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AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 


"  He  loved  the  big  game  as  if  he  were  their 
father." — Anslo-Saxon  Chronicle. 

"  Tell  me  the  course,  the  voyage,  the  ports,  and 
the  new  stars." — Bliss  Carman. 


\FRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

AN    ACCOUNT    OF    THE    AFRICAN 

WANDERINGS     OF    AN     AMERICAN 

HUNTER-NATURALIST 

BY  THEODORE   ROOSEVELT 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS    FROM    PHOTOGRAPHS    BY    KERMIT    ROOSEVELT 

AND    OTHER    MEMBERS    OF   THE    EXPEDITION,    AND    FROM 

DRAWINGS    BY    PHILIP    R.    GOODWIN 


LONDON 
JOHN  MURRAY,  ALBEMARLE  Sl'REET,  W, 

1910 


TO 

KERMIT    ROOSEVELT 

MY    SIDE-PARTNER 

IN    OUR 

"GREAT    ADVENTURE" 


FOREWORD 

"  I  SPEAK  of  Africa  and  golden  joys  ";  the  joy  of  wander- 
ing through  lonely  lands  ;  the  joy  of  hunting  the  mighty 
and  terrible  lords  of  the  wilderness,  the  cunning,  the 
wary,  and  the  grim. 

In  these  greatest  of  the  world's  great  hunting- 
grounds  there  are  mountain-peaks  whose  snows  are 
dazzling  under  the  equatorial  sun  ;  swamps  where  the 
slime  oozes  and  bubbles  and  festers  in  the  steaming 
heat ;  lakes  like  seas  ;  skies  that  burn  above  deserts 
where  the  iron  desolation  is  shrouded  from  view  by  the 
wavering  mockery  of  the  mirage  ;  vast  grassy  plains 
where  palms  and  thorn-trees  fringe  the  dwindling 
streams ;  mighty  rivers  rushing  out  of  the  heart  of  the 
continent  through  the  sadness  of  endless  marshes ; 
forests  of  gorgeous  beauty,  where  death  broods  in  the 
dark  and  silent  depths. 

There  are  regions  as  healthy  as  the  Northland  ;  and 
other  regions,  radiant  with  bright-hued  flowers,  birds, 
and  butterflies,  odorous  with  sweet  and  heavy  scents, 
but  treacherous  in  their  beauty,  and  sinister  to  human 
life.  On  the  land  and  in  the  water  there  are  dread 
brutes  that  feed  on  the  flesh  of  man ;  and  among  the 
lower  things,  that  crawl,  and  fly,  and  sting,  and  bite,  he 
finds  swarming  foes  far  more  evil  and  deadly  than  any 
beast  or  reptile  ;  foes  that  kill  his  crops  and  his  cattle, 

vii 


viii  FOREWORD 

foes  before  which  he  himself  perishes  in  his  hundreds  of 
thousands. 

The  dark-skinned  races  that  hve  in  the  land  vary 
widely.  Some  are  warlike,  cattle-owning  nomads ; 
some  till  the  soil  and  live  in  thatched  huts  shaped 
like  beehives ;  some  are  fisherfolk  ;  some  are  ape-like, 
naked  savages,  who  dwell  in  the  woods  and  prey 
on  creatures  not  much  wilder  or  lower  than  them- 
selves. 

The  land  teems  with  beasts  of  the  chase,  infinite  in 
number  and  incredible  in  variety.  It  holds  the  fiercest 
beasts  of  ravin,  and  the  fleetest  and  most  timid  of 
those  things  that  live  in  undying  fear  of  talon  and 
fang.  It  holds  the  largest  and  the  smallest  of  hoofed 
animals.  It  holds  the  mightiest  creatures  that  tread 
the  earth  or  swim  in  its  rivers ;  it  also  holds  distant 
kinsfolk  of  these  same  creatures,  no  bigger  than  wood- 
chucks,  which  dwell  in  crannies  of  the  rocks,  and  in  the 
tree-tops.  There  are  antelope  smaller  than  hares,  and 
antelope  larger  than  oxen.  There  are  creatures  which 
are  the  embodiments  of  grace  ;  and  others  whose  huge 
ungainliness  is  like  that  of  a  shape  in  a  nightmare. 
The  plains  are  alive  with  droves  of  strange  and  beautiful 
animals  whose  like  is  not  known  elsewhere ;  and  with 
others,  even  stranger,  that  show  both  in  form  and  temper 
something  of  the  fantastic  and  the  grotesque.  It  is  a 
never-ending  pleasure  to  gaze  at  the  great  herds  of 
buck  as  they  move  to  and  fro  in  their  myriads  ;  as  they 
stand  for  their  noontide  rest  in  the  quivering  heat  haze  ; 
as  the  long  files  come  down  to  drink  at  the  watering- 
places  ;  as  they  feed  and  fight  and  rest  and  make  love. 

The  hunter  who  wanders  through  these  lands  sees 
sights  which  ever  afterward  remain  fixed  in  his  mind. 
He  sees  the  monstrous  river-horse  snorting  and  plunging 


FOREWORD  IX 

beside  the  boat ;  the  giraffe  looking  over  the  tree-tops 
at  the  nearing  horseman  ;  the  ostrich  fleeing  at  a  speed 
that  none  may  rival ;  the  snarling  leopard  and  coiled 
python,  with  their  lethal  beauty  ;  the  zebras,  barking  in 
the  moonlight,  as  the  laden  caravan  passes  on  its  night 
march  through  a  thirsty  land.  To  his  mind  come 
memories  of  the  lion's  charge  ;  of  the  grey  bulk  of  the 
elephant,  close  at  hand  in  the  sombre  woodland  ;  of  the 
buffalo,  his  sullen  eyes  lowering  from  under  his  helmet 
of  horn  ;  of  the  rhinoceros,  truculent  and  stupid,  stand- 
ing in  the  bright  sunlight  on  the  empty  plain. 

These  things  can  be  told.  But  there  are  no  words 
that  can  tell  the  hidden  spirit  of  the  wilderness,  that 
can  reveal  its  mystery,  its  melancholy,  and  its  charm. 
There  is  delight  in  the  hardy  life  of  the  open,  in  long 
rides  rifle  in  hand,  in  the  thrill  of  the  fight  with 
dangerous  game.  Apart  from  this,  yet  mingled  with  it, 
is  the  strong  attraction  of  the  silent  places,  of  the  large 
tropic  moons,  and  the  splendour  of  the  new  stars ; 
where  the  wanderer  sees  the  awful  glory  of  sunrise  and 
sunset  in  the  wide  waste  spaces  of  the  earth,  unworn  of 
man,  and  changed  only  by  the  slow  changes  of  the  ages 
from  time  everlasting. 

THEODORE  ROOSEVELT. 


Khartoum, 
March  15,  1910. 


