Lion-Hunting in Somali-land (Annotated)

• Complete text of the first edition of 1895, word for word
• Nine drawings by Cecil Aldin and photographs by the author
• Publisher’s Foreword, Historical Introduction and Afterword
• The Somali Caravan and The Country and the Game
• The Soldier after the Hunter, Honours of a Soldier, Historical Note
• Glossary and Note on This Edition

Across the Gulf of Aden from Arabia lay a country of thorn, dry river-beds and waterless distance. From Berbera, Captain Charles John Melliss of the 9th Bombay Infantry went up-country towards the Haud with ten camels, twelve Somali men, two donkeys, an Abyssinian pony and provisions for two months, in search of lion; the closing chapters follow him on horseback, spear in hand, after the African wart-hog.

Five years later Melliss won the Victoria Cross in Ashanti. He went on to command the 53rd Sikhs (Frontier Force), to fight at Shaiba and to share the siege and captivity of Kut.

Here he is still Captain Melliss, and somewhere ahead in the thorn the spoor is fresh.

GREEN SERIES · AETERNUS