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LIONS 



A VERY large lion I killed stood three feet and 

 nine inches at the withers, and of course car- 

 ried his head higher than that. The top of the 

 table at which I sit is only two feet three inches from 

 the floor. Coming through the door at my back 

 that lion's head would stand over a foot higher 

 than halfway up. Look at your own writing desk; 

 your own door. Furthermore, he was nine feet 

 and eleven inches in a straight line from nose to end 

 of tail, or over eleven feet along the contour of the 

 back. If he were to rise on his hind feet to strike 

 a man down, he would stand somewhere between 

 seven and eight feet tall, depending on how nearly 

 he straightened up. He weighed just under six 

 hundred pounds, or as much as four well-grown 

 specimens of our own "mountain lion." I tell you 

 this that you may realize, as I did not, the size to 

 which a wild lion grows. Either menagerie speci- 

 mens are stunted in growth, or their position and 

 surroundings tend to belittle them, for certainly 



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