NOTE   BY   THE   PUBLISHER 

At  my  request,  Colonel  Roosevelt  has  kindly  consented 
to  add  to  the  English  Edition  of  his  book  full  reports 
of  his  speeches  delivered  before  the  University  of  Cairo, 
on  March  28,  1910,  and  at  the  Guildhall  in  London, 
May  31,  1910. 

It  is  believed  that  no  complete  report  of  the  former 
speech  has  hitherto  appeared  in  this  country.  The 
Guildhall  speech  is  based  on  the  report  in  the  Tiines, 
for  permission  to  use  which  I  beg  to  thank  the  pro- 
prietors of  that  newspaper.  J.  M. 


XI 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTKR  PAOK 

I.    A    RAILROAD    THROUGH    THE    PLEISTOCENE  -  -  1 

II.    ON    AN    EAST    AFRICAN    RANCH     -                   -  -  -  30 

III.    LION-HUNTING    ON    THE    KAPITl    PLAINS      -  -  -  57 

IV.    ON    SAFARI  :    RHINO    AND    GIRAFFES              -  -  -  80 

V.    JUJA    FARM  :    HIPPO    AND    LEOPARD                -  .  -  104 

VI.    A    BUFFALO    HUNT    BY    THE    KAMITI              -  -  -  125 

VII.    TREKKING    THROUGH    THE    THIRST    TO    THE    SOTIK  -  -  144 

VIII.    HUNTING    IN    THE    SOTIK                    -                   -  -  -  169 

IX.    TO    LAKE    NAIVASHA          -                    -                    .  -  .  195 

X.    ELEPHANT-HUNTING    ON    MOUNT    KENIA     -  -  -  223 
XI.    THE      GUASO      NVERO  :       A      RIVER     OF     THE     EQUATORIAL 

DESERT       ------  265 

XII.    TO    THE    UASIN    GISHU     -                   -                   -  -  -  315 

XIII.  UGANDA,    AND    THE    GREAT    NYANZA    LAKES  -  -  363 

XIV.  THE    GREAT    RHINOCEROS    OF    THE    LADO  -  -  -  387 
XV.    DOWN    THE    NILE  :    THE    GIANT    ELAND      -  -  -  430 

ADDRESSES    DELIVERED    IX    CAIRO    AND    LONDON  ON    GREAT 

BRITAIN"'s    RESPONSIBILITIES    IN    EGYPT  -  -  460 

APPENDIX    A. PERSONAL    ACKNOWLEDGMEN'I"S     -  -  -  483 

APPENDIX    B. LIST    OF    SMALL    MAMMALS               -  -  -  484 

APPENDIX    C. LORINg's    NOTES                   _                   -  .  .  494 

APPENDIX    D. BIOLOGICAL    SURVEY    OF    MOUNT    KENIA  -  -  499 

APPENDIX    E. PROTECTIVE    COLORATION    IN    ANIMALS  -  -  501 

APPENDIX    F. THE    PIGSKIN    LIBRARY    -                   -  -  -  521 

INDEX                .---.--  529 


xin 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


KACIWG  PACK 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  one  of  his  big  lions      -  -  -         Frontispiece 

Photogravure  from  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt. 
Map  showing  Mr.  Roosevelt's  route  and  hunting  trips  in  Africa  -  1 

A  herd  of  zebra  and  hartebeest  -  -  -  -  -       28 

One  of  the  interesting  features  of  African  wild  life  is  the  close 
association  and  companionship  so  often  seen  between  two 
totally  ditt'erent  species  of  game. 

Before  he  could  get  quite  all  the  way  round  in  his  headlong  rush 

to  reach  us,  I  struck  him  with  my  left-hand  barrel  -  -       90 

From  a  drairing  Ity  Philip  R.  Goodwin. 

Without  any   warning,  out   he   came   and   charged    straight  at 

Kermit,  who  stopped  him  when  he  was  but  six  yards  off      -     112 
F'rom  a  drawing  by  Philip  R.  Goodtoin. 
Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Kermit  Roosevelt  with  the  first  buffalo  -     134 

It  was  not  a  nice  country  in  which  to  be  charged  by  the  herd, 

and  for  a  moment  things  trembled  in  the  balance     -  -     140 

From  a  drawing  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin. 
Group  :  Waxbills  ;  courser  ;  elephant  shrew ;  springhaas  ;  dikdik  ; 

serval  kitten  ;  banded  mongoose  ;  Colobus  monkey  -      154 

The  safari  fording  a  stream  -  -  -  -  -     l60 

Giraffe  at  home   -  -  -  -  -  -  -      1 70 

Group  :  A  rhino  family.      Rhino  surveying  the  safari.     "  In  the 

middle  of  the  African  plain,  deep  in  prehistoric  thought  "  -      172 

Wildebeest  at  home         -  -  -  -  -  -     1 78 

Two  bulls  may  suddenly  drop  to  their  knees,  and  for  a  moment  or 
two  fight  furiously. 

Group  :  The  wounded  lioness.     The  wounded  lioness  ready  to 

charge  -  -  -  -  -  -  -      188 

He  came  on  steadily,  ears  laid  back  and  uttering  terrific  coughing 

grunts  -  -  -  -  -  -  -192 

From  a  drawing  by  Philip  R.  Goodvdn. 

XV 


xvT  ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING  PAOB 


Group  :   What  one  has  to  shoot  at  when  after  hippo  on  water. 

Mr.  Roosevelt's  hippo  charging  open-mouthed  -  -     208 

Charged  straight  for  the  boat,  with  open  jaws,  bent  on  mischief     212 

From  a  drawing  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin. 
Group :    Black-backed  jackal  ;    tree  hyrax  ;    big  gazelle  buck  ; 

pelican;  spotted  genet;  white-tailed  mongoose;  porcupine; 

baboon  -.-.-. 

Towing  in  bull  hippo.  Lake  Naivasha 

Kikuyu  Ngama,  Neri       .  .  _  .  . 

Group :  Camping  after  death  of  first  bull.     The  porters  exult 

over  the  death  of  the  bull    -----     240 
Falls  on  slope  of  Kenia  near  first  elephant  camp  -  -     244 

The  charging  bull  elephant  .  -  _  _  .     243 

"  He  could  have  touched  me  with  his  trunk." 

From  a  drawing  by  Philip  R,  Goodwin. 

