--* Lions 



of the famous lion-hunter Jules Gerard, as they have to 

 do with the lions ol Xorth Africa, which are now so 

 reduced in number. His lions were certainly quite 

 different animals from those which have come under my 

 observation. He killed about forty, some of them from 

 secure hiding-places, it must be noted, and was considered 

 a hero in Algiers in his day. Gerard was undoubtedly 

 a man of extraordinary courage, but it must be admitted 

 that many of his stories are so fanciful that they lack the 

 impress of truth. His story, for instance, of ho\v he saw 

 two lions fighting for a lioness who managed to set them 

 both at another very powerful male, and how the latter 

 killed the two original rivals, is very ridiculous ; but I 

 agree with every line of what he says elsewhere : " He 

 who has not seen a full-grown lion in his savage state, 

 dead or alive, may well believe in the possibility of single 

 combat, sword only in hand, with this beast. But he 

 who has knows that in an encounter with a lion a man 

 is like a mouse in the claws of a cat." 



The lion has always had a kind of glamour over him, 

 and has come to be known as the King of Beasts. In 

 common with many experienced observers, I hold that 

 this title should be given rather to the African elephant. 

 Lions, as a matter of fact, display widely different qualities 

 in different regions and under different conditions, as 

 is the case with other animals. Some of the old and 

 experienced individuals develop into hunters of men, corre- 

 sponding with the man-eating tigers of India. 



Then there is a great difference between the lion 

 sated and the lion hunL>"rv. The latter lionesses with 



O * 



349 



