CAT. 



Carnivorous animals, on the other hand, are of no 

 use in these respects 5 and therefore the different 

 varieties of the dog, and the domestic cat, are pro- 

 bably all that can be bred in a domestic state with 

 any advantage ; and though it may be necessary to 

 keep a few individuals of all the other species for the 

 purpose of promoting the knowledge of nature, yet 

 the number of these must always be limited ; and, as 

 even tins limited number cannot be considered as 

 part of the domestic creation, it is only a very limited 

 portion of their history, and that portion, far from the 

 most interesting part of it, which can be obtained 

 from them in that state. If we would see them in 

 their true characters, in whatsoever of grandeur or of 

 any other striking attribute they may possess, we must 

 seek them in their native haunts; and the more 

 powerful that they are, the farther are they removed 

 I'rom the habitations of man. 



This is peculiarly the case with the lion. Africa 

 may be regarded as the wildest portion of the eastern 

 continent ; and therefore it is in Africa that we can 

 see the lion in all his majesty, and have a proper 

 conception of the physical powers which this animal 

 possesses. In many parts of that continent his 

 dimensions considerably exceed those which have 

 been mentioned as the average in the preceding part 

 of this notice, the length being sometimes more than 

 nine feet, and the height nearly five. The lioness is 

 generally about three-fourths the size of the male in 

 lineal dimensions, and being without the mane, she 

 does not look nearly so formidable. The mane of 

 the lion is not confined to the upper part of the neck, 

 but surrounds it on the sides, and even on the chest 

 below. It is very closely set ; and the hair of which 

 it is composed is, in the largest specimens, more than 

 two feet in length. This formidable clothing is with 

 difficulty penetrated with any ordinary weapon. 

 When the animal is prowling or using only his 

 common powers of locomotion, in the use of which 

 he is generally slow and majestic, this inane lies 

 a considerable way over the back, hangs down 

 over the shoulders, and thus protects the powerful 

 muscles which put his destructive arms in motion 

 from all changes in temperature, so that they are 

 never stiffened by cold or relaxed by heat, even 

 when he finds it necessary to prowl in the open 

 deserts, either during the night or during the day. 

 There is a beautiful adaptation of nature in this par- 

 ticular part of the covering of the lion. On the 

 African deserts, the heat, even far without the tro- 

 pics, is excessive during the day ; but during the 

 night the cold is often much greater than would 

 readily be supposed. This is in great part owing to 

 the excessive heat of the day and the dryness of the 

 surface. The retlection of the ground makes the 

 lowest stratum of the air as hot as an oven ; and as 

 the capacity of the air for moisture increases more 

 rapidly than even the temperature, its thirstiness 

 during the day is greater even than during the heat ; 

 but after sunset the air becomes cold, and its ten- 

 dency to part with the moisture which it holds in 

 solution increases faster than the cold, so that dew 

 forms in the air itself, and instead of being produced 

 on the surface of the ground, as it is in colder lati- 

 tudes, it is actually evaporated by the ground, and 

 this evaporation, where the ground is negative of 

 vegetation, produces in the night air a degree of 

 chilliness, by which travellers in the desert often feel 

 themselves much more benumbed than if they were 



abroad in the night during a Lapland winter. On 

 nights of this description, the male lion is often on the 

 prowl, and the prey hovering in the neighbourhood 

 of the caravans, which usually have their camels 

 ranged in a circle round them, or in quest of the ante- 

 lopes and other animals which are couched on the 

 desert for the night. When he watches the caravan 

 he prowls in silence, and never betrays his presence 

 by a roar, or even by the sound of a foot fall, until 

 he is sufficiently near for taking his spring; and then 

 the yell and the capture of the victim are instan- 

 taneous, and he has gone, prey and all, before resistance 

 can be ottered. But when he ranges for the wild 

 animals of the desert during the night, his conduct is 

 different. He then roars ; and in doing so he brings 

 his mouth very near to the surface of the ground, by 

 which means the roar is heard to a greater distance, 

 and he is better enabled to hear the sound of the 

 alarmed animals, when that terrible war note ia 

 sounded. Even the lightest antelope, being a hoofed 

 animal, and with its hoofs hard, makes a considerable 

 pattering on the sand, especially when it bounds in 

 terror at the voice of the lion ; and thus the quick ear 

 of that animal is not only enabled to ascertain the 

 direction, but how far the animals run, and where 

 they halt, and thus he can come with his silent and 

 stealthy pace, till he is within that distance at v hich 

 the capture of them is certain. During the night, 

 those animals do not, and cannot run very far, because 

 they [are in so far benumbed with the cold, and 

 that cold exhausts them on their march, as cold is 

 observed to do with horses during a keen frost. The 

 lion, however, protected he is by the mane, is subject 

 to no such calamity. The muscles which he uses in 

 his prowling march are strong, and they are so slowly 

 used as not be in the least .heated or fatigued, when 

 those which he has to use with greater effort while 

 he springs, are secured by the thick covering of mat- 

 ted hair, which invests the neck, shoulders, and chest. 

 The lioi.ess, in general, prowls less in the open 

 desert tha i the lion, and therefore the same kind of 

 protection is not so necessary in her case. She is 

 chiefly in the thicket, at or near the den; and it is 

 understood that till the young are able to find the 

 greater part of their own food, the plunder which the 

 male makes during the night is carried thither as a 

 common meal to the whole family ; and the strength 

 of the lion is such, that he can carry off' not only one 

 of the largest antelopes, but a wild ass, or even a 

 buffalo, when he has torn out the entrails of the latter, 

 upon which he usually feeds before carrying the 

 carcass to the den. 



It is not, however, when prowling in these deserts 

 by night, and during the dry season, that the action 

 of the lion is upon the grandest scale. He is more 

 majestic in the majesty of scenes, and also in the 

 majesty of the elements. The lion is net in all proba- 

 bility much of a migrant ; and though he shifts his 

 ground according as prey is for him to be (ound, it is 

 not probable that he follows the great herds of 

 migrant animals of Southern Africa throughout the 

 range of their whole migration. When the plains 

 are so completely burnt as to afford no pasture, and 

 all the water has disappeared from the smaller streams, 

 lions cease to frequent the thickets on the margins 

 of the pastures, or those by the sides of the usual 

 watering places of the migrant animals while the 

 plains remain fertile ; but on those occasions they 

 betake themselves to the neighbourhood of pcruniial 



