THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, NICE-CIMIEZ 33 



As at Marseilles, I experienced the most shocking 

 weather at Cimiez, and the first day not a ray of* sun 

 shone, whilst a shower of rain almost gutted my camera. 

 There is a nice collection of lions at this Zoo, and they 

 form quite the greatest attraction of the place. The old 

 mother, which is to be seen in a cage close by a large 

 tiger, has produced three litters of young, all of which 

 are now to be seen in the Gardens. The father of these 

 lions died at the aw of seventeen. The children of 

 this pair comprise two lions three and a half years old, 

 three lions two and a half years old, and three lions 

 fourteen months old. All these eight animals are 

 extraordinarily tame and healthy - looking. I was 

 enabled to stand right up against the cages, without 

 the slightest fear of getting mauled, in order to photo- 

 graph them. One of the oldest lions allowed me to 

 stroke him ; and when I put my face up against the 

 bars, he at once licked it with his rough tongue — a 

 perfect feline kiss. I was perfectly charmed with 

 these lions, and was quite loth to leave them. In 

 another set of cages was a common leopard, and the 

 invariably savage black variety, with its beautiful 

 yellow eyes and snarling jaws. It is a curious fact that 

 these black leopards are nearly always savage. There 

 were two brown bears and a polar bear in pits opposite 

 the young lions, and a poor old brown bear, totally 

 blind, in a pit by himself There was a very handsome 

 old ' black buck ' from India, with a younger one much 

 lighter in colour. It was comical to watch them at 

 play, butting at each other with their horns. It is 

 often extremely difficult to photograph these creatures 

 in confinement, because they are so tame. This sounds 



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