NG HIM; he only escaped by springing up a
tree like a cat. At Lopepe a lioness sprang on the after quarter of Mr.
Oswell's horse, and when we came up to him we found the marks of the
claws on the horse, and a scratch on Mr. O.'s hand. The horse, on
feeling the lion on him, sprang away, and the rider, caught by a
wait-a-bit thorn, was brought to the ground and rendered insensible.
His dogs saved him. Another English gentleman (Captain Codrington) was
surprised in the same way, though not hunting the lion at the time,
but turning round he shot him dead in the neck. By accident a horse
belonging to Codrington ran away, but was stopped by the bridle catching
a stump; there he remained a prisoner two days, and when found the whole
space around was marked by the footprints of lions. They had evidently
been afraid to attack the haltered horse from fear that it was a trap.
Two lions came up by night to within three yards of oxen tied to a
wagon, and a sheep tied to a tree, and stood roaring, but afraid to make
a spring. On another occasion one of our party was lying sound asleep
and unconscious of danger between two natives behind a bush at Mashue;
the fire was nearly out at their feet in consequence of all being
completely tired out by the fatigues of the previous day; a lion came up
to within three yards of the fire, and there commenced roaring instead
of making a spring: the fact of their riding-ox being tied to the bush
was the only reason the lion had for not following his instinct, and
making a meal of flesh. He then stood on a knoll three hundred yards
distant, and roared all night, and continued his growling as the party
moved off by daylight next morning.

Nothing that I ever learned of the lion would lead me to attribute to
it either the ferocious or noble character ascribed to it elsewhere. It
possesses none of the nobility of the Newfoundland or St. Bernard dogs.
With respect to its great strength there can be no doubt. The immense
masses of muscle around its jaws, shoulders, and forearms proclaim
tremendous force. They would seem, however, to be inferior in power to
those of the Indian tiger. Most of those feats of strength that I have
seen performed by lions, such as the taking away of an ox, were not
carrying, but dragging or trailing the carcass along the ground: they
have sprung on some occasions on to the hind-quarters of a horse, but no
one has ever seen them on the withers of a giraffe. They do not mount on