Fellas, thanks for the suggestions. Figured Selous would be excellent, and Cumming too. Pete, that series sounds like the nuts for a 19th- and early 20th-century Africa junkie all right!

Not many books about French hunters and their exploits. During the 1830/1850�s, France had a low intensity war against some Arab tribes in the North. There lived the biggest member of the panthera leo�s family, the Barbary lion (panthera leo leo). This cat also had the biggest manes. Males weighing well in excess of 500 pounds were recorded, and reaching 10-plus feet in length. The last one of this race was killed in 1925 and now is officially declared extinct.
Be that as it may, a young officer named Jules Gerard reached the area during the 1830�s and found several man eaters operating with extreme sucess, what with so many goats, camels, horses and Arabs available for food.
Armed only with front loader shotgun and ball, our hero also used his knife to finish some of the critters. Once he broke the blade in the lion�s temple....do figure!.
These were hunters, may I add.
He lived 1817-1864, and his adventures as a lion killer, comprising a history of his 10 years�campaign among the wild animals of Northern Africa was translated from the French by a Mr. Charles E. Whitehead, and imprinted by Derby&Jackson in New York in 1856.
This is a most interesting reading, for my money. By the way, the dead lions ended in the regimental cauldron...jikes!!

"These were hunters, may I add."
Amen!