manes and coats of lions frequenting open-lying districts utterly
destitute of trees, such as the borders of the great Kalahari desert,
are more rank and handsome than those inhabiting forest districts.

One of the most striking things connected with the lion is his voice,
which is extremely grand and peculiarly striking. It consists at times
of a low, deep moaning, repeated 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 loudness 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 unfrequently, 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 strange
troops of 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 seems
to vie with his comrades in the intensity and power of his voice.

The power and grandeur of these nocturnal forest concerts is
inconceivably striking and pleasing to the hunter's ear. The effect, I
may remark, is greatly enhanced when the hearer happens to be situated
in the depths of the forest, at the dead hour of midnight, unaccompanied
by any attendant, and ensconced within twenty yards of the fountain
which the surrounding troops of lions are approaching. Such has been my
situation many scores of times; and though I am allowed to have a
tolerable good taste for music, I consider the catches with which I was
then regaled as the sweetest and most natural I ever heard.

As a general rule, lions roar during the night; their sighing moans
commencing as the shades of evening envelop the forest, and continuing
at intervals throughout the night. In distant and secluded regions,
however, I have constantly heard them roaring loudly as late as nine and
ten o'clock on a bright sunny morning. In hazy and rainy weather they
are to be heard at every hour in the day, but their roar is subdued. It
often happens that when two strang