ap THE LION IN SOUTH AFRICA 315 
Yet, in spite of the total disappearance of the game in 
certain districts, it would be a great mistake to say that there 
is no more: big game in Southern Africa ; for if we take, as I 
think one fairly may, South Africa to mean all the country 
south of the great Zambesi river, then with the single excep- 
tion of the true quagga (Zguus guagga), which is undoubtedly 
extinct, every wild animal encountered by travellers in the 
_ early part of this century may still be met with ; for the great 
square-mouthed rhinoceros (2. Simus) yet lingers in northern 
Mashonaland ; elephants and black rhinoceros (2. d:cornis) 
are still numerous in certain districts ; whilst as for bufialoes, 
zebras, and various species of antelopes, it is difficult to 
believe that these animals ever existed in greater numbers in 
Bechuanaland than may still be seen in South-Eastern Africa, 
in the neighbourhood of the Pungwe river. Here, too, lions 
are still numerous ; so much so that during a period of six 
'___weeks spent by the writer in this district last year, 1892, not one 
| __ Single night passed that they were not heard roaring, whilst upon 
several occasions three or four different troops of them roared 
_ round the camp at the same time. 
As it is impossible within the limits of a-single chapter to 
give a detailed account of all the rich and varied fauna of 
South Africa, I will now proceed to saya few words concerning 
the animal to which I have twice referred, and whose skin is 
the trophy most coveted by sportsmen. Iam often asked, ‘Is 
the lion a dangerous beast, or is he a cur?’ This is a difficult 
question to answer, for not only do lions differ much individu- 
ally in character—one when encountered showing himself to be 
- an animal of a very cowardly nature, whilst another may prove 
| _ to be very bold and savage—but it would even seem that the 
_ disposition of lions, in general, varies in the different large areas 
_  Ofcountry over which they range. Nothing has struck me more 
| than the different behaviour exhibited by lions encountered 
in Eastern Africa during several years of travel by a friend of 
_ My own and those which I have myself met with in South 
s Africa. My friend is a careful naturalist, an experienced 
