304 After Big Game in Central Africa 



Take a small, pale, debilitated Parisian a mean little 

 fellow born in a lodging destitute of air and light and 

 compare him with the robust country boy with a herculean 

 frame developed by physical exercise in the open air, and 

 you will be able to form an idea of the relation which 

 exists between the menagerie lion and the animal in a state 

 of nature. The former was captured very young, if it was 

 not born in captivity. Owing to its sedentary existence 

 in a cage, and the regularity of its meals which require 

 no effort, its weakened muscles are hidden under a thick 

 coatiug of fat. Its mane develops to an abnormal 

 extent, either because it does not catch in anything 

 as it would in the animal's native haunts, or perhaps 

 on account of the climate. 1 To make it look bigger, its 

 cage is placed on a platform, and when it is two feet six 

 inches high it is a colossus. 



The lion, in its savage state, has had to struggle for its 

 food from the tenderest age by always attacking animals 

 stronger than itself, so that it has developed without hin- 

 drance. At its adult age its muscles stand out like whip- 

 cords. Its mane, when it has one, seems rather thin, having 

 daily left a few of its long hairs on thorny bushes, or on the 

 trunks of trees against which it has rubbed itself. As to 

 its measurements, I have stated in Chapter IX. that an 

 animal with 3 -feet withers (recollect that the head is higher 

 than the body) would measure more than 6 feet in length 

 (not including the tail), 1 foot 4 inches at the chest, and 

 that it would weigh about 500 pounds. Leaving legs out 

 of consideration, one may say, therefore, that a lion's body 

 is almost as large as that of a medium-sized horse. One 

 can easily understand that such an adversary can overpower 

 a buffalo which has 5 -feet withers. 



The colour of lions always varies according to their 

 environments. The maueless lion is generally tawny. The 



1 The hair of zebras in this country is different from that found on 

 the animal in Africa. 



