Vlll INTRODUCTION. 



Before my observations were finished, the attendant handed to the 

 marksman another rifle. Dropping his right foot a step behind, he 

 raised the gun quickly as before, a scarcely discernible instant of 

 pause, and the report rang on the ear, while from the other end of 

 the gallery came back the marker's call " mariee." Another shot 

 and another, and always the same result, until a dozen shots had been 

 fired, and a dozen bullets had been married, or piled, as the more 

 literal Saxon would render it, in the centre of the target. The 

 marksman then bowed politely to the group of gentlemen standing 

 by, and passed out of the gallery. The buzz of conversation that had 

 been hushed, was renewed, and turning to one of the attendants, I 

 «sked, 



** Who is the gentleman who was just shooting here f 



' You don't know him ? That was Gerard the Lion-Killer." 

 if more than a month I had seen that name placarded on all the 

 Cabinets de Lectures, and in the book-shops of Paris, and had never 

 had the curiosity to look at the work with which it was connected ; 

 now, on the contrary, I felt constrained to purchase the volume, and 

 seating myself on one of the benches beneath the embowering trees, 

 with all the great city pulsating around me, was soon away to the 

 cool hills of the Zerazer, or watching the spoor of the lions as they 

 came down to drink in the Mahouna valley. 



The book is written in simple words, telling of great successes, and 

 hand to hand battles with the lion, and portraying a hunter's feelings, 

 his anxieties, and pleasures, with literal fidelity. The writer is rarely 

 diverted from his story. Once in a while, the sound of a bugle 

 wakes his professional military ardor ; occasionally an oriental legend 

 heard under the Arab tent, comes to his memory, but the foray and 

 tale are soon ended, and he returns to the chase with more zest than 

 ever. 



After a short sketch of the different kinds of wild game that roam 

 the plains of Sahara ; or prowl among the hills of Algeria, the writer 

 turns to his own peculiar game — the fierce Sultan of Atlas, the 



