174 ADVENTURES IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



frequently ends in the death of one of them. Ths 

 habits of the lion are strictly nocturnal; during the 

 day he lies concealed beneath the shade of some low 

 bushy tree or wide-spreading bush, either in the level 

 forest or on the mountain side. He is also partial to 

 lofty reeds, or fields of long, rank yellow grass, such as 

 occur in low-lying vleys. From these haunts he sallies 

 forth when the sun goes down, and commences his 

 nightly prowl. When he is successful in his beat and 

 has secured his prey, he does not roar much that night, 

 only lattering occasionally a few low moans; that is, 

 provided no intruders approach him, otherwise the case 

 would be very different. 



Lions are ever most active, daring, and presuming 

 in dark and stormy nights, and consequently, on such 

 occasions, the traveler ought more particularly to be on 

 his guard. I remarked a fact connected with the lions' 

 hour of drinking peculiar t.o themselves: they seemed 

 unwilling to visit the fountains with good moonlight. 

 Thus, when the moon rose early, the lions deferred their 

 hour of watering until late in the morning; and when 

 the moon rose late, they drank at a very early hour in 

 the night. By this acute system many a grisly lion saved 

 his bacon, and is now luxuriating in the forest of South 

 Africa, which had otherwise fallen by the barrels of my 

 "Westley Richards." Owingto the tawny color of the 

 coat with which nature has robed him, he is perfectly 

 invisible in the dark; and although I have often heard 

 them loudly lapping the water under my very nose, not 

 twenty yards from me, I could not possibly make out 

 so much as the outline of their forms. When a thirsty 

 lion comes to water, he stretches out his massive arms, 

 lies down on his breast to drink, and makes a loud lap- 

 ping noise in drinking not to be mistaken. He con« 



