INTRODUCTION, 
XV 
'tins otherwise, ? the forest would soon be dis- 
peopled of the feebler race of animals ; and beasts 
of prej themselves, would want, at one time, 
that subsistence which they lavishly destroyed at 
another. 
Few wild animals seek their prey in the day-time ; 
they are then generally deterred by their fears of 
man in the inhabited countries, and by the exces- 
sive heat of the sun in those extensive forests that 
lie towards the south, and in which they reign 
the undisputed tyrants. As soon as the morning, 
therefore, appears, the carnivorous animals retire 
to their dens ; and the elephant, the horse, the 
deer, and all the hare kinds, those inoffensive 
tenants of the plain, make their appearance. But 
again, 2 at night-fall, the state of hostility begins ; 
the whole forest then echoes to a variety of diffe- 
rent bowlings. Nothing can be more terrible than 
an African landscape at the close of evening : the 
deep-toned roarings of the lion ; the shriller yel- 
lings of the tiger ; the jackall, pursuing by the 
scent, and barking like a dog ; the hyaena, with a 
note peculiarly solitary and dreadful ; but abo ve 
all, the hissing of the various kinds of serpents, 
that then begin their call, and, as we are assured, 
make a much louder symphony than the birds so 
our groves in a morning. 
Beasts of prey seldom devour each other ; nor 
can any thing but the greatest degree of hunger 
induce them to it. What they chiefly seek after. 
