YOU will get "fed up" on lions if I don't stop, but we are still at this feverish business of hunting them, although I believe we can soon rest, because Leslie Simson departs tomorrow for Nairobi, thence to India to try his hand on tigers. Simson is our master of ceremonies, but life is too tame for him here.

Young and I may go after them with the bow and White can back us up with the artillery, but this leaves a good deal of responsibility on the shoulders of one man. Two guns are better and they don't always stop the beast. The departure of Leslie Simson is a distinct loss to our party. His experience and accurate shooting were invaluable. He has slain more lions than anyone in Africa. The actual count, of all sorts and conditions of these animals, is two hundred and thirty-seven, but he does not credit himself with more than one hundred and seventy-six, because some of these were females or immature and shot for museum purposes.

This is an incredible number, and no one in the hunting fields has anywhere near this count. Lord Delamere was considered a great lion hunter and he never quite reached fifty. Selous, one of the most picturesque and successful African hunters, had shot not more than half this number. Nor was Cunninghame credited with any greater list. Both these men, though great hunters in their day, devoted most of their time to elephant shooting.

As I recall it, Roosevelt shot something less than a dozen lions himself. From this you can gather that Simson is preeminently the great lion hunter of Africa. He is by birth an American but he has lived in Africa for thirty years.

And he has lived to shoot these many dangerous animals because he has set rules of action. Other men shoot a few lions, then get careless and a lion ends their career. Leslie Simson proceeds with his hunt along certain definite lines, and will not depart from these for the sake of glory or a trophy.

There are several well recognized methods of getting these beasts. In Kenya Colony, where lions have become more nocturnal because of continuous hunting, the most successful method is to build a thorn boma or ambush, lay a dead zebra or Kongoni outside at a distance of ten or twenty yards, then wait for simba at night and shoot him by flash light. This is not considered the most sporting type of shooting, but nine-tenths of all lions killed by visiting hunters are shot this way.

The next method is that of still hunting or tracking. In competent hands this is a very sportsmanlike and successful method.

Ordinarily, the hunter, well backed up with one or two experienced white hunters, hired for the safari, goes out early in the morning and looks for "kills." These are detected by seeing vultures in the sky or roosting on trees or on the ground near the carcass of an animal recently mauled. Hyenas sitting around or laboriously dragging their gorged bellies over the ground, are another infallible sign of a "kill."

Now the hunter must find the lion. If it is early, he may see it moving off in a leisurely, lumbering way, or he may find him lying under a tree near by, or in the grass of the donga, or he may see him a couple of miles off resting on a hillside. Here a powerful field glass is a great aid.

When the lion is located, then he must be approached. Lions do not run away like deer or antelope, still they move out of the country when they see man. They neither like his looks nor his smell. You may have to follow for many miles. Generally it seeks cover or a safe retreat in a kopje or an outcropping of rocks. But having at last come up to him, possibly having run him on foot for a mile or more till he turns and stands at bay, ready to charge, then you shoot.

Generally this shooting distance is between one and two hundred yards. At the longer ranges you may simply wound him, and he then escapes to hide in dense cover. Here your real difficulty begins. To get him out is dangerous and often impossible. To go in after him, you should be armed with a death certificate. When he does come out, he generally comes out at close range in a rush, and you shoot for your life.

When first hit, if not too far off, he will charge about once in ten times. If he is no closer than a hundred yards, here you have a chance to get in two or three shots, if you are quick. It will take him about six seconds to cover this distance and be on you, and you must hit him in the right spot too.