V THE LION'S ROAR 89 



have been at least two years old, I have never seen 

 a lioness accompanied by cubs of different ages. 



One of the most distinguishing characteristics of 

 the lion, and the one which perhaps differentiates it 

 more than anything else from all other members of 

 the cat tribe, is its roar. During more than twenty 

 years spent in hunting and pioneering in the African 

 wilderness, I have heard lions roaring under all 

 sorts of conditions : in the stillness of frosty winter 

 nights, when the camp fire blazed merrily, and as 

 each fresh log was thrown upon it sent up showers 

 of sparks towards the cloudless, star -decked sky ; 

 or amidst the crashing thunder-peals and blinding 

 flashes of lightning of a stormy night during the 

 rainy season, when it was sometimes quite impos- 

 sible to keep a fire alight at all. On such a night, 

 when sitting wet and cold amongst one's Kafir 

 boys, huddled up beneath the scanty shelter of a 

 few boughs (for I never carried a tent with me in 

 South Africa), the roaring of lions is not altogether 

 a reassuring sound. 



On a still night the roaring of lions can be heard 

 at a very great distance, and should a party of these 

 animals roar loudly quite a mile away, I think most 

 people would imagine that they were within one 

 hundred yards. One reason, I think, for the diver- 

 sity of opinion as to the power and volume of the 

 lion's roar is, that very few people have ever really 

 heard several lions roaring together quite close to 

 them, although they may believe they have done 

 so. In 1891, and again in 1892, I spent some weeks 

 travelling and hunting in the country between Lake 

 Sungwe and the Pungwe river, in South-East Africa, 

 and there was scarcely a night on both those trips 

 when lions were not heard roaring, often as many 

 as three, and once four, different troops of these 

 animals appearing to be answering one another 

 from different points of the compass ; but although 



