lay, it does not immediately take the life of a human being whom it has seized. Evidently it acts in this manner because it still fears him, even when he is lying on the earth powerless instinctive fear, not generosity, arrests its vengeance. We have many examples to bear out this statement. A hunter fires at a lion and misses, or but slightly wounds it. The animal precipitates itself upon him, strikes him to the ground with a blow from its paw, and there respectfully keeps him in this terrible restraint, without completing the work of destruction. Thus it often happens that its attention is distracted by the attack of another hunter, when it abandons its victim. FIGUIER. 40. DR. LIVINGSTONE'S ENCOUNTER WITH an-ni'hi-lat-ed, destroyed. par'ox-ysm, violent fit. A LION. stu'por, numbness, insensibility. 1. BEING about thirty yards from the foe, I took a good aim at his body, through the bush, and fired both barrels. into it. The men then called out, "He is shot! he is shot!" Others cried, "He has been shot by another man too! Let us go to him!" I did not see any one else shoot at him; but I saw the lion's tail erected in anger behind the bush, and, turning to the people, said, “Stop a little till I load again." When in the act of ramming down the bullets, I heard a shout. 2. Starting and looking half round, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was upon a little height. He caught my shoulder as he sprang, and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier dog does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake of the cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess, in which there was no sense of pain or feeling of terror. It was like what patients partially under the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. 3. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking round at the beast. This peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by the carnivora, and, if so, is a merciful provision by our beneficent Creator for lessening the pain of death. 4. Turning round to relieve myself of the weight, as he had one paw on the back of my head, I saw his eyes directed to Mebalwe, who was trying to shoot him at the distance of fifteen yards. His gun, a flint one, missed fire in both barrels. The lion immediately left me, and, attacking Mebalwe, bit his thigh. 5. Another man, whose life I had saved before after he had been tossed by a buffalo, attempted to spear the lion while he was biting Mebalwe. He left Mebalwe, and caught this man by the shoulder; but at that moment the bullets he had received had taken effect, and he fell dead. The whole was the work of a few moments, and must have been his paroxysm of dying rage. 6. In order to take out the charm from him, the natives on the following day made a huge bonfire over the carcase, which they declared to be that of the largest lion they had ever seen. Besides crunching the bone into splinters, he left eleven teeth-wounds in the upper part of my arm. 7. We hear of the majestic roar of the king of beasts. It is indeed well calculated to inspire fear, if you hear it in combination with the tremendously loud thunder of that country, on a night so pitchy dark that every flash of the intensely vivid lightning leaves you with the impression of stone-blindness, while the rain pours down so fast that your fire goes out, leaving you without the protection of even a tree, or the chance of your gun going off. But when you are in a comfortable house or wagon, the case is very different, and you hear the roar of the lion without any awe or alarm. The silly ostrich makes a noise as loud, yet it never was feared by man. To talk of the majestic roar of the lion is mere majestic twaddle. 8. On my mentioning this fact some years ago, the assertion was doubted; so I have been careful ever since to inquire the opinions of Europeans who have heard both, if they could detect any difference between the roar of a lion and that of an ostrich. The invariable answer was that they could not when the animal was at a distance. The natives assert that they can detect a variation between the commencement of the noise of each. 9. There is, it must be admitted, a considerable difference between the singing noise of a lion when full, and his deep gruff voice when hungry. In general, the lion's voice seems to come deeper from the chest than that of the ostrich; but to this day I can distinguish between them with certainty only by knowing that the ostrich roars by day and the lion by night. DR. LIVINGSTONE. 41.- TRAITS OF THE TIGER. doç'ile, teachable. lithe, pliant, flexible. mo-rose', of a sour temper. na'bob, a wealthy man. or'gy, a revel. pa-tri'cian [pa-trish'an], a noble man. sub'tle [sut'le], sly. tes'ti-fied, showed. 1. THE tiger is as high on the limbs as the lion; but it is more slender, active, and stealthy, closely resembling, in figure and movements, the domestic cat, which serves as the type of the entire genus. Its coat is very handsome, being of a yellowish fawn color above and a pure white beneath; everywhere irregularly striped by brown transverse bands. Its tail, which is very long, is ringed with black, and contributes not a little to its beauty. It has also white around the eyes, on the jaws, and on the back of each ear. It is peculiar to Asia, inhabiting Java, Sumatra, a great part of Hindostan, and China. 2. The tiger makes its lair in jungles or densely-wooded districts bordering on water-courses. Like the lion, it has a den, to which it retires for rest. Thence it steals forth, secretes itself in a wood on the borders of a frequented. path, and there, concealed from every eye, awaits its victim. The moment it sees the object of its desire, its eyes flash, and its whole bearing manifests a savage joy. It allows the unsuspecting prey to draw near, and when it is sufficiently close, springs upon it with tremendous velocity. If it winds prey at a distance, it glides through the high grass with the undulating movements of the serpent, almost impossible to be detected by the human eye. 3. The tiger has for a long time borne a reputation for cruelty, as little deserved as that for generosity which has been given the lion. The old naturalists pretended that the tiger gloried in shedding blood, and that it never saw a living creature without desiring to destroy it. Nothing can be more untrue. The tiger does not kill for the pleasure of killing; it kills only to appease its hunger. 4. Although the tiger is possessed of great strength, and moves through the thickets of the jungle with the lithe, noiseless action characteristic of all the cats (coming suddenly upon his prey, which, unaware of the subtle approach of its cunning foe, may be resting in fancied security), yet at times he too falls a victim to an adversary as cruel and remorseless as himself. 5. Many of the rivers and lakes in the hot lands where this animal dwells fairly swarm with crocodiles. Those huge, repulsive reptiles are frequently seen stretched at full length upon some sand-bar, sleeping in the rays of the mid-day sun, or else submerged in the water, every portion of them hidden save the eye and nostrils (which are elevated above the rest of the face), remaining motionless near the shore, waiting to seize upon any animal that may approach the stream. 6. When lying on the bank they can hardly be distinguished from it, or, if seen, appear at a little distance like dead trunks of some fallen trees. They have two modes of attack. One is, if they can get sufficiently near their prey, to seize it in their terrible jaws, and drag it to the bottom of the river. Another and often practiced method. is, to watch close to the bank, and when an animal draws near to the water, suddenly to sweep it into the stream by a rapid and powerful blow of the tail (which can be wielded |