The Lion 563 



Algerian frontier. In 1880 the present writer accompanied a joint military 

 expedition of French and Tunisian troops which was to explore and pacify 

 the forest-covered mountains on the frontier between Algeria and Tunis. 

 A prominent personage in this expedition was M. (afterwards General) 

 Joseph Allegro, a Tunisian subject of French descent, who at that time 

 represented Tunis as Tunisian Consul at Bone. (He is now Governor of 

 Gabes.) General Allegro was partly of Arab blood, and had great influence 

 amongst the natives. He was passionately fond of sport, and thus got up 

 several hunts, which revealed to the present writer the then interesting 

 character of the Tunisian big game. In one day's shooting, with the aid 

 of numerous Arab beaters, we obtained one lioness, one leopard, six wild 

 boars, two mountain gazelles, a hyasna, a Barbary stag, and a variety of 

 smaller creatures. The punitory reprisals against certain wild frontier 

 tribes had resulted in the accumulation of about 250 raided cattle in the 

 French camp, and these were attacked one night by lions. One of the 

 carcases that was carried oft was poisoned with strychnine. A few days 

 afterwards a fine full-grown lion was found lying dead in the forest, 

 evidently poisoned. This lion had an unusually fine mane for a wild one. 

 The colour of the body was a rich dark tawny, as (though in a lesser 

 degree) was that of the lioness killed a few days previously. 



General Allegro had in his possession several skins of lions killed on the 

 Tunisian frontier, and they all exhibited more or less this dark tint. It is 

 doubtful whether the lion is not quite extinct in Tunisia at the present 

 day. The leopard still lingers in the forests, and of course it is just 

 possible that a lion may still exist here and there in the extreme north- 

 west. What has brought about the extinction of this animal is less the 

 persistent attacks of French or Arab sportsmen than the opening up of the 

 forests and the settling down of the people since the French occupation. 

 The herds are now so carefully tended that the lion has little or no chance 

 of feeding on them, while the Barbary stag and the gazelles have in that 



