LETTER XIX. KATHIAWAR LION AND 

 SIR GEORGE CLARKE 



DELHI, May 2nd, 1912. 



No matter how many or how deadly be the sins 

 committed by George Sydenham Clarke, otherwise 

 His Excellency the Governor of Bombay, I feel 

 confident that the Recording Angel will, for his 

 superbenevolent treatment of me, wipe them all 

 out and accord him the benefit of a clean slate. 



To his kindness I owe the exceptional privilege 

 of securing a very, very rare trophy to wit, a 

 maneless lion of India and an exceptionally fine 

 one. 



I am assured that not one had been shot for 

 over thirty years, and on the last occasion the 

 lion killed one of the then Governor's Staff. 

 The fact is there are very few of them. Indeed, 

 at one time only sixteen were believed to exist. 

 They are to be found in only one spot in the whole 

 continent, in the forest of Gir, and they are strictly 

 preserved. It is only at rare intervals, generally 

 when drought has killed off all the cattle, that one 

 takes to man-killing, and then he has to be tried, 

 condemned, and executed. 



Of the lions of Gir an early Italian writer makes 

 the quaint remark that they are like honest men 

 and truthful women " Esistono, ma rari." 



Gir Forest is an extensive, sunbaked district 



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