The  first  bull  elephant     ------  252 

A  herd  of  elephant  in  an  open  forest  of  high  timber        -  -  256 

Group :  The  herd  getting  uneasy.    The  same  herd  on  the  eve  of 

charging       -..-...  26O 

Mr.   Roosevelt's  and   Kermit's  camp  near  which  they  got  the 

rhino  and  elephant  ------  262 

My  boma  where  I  camped  alone               ...             -  266 

Group :  An  oryx  bull ;  an  oryx  cow         .             .             _             -  270 

Group  :  The  Guaso  Nyero  ;  ivory-nut  palms  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  276 

Group  :  The  old  bull  Athi  giraffe  ;  the  reticulated  giraffe             -  296 
Group  :   Black-and-white    crow  ;    sparrow-lark  ;    ant    wheatear  ; 
ostrich  nest ;  rusty  rock-rat ;  sand-rat ;  African  hedgehog ; 

"mole-rat"  -------  312 

Juma  Yohari  with  the  impalla  killed  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at 

Lake  Hannington     -  -  -  -  -     318 

The  broken  horn  of  another  ram  imbedded  in  the  buck's  neck. 
Tarlton  with  a  singsing  shot  by  Mr.  Roosevelt     -  -  -     338 

The  hyena,  which  was  swollen  with  elephant  meat,  had  gotten 

inside  the  huge  body  .....     346 

Rearing,  the  lion  struck  the  man,  bearing  down  the  shield  -     352 

From  a  dravnng  by  Philip  R.  Goodvnn. 
Group  :  The   spears  that  did   the  trick.     Mr.  Roosevelt  photo- 
graphing the  speared  lion    -----     352 


ILLUSTRATIONS  xvii 

FACIMO  PAOE 

Group  :  The  lion  as  it  fell.     As  he  fell  he  gripped  a  spear-head 

in  his  jaws  with  such   tremendous  force   that  he   bent  it 

double  -.-...-     356 

Sailinye,  the  Dorobo,  who  was  with  Kermit  Roosevelt  when  he 

shot  the  bongo,  holding  up  the  bongo  head  -  -     360 

Dance  of  boys  of  the  Nyika  tribe  in  honour  of  the  chief's  son 

who  had  just  died     ------     362 

The  situtunga  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Kampalla     -  -     374 

Group :     Ground     hornbill ;     wagtail ;     nightjar ;     fish     eagle ; 

crocodile  ;  Nile  bushbuck  ;  cobus  maria  ;  baker's  roan         -     390 
The  "  white "  rhino         -  -  -  -  -  -     392 

Fro7n  a  dravHng  by  Philip  Ji.  Goodwin. 
The  jMipyrus  afire  _..-..     398 

We  walked  up  to  within  about  twenty  yards        -  -  -     406 

The  cow  and  calf  square-nosed  rhino  under  the  tree  after  being 

disturbed  by  the  click  of  the  camera  -  -  -     414 

Group  :  The  calf  which  was  old  enough  to  shift  for  itself  refused 

to  leave  the  body.     When  alarmed,  they  failed  to  make  out 

where  the  danger  lay  -  -  -  -  -     41 6 

One  remained  standing,  but  the  other  deliberately  sat  down 

upon  its  haunches  like  a  dog  .  -  _  -     42O 

The  monitor  lizard  robbing  a  crocodile's  nest      .  .  -     424 

Group :  Kermit's  first  giant  eland  cow,  shot  on  the  Redjaf  trip. 

Giant  eland  bull       .-_-..     444 

Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Kermit  Roosevelt  with  giant  eland  horns       -     448 


40 


lake  Ao.  ySJ^'-^/r  \ 


SCALE  OF  MILES 


0  60  100  150         200 


mt-EmXr^^  If  Wadelai 
STATE  '^-^^SSier'se/. 


/    m^bert         . 
E  Aa  \S 

O         KampilA'jinj; 
fNTEB 


gSJ^^^jBV^itqijfr.    n'<*^atf    f  y     ^■;)      \     r^ff-^''g^'^^"\,       EQUATOR 

'"  M  I  ri  I  I  F"r*>iiiMiiir  '''"^''     "  "F   tr^'^"'^"" '''  ~ 


Xah-a» 
iijabe 

Mt.Meru,  )  (/' 

I  C     1     A  \^^ 


Longitude 


East 


35 


from 


Greenwich 


Map  showing  Mr.  Roosevelt's  route  and  hunting  trips  in  Africa 


Di) 


AFRICAN  GAME  TRAILS 

CHAPTER  I 

A  RAILROAD  THROUGH  THE  PLEISTOCENE 

The  great  world  movement  which  began  with  the 
voyages  of  Columbus  and  V^asco  da  Gama,  and  which 
has  gone  on  with  ever-increasing  rapidity  and  complexity 
until  our  own  time,  has  developed  along  a  myriad  lines 
of  interest.  In  no  way  has  it  been  more  interesting 
than  in  the  way  in  which  it  has  brought  into  sudden, 
violent,  and  intimate  contact  phases  of  the  world's  life- 
history  which  would  normally  be  separated  by  untold 
centuries  of  slow  development.  Again  and  again,  in 
the  continents  new  to  peoples  of  European  stock,  we 
have  seen  the  spectacle  of  a  high  civilization  all  at  once 
thrust  into  and  superimposed  upon  a  wilderness  of 
savage  men  and  savage  beasts.  Nowhere,  and  at  no 
time,  has  the  contrast  been  more  strange  and  more 
striking  than  in  British  East  Africa  during  the  last 
dozen  years. 

The  country  lies  directly  imder  the  Equator  ;  and  the 
hinterland,  due  west,  contains  the  huge  Nyanza  lakes, 
vast  inland  seas  which  gather  the  head-waters  of  the 
White  Nile.  This  hinterland,  with  its  lakes  and  its 
marshes,   its    snow-capped    mountains,   its    high,    dry 

I 


2  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

plateaux,  and  its  forests  of  deadly  luxuriance,  was 
utterly  unknown  to  white  men  half  a  century  ago.  The 
map  of  Ptolemy  in  the  second  century  of  our  era  gave 
a  more  accurate  view  of  the  lakes,  mountains,  and  head- 
waters of  the  Nile  than  the  maps  published  at  the 
beginning  of  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
just  before  Speke,  Grant,  and  Baker  made  their  great 
trips  of  exploration  and  adventure.  Behind  these  ex- 
plorers came  others  ;  and  then  adventurous  mission- 
aries, traders,  and  elephant-hunters ;  and  many  men, 
whom  risk  did  not  daunt,  who  feared  neither  danger 
nor  hardship,  traversed  the  country  hither  and  thither, 
now  for  one  reason,  now  for  another,  now  as  naturalists, 
now  as  geographers,  and  again  as  Government  officials 
or  as  mere  wanderers  who  loved  the  wild  and  strange 
life  which  had  survived  over  from  an  elder  age. 

