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coloured lion hesitate when I met him at night on my expedi- 
tions through the forest, but never this one. The black lion 
always looked me full in the face, without any demonstration of 
anger, before the attack, but regarding me with disdain, as if I 
were an inferior being’. In fact he is the most beautiful animal 
before, and the noblest after, man himself. 
Fortunately for him, he has not yet become acquainted with 
the martyrdom of captivity, for I cannot otherwise designate 
the cruel and thoughtless mode of securing him in zoological 
gardens. 
Here is a creature which, more than any other, has need of 
air and space, and he is imprisoned in a cage in which he can 
hardly turn himself. But the money requisite to supply the place 
of those which thus die a miserable death would amply suffice 
to afford them an extent of ground similar to that reserved for 
deer and other less noble animals ; and we should then possess 
creatures magnificently proportioned, instead of poor, sickly, 
emaciated forms ; and they might be watched as they play and 
bound in fact almost as in a state of nature. 
There is still something to be done in tins respect, and sooner 
or later it will be accomplished, for the English are an earnest, 
practical people. Meanwhile, should any of my readers happen 
to be Fellows of the Zoological Society of London, I would just 
give them a friendly caution against making the mountains of 
Africa the scene of then vacation tours, lest the hons at large 
should take vengeance upon them for the unfortunate fate of 
their brethren held in captivity. 
The author of this paper, M. Jules Gerard, is but little 
known in England ; and it is only recently that his name has 
appeared somewhat prominently in connection with his lion 
adventures in Northern Africa, and his projected journey of 
exploration into the western equatorial territories of that 
continent. 
The following details will, we trust, have the effect not only 
of giving additional interest to his little essay here published, 
but of enlisting for him the sympathies of our readers in his 
hazardous enterprise. 
M. Gerard is an officer in the Franco- African army; but his 
recent reception here, and the object which he is now seeking 
to attain with English co-operation, are likely to associate his 
name with this country more intimately than with Northern 
Africa, the scene of his lion-hunting adventures, or with his 
native land. 
He left Liverpool in excellent health and spirits, on the 24th 
of last February, by the steamer “ Macgregor Laird ” (a name 
