THE LION. 95 



curious, it may however be mentioned, that he was 

 followed, and killed in the forenoon, over the 

 mangled remains of the unfortunate sentinel. 



His strength on these occasions is immense. 

 There seems good authority for his being able to 

 drag away a heavy ox ; and a young heifer is car- 

 ried off with ease. Sparrman relates an instance 

 of a lion, at the Cape of Good Hope, " seizing a 

 heifer in his mouth, and though the legs dragged 

 upon the ground, yet he seemed to carry her off 

 with the same ease as a cat does a rat. He also 

 leaped over a broad dike with her, without the least 

 difficulty." The smaller prey is generally thrown 

 upon the shoulders, and carried at an ambling pace 

 with great apparent ease. Thompson, a recent tra- 

 veller in South Africa, saw a very young lion con- 

 vey a horse about a mile from the spot where he 

 had killed it ; and relates a more extraordinary in- 

 stance of strength, which occurred in the Sneeuw- 

 berg : " A lion having carried off a heifer of two 

 years' old, was followed, on the spoor or track, for 

 fully five hours, by a party on horseback, and, 

 throughout the whole distance, the carcass of the 

 heifer was only once or twice discovered to have 

 touched the ground." 



The most common and favourite prey of the lion 

 is the various species of deer and antelope which 

 abound in the plains of Africa and jungles of India. 

 The zebra and quagga, bullock and buffalo, are also 

 frequent victims ; but the latter is frequently the 



