advantage-nine times, and then to back
out because