GLUTTONY. 33 



Moffatt also seems to have been " taken aback " 

 by the gluttony of the lion. After describing an 

 attack made on his party by one of these beasts, on 

 which occasion it not only carried off a cow, but ate 

 up the poor creature within gunshot of the bivouack 

 fire, he oes on to say : 



"When -it was light we examined the spot, and 

 found, from the foot-marks, that the lion was a 

 large one, and had devoured the cow himself. J 

 had some difficulty in believing this, but was fully 

 convinced by the Baralongs pointing out to me that 

 the foot-marks of the other lions had not come 

 within thirty yards of the spot : two jackals only 

 had approached to lick up any little leavings. The 

 men pursued the " spoor,"* to find the fragments 

 where the lion had deposited them, while he retired 

 to a thicket to sleep during the day. I had often 

 heard how much a large hungry lion could eat, but 

 nothing less than a demonstration would have con- 

 vinced me that it was possible for him to have 

 eaten the flesh of a good-sized heifer, and many of 

 the bones besides, for scarcely a rib was left, and 

 some of the marrow-bones were broken as witli a 

 hammer, "f 



coin-so the appetite of one in a state of nature, who can only cat his 

 fill occasionally, cannot be compared with that of OIK- imprisoned. 



* Gerard, when speaking of the track of the lion, >ays : " Place 

 your hand upon the foot-marks, and if the. claws of the animal are 

 not covered by the fingers when spread our. it is a male and 

 full grown; if your hand covers the track, it is a lioness or a young 

 lion." 



t "The excrement ot the lion," pays (Ic'rard. " is white, and filled 

 with large fragments of bone, If those are of tho thi'-kness of one's 



