THE LIONS OF TANGANYIKA 109 



themselves like tabby cats with their huge paws, drink- 

 ing and eating, loving each other; and so the days 

 melted into weeks and the weeks into months before 

 we had finished our work with the hons of Tanganyika. 

 Where I had expected to spend many hard days, I 

 spent instead days full of interest and tlirills, watching 

 the king of beasts as he hved his natural Hfe beneath 

 blue skies, stalking from his cool lair out into the 

 plains, not as a bloodthirsty killer, but because nature 

 has so arranged things that he must use claws and 

 fangs to Uve. These were indeed wonderful days, dur- 

 ing which we were given a marvelous insight into the 

 true hves and habits of lions on their native veldt in 

 the heart of an African wilderness. 



