San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-20
LION HUNTING.


terra incognita to the rank and file Of the
great army of modern travellers. Quaint
notions still prevail as to the fauna OF that
vast expanse of country stretching north
ward from the Sahara to the shores OF the
Mediterranean
At the risk Of being regarded as prosaic
we will be truthful and eschew all fiction
We have encountered no wild elephants; the
giraffe and rhinoceros are strangers to u.s.
beyond seeing them in captivity. The larger
beasts of pray met by us with anything like
frequency were only hyenas and jackals.
The hyena, so called by the Greeks from its
swine like appearance, is that bristly named,
dog like animal frequently seen in menag-
cries, of which we once heard the show
man saw: This is the savage hyena.
he prowls about graveyards at night: he
digs up the corpses and eats them alive" AS
to the jackal, he is but wild, gregarious
sort of dog. When seen at menageries, half
mad with hunger or stirred up by the long
mole of the keeper into fits of impotent
ferocity, growing and snarling at you and
at each other over the scanty meal OF bones
flung to them-these noxious creatures may
have produced in some of us the pleasant
sensation of being terrified i'll perfect safety.
No doubt many a visitor has come away from
such shows firmly convinced that hyenas ana
iackals are animals of the most dangerous
description. ugly customers to meet outside
their iron cages. Such notions will be
Quickly dispelled by holiday tour through
Algeria. Moors or Arabs mind them no
more than we do rats Hyenas and Jackals
are to.the aborgines of North Africa mere
vermin, and as such not objects of fear, but
only of loathing and contempt. No kabyie
would bemean himself by stalking the like
His long gun, cimeter or yataghan is much
too good for them They are tit only for his
cudgel, and with it he Stays them indiscrim-
inately whenever they cross his path. In
the eyes of the European sportsman they
soon become more contemplate even than
the rat, for it is a plucky animal, and will
sometimes turn upon its foe and die game;
but the iackal never Even when wounded,
or with their young, their only resource is to
sneak away ANONYMOUSLY. In short, master
jackal is an arrant coward and humbug,
known as such by every child in Algeria
Nor can it be said of the more powerful
hyena that he is much Drawer. We have
seen a mere lad with a stick chase them by
day; and even at night when they pluck up
courage and come forth from their hiding
places in large numbers to ply their loath-
some task as scavengers of the desert, an en-
counter with them is deemed by no means
formidable Only the most verdant novice,
freshly imported from Europe, would bring
a breech loader to bear upon them.
Where, then, in broad Algeria, may the
brave son of Nimrod find game worthy of his
trusted rifle and of his keen and practiced
eve, which have been the death of many a
hare and wild fowl on the moOrs of merry
England and Wales and bonnie Scotland; If
he is sans puer ct sans reproche, and, more
over, patient, much enduring-and with
plenty of time at his dispOsal-we can prom
Use him the grandest and noblest sport of all.
The king of beasts in his finest development
is still to be found in North Africa. Among
the mimosa bushes of yonder sandy plains he
rears his majestic crest. Those rocky heights
know his presence From bowlder to bowl
der he leaps with mighty bounds, and at
night his awful voice Fe-echoes, rolling like
thunder along the ground, and cowing all ma
turc into silence No other North African
country contains so many lions as Algeria,
but even there they are growing scarcer
from year to year. Gerard, the first famous
Algerian lion killer, upwards of thirty years
ago estimated them as only one hundred and
twenty in number, and they have certainly
not increased since. a successful lion hunt
has thus become one of the rarest of rare
events. We have known many fashionable
GLASSES au lion to be organized No stranger
of note who visits the country can well
leave it without indulging in one or
more of them. They are a pic
turesque but costly kind of pageantry,
always shown off in broad daylight, and for
sooth on horseback Small matter to these
amateur sportsmen that lions habitually
sleep by day in their almost inaccessible
mountain Businesses, and that the proximity
of a large posse Of men and horses intim-
idates them. The native guides know well
what they are about. \ lion hunt has been
ordered regardless of expense, and vast
preparations are set on foot forthwith.
At dawn Of the appointed day a glittering
cavacade issues from the gates. 1t is hailed
by the acclamation of a motley crowd Of
natives eager for backsheesh. whose expecta-
tons are ahundantly gratifed, owing to the
hest of humora cngendered by the prospect
!of such noble sport. a truly magnificent
display is made of horses, harness and pict.
uresque costumes Breech loading rifles,
revolvers, spears and yataghans reflect the
bright ray. of the morning sun, and thus
with much shouting, clanking and jingling the
grand hunt proceeds Much show, but little
wool, for nothing ever comes of it. All day
long, through field, sandy plain and forest,
the king OF beasts is sought but never found
Some spicy little bit of excitement or other
has been prearranged by the guides, who feel
that something must be done for the money,
A turbaned Arab suddenly appears ON the
outskirts of thicket7 vowing that a lion
is there With much show of courage the
thicEnf is euterel hy the cuideS laadinn