X 



LIONS 



AVERY large lion I killed stood three feet and 

 nine inches at the withers, and of course car- 

 ried his head higher than that. The top of the 

 table at which I sit is only two feet three inches from 

 the floor. Coming through the door at my back 

 that lion's head would stand over a foot higher 

 than halfway up. Look at your own writing desk; 

 your own door. Furthermore, he was nine feet 

 and eleven inches in a straight line from nose to end 

 of tail, or over eleven feet along the contour of the 

 back. If he were to rise on his hind feet to strike 

 a man dovvn, he would stand somewhere between 

 seven and eight feet tall, depending on how nearly 

 he straightened up. He w^eighed just under six 

 hundred pounds, or as much as four well-grown 

 specimens of our own '^ mountain lion." I tell you 

 this that you may realize, as I did not, the size to 

 which a wild lion grows. Either menagerie speci- 

 mens are stunted in growth, or their position and 

 surroundings tend to belittle them, for certainly 



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