574 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
fountains, had compelled the game of various districts to 
crowd the remaining springs, and the lions, according to their 
custom, followed in the wake. It is a common thing to come 
upon a full-grown lion and lioness associating with three or 
four large ones nearly full-grown; at other times, full-growr 
males will be found associating and hunting together in a 
happy state of friendship; two, three, and four full-grown 
male lions may thus be discovered consorting together. 
The male lion is adorned with a long, rank, shaggy mane, 
which in some instances almost sweeps the ground. The 
color of these manes varies, some being very dark, and 
others of a golden yellow. This appearance has given rise 
to a prevailing opinion among the Boers that there are two 
distinct varieties of lions, which they distinguish by the 
respective names of “Schwart fore life’ and ‘“Chiel fore 
life ;” this idea, however, is erroneons. The color of the 
lion’s mane is generally influenced by his age. He attains his 
mane in the third year of his existence. I have remarked 
that at first it is of a yellowish color; in the prime of life it is 
blackest, and when he has numbered many years, but still 
is in the full enjoyment of his power, it assumes a yellowish- 
gray, pepper-and-salt sort of color. These old fellows are 
cunning and dangerous, and most to be dreaded. The 
females are utterly destitute of a mane, being covered with 
a short, thick, glossy coat of tawny hair. The manes and 
coats of lions frequenting open-lying districts utterly destitute 
of trees, such as the borders of the great Kalahari desert, 
are more rank and handsome than those inhabiting forest 
districts. 
One of the most striking things connected with the lion 
is his voice, which is extremely grand and peculiarly - 
striking. It consists at times of a low, deep moaning, 
repeated five or six times, ending in faintly audible sighs; 
at other times he startles the forest with loud, deep-toned, 
solemn roars, repeated five or six times in quick succession, 
