214 EXPEDITION INTO [Chap. XXIV. 



fate of their companion, and dashed into the thicket 

 with a roar. In another half-honr, the voice of Leo 

 was again heard at the foot of the mountains, about 

 a quarter of a mile from the camp ; and from the 

 waggon-top we could perceive a savage monster 

 rampant, with his tail hoisted and whirling in a 

 circle — charging furiously along the base of the 

 range — and in desperate wrath, making towards 

 John April, who was tending the sheep. Every- 

 one instinctively grasped his weapon, and rushed to 

 the rescue, calling loudly to warn the expected 

 victim of his danger. Without taking the smallest 

 notice of him, however, the infuriated monster 

 dashed past, roaring and lashing his sides until 

 concealed in the mist. Those who have seen the 

 monarch of the forest in crippling captivity only, 

 immured in a cage barely double his own length, 

 with his sinews relaxed by confinement, have seen 

 but the shadow of that animal which " clears the 

 desert with his rolling eye." 



The reader is aware that the tiger is not a 

 denizen of Africa. Both the leopard, and the 

 hunting-leopard occur, but differ in no respect 

 from those found in India; neither does the South 

 African lion differ in any material points from 

 those found in Guzerat, in Western India, mea- 

 suring between ten and eleven feet in extreme 

 length, but generally possessing a finer mane, 

 a peculiarity which is attributable to the less jungly 

 character of the country that he infests, and to the 

 more advanced age which he is suffered to attain. 



