aving heard the welcome roar of a
lion. It was a distinct disappointment. I remembered the story about the
lions that stampeded the zebras through the peaceful gardens of Nairobi
only a few nights before--also the report that some man-eaters had been
recently partaking of nourishment along the very road upon which we were
now camping. I also remembered hearing that lions had been seen prowling
around the edge of the town and that the Athi Plains are a time-honored
habitat of the lion family. On the other hand, I thought of Mr.
Roosevelt, who had recently been reducing the supply. I also remembered
how many hunters had spent years in Africa without ever seeing a lion,
and how Doctor Rainsford had made two different hunting trips to Africa,
always looking for lions, but without success.

During our first three days of marching, we looked industriously for
lions. On broad, grassy plain, in low scrub, on the slopes of low
hills--everywhere we looked for them. If a flock of vultures circled
above a distant spot we went over at once in the hope of surprising a
lion at his kill. Every reed bed was promptly investigated, every dry
nullah was explored. McMillan's farm, which is a farm only in name, was
scoured without ever a sign or a hint that a lion lurked thereabouts.
Mr. McMillan has four lions in a cage, but they snarled so savagely that
we hastened away to look for lions elsewhere. The second day we crossed
the Nairobi River, the third day we crossed the Induruga River, and the
fourth day we camped down on the Athi River. Here we struck a clue. Two
English settlers came over and told us that lions had been heard the
night before near their ranch house, on the slopes of Donyo Sabuk, a
high solitary round top mountain rising from the Athi Plains, and we
determined to organize our first lion hunt. It was here that Mr. Lucas
was killed by a lion a short time before.

A lion hunt, or a lion drive, is quite a ceremony. You take thirty or
forty natives, go to the place where the lion was heard, and then beat
every bit of cover in the hope of scaring out the beasts. Lions are fond
of lying up during the day in dry reed beds, and when you go out looking
for them, you are most likely to find them in such places.

[Photograph: Mr. Stephenson's Splendid Buffalo]

[Photograph: "Lion Camp"]

[Photograph: The Lion and Lioness in Camp]

We started, three of us, with forty porters, at about daybreak. At seven
o'clock we had climbed u