A KUX THROUGH KATHIAWAR. 219 



among the creepers, or lie coiled in the hearts of 

 decaying trees. Herdsmen with splendid cattle are 

 found on the more open borders of this enchanted 

 land ; but no one penetrates into its jungly depth 

 except rude Koh's and Bhi'ls of the more primitive 

 races of India, large African Si'di's, descendants of 

 runaway slaves, and a few hunted and desperate 

 outlaws, who have betaken themselves to the fast- 

 nesses of its mountains. 



I saw a very fine specimen of the Kathiawar lion 

 at Jiinaghar, in the garden of Bhauaddin, the brother- 

 in-law of the Xawab. It was an enormous creature ; 

 and though the almost entire want of mane detracted 

 somewhat from the dignity of the king of beasts, it 

 served to display the gigantic proportions of the chest 

 and shoulders. It has been surmised that the thick 

 jungle of its habitat has, by the law of natural selec- 

 tion, deprived the Kathiawar lion of this appendage, 

 which it retains only in a very modified and scanty 

 degree ; and the surmise that each individual lion 

 may be denuded of its mane by the thorny thickets 

 through which it has to pass, is disproved by the case 

 of this lion of Jiinaghar, which had grown to full size 

 in its cage, where there were no thorny thickets. 

 Occasionally the lion makes excursions to the base 

 of Girnar and the walls of Jiinaghar, but that rarely 

 happens now. The usual way of hunting it is to 

 watch for it in a tree, beside some drinking-place it is 

 known to frequent, or above a dead bullock, which 



