LION ON THE ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 150, 21 December 1929, Page 22

LION ON THE ROAD

MOTORISTS': /EXPERIENCE

A remarkable lion •experience iceently befell a man when travelling by car through Portuguese East Africa on his way from Blantyro (Nyasaland) to Salisbury (states the "Cape Times") With Ms.wife- and another companion lie left Blantyre in the evenin" with tho intention of reaching the north bank of the Zambesi, opposite Teto early next morning. At about 3am, when Ins wife was driving, two lions suddenly showed up in the middle of the road imdor the ear's headlights. The lions had apparently had a disagreement, for, according to the motorist, one of them gave the other a "clout over the head," and his victim made off through the high grass at the side of the ; rOflu.

lin^W 0 t fhß lieI iet°r' a larS° maned lion. Ho stayed where he was The car was nearing Mm and the driver did not know whether to Mow the horn and ! pass-or give; the lion the right of way IHe considered the second case the more convenient: ana.for about a mile and a half the car. moved slowly: a few yards, behind the. lion, which, apparently quite ..unperturbed,: lopea a i on{ / moving its head from side to side and

The lion was of such a size that its knees" were higher' than the buffers of the car, and the top of its back was above, the rays of the headlights. During this tone the motorist had managedl to extracts shotgun from under the front seat and-assemble it _BJe7was -beginning to open the side window for a shot when the lion took fright and leaped off the road Major A.- L.. Cooper, of silisnnrv who brought toligh/a year ortro^o' a iuw species of Rhodesiar. cheetah and who has made a long study of n.tural history, said that he thought the lion's action was due to the intense darkness on either side of f-o rays of light, -he animal ecu' 1 rot see outeide this, and therefore walked along te only, path , .-lueh ;was visible f 0 £ 'They „eeon>e.fascinated by a oar's headlights," he said, "to suJh an extent that I have seen ono buck d-'l-er lie down and I could almost havo cone up,to it and /-it its throat. I walked up to within fifteen yards of it."