The Lion 565 



open desert of the Sahara never has existed except on the canvas of Royal 

 Academicians and other artists. In Algeria, as elsewhere, he lives where 

 there is forest and bush or other cover, such as high grass. He frequents the 

 neighbourhood of man and his flocks and herds whenever possible, and 

 nothing but the impossibility of getting food in any other way will banish 

 him to uninhabited regions, and induce him to earn his living by the 

 chase of wild animals. 



The Algerian lion has become so rare that it may be said to be nearing 

 extinction. Contrary to the general fate of the larger game (unless we 

 except the red deer of Northern Africa), it lingers only in the country that 

 might almost be described as the Mediterranean littoral zone, though an 

 occasional lion is still shot or tracked in the interior, as far inland as the 

 district of Soukarras, and certain places in the Aures. In 1892-93 one or 

 two were killed within a day or so of Batna, but during the time I was in 

 the country (1892-95), I may say I hunted almost the whole Aures range 

 from the Melliti into Tunisia and never saw a track, and I do not remember 

 hearing of more than three or four being obtained in the whole province 

 of Constantine. In the provinces of Algiers and Oran they may be said 

 to be extinct. So long ago as 1862 General Marguerite wrote that he had 

 spent eleven years in the best lion-countries in the province of Algiers, 

 and then the average number killed did not exceed three or four a year. 

 In those days they were found in the wooded belt of hills between the 

 Ouarsenis on the west, the Pic de Taza on the east, the Djebel Ennedate on 

 the south, and the plain of the Chelif on the north ; and it was estimated that 

 only two-thirds of the lions obtained were natives, and the remainder lions 

 coming from Dir-Gueyoul, Djebel-Dira and Zakkar, or what the Arabs 

 term " Berranis," i.e. strangers or wandering lions. That the majority of 

 the native population do not mourn the absence of the king of beasts may 

 be gathered from a simple fact General Marguerite relates, that during 

 his eleven years the Beni-Mahrez, a tribe not numbering more than 



