202 HUNTING TRIPS 



of the most shy of beasts. Of late years our 

 estimate of the grizzly's ferocity has been 

 lowered ; and we no longer accept the tales of 

 uneducated hunters as being proper authority 

 by which to judge it. But we should make 

 a parallel reduction in the cases of many for- 

 eign animals and their describers. Take, for 

 example, that purely melodramatic beast, the 

 North African lion, as portrayed by Jules 

 Gerard, who bombastically describes him- 

 self as " le tueur des lions." Gerard's ac- 

 counts are self-evidently in large part ficti- 

 tious, while if true they would prove less for 

 the bravery of the lion than for the phenom- 

 enal cowardice, incapacity, and bad marks- 

 manship of the Algerian Arabs. Doubtless 

 Gerard was a great hunter; but so is many 

 a Western plainsman, whose account of the 

 grizzlies he has killed would be wholly un- 

 trustworthy. Take for instance the follow- 

 ing from page 223 of " La Chasse au Lion " : 

 ' The inhabitants had assembled one day to 

 the number of two or three hundred with 

 the object of killing (the lion) or driving 