Most  of  the  tribes  were  of  pure  savages,  but  here  and 
there  were  intrusive  races  of  higher  type  ;  and  in 
Uganda,  beyond  the  Victoria  Nyanza,  and  on  the  head- 
waters of  the  Nile  proper,  lived  a  people  which  had 
advanced  to  the  upper  stages  of  barbarism,  which  might 
almost  be  said  to  have  developed  a  very  primitive  kind 
of  semi-civilization.  Over  this  people — for  its  good 
fortune — Great  Britain  established  a  protectorate  ;  and 
ultimately,  in  order  to  get  easy  access  to  this  new  out- 
post of  civilization  in  the  heart  of  the  Dark  Continent, 
the  British  Government  built  a  railroad  from  the  old 
Arab  coast  town  of  Mombasa  westward  to  Victoria 
Nyanza. 

This  railroad,  the  embodiment  of  the  eager,  masterful, 
materialistic  civilization  of  to-day,  was  pushed  through 
a  region  in  which  nature,  both  as  regards  wild  man  and 
wild  beast,  did  not  and  does  not  differ  materially  from 
what  it  was  in  Europe  in  the  late  Pleistocene  Age.    The 


CH.  I]  OUR  PARTY  8 

comparison  is  not  fanciful.  The  teeming  multitudes  of 
wild  creatures,  the  stupendous  size  of  some  of  them,  the 
terrible  nature  of  others,  and  the  low  culture  of  many 
of  the  savage  tribes,  especially  of  the  hunting  tribes, 
substantially  reproduces  the  conditions  of  life  in  Europe 
as  it  was  led  by  our  ancestors  ages  before  the  dawn  of 
anything  that  could  be  called  civilization.  The  great 
beasts  that  now  Hve  in  East  Africa  were  in  that  bygone 
age  represented  by  close  kinsfolk  in  Europe  ;  and  in 
many  places,  up  to  the  present  moment,  African  man, 
absolutely  naked,  and  armed  as  our  early  palaeolithic 
ancestors  were  armed,  lives  among,  and  on,  and  in 
constant  dread  of,  these  beasts,  just  as  was  true  of  the 
men  to  whom  the  cave  lion  was  a  nightmare  of  terror, 
and  the  mammoth  and  the  woolly  rhinoceros  possible 
but  most  formidable  prey. 

This  region,  this  great  fragment  out  of  the  long- 
buried  past  of  our  race,  is  now  accessible  by  railroad  to 
all  who  care  to  go  thither ;  and  no  field  more  inviting 
offers  itself  to  hunter  or  naturalist,  while  even  to  the 
ordinary  traveller  it  teems  with  interest.  On  March  23, 
1909,  I  sailed  thither  from  New  York,  in  charge  of  a 
scientific  expedition  sent  out  by  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitute, to  collect  birds,  mammals,  reptiles,  and  plants, 
but  especially  specimens  of  big  game,  for  the  National 
Museum  at  Washington.  In  addition  to  myself  and 
my  son  Kermit  (who  had  entered  Harvard  a  few 
months  previously),  the  party  consisted  of  three 
naturalists  :  Surgeon- Lieu  tenant -Colonel  Edgar  A. 
Meams,  U.S.A.,  retired ;  Mr.  Edmund  Heller,  of 
C'alifornia  ;  and  Mr.  J.  Alden  Loring,  of  Owego,  New 
York.  My  arrangements  for  the  trip  had  been  chiefly 
made  through  two  valued  English  friends,  Mr.  Frederick 
Courteney  Selous,  the  greatest  of  the  world's  big- game 


4  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

hunters,  and  Mr.  Edward  North  Buxton,  also  a  mighty 
hunter.  On  landing,  we  were  to  be  met  by  Messrs. 
R.  J.  Cuninghame  and  Leslie  Tarlton,  both  famous 
hunters — the  latter  an  Australian,  who  served  through 
the  South  African  War  ;  the  former  by  birth  a  Scots- 
man and  a  Cambridge  man,  but  long  a  resident  of 
Africa,  and  at  one  time  a  professional  elephant-hunter, 
in  addition  to  having  been  a  whaler  in  the  Arctic 
Ocean,  a  hunter- naturalist  in  Lapland,  a  transport  rider 
in  South  Africa,  and  a  collector  for  the  British  Museum 
in  various  odd  corners  of  the  earth. 

We  sailed  on  the  Hamburg  from  New  York — what 
headway  the  Germans  have  made  among  those  who  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships ! — and  at  Naples  transhipped 
to  the  Admiral,  of  another  German  line,  the  East 
African.  On  both  ships  we  were  as  comfortable  as 
possible,  and  the  voyage  was  wholly  devoid  of  incidents. 
Now  and  then,  as  at  the  Azores,  at  Suez,  and  at  Aden, 
the  three  naturalists  landed,  and  collected  some  dozens 
or  scores  of  birds,  which  next  day  were  skinned  and 
prepared  in  my  room,  as  the  largest  and  best  fitted  for 
the  purpose.  After  reaching  Suez  the  ordinary  tourist 
type  of  passenger  ceased  to  be  predominant ;  in  his 
place  there  were  Italian  officers  going  out  to  a  desolate 
coast  town  on  the  edge  of  SomaUland  ;  missionaries, 
German,  English,  and  American  ;  Portuguese  civil 
officials  ;  traders  of  different  nationalities  ;  and  planters 
and  military  and  civil  officers  bound  to  German 
and  British  East  Africa.  The  Englishmen  included 
planters,  magistrates,  forest  officials,  army  officers  on 
leave  from  India,  and  other  army  officers  going  out  to 
take  command  of  black  native  levies  in  out-of-the-way 
regions  where  the  English  flag  stands  for  all  that  makes 
life  worth  living.     They  were  a  fine  set,  these  young 


CH.  i]        OUR  FELLOW-PASSENGERS  5 

Englishmen,  whether  dashing  army  officers  or  capable 
civilians.  They  reminded  me  of  our  own  men  who  have 
reflected  such  honour  on  the  American  name,  whether  in 
civil  and  military  positions  in  the  PhiUppines  and  Porto 
Rico,  working  on  the  Canal  Zone  in  Panama,  taking 
care  of  the  custom-houses  in  San  Domingo,  or  serving 
in  the  army  of  occupation  in  Cuba.  Moreover,  I  felt 
as  if  I  knew  most  of  them  already,  for  they  might 
have  walked  out  of  the  pages  of  Kipling.  But  I  was 
not  as  well  prepared  for  the  corresponding  and  equally 
interesting  types  among  the  Germans,  the  planters,  the 
civil  officials,  the  officers  who  had  commanded,  or  were 
about  to  command,  white  or  native  troops — men  of 
evident  power  and  energy,  seeing  whom  made  it  easy 
to  understand  why  German  East  Africa  has  thriven 
apace.  They  are  first-class  men,  these  English  and 
Germans ;  both  are  doing  in  East  Africa  a  work  of 
worth  to  the  whole  world  ;  there  is  ample  room  for  both, 
and  no  possible  cause  for  any  but  a  thoroughly  friendly 
rivalry  ;  and  it  is  earnestly  to  be  wished,  in  the  interest 
both  of  them  and  of  outsiders  too,  that  their  relations 
will  grow,  as  they  ought  to  grow,  steadily  better — and 
not  only  in  East  Africa,  but  everywhere  else. 

