The Cat Tribe 



37 



at the same time, having been almost entirely unmolested by human beings, have had no 

 enemies. Perhaps such a state of things does not exist at the present day, but there are 

 many parts of Africa where such conditions have existed from time immemorial up to within 

 quite recent years. 



Since lions were once to be found over the greater portion of the vast continent of Africa, 

 it is self-evident that these animals are able to accommodate themselves to great variations of 

 climate and surroundings ; and I myself have rnet with them, close to the sea, in the hot and 

 sultry coastlands of South-east Africa; on the high plateau of Mashonaland, where at an 

 altitude of 6,000 feet above sea-level the winter nights are cold and frosty ; amongst the 

 stony hills to the east of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi ; and in the swamps of the Chobi. 

 In the great reed-beds of the latter river a certain number of lions appeared to live 

 constantly, preying on buffaloes and lechwe antelopes. I often heard them roaring at nights 



Photo by Pratelli Alinari] 



[ftorence. 



A YOUNG LIONESS. 

 The sole of the hind foot shows the soft pads on which the Cats noiselessly approach their prey. 



in these swamps, and I once saw two big male lions wading slowly across an open space 

 between two beds of reeds in water nearly a foot in depth. 



Although there are great individual differences in lions as regards size, general colour 

 of coat, and more particularly in the length, colour, and profuseness of the mane with 

 which the males are adorned, yet as these differences occur in every part of Africa where 

 lions are met with, and since constant varieties with one fixed type of mane living by 

 themselves and not interbreeding with other varieties do not exist anywhere, modern zoologists 

 are, I think, now agreed that there is only one species of lion, since in any large series of 

 wild lion skins, made in any particular district of Africa or Asia, every gradation will be found 

 between the finest-maned specimens and those which are destitute of any mane at all. Several 

 local race? have, however, been recently described by German writers. 



In the hot and steamy coastlands of tropical Africa lions usually have short manes, and 

 never, I believe, attain the long silky black manes sometimes met with on the high plateaux 

 of the interior. However, there is, I believe, no part of Africa where all or even the majority 



