800 A POET'S DESCRIPTION. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



ANIMAL LIFE IN THE PRAIRIES OF THE OLD WORLD, CONTINUED : 



THE CARNIVORA. 



NEXT to man, the most dangerous enemies of the peaceful herbivora 

 are the great Oarnivora of the Felidce genus, in whose first rank 

 zoologists and poets were formerly wont to place the lion. 



The so-called " king of animals," however, has of late years lost 

 much of his prestige. Observant travellers have watched him with a 

 jealous and suspicious eye; intrepid hunters have dared to measure 

 themselves against him, and to beard him in his retreats. Our popu- 

 lar heroes suffer greatly by this close examination. Achilles to his 

 Myrmidons, I suspect, was less godlike than he appeared to the war- 

 riors of Troy, who saw him only in the rush and tumult of the battle. 

 Certain it is that the researches of modern science have stripped the 

 lion of most of the splendid attributes with which romance had in- 

 vested him. Here is a glowing picture: 



" The lion, 



Who long has reign'd the terror of the woods, 

 And dared the boldest huntsman to the combat, 

 When caught at length within some hidden snare, 

 With foaming jaws he bites the toils that hold him, 

 And roars, and rolls his fiery eyes in vain, 

 While the surrounding swains wound him at pleasure." (Nathaniel Rowe.) 



But the fact is, that with all his prodigious strength, his terrible teeth 

 and claws, his imposing physiognomy and attitudes, he is an animal 

 more prudent than courageous, and very unlike the highly-coloured 

 portrait which Buffon painted. There have not been wanting well-ac- 

 credited authorities to accuse him of cowardice; as our own countryman 

 Livingstone, and the Frenchman Delegorgue. According to the latter, 

 lie is but a nocturnal robber, whom a ray of light disconcerts, or the 