On  the  ship  at  Naples  we  found  Selous,  also  bound 
for  East  Africa  on  a  hunting  trip ;  but  he,  a  veteran 
whose  first  hunting  in  Africa  was  nearly  forty  years 
ago,  cared  only  for  exceptional  trophies  of  a  very  few 
animals,  while  we,  on  the  other  hand,  desired  specimens 
of  both  sexes  of  all  the  species  of  big  game  that  Kermit 
and  I  could  shoot,  as  well  as  complete  series  of  all  the 
smaller  mammals.  We  believed  that  our  best  work  of 
a  purely  scientific  character  would  be  done  with  the 
mammals,  both  large  and  small. 

No   other   hunter   alive   has   had  the  experience  of 


6  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

Selous ;  and,  so  far  as  I  now  recall,  no  hunter  of  any- 
thing like  his  experience  has  ever  also  possessed  his  gift 
of  penetrating  observation  joined  to  his  power  of  vivid 
and  accurate  narration.  He  has  killed  scores  of  lion 
and  rhinoceros  and  hundreds  of  elephant  and  buffalo ; 
and  these  four  animals  are  the  most  dangerous  of  the 
world's  big  game,  when  hunted  as  they  are  hunted  in 
Africa.  To  hear  him  tell  of  what  he  has  seen  and  done 
is  no  less  interesting  to  a  naturalist  than  to  a  hunter. 
There  were  on  the  ship  many  men  who  loved  wild 
nature,  and  who  were  keen  hunters  of  big  game  ;  and 
almost  every  day,  as  we  steamed  over  the  hot,  smooth 
waters  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Indian  Ocean,  we  would 
gather  on  deck  around  Selous  to  listen  to  tales  of  those 
strange  adventures  that  only  come  to  the  man  who  has 
lived  long  the  lonely  life  of  the  wilderness. 

On  April  21  we  steamed  into  the  beautiful  and 
picturesque  harbour  of  Mombasa.  Many  centuries 
before  the  Christian  era,  dhows  from  Arabia,  carrying 
seafarers  of  Semitic  races  whose  very  names  have 
perished,  rounded  the  Lion's  Head  at  Guardafui  and 
crept  slowly  southward  along  the  barren  African  coast. 
Such  dhows  exist  to-day  almost  unchanged,  and  bold 
indeed  were  the  men  who  first  steered  them  across  the 
unknown  oceans.  I'hey  were  men  of  iron  heart  and 
supple  conscience,  who  fronted  inconceivable  danger 
and  hardship  ;  they  established  trading-stations  for  gold 
and  ivory  and  slaves ;  they  turned  these  trading-stations 
into  little  cities  and  sultanates,  half  Arab,  half  negro. 
Mombasa  was  among  them.  In  her  time  of  brief 
splendour  Portugal  seized  the  city  ;  the  Arabs  won  it 
back ;  and  now  England  holds  it.  It  lies  just  south  of 
the  Equator,  and  when  we  saw  it  the  brilliant  green 
of  the  tropic  foUage  showed  the  town  at  its  best. 


CH.  I]  MOMBASA  7 

We  were  welcomed  to  Government  House  in  most 
cordial  fashion  by  the  acting  Governor,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Jackson,  who  is  not  only  a  trained  public 
official  of  long  experience,  but  a  first-class  field-naturalist 
and  a  renowned  big-game  hunter  ;  indeed,  I  could  not 
too  warmly  express  my  appreciation  of  the  hearty  and 
generous  courtesy  with  which  we  were  received  and 
treated,  alike  by  the  official  and  the  unofficial  world, 
throughout  East  Africa.  We  landed  in  the  kind  of 
torrential  downpour  that  only  comes  in  the  tropics ;  it 
reminded  me  of  Panama  at  certain  moments  in  the 
rainy  season.  That  night  we  were  given  a  dinner  by 
the  Mombasa  Club,  and  it  was  interesting  to  meet  the 
merchants  and  planters  of  the  town  and  the  neighbour- 
hood as  well  as  the  officials.  The  former  included  not 
only  Englishmen,  but  also  Germans  and  Italians, 
which  is  quite  as  it  should  be,  for  at  least  part  of  the 
high  inland  region  of  British  East  Africa  can  be  made 
one  kind  of  "  white  man's  country,"  and  to  achieve 
this  white  men  should  work  heartily  together,  doing 
scrupulous  justice  to  the  natives,  but  remembering  that 
progress  and  development  in  this  particular  kind  of  new 
land  depend  exclusively  upon  the  masterful  leadership 
of  the  whites,  and  that  therefore  it  is  both  a  calamity 
and  a  crime  to  permit  the  whites  to  be  riven  in  sunder 
by  hatreds  and  jealousies.  The  coast  regions  of  British 
East  Africa  are  not  suited  for  extensive  white  settle- 
ment ;  but  the  hinterland  is,  and  there  everything 
should  be  done  to  encourage  such  settlement.  Non- 
white  aliens  should  not  be  encouraged  to  settle  where 
they  come  into  rivalry  with  the  whites  (exception  being 
made  as  regards  certain  particular  individuals  and  certain 
particular  occupations). 

There  are,  of  course,  large  regions  on  the  coast  and  in 


8  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

the  interior  where  ordinary  white  settlers  cannot  Hve,  in 
which  it  would  be  wise  to  settle  immigrants  from  India  ; 
and  there  are  many  positions  in  other  regions  which  it 
is  to  the  advantage  of  everybody  that  the  Indians 
should  hold,  because  there  is  as  yet  no  sign  that  sufficient 
numbers  of  white  men  are  willing  to  hold  them,  while 
the  native  blacks,  although  many  of  them  do  fairly  well 
in  unskilled  labour,  are  not  yet  competent  to  do  the 
higher  tasks  which  now  fall  to  the  share  of  the  Goanese, 
and  Moslem  and  non- Moslem  Indians.  The  small 
merchants  who  deal  with  the  natives,  for  instance,  and 
most  of  the  minor  railroad  officials,  belong  to  these 
latter  classes.  I  was  amused,  by  the  way,  at  one  bit 
of  native  nomenclature  in  connection  with  the  Goanese. 
Many  of  the  Goanese  are  now  as  dark  as  most  of  the 
other  Indians ;  but  they  are  descended  in  the  male  line 
from  the  early  Portuguese  adventurers  and  conquerors, 
who  were  the  first  white  men  ever  seen  by  the  natives 
of  this  coast.  Accordingly,  to  this  day  some  of  the 
natives  speak  even  of  the  dark-skinned  descendants  of 
the  subjects  of  King  Henry  the  Navigator  as  "the 
whites,"  designating  the  Europeans  specifically  as 
English,  Germans,  or  the  like ;  just  as  in  out-of-the- 
way  nooks  in  the  far  North-West  one  of  our  own  red 
men  will  occasionally  be  found  who  still  speaks  of 
Americans  and  Englishmen  as  "  Boston  men "  and 
"  King  George's  men." 

