12 
THE LION. 
self, have had ample opportunities of hearing it 
in the animal’s native wilds. 
“ Each night,” writes Delegorgue, “ these grand 
carnivori disturbed by their roarings our sleep and 
the repose of the cattle, confined within a circular 
fence. There is something terrifying in this 
noise, the only one that troubles the night in these 
solitudes, something which obliges me to acknow- 
7 o o 
ledge the lion as the c master ’ in them.” 
64 One of the most striking things connected with 
the lion,” says Gordon Gumming, “ is his voice, 
which is extremely grand and peculiarly striking. 
It consists at times of a low, deep moaning, re¬ 
peated five or six times, ending in faintly audible 
sighs; at other .times, he startles the forest, with 
loud, deep toned, solemn roars, repeated five or six 
times in quick succession, each increasing in loud¬ 
ness to the third or fourth, when his voice dies 
away in five or six low muffled sounds very much 
resembling distant thunder. At times, and not un- 
frequently, a troop may be heard roaring in concert, 
one assuming the lead, and two, three, or four 
more regularly taking up their parts, like persons 
singing a catch. Like our Scottish stags at the 
rutting season, they roar loudest in cold, frosty 
nights; but on no occasions are their voices to be 
heard in such perfection, or so intensely powerful, 
as when two or three troops of strange lions 
approach a fountain to drink at the same time. 
When this occurs, every member of each troop 
sounds a bold roar of defiance at the opposite parties; 
and when one roars, all roar together, and each 
