﻿xlii INTRODUCTION. 



The range of the first of these, Fells leo, has been considerably modified during the 

 Historical Period. At the present day it is found, with but extremely slight variations, in 

 the whole of Africa, with the exception of Egypt and the Cape Colony, from which areas it 

 has probably been driven away by the hand of man. In Asia the maneless variety 

 inhabits the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, and the districts bordering on the Persian 

 Gulph ; and still lingers on in India, according to Mr. Blyth, in the Province of Kattywar, 

 in Guzerat. 1 That, however, lions dwelt in Europe within the Historical times, is proved 

 by the concurrent testimony of Herodotus, 2 Aristotle, Pausanias, and iElian. The former 

 mentions them as descending from the mountains in the night and attacking the baggage 

 camels of Zerxes' army in their march through Paeonia; and he mentions that the 

 mountainous district between the River Nessus, in Thrace, and the Achelous, in Acarnania, 

 was infested by a great number of lions. Aristotle confirms this statement of Herodotus, 

 and adds that they were more numerous in Europe than in Asia or Africa, and also more 

 powerful. In this latter respect the spelaean lion of Pleistocene Europe tallies exactly with 

 his description of the lion of Thrace and Macedonia. Pausanias adds other details to the 

 above account, and states that they were peculiarly abundant in the plains at the foot of 

 Mount Olympus. There is, indeed, no geographical reason why, at a period still earlier 

 than this, the species should not have inhabited Western Europe. On the whole, the sum of 

 the evidence as to the relation between F. spelcsa and the European lion of History, inclines 

 us to believe that the latter was widely spread throughout France, Germany, and Britain 

 in Pleistocene Europe, under the name of the former, and that probably it was gradually 

 driven from Western into Southern Europe, and thence into Asia by the hand of man. 3 

 Prom the latter also it is gradually disappearing, having retreated from Asia Minor, Syria, 

 and Palestine into Persia and India, which are the only countries in the Europaeo-Asiatic 

 continent where it is now found. 



The remaining animal belonging to this section is the Hycena speiaa, which a careful 

 comparison leads us to consider as a variety of a living form — the spotted hyaena of South 

 Africa. The present range of this animal presents a difficulty which is not felt in the case 

 of the cave-lion, the latter being traceable in a living state into Europe, while the former 

 is now confined to Southern Africa, and has never been found in the north of that vast 

 continent. The Hyana spelaa, on the other hand, of Pleistocene Europe, is very abundant 

 in the caverns of Prance, Germany, and Britain. That, however, the spotted hyaena of 

 the Cape is the living representative of the European Pleistocene species, which under 



1 'Cat. Mam. Mus. Asiat. Soc, Beng.,' Calcutta, 1863. 



2 Herodotus 'Polymnia,' chap. cxxv,jEd. Wesseiing ; Aristotle ' Hist. Ann.,' chap.xxvii; iElian 'Hist. 

 Ann.,' lib. 17, chap, xxvi; Pausanias, on the authority of M. de Blainville. 



3 With reference to the lions of Greece, Zimmerman thinks this explanation improbable : — "Eos autem 

 non auctis hominum catervis ad hauc discessionem perductos esse, ex eo patet, quod majori longe hominum 

 multitudine Grsecia Aristotelis sevo frequentata fuit quam quibus nunc temporibus ipsam sub Turcarum 

 ditione immitique dominio cultam novimus." — ' Specimen Zoologise Geographicse,' 4to, p. 386. 



