114 DEFENCE AGAINST ANIMALS OF 
ing an adventure with a lion, perhaps unparalleled 
in the annals of hunting. 
Towards the close of the year 1823, in passing 
over a common, I accidentally came upon two dogs. 
One of them was a stout, ill-looking, uncouth brute, 
apparently of that genealogy which dog-fanciers 
term half bull and half terrier; the other was an 
insignificant female cur. The dog immediately 
bristled up, and I had just time to take off my hat, 
and hold it shieldwise in self-defence, when he came 
on and made directly at it. I gave him a hearty 
kick under the breast, which caused him to desist 
for amoment. But he stoutly renewed the attack, 
which was continued for above five minutes; he 
always flying at the hat, and I regularly repeating 
my kicks, sometimes slightly, sometimes heavily, 
according to our relative situations. In the mean 
time the female cur was assailing me from behind, 
and it was with difficulty that I succeeded in keeping 
her clear of me, by means of swinging my foot 
backwards at her. At last, a lucky blow on her 
muzzle from the heel of my shoe caused her to run 
away howling, and the dog immediately followed 
her, just at the moment when two masons were 
coming up to assist me. Thus, bya resolute oppo- 
sition I escaped laceration. But this little affair is 
scarcely worth relating, except that it affords a proof 
of the advantage to be derived from resisting the 
attack of a dog to the utmost. 
And now for the feline tribe. The story which I 
am about to recount, will show that nonresistance 
was the only plan to be pursued when escape from 
