THE LION. 



larger species of the feline and canine tribes two desperate 

 and sanguinary races of quadrupeds. The dog and the lion 

 are both most formidable foes to an unarmed man j and it is 

 singular enough that the very resistance which he would be 

 forced to make., in order to escape being worried by the former, 

 would inevitably expose him to certain destruction from the 

 claws and teeth of the latter. All animals of the dog-tribe 

 must be combated with might and main, and with unceasing 

 exertion, in their attacks upon man j for from the moment 

 they obtain the mastery, they worry and tear their victim, as 

 long as life remains in it. On the contrary, animals of the 

 cat tribe having once overcome their prey, cease, for a certain 

 time, to inflict further injury upon it. Thus, during the mo- 

 mentous interval from the stroke which has laid a man beneath 

 a lion, to the time when the lion shall begin to devour him, the 

 man may have it in his power to rise again, either by his own 

 exertions, or by the fortuitous intervention of an armed friend. 

 But then, all depends upon quiet, extreme quiet, on the part 

 of the man, until he plunges his dagger into the heart of the 

 animal for, if he tries to resist, he is sure to feel the force 

 of his adversary's claws and teeth with redoubled vengeance."* 

 When Waterton wrote the latter remark he must have been 

 thinking of Shakespeare's lines to the same effect : 



" But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then ? 

 Food for his rage, repasture for his den." 



(Love's Labour Lost, Act IV. Scene 1.) 



Mr. Thompson, in his recent Travels in South Africa, observes 

 that " the lion will generally retreat before the awe-inspiring 

 presence of man ; but not precipitately, nor without first calmly 

 surveying his demeanour, arid apparently measuring his prowess. 

 He appears to have the impression that man is not his natural 

 prey ; and though he does not always give place to him, he 

 will yet, in almost every case, abstain from attacking him, it 

 he observe in his deportment neither fear nor hostility. 



" My friend, Diedrik Muller, one of the most intrepid and 

 * Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vii. (1834), p. 1. 



