28 THE LION KILLER. 



" Why does the lion roar ?" I would say that the roaring of 

 the lion is to him what to the bird is his musical song, and 

 if the questioner does not believe the fact, if he will go to 

 the forests and pass several years in his company, he may 

 perchance find a better explanation. 



I have fancied that the statistics made by me of the losses 

 that the Arabs endure by reason of the visits of their leonine 

 neighbors, would interest my readers and with them I will 

 end this chapter. 



The length of the life of the lion is from thirty to forty 

 years. He kills or consumes, year by year, horses, mules, 

 horned cattle, camels and sheep to the value of twelve 

 hundred dollars, and taking the average of his life, which is 

 thirty five years, each lion costs the Arabs forty-two thousand 

 dollars. The thirty animals of this species living at this present 

 moment in the Province of Constantine, and whose loss is 

 replaced by others coming from Tunis or Morocco, are sus- 

 tained by an annual cost of thirty-six thousand dollars. In 

 the countries where I have been accustomed to hunt, the Arab 

 who pays an annual tax of five francs, pays another of fifty 

 francs to the lion. The natives have destroyed more than 

 one half of the woods in Algiers in order to drive away 

 these noxious animals, and the French authorities hoping to 

 stop these fires that threaten to destroy all the woods in the 

 country, have passed laws inflicting a fine upon the natives 

 detected burning the woods. But what is the result ? The 

 Arabs assess the tribe to pay the fine, and burn as before. 

 And it will always remain so until the government takes 

 efficacious means to protect the people, as they have taken 