One  of  the  Government  farms  was  being  run  by  an 
educated  coloured  man  from  Jamaica,  and  we  were 
shown  much  courtesy  by  a  coloured  man  from  our  own 
country  who  was  practising  as  a  doctor.  No  one  could 
fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  immense  advance  these 
men  represented  as  compared  with  the  native  negro ; 
and,   indeed,   to   an  American,  who   must  necessarily 


CH.  i]  ADVENTUROUS  LIVES  9 

think  much  of  the  race  problem  at  home,  it  is  pleasant 
to  be  made  to  realize  in  vivid  fashion  the  progress  the 
American  negro  has  made  by  comparing  him  with  the 
negro  who  dwells  in  Africa  untouched,  or  but  lightly 
touched,  by  white  influence. 

In  such  a  comminiity  as  one  finds  in  Mombasa  or 
Nairobi  one  continually  runs  across  quiet,  modest  men 
whose  lives  have  been  fuller  of  wild  adventure  than  the 
life  of  a  Viking  leader  of  the  ninth  century.  One  of  the 
public  officials  whom  I  met  at  the  Governor's  table  was 
Major  Hinde.  He  had  at  one  time  served  under  the 
Government  of  the  Congo  Free  State ;  and  at  a  crisis 
in  the  fortunes  of  the  State,  when  the  Arab  slave-traders 
bade  fair  to  get  the  upper  hand,  he  was  one  of  the  eight 
or  ten  white  men,  representing  half  as  many  distinct 
nationalities,  who  overthrew  the  savage  soldiery  of  the 
slave-traders  and  shattered  beyond  recovery  the  Arab 
power.  They  organized  the  wild  pagan  tribes  just  as 
their  Arab  foes  had  done ;  they  fought  in  a  land  where 
deadly  sickness  struck  down  victor  and  vanquished  with 
ruthless  impartiality ;  they  found  their  commissariat  as 
best  they  could  wherever  they  happened  to  be ;  often 
they  depended  upon  one  day's  victory  to  furnish  the 
ammunition  with  which  to  wage  the  morrow's  battle  ; 
and  ever  they  had  to  be  on  guard  no  less  against  the 
thousands  of  cannibals  in  their  own  ranks  than  against 
the  thousands  of  cannibals  in  the  hostile  ranks,  for, 
on  whichever  side  they  fought,  after  every  battle  the 
warriors  of  the  man-eating  tribes  watched  their  chance 
to  butcher  the  wounded  indiscriminately  and  to  feast 
on  the  bodies  of  the  slain. 

The  most  thrilling  book  of  true  lion-stories  ever 
written  is  Colonel  Patterson's  "  The  Man-eaters  of 
Tsavo."     Colonel  Patterson  was  one  of  the  engineers 


10  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

engaged,  some  ten  or  twelve  years  back,  in  building  the 
Uganda  Railway.  He  was  in  charge  of  the  work,  at  a 
place  called  Tsavo,  when  it  was  brought  to  a  complete 
halt  by  the  ravages  of  a  couple  of  man-eating  lions, 
which,  after  many  adventures,  he  finally  killed.  At  the 
dinner  at  the  Mombasa  Club  I  met  one  of  the  actors 
in  a  blood-curdling  tragedy  which  Colonel  Patterson 
relates.  He  was  a  German,  and,  in  company  with  an 
Italian  friend,  he  went  down  in  the  special  car  of  one  of 
the  English  railroad  officials  to  try  to  kill  a  man-eating 
lion  which  had  carried  away  several  people  from  a 
station  on  the  line.  They  put  the  car  on  a  siding.  As  it 
was  hot,  the  door  was  left  open,  and  the  Englishman 
sat  by  the  open  window  to  watch  for  the  lion,  while  the 
Italian  finally  lay  down  on  the  floor  and  the  German 
got  into  an  upper  bunk.  Evidently  the  Englishman 
must  have  fallen  asleep,  and  the  lion,  seeing  him  through 
the  window,  entered  the  carriage  by  the  door  to  get  at 
him.  The  Italian  waked  to  find  the  lion  standing  on 
him  with  its  hind-feet,  while  its  fore-paws  were  on  the 
seat  as  it  killed  the  unfortunate  Englishman ;  and  the 
German,  my  informant,  hearing  the  disturbance,  leaped 
out  of  his  bunk  actually  on  to  the  back  of  the  lion. 
The  man-eater,  however,  was  occupied  only  with  his 
prey ;  holding  the  body  in  his  mouth,  he  forced  his 
way  out  through  the  window- sash,  and  made  his  meal 
undisturbed  but  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  from  the 
railway-carriage. 

The  day  after  we  landed  we  boarded  the  train  to  take 
what  seems  to  me,  as  I  think  it  would  to  most  men 
fond  of  natural  history,  the  most  interesting  railway 
journey  in  the  world.  It  was  Governor  Jackson's 
special  train,  and  in  addition  to  his  own  party  and  ours 
there   was   only    Selous ;    and   we   travelled   with   the 


CH.  I]  GAME  RESERVES  11 

utmost  comfort  through  a  naturalist's  wonderland.  All 
civilized  Governments  are  now  realizing  that  it  is 
their  duty  here  and  there  to  preserve  certain  defined 
districts,  with  the  wild  things  thereon,  the  destruction 
of  which  means  the  destruction  of  half  the  charm  of 
wild  nature.  The  English  Government  has  made  a 
large  game  reserve  of  much  of  the  region  on  the  way 
to  Nairobi,  stretching  far  to  the  south,  and  one  mile 
to  the  north,  of  the  track.  The  reserve  swarms  with 
game ;  it  would  be  of  little  value  except  as  a  reserve ; 
and  the  attraction  it  now  offers  to  travellers  renders  it 
an  asset  of  real  consequence  to  the  whole  colony. 
The  wise  people  of  Maine,  in  our  own  country,  have 
disc«^ptred  that  intelligent  game  preservation,  carried 
out  in  good  faith,  and  in  a  spirit  of  common  sense  as 
far  removed  from  mushy  sentimentality  as  from 
brutality,  results  in  adding  one  more  to  the  State's 
natural  resources  of  value  ;  and  in  consequence  there 
are  more  moose  and  deer  in  Maine  to-day  than  there 
were  forty  years  ago.  There  is  a  better  chance  for  every 
man  in  Maine,  rich  or  poor,  provided  that  he  is  not  a 
game  butcher,  to  enjoy  his  share  of  good  hunting ;  and 
the  number  of  sportsmen  and  tourists  attracted  to  the 
State  adds  very  appreciably  to  the  means  of  livelihood 
of  the  citizen.  Game  reserves  should  not  be  established 
where  they  are  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  large 
bodies  of  settlers,  nor  yet  should  they  be  nominally 
established  in  regions  so  remote  that  the  only  men  really 
mterfered  with  are  those  who  respect  the  law,  while  a 
premium  is  thereby  put  on  the  activity  of  the  un- 
scrupulous persons  who  are  eager  to  break  it.  Similarly, 
game  laws  should  be  drawn  primarily  in  the  interest  of 
the  whole  people,  keeping  steadily  in  mind  certain  facts 
that  ought  to  be  self-evident  to  everyone  above  the 


