412 AFRICAN RESEARCHES. 



the beautiful sketch which adorns the last part of the Zoolo- 

 logical Society's Transactions, science might perhaps have 

 had the benefit of something more than a mere verbal notice 

 of these novelties. 



As a security against lions, Sir James recommends travel- 

 lers to take up their quarters close to a colony of pig-faced 

 baboons ; though from the experience of his man, Robert, we 

 should have thought this would, in real earnest, be jumping 

 from the frying-pan into the fire. 



A perhaps less objectionable expedient to avoid the con- 

 tingency of being made a meal of by the king of beasts, ap- 

 pears to us to arise out of the following relation told by one 

 of the hunters of the party, — Henrick. — 



" ' One night I was asleep in my hut, when I was awoke by a noise out- 

 side. My wife whispered, * I don't think that is a wolf ; ' on which I got 

 up, and went out with a keree (or knobbed stick) in my hand, for I had no 

 gun at that time. Below a tree I saw a cow lying, and as I went to it a 

 large animal left the cow and came towards me. I stood my ground, and 

 called out, when a lion (which the large animal was), went off to one side. 

 I went up to the cow, and found it, and another beyond it, dead. The first 

 had been ripped up, and the calf only eaten, because the contents of the 

 stomach of the cow had come out of its mouth and nose, whilst the other 

 cow had its neck twisted round, and its horns fixed in the ground, so that 

 its mouth was kept in the air, to prevent the same ejection of food as in the 

 first cow. I turned its mouth downwards to disgust the lion, and then went 

 to sleep again.' 



" In Henrick's word, during some months' acquaintance, I had implicit 

 confidence ; and it is quite possible that the lion may feel a peculiar dis- 

 gust when the above accident happens, and to prevent it could easily with 

 his mighty paws, fix the horns of cattle in the ground. All this, if true, is 

 a new and interesting fact in the natural history of the lion." 



So absorbed is our author in the scientific interest attached 

 to this new "fact" in Natural History, as entirely to overlook 

 the real value of discovering, that in the event of a peculiar 

 chain of circumstances arising, the lion, instead of treating 

 himself to his intended meal, has the self-denial to cut his 

 stick, and march quietly off. Subsequent treaders in his 

 steps, however, will not fail to appreciate the service rendered 

 them by Sir James, in the hint which this piece of informa- 

 tion affords. Instead of starting from the cape with half a 

 waggon-load of metal in the shape of leaden bullets, and a 

 score or more barrels of gunpowder, the explorer who intends 

 acting only on the defensive, and not waging war against every 

 animal that crosses his path, will now provide himself with a 

 far more simple and less expensive kind of ammunition. — 

 His store-chest will have one compartment exclusively ap- 

 propriated to a well-known powder, extensively manufactured 



