CARNIVORA. 
105 
that very spot, once a scene of plenty, in a few days 
is reduced to an absolute desert. Most of the mi- 
serable survivors die before they can reach the next 
water : they have no subsistence by the way ; they 
wander among the acacia trees, and gather gum. 
There, every day losing their strength, and destitute 
of all hope, they fall spontaneously, as it were, into 
the jaws of the merciless hyaena, who, finding so 
very little difference or difficulty between slaying the 
living and devouring the dead, follows the miserable 
remains of this unfortunate multitude, till he has 
extirpated the last individual of them.” 
The powers of tho hyaena are very great ; and it 
has been said to oppose, successfully, the panther, 
and even the lion. If its claws were perfectly re- 
tractile, and consequently always sharp, it would, in 
all probability, be a match for these animals, to which 
it is scarcely inferior in the strength of its jaws and 
teeth, the latter of which, however, though quite as 
large, are not so sharp. 
Mr. Browne, in his Travels in Africa, says, “ The 
hyaenas come in herds of six, eight, and often more, 
into the villages of Dar-Fur, at night, and carry off 
with them whatever they are able to master. They 
will kill dogs and asses, even within the enclosure of 
the houses; and fail not to assemble wherever a 
dead camel, or other animal, is thrown, which, acting 
in concert, they sometimes drag to a prodigious 
distance ; nor are they greatly alarmed at the sight 
of a man, or the report of firearms, which I have 
often discharged at them, and occasionally with 
