gO HIS ROAR. 



laying him dead. When gorged, the lion falls fast asleep, and 

 is then easily despatched. Hunting a lion with dogs involves 

 very little danger compared with hunting the Indian tiger 

 because the dogs bring him out of cover and make him stand 

 at bay, giving the hunter plenty of time for a good deliberate 

 shot. 



Where game is abundant, there you may expect lions m 

 proportionately large numbers. They are never seen in 

 herds, but six or eight, probably one family, occasionally 

 hunt together. One is in much more danger of being run 

 over when walking in the streets of London than he is of 

 being devoured by lions in Africa, unless engaged in hunt- 

 ing the animal. Indeed, nothing that I have seen or heaid 

 about lions would constitute a barrier in the way of men of 

 ordinary courage and enterprise. 



The same feeling which has induced the modern painter 

 to caricature the lion has led the sentimentalist to consider 

 the lion's roar the most terrific of all earthly sounds. We 

 hear of the " majestic roar of the king of beasts." It is, 

 indeed, well calculated to inspire fear if you hear it in 

 combination with the tremendously loud thunder of that 

 country, on a night so pitchy dai'k that every flash of the 

 intensely vivid lightning leaves you with the impression 

 of stone-blindness, while the rain pours down so fast that 

 your fire goes out, leaving you without the protection of 

 even a tree, or the chance of your gun going off. But 

 when you are in a comfortable house or wagon, the case is 

 very different, and you hear the roar of the lion without 

 any awe or alarm. The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud ; 

 yet he never was feared by man. To talk of the majestio 

 roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle. On my men- 

 tioning this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted, 

 sc I have beer careful ever since to inquire the opinions 

 of Europeans, who have heard both, if they could detect 

 any difference between the roar of a lion and that of an 

 ostrich; the invariable answer was, that they could not 

 when the animal was at any distance. The natives assert 



