a 
exlil 
infested by lions. How numerous the huge carnivore must 
have been in Mauretania is proved by the historian, who 
informs us that Pompey sent 600 and Czesar 400 lions to Rome 
from North Africa. In 1880 ten were killed, and I believe a 
lioness was shot near Batna in 1893, which proved to be the 
last of the black-maned North African race of Felis leo. That 
the species could flourish in Algeria until quite recently was 
due to the low state of civilisation in which the country has 
been since the Arab conquest. The lion of Syria, Asia Minor 
and Greece became extinct ages ago. 
The tailless monkey of Mauretania, another interesting 
species, is only found in a few places of the Tell; it is the 
same species which lives on the rock of Gibraltar, where it was 
probably introduced by the Moors. The term Moor, I may 
explain incidentally, does not designate a nigger, but a native 
of North Africa (Maurusia of the Greeks, and Mauretania of 
the Romans); Othello was a Mauretanian, not an Ethiopian. 
The Barbary monkey has its nearest relation in Japan and must 
be Jooked upon as a relict, the species haying become extinct 
in other Palaearctic countries. It can best be seen in the 
Gorge du Chiffa near Blida, where it is protected, as elsewhere, 
against the scourge of the fauna in all countries, more especially 
those connected with South and Central Europe, viz. the man 
with the gun who indiscriminately kills everything that comes 
along, from a passerine bird upwards. These monkeys, 
though by no means tame, have no fear of man and come down 
from the woods to the little hotel in the gorge, where they are 
sure to find some food placed for them. The monkeys at 
the Gorge du Chiffa have split up into two troups or families 
which keep separate in the woods and visit the hotel, one 
troup in the morning, and the other in the afternoon. It is 
most interesting to observe them at close quarters and watch 
them show each other their babies and hear them express 
their satisfaction about the health and particularly cleanliness 
of the infants; the elderly mothers behaving very decorously, 
while the young members of the herd jump about like boisterous 
but good-natured children and the master of the family is 
always ready to attack any one who should venture to molest 
a member of the troup. In the Makis of the Tell the wild 
Se PAS Pt ANB Ss 
