In Wildest Africa ^ 



and then reared, despite the credence given sometimes to 

 statements to the contrary. 



It goes without saying that lions which have matured 

 in confinement cannot compare with the lions that have 

 come to their fijll development in the wilderness. Full- 

 grown tigers and leopards are still nowadays in some cases 

 ensnared alive, and we can see them in our zoological 

 gardens in all their native wildness, and without any 

 artificial breeding, marked with the unmistakable stamp 

 common to all wild animals. It is an established fact that 

 all captive monkeys show symptoms after a certain time 

 of rachitis. This is also the case frequently with large 

 felines. Lions brought up in captivity, however, have far 

 finer manes than wild ones. 



Of course a certain number of the lions used in the 

 arena-fights in Rome were probably reared in the Roman 

 provinces by some potentate. But without doubt a large 

 number were caught when fully grown by means of nets, 

 pitfalls, and other devices of which we have no precise 

 details. 



It seemed to me worth while to make a trial of the 

 means which had once been so successful. As I have 

 already pointed out, there is a great difference between 

 a man who scours the wilderness solely as a hunter, and 

 one who makes practical investigations into the life of the 

 animal world. The sportsman may possibly sneer at the 

 use of pitfalls. He has no mind for anything but an 

 exciting encounter with the lion, an encounter which, 

 thanks to modern means of warfare, is much easier for the 

 man than formerly. 



478 



