12 THE LION. 



self, have had ample opportunities of hearing it 

 in the animal's native wilds. 



" Each night," writes Delegorgue, " these grand 

 carnivori disturbed by their roarings our sleep and 

 the repose of the cattle, confined within a circular 

 fence. There is something terrifying 1 in this 



O *J O 



noise, the only one that troubles the night in these 

 solitudes, something which obliges me to acknow- 

 ledge the lion as the ' master ' in them." 



" One of the most striking things connected with 

 the lion," says Gordon Gumming, " is his voice, 

 which is extremely grand and peculiarly striking. 

 It consists at times of a low, deep moaning, re- 

 peated five or six times, ending in faintly audible 

 sighs ; at other times, he startles the forest, with 

 loud, deep toned, solemn roars, repeated five or six 

 times in quick succession, each increasing in loud- 

 uess to the third or fourth, when his voice dies 

 away in five or six low muffled sounds very much 

 resembling distant thunder. At times, and not un- 

 frequently, a troop may be heard roaring in concert, 

 one assuming the lead, and two, three, or four 

 more regularly taking up their parts, like persons 

 singing a catch. Like our Scottish stags at the 

 rutting season, they roar loudest in cold, frosty 

 nights ; but on no occasions are their voices to be 

 heard in such perfection, or so intensely powerful, 

 as when two or three troops of strange lions 

 approach a fountain to drink at the same time. 

 When this occurs, every member of each troop 

 sounds a bold roar of defiance at the opposite parties ; 

 and when one roars, all roar together, and each 



