From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North — John Shaqi
From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to NorthGrogan, Ewart Scott
History
From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North
Grogan, Ewart Scott
Africa -- Description and travel; Grogan, Ewart Scott, 1874-1967
broken, but had a good mane, and measured as he lay from tip to tip 9
ft. 10-½ in.
As the moon was now full, I determined to sit up, and having killed a
zebra close to two small palms, I built a screen of palm-leaves and
awaited events. The first two nights nothing came but mosquitoes, and
the third night two hunting dogs turned up, but I didn’t fire for fear
of disturbing some lions which I could hear in the distance. These dogs
are very beautiful animals with long bushy tails. They hunt in large
packs, and must destroy an immense quantity of game. Shortly after the
dogs had vanished a lion came to the jungle which was about four hundred
yards away, and apparently detecting my scent, in spite of the
competition of the zebra, which was three days old, vented his
disapproval in three stupendous roars. This is one of the few occasions
on which I heard a lion really roar, though every night for months I
have heard packs of them in all directions. The usual cry is a sort of
vast sigh taken up by the chorus with a deep sob, sob, sob, or a curious
rumbling noise. The true roar is indescribable. It is so deceptive as
to distance, and seems to permeate the whole universe, thundering,
rumbling, majestic. There is no music in the world so sweet. Let me
recommend it to the Wagner school! Thousands of German devotees, backed
by thousands of beers, could never approach the soul-stirring glory of
one _Felis leo_ at home. I then heard him going away to the north,
rumbling to himself at intervals, and at 5 a.m. left my scherm[#] and
started in pursuit, hoping to come up with him at daybreak in the plain.
I could still hear his occasional rumblings, and, taking a line by the
moon, made terrific pace. After leaving the ridge, I plunged into a
dense bank of fog that lay on the plain, but still managed to keep my
line, as the moon showed a lurid red and remained visible till sunrise.
The lion had stopped his meditations for some time, and imperceptibly
the light of day had eaten into the fog, when suddenly my gun-boy
"Rhoda" gripped me by the arm, his teeth chattering like castanets, and
said that he saw the lion in front. At the same instant I thought that
I saw a body moving in the mist about seventy yards away, now looking
like an elephant, now like a jackal. Then the mist swirled round,
wrapping it in obscurity once more. I followed carefully, when suddenly
an eddy in the fog disclosed a male lion thirty yards away, wandering
along as if the whole world belonged to him. He rolled his head from
side to side, swished his tail, poked his nose into every bunch of
grass, then stopped and stood broadside on. I raised the .500, but
found that I had forgotten to remove the bunch of cloth which served for
a night sight, and, before this was remedied, the chance was gone.
Again I followed and again he turned, when I dropped him with a high
shoulder shot. As the grass was only 3 in. high and the lion not more
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