The San Francisco call., 1901-10-06

since a quaint entry in the diary of Van
R;ebeck the first Dutch Governor of the
Cape, runs thus: This night the lions
roared as if they would take the fort by
storm''-the SAID fort being situated on
the site of the city now known as Cape
Town.
At that date there can be little doubt
that, excepting in the waterless deserts
and the dense equatorial forests, lions
roamed over the whole of the vast conti-
nent OF Africa. from Cape Agulhas to the
very shore of the Mediterranean Sea; nor
was their range very seriously curtailed
until the spread of European settlements
in North and South Africa and the ac-
QUESTION of firearms by the aboriginal
inhabitants of many parts of the country,
during the latter half of the nineteenth
century, steadily denuded large areas Of
all wild game
AS the game vanished the lions disap-
peared, too; for, although at first they
preyed to a large extent on the domestic
1ocks and herds which gradually replaced
the wild denizens of nature, otherwise
they would have become so numerous in
The sparsely inhabited or altogether unin-
first have exterminated all the game on
which they had been wont to prey and
would then have had to starve or to have
eaten one another.
But such state Of things has never
been known to occur; and whenever Euro
peans have entered a previously unex-
plGred and uninhabited tract Of country
in Africa, and have found it teeming with
buffaloes. zebras and antelopes. they have
always found lions in such districts very
plentiful indeed, but never in such num-
bers as to seriously diminish the abun-
dance of the once uninhabited plains. This
practice brought them into conflict with
the white colonists or native herdsmen.
armed with weapons of precision, before
whom they rapidly succumbed.
Increase of Lions.
To-day lions are still 10 be found wher-
ever game exists in any quantity, and
their numbers will be in proportion TO
those OF the wild animals on which they
prey.
The indefinite increase Of lions must
have been checked by some unknown law
of game upon which they depended for
food.
1t is easy to understand that the in
crease of herd of herbivorous animals
would be regulated by the amount of the
food supply available as well as constant
ly checked by the attacks Of the large
carnivora, such as lions, leopards, chez
tabs, hyenas and wild dogs; but I have
never been able to comprehend what has
kept within bounds the inordinate in
crease of lions and other carniyorous AMI
mails in countries where for ages past
they have had al abundant food suppIv.
and at the same time, having been almost
entirely unmolested by human beings
have had no enemies. Perhaps such a
state of things does not exist at the nres-
ent day, but there are many parts or
Africa where such conditions have exIsted
from time immemorsal up to within quite
recent years
Since lions were once to be found over
the greater portion Of the vast continent
Of Africa 1t Is self evident that these
animals are able to accommodate them
selves to great variations Of climate and
surroundings, ard l myself have met
with them close to the sea, in the hot and
sultry coast lands of southeast Africa. on
the high plateau of Mashonaland where
at an altitude OF 5000 feet above sea level
The winter nights are cold and frosty:
among the stony hills to the cast of the
Victoria Falls Of the Zambesi and ia the
swamps OF the Chobi
In the great reed beds of the latter
river certain number Of lions appear to
live constantly, preying on buffalos and
lechwe antelopes. I often heard them
roaring at night in these swamps and 1
once saw two big male lions wading
slowly across an open space between two
beds of reeds. in water nearly a foot in
depth
Although there are great individual
differences in lions as regards size gen
e-al color of coat and, more particularly,
in The length, color ard profuseness of
the mane with which the males arc