12  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

intellectual  level  of  those  well-meaning  persons  who 
apparently  think  that  all  shooting  is  wrong,  and  that 
man  could  continue  to  exist  if  all  wild  animals  were 
allowed  to  increase  unchecked.  There  must  be  recog- 
nition of  the  fact  that  almost  any  wild  animal  of  the 
defenceless  type,  if  its  multiplication  were  unchecked, 
while  its  natural  enemies — the  dangerous  carnivores — 
were  killed,  would  by  its  simple  increase  crowd  man  off 
the  planet ;  and  of  the  further  fact  that,  far  short  of 
such  increase,  a  time  speedily  comes  when  the  existence 
of  too  much  game  is  incompatible  with  the  interests,  or, 
indeed,  the  existence,  of  the  cultivator.  As  in  most 
other  matters,  it  is  only  the  happy  mean  which  is  healthy 
and  rational.  There  should  be  certain  sanctuari^^  and 
nurseries  where  game  can  live  and  breed  absolutely 
unmolested ;  and  elsewhere  the  laws  should,  so  far  as 
possible,  provide  for  the  continued  existence  of  the  game 
in  sufficient  numbers  to  allow  a  reasonable  amount  of 
hunting  on  fair  terms  to  any  hardy  and  vigorous  man 
fond  of  the  sport,  and  yet  not  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
jeopardize  the  interests  of  the  actual  settler,  the  tiller  of 
the  soil,  the  man  whose  well-being  should  be  the  prime 
object  to  be  kept  in  mind  by  every  statesman.  Game 
butchery  is  as  objectionable  as  any  other  form  of  wanton 
cruelty  or  barbarity  ;  but  to  protest  against  all  hunting 
of  game  is  a  sign  of  softness  of  head,  not  of  soundness 
of  heart. 

In  the  creation  of  the  great  game  reserve  through 
which  the  Uganda  Railway  runs  the  British  Govern- 
ment has  conferred  a  boon  upon  mankind,  and  no  less 
in  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of  the  game  laws  in 
the  African  provinces  generally.  Of  course,  experience 
will  show  where,  from  time  to  time,  there  must  be 
changes.      In   Uganda    proper    buffiiloes    and    hippos 


CH.  I]  THE  UGANDA  RAILWAY  13 

throve  so  under  protection  as  to  become  sources  of 
grave  danger,  not  only  to  the  crops,  but  to  the  lives  of 
the  natives,  and  they  had  to  be  taken  off  the  protected 
lists  and  classed  as  vermin,  to  be  shot  in  any  numbers  at 
any  time,  and  only  the  great  demand  for  ivory  pre- 
vented the  necessity  of  following  the  same  course  with 
regard  to  the  elephant ;  while  recently  in  British  East 
Africa  the  increase  of  the  zebras,  and  the  harm  they  did 
to  the  crops  of  the  settlers,  rendered  it  necessary  to 
remove  a  large  measure  of  the  protection  formerly 
accorded  them,  and  in  some  cases  actually  to  encourage 
their  slaughter  ;  and  increase  in  settlement  may  neces- 
sitate further  changes.  But,  speaking  generally,  much 
wisdom  and  foresight,  highly  creditable  to  both  Govern- 
ment and  people,  have  been  shown  in  dealing  with 
and  preserving  East  African  game,  while  at  the  same 
time  safeguarding  the  interests  of  the  settlers. 

On  our  train  the  locomotive  was  fitted  with  a  com- 
fortable seat  across  the  cow-catcher,  and  on  this,  except 
at  meal- time,  I  spent  most  of  the  hours  of  daylight, 
usually  in  company  with  Selous,  and  often  with  Governor 
Jackson,  to  whom  the  territory  and  the  game  were  alike 
familiar.  The  first  afternoon  we  did  not  see  many  wild 
animals,  but  birds  abounded,  and  the  scenery  was  both 
beautiful  and  interesting.  A  black  and-white  hornbill, 
feeding  on  the  track,  rose  so  late  that  we  nearly  caught 
it  with  our  hands  ;  guinea-fowl  and  francolin,  and  occa- 
sionally bustard,  rose  near  by ;  brilliant  rollers,  sun- 
birds,  bee-eaters,  and  weaver-birds,  flew  beside  us,  or 
sat  unmoved  among  the  trees  as  the  train  passed.  In 
the  dusk  we  nearly  ran  over  a  hyena.  A  year  or  two 
previously  the  train  actually  did  run  over  a  lioness  one 
night,  and  the  conductor  brought  in  her  head  in  triumph. 
In  fact,  there  have  been  continual  mishaps,  such  as  could 


14  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

only  happen  to  a  railroad  in  the  Pleistocene  Age  !  The 
very  night  we  went  up  there  was  an  interruption  in  the 
telegraph  service,  due  to  giraffes  having  knocked  down 
some  of  the  wires  and  a  pole  in  crossing  the  track  ;  and 
elephants  have  more  than  once  performed  the  same  feat. 
Two  or  three  times  at  night  giraffes  have  been  run  into 
and  killed  :  once  a  rhinoceros  was  killed,  the  engine 
being  damaged  in  the  encounter  ;  and  on  other  occasions 
the  rhino  has  only  just  left  the  track  in  time,  once  the 
beast  being  struck  and  a  good  deal  hurt,  the  engine 
again  being  somewhat  crippled.  But  the  lions  now 
offer,  and  have  always  offered,  the  chief  source  of 
unpleasant  excitement.  Throughout  East  Africa  the 
lions  continually  take  to  man-eating  at  the  expense  of 
the  native  tribes,  and  white  hunters  are  frequently  being 
killed  or  crippled  by  them.  At  the  lonely  stations  on 
the  railroad  the  two  or  three  subordinate  officials  often 
live  in  terror  of  some  fearsome  brute  that  has  taken  to 
haunting  the  vicinity ;  and  every  few  months,  at  some 
one  of  these  stations,  a  man  is  killed,  or  badly  hurt  by, 
or  narrowly  escapes  from,  a  prowling  lion. 

