the legends of the tribes whose country bordered it. Here
were precipitous mountains, well-watered plateaus, wide plains, and
vast swampy morasses, but neither the plains, nor the plateaus, nor the
mountains were accessible to him until after weeks of arduous effort he
succeeded in finding a spot where he might cross the morasses--a
hideous stretch infested by venomous snakes and other larger dangerous
reptiles. On several occasions he glimpsed at distances or by night
what might have been titanic reptilian monsters, but as there were
hippopotami, rhinoceri, and elephants in great numbers in and about the
marsh he was never positive that the forms he saw were not of these.

When at last he stood upon firm ground after crossing the morasses he
realized why it was that for perhaps countless ages this territory had
defied the courage and hardihood of the heroic races of the outer world
that had, after innumerable reverses and unbelievable suffering
penetrated to practically every other region, from pole to pole.

From the abundance and diversity of the game it might have appeared
that every known species of bird and beast and reptile had sought here
a refuge wherein they might take their last stand against the
encroaching multitudes of men that had steadily spread themselves over
the surface of the earth, wresting the hunting grounds from the lower
orders, from the moment that the first ape shed his hair and ceased to
walk upon his knuckles. Even the species with which Tarzan was
familiar showed here either the results of a divergent line of
evolution or an unaltered form that had been transmitted without
variation for countless ages.

Too, there were many hybrid strains, not the least interesting of which
to Tarzan was a yellow and black striped lion. Smaller than the species
with which Tarzan was familiar, but still a most formidable beast,
since it possessed in addition to sharp saber-like canines the
disposition of a devil. To Tarzan it presented evidence that tigers had
once roamed the jungles of Africa, possibly giant saber-tooths of
another epoch, and these apparently had crossed with lions with the
resultant terrors that he occasionally encountered at the present day.

The true lions of this new, Old World differed but little from those
with which he was familiar; in size and conformation they were almost
identical, but instead of shedding the leopard spots of cubhood, they
retained them through life as defini