OFF FOR THE SOTIK DISTRICT. 
325 
furiously in the direction of Colonel Roosevelt, seeking to get near 
enough to spring. Colonel Roosevelt had just time to seize a rifle 
from one of the gun bearers and fire one quick shot. 
But that shot was enough. The great beast stopped and sank 
dead in the jungle grass. Colonel Roosevelt’s bullet had struck it 
full in the chest, piercing its heart, and thus again his rare skill as 
a marksman had saved his life. 
The gun bearers declared it was the narrowest call the ex- 
President has yet had, and all were loud in their praise of his marks¬ 
manship. The lion was the finest specimen yet killed on the African 
hunt. It was a black maned male beast, and African hunters declare 
it had one of the most beautiful manes and skins ever captured. 
The taxidermists from the Smithsonian Institute were elated over 
the kill, as the skin will make a rare addition to their already 
splendid collection. 
THE LION THE KING OF BEASTS. 
This magnificent and noble creature of which several species 
are claimed to exist, although it is thought by many experienced 
judges that there is really but one species, which is modified into 
permanent varieties according to the country in which it lives, is 
properly esteemed as the king of beasts. 
The best known of these species or varieties is the South 
African lion, of whom many anecdotes have been narrated. This 
noble animal is found in nearly all parts of Southern Africa, where 
the foot of civilized man has not stayed its wanderings. Before the 
tread of the white man, the lion shrinks unwillingly, haunting each 
advanced post for a time, but driven surely and slowly backward 
as the human intellect gains opportunity for manifesting its 
supremacy over the lower animals. So entirely does man sweep 
the wild beasts from his presence, that even in the Cape colony a 
living lion is just as great a rarity as in England or America, and 
there are very few who have ever beheld a living lion except when 
pent in a cage. 
The color of the lion is a tawny yellow, lighter on the under 
parts of the body, and darker above. The ears are blackish, and the 
