CLAW IN LION'S TAIL. 



A WELL-KNOWN author does me too much honour in 

 being prepared to accept my dictum on the question, 

 Is there a claw in a lion's tail ? but I must remind him 

 that I only answer from my own experiences, which 

 may be very dissimilar to those of other persons. 



A quotation which he takes from Sir Samuel 

 Baker's work, " Wild Beasts and their Ways," I had 

 better repeat for the sake of lucidity. " The often 

 questioned thorn in the extreme end of a lion's tail 

 is by no means a fallacy ; this is a distinct termina- 

 tion in a sharp horny point, which, although only a 

 quarter of an inch or less in length, is most decided. 

 I do not consider that there is any special use for 

 this termination, any more than there would be for 

 the tuft of black hair which forms the extremity, and 

 which conceals the thorny substance. 



Now, the first sentence of this passage deals with 

 the subject most diplomatically that is to say, non- 

 committally, and is quite as succinct as the majority 

 of readers require. At the same time, if precision is 

 demanded, horn or horny is not the exact word to 

 employ. Further, I do think that the " tuft of black 

 hair which forms the extremity " has its use, viz. to 

 protect the termination of the tail from an excess of 

 violence. 



Under a nomde plume, a well-known shootist not 

 sportsman in a letter to me uses the words 

 prickle and thorn, in reference to the subject in 

 question ; in his adoption of these words he differs 



