ON THE PRAIK 203 



it out of the country. The attack took place 

 at sunrise; at mid-day five hundred car- 

 tridges had been expended; the Arabs car- 

 ried off one of their number dead and six 

 wounded, and the lion remained master of 

 the field of battle." Now if three hun 

 men could fire five hundred shots at a lion 

 without hurting him, it merely shows that 

 they were wholly incapable of hurting any 

 thing, or else that M. Gerard was more ex- 

 pert with the long-bow than with the rifle. 

 Gerard's whole book is filled with equally pre- 

 posterous nonsense ; yet a great many people 

 seriously accept this same book as trust- 

 worthy authority for the manners and fero- 

 city of the North African lion. It would be 

 quite as sensible to accept M. Jules Verne's 

 stories as being valuable contributions to 

 science. A good deal of the lion's reputation 

 is built upon just such stuff. 



How the prowess of the grizzly compares 

 with that of the lion or tiger would be hard 

 to say ; I have never shot either of the lat- 

 ter myself, and my brother, who has killed 



