ADVENTURES WITH LIONS. 575 



each increasing in loudness to the third or fourth, when his 

 voice dies away in five or six low, muffled sounds, very much 

 resembling distant thunder. At times, and not unfrequently, 

 a troop may be heard roaring in concert, one assuming the 

 lead, and two, three, or four more regularly taking up their 

 parts, like persons singing a catch. Like our Scottish stags 

 at the rutting season, they roar loudest in cold, frosty 

 nights ; but on no occasions are their voices to be heard 

 in such perfection, or so intensely powerful, as when two or 

 three strange troops of lions approach a fountain to drink at 

 the same time. When this occurs, every member of each 

 troop sounds a bold roar of defiance at the opposite parties ; 

 and when one roars, all roar together, and each seems to 

 vie with his comrade in the intensity and power of his voice. 

 The power and grandeur of these nocturnal forest concerts 

 is inconceivably striking and pleasing to the hunter's ear. 

 The effect, I may remark, is greatly enhanced when the 

 hearer happens to be situated in the depths of the forest, 

 at the dead hour of midnight, unaccompanied by any attend- 

 ant, and ensconced within twenty yards of the fountain 

 Vfhich the surrounding troops of lions are approaching. Such 

 has been my situation many scores of times ; and though I 

 am allowed to have a tolerable good taste for music, I 

 consider the catches with which I was then regaled as the 

 sweetest and most natural I ever heard. 



As a general rule, lions roar during the night ; their 

 sighing moans commencing as the shades of evening envelop 

 the forest, and continuing at intervals throughout the night. 

 In distant and secluded regions, however, I have constantly 

 heard them roaring loudly as late as nine and ten o'clock on 

 a bright sunny morning. In hazy and rainy weather they 

 are to be heard at every hour in the day, but their roar is 

 subdued. It often happens that when two strange male 

 lions meet at a fountain a terrific combat ensues, which not 

 unfrequently ends in the death of one of them. The habits 



