THE STORY OF THE LION. 



113 



information of their northern hmits, but Captain Pierson, who spent many 

 years in the country between Tehran and Baghdad, says that he never heard 

 of Hons in the oak forest west of Karmanshah, It is the acorns oi this same 

 oak forest which feed the wild pigs whose presence tempts the lion intO' the 

 mountains of Pars. The little valley of Dashtiarjan, thirty-five miles w^est 

 of Shiraz, is notorious for the number of lions found in its vicinity. Part 

 of the valley is occupied by a fresh- water lake, on the edges of which are 

 extensive beds of reeds ; the surrounding 4iills, which rise four thousand feet 

 above the valley, itself six thousand five hundred feet above the sea, are 



LION CUBS AND THEIR HABITS. 



covered with oak forest, or with pretty thick brushwood of hawthorn, wild 

 pear, and other bushes, and contain very extensive vineyards. Dashtiarjan 

 is thus a perfect paradise for swine, and they increase and multiply accordingly, 

 so that the lions have plenty to eat, varying the monotony of constant pork 

 with an occasional ibex, or with a calf from the herds which graze in the valley. 

 Like most of the larger cats, lions are essentially nocturnal in their habits, 

 and they are thus frequently only met with by chance in districts where, from 

 the abundance of their tracks and from their nocturnal roarings, they are 

 known to be plentiful. During the daytime they are accustomed to lie asleep 



