90 



most beautifully spoiled; which weighed about two hundred and 

 fifty pounds ; his strength and ferocity equalled his size, and had 

 long rendered him a terror to the villages near his haunts. 



So great is the dread of beasts of prey in the villages on the 

 Sabermatty river, at the head of the Gulph of Cambay, that the 

 inhabitants carefully collect all their cattle within the mud walls 

 with which every village is encircled, at the close of day; after 

 which all egress is avoided ; and even the dogs, instinctively con- 

 scious of the perils by which they are surrounded, keep within 

 the protection of the walls. 



It is certainly dangerous to travel in the jungles, or Indian 

 forests, after sun-set, when the savage beasts leave their haunts, 

 and prowl abroad for prey: but as they retire to their dens at the 

 approach of dawn, we do not often hear of accidents. They reign 

 by night, and claim their wild domain: the day belongs to man. 

 Equally beautiful as just is that passage in the royal psalmist, 

 " Thou makest darkness, and it is night, wherein all the beasts of 

 the forest come forth, and the lions roar after their prey. The sun 

 ariseth, and they gather themselves together, and lay them down 

 in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour 

 until the evening. O Lord ! how manifold are thy works ; in 

 wisdom hast thou made them all I" 



Sir Charles Malet, then president at Cambay, shewed me the 

 skin of a lioness which had been recently found with some of her 

 whelps, in a forest near the river Sabermatty, not many miles from 

 Cambay. The existence of lions in this part of India had been 

 hitherto unknown to Europeans. The northern provinces, border- 

 ing upon Persia, abounded with those animals, and afforded noble 



