16 
THE LION. 
And as further evidence of the little dread that 
domestic animals entertain for the lion’s roar, or 
even for the beast himself, I may mention that it is 
a usual practice with the South African hunters, 
after having killed and flayed a lion, to strap his 
skin behind the saddle, and the horse, even when 
untrained to the chase, is rarely or never known to 
shew symptoms of fear. Gerard indeed tells us, he 
carried his first lion strapped on two mules placed 
side by side. 
The length of a South African adult lion, from the 
nose to the extremity of the tail, I take to be 
from eleven to twelve feet, and its height from heel 
to shoulder, three and a-half feet and upwards. Indi¬ 
viduals are, however, said to attain to a still larger 
size. 
Delegorgue when speaking of the District ofMas- 
selica, on the Eastern coast, where he hunted for 
some time, and where, from circumstances, he 
injury was sustained; the oxen were pursued, brought back, and 
secured to the waggon, for we could ill afford to lose any. Africaner, 
seeing the reluctance of the people to pursue in a dark and gloomy 
ravine, grasped a fire-brand, and exclaimed, ‘Follow me,’ and but 
for this promptness and intrepidity we must have lost some of our 
number, for nothing can exceed the terror of oxen at even the smell 
of a lion. Though they may happen to be in the worst condition 
possible, worn out with fatigue and hunger, the moment the shaggy 
monster is perceived they start off like race-horses, with their tails 
erect, and sometimes days will elapse before they are found.”— Ed. 
# The length of the dried skin of a wild beast is not to my mind 
any criterion of its real size when living, because in my own country, 
Sweden (and the like is probably the case in Africa), when the skin 
of a bear or wolf, for instance, is nailed up to the wall to dry, it is 
not infrequently drawn to an unnatural length, and one altogether 
disproportioned to its breadth. 
