nd over
a foot higher than halfway up. Look at your own writing desk; your own
door. Furthermore, he was nine feet and eleven inches in a straight line
from nose to end of tail, or over eleven feet along the contour of the
back. If he were to rise on his hind feet to strike a man down, he would
stand somewhere between seven and eight feet tall, depending on how
nearly he straightened up. He weighed just under six hundred pounds, or
as much as four well-grown specimens of our own "mountain lion." I tell
you this that you may realize, as I did not, the size to which a wild
lion grows. Either menagerie specimens are stunted in growth, or their
position and surroundings tend to belittle them, for certainly until a
man sees old Leo in the wilderness he has not understood what a fine old
chap he is.

This tremendous weight is sheer strength. A lion's carcass when the skin
is removed is a really beautiful sight. The great muscles lie in ropes
and bands; the forearm thicker than a man's leg, the lithe barrel banded
with brawn; the flanks overlaid by the long thick muscles. And this
power is instinct with the nervous force of a highly organized being.
The lion is quick and intelligent and purposeful; so that he brings to
his intenser activities the concentration of vivid passion, whether of
anger, of hunger or of desire.

So far the opinions of varied experience will jog along together. At
this point they diverge.

Just as the lion is one of the most interesting and fascinating of
beasts, so concerning him one may hear the most diverse opinions. This
man will tell you that any lion is always dangerous. Another will hold
the king of beasts in the most utter contempt as a coward and a skulker.

In the first place, generalization about any species of animal is an
exceedingly dangerous thing. I believe that, in the case of the higher
animals at least, the differences in individual temperament are quite
likely to be more numerous than the specific likenesses. Just as
individual men are bright or dull, nervous or phlegmatic, cowardly or
brave, so individual animals vary in like respect. Our own hunters will
recall from their personal experiences how the big bear may have sat
down and bawled harmlessly for mercy, while the little unconsidered
fellow did his best until finished off: how one buck dropped instantly
to a wound that another would carry five miles: how of two equally
matched warriors of the herd one will give way in the