The  stations  at  which  the  train  stopped  were  neat 
and  attractive  ;  and,  besides  the  Indian  officials,  there 
were  usually  natives  from  the  neighbourhood.  Some 
of  these  might  be  dressed  in  the  fez  and  shirt  and 
trousers  which  indicate  a  coming  under  the  white  man's 
influence,  or  which,  rather  curiously,  may  also  indicate 
Mohammedanism.  But  most  of  the  natives  are  still 
wild  pagans,  and  many  of  them  are  unchanged  in  the 
slightest  particular  from  what  their  forefathers  were 
during  the  countless  ages  when  they  alone  were  the 
heirs  of  the  land — a  land  which  they  were  utterly  power- 
less in  any  way  to  improve.  Some  of  the  savages  we 
saw  wore  red  blankets,  and  in  deference  to  white  pre- 


CH.  I]  NATURAL  ZOOLOGICAL  GARDEN     15 

judice  draped  them  so  as  to  hide  their  nakedness.  But 
others  appeared — men  and  women — with  literally  not 
one  stitch  of  clothing,  although  they  might  have  rather 
elaborate  hairdresses,  and  masses  of  metal  ornaments  on 
their  arms  and  legs.  In  the  region  where  one  tribe 
dwelt  all  the  people  had  their  front  teeth  filed  to  sharp 
points.  It  was  strange  to  see  a  group  of  these  savages, 
stark  naked,  with  oddly  shaved  heads  and  filed  teeth, 
armed  with  primitive  bows  and  arrows,  stand  gravely 
gazing  at  the  train  as  it  rolled  into  some  station ;  and 
none  the  less  strange,  by  the  way,  because  the  loco- 
motive was  a  Baldwin,  brought  to  Africa  across  the 
great  ocean  from  our  own  country.  One  group  of 
women,  nearly  nude,  had  their  upper  arms  so  tightly 
bound  with  masses  of  bronze  or  copper  wire  that  their 
muscles  were  completely  malformed.  So  tightly  was 
the  wire  wrapped  round  the  upper  third  of  the  upper 
arm  that  it  was  reduced  to  about  one-half  of  its  normal 
size,  and  the  muscles  could  only  play,  and  that  in  de- 
formed fashion,  below  this  unyielding  metal  bandage. 
Why  the  arms  did  not  mortify  it  was  hard  to  say,  and 
their  freedom  of  use  was  so  hampered  as  to  make  it 
difficult  to  understand  how  men  or  women  whose 
whole  lives  are  passed  in  one  or  another  form  of  manual 
labour  could  inflict  upon  themselves  such  crippling  and 
pointless  punishment. 

Next  morning  we  were  in  the  game  country,  and  as 
we  sat  on  the  seat  over  the  cow-catcher  it  was  literally 
like  passing  through  a  vast  zoological  garden.  Indeed, 
no  such  railway  journey  can  be  taken  on  any  other  line 
in  any  other  land.  At  one  time  we  passed  a  herd  of  a 
dozen  or  so  of  great  giraffes,  cows  and  calves,  cantering 
along  through  the  open  woods  a  couple  of  hundred 
yards  to  the  right  of  the  train.     Again,  still  closer,  four. 


16  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

waterbuck  cows,  their  big  ears  thrown  forward,  stared 
at  us  without  moving  until  we  had  passed.  Hartebeests 
were  everywhere  ;  one  herd  was  on  the  track,  and  when 
the  engine  whistled  they  bucked  and  sprang  with  un- 
gainly agility  and  galloped  clear  of  the  danger.  A 
long-tailed,  straw-coloured  monkey  ran  from  one  tree  to 
another.  Huge  black  ostriches  appeared  from  time  to 
time.  Once  a  troop  of  impalla,  close  by  the  track,  took 
fright ;  and  as  the  beautiful  creatures  fled  we  saw  now 
one  and  now  another  bound  clear  over  the  high  bushes. 
A  herd  of  zebra  clattered  across  a  cutting  of  the  line 
not  a  hundred  yards  ahead  of  the  train ;  the  whistle 
hurried  their  progress,  but  only  for  a  moment,  and  as 
we  passed  they  were  already  turning  round  to  gaze. 
The  wild  creatures  were  in  their  sanctuary,  and  they 
knew  it.  Some  of  the  settlers  have  at  times  grumbled 
at  this  game  reserve  being  kept  of  such  size,  but  surely 
it  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  possessions  the  country 
could  have.  The  lack  of  water  in  parts,  the  prevalence 
in  other  parts  of  diseases  harmful  to  both  civilized  man 
and  domestic  cattle,  render  this  great  tract  of  country 
the  home  of  all  homes  for  the  creatures  of  the  waste. 
The  protection  given  these  wild  creatures  is  genuine, 
not  nominal ;  they  are  preserved,  not  for  the  pleasure  of 
the  few,  but  for  the  good  of  all  who  choose  to  see  this 
strange  and  attractive  spectacle ;  and  from  this  nursery 
and  breeding-ground  the  overflow  keeps  up  the  stock  of 
game  in  the  adjacent  land,  to  the  benefit  of  the  settler 
to  whom  the  game  gives  fresh  meat,  and  to  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  country  because  of  the  attraction  it  furnishes 
to  all  who  desire  to  visit  a  veritable  happy  hunting- 
ground. 

Soon  after  lunch  we  drew  up  at  the  little  station  of 
.Kapiti  Plains,  where  our  safari  was  awaiting  us,  "  safari " 


CH.  I]  FIELD  NATURALISTS  17 

being  the  term  employed  throughout  East  Africa  to 
denote  both  the  caravan  with  which  one  makes  an 
expedition  and  the  expedition  itself.  Our  aim  being  to 
cure  and  send  home  specimens  of  all  the  common  big 
game — in  addition  to  as  large  a  series  as  possible  of  the 
small  mammals  and  birds — it  was  necessary  to  carry 
an  elaborate  apparatus  of  naturalists'  supplies.  We  had 
brought  with  us,  for  instance,  four  tons  of  fine  salt,  as 
to  cure  the  skins  of  the  big  beasts  is  a  Herculean  labour 
under  the  best  conditions.  We  had  hundreds  of  traps 
for  the  small  creatures ;  many  boxes  of  shot-gun  car- 
tridges, in  addition  to  the  ordinary  rifle  cartridges  which 
alone  would  be  necessary  on  a  hunting  trip ;  and,  in 
short,  all  the  many  impedimenta  needed  if  scientific 
work  is  to  be  properly  done  under  modern  conditions. 
Few  laymen  have  any  idea  of  the  expense  and  pains 
which  must  be  undergone  in  order  to  provide  groups  of 
mounted  big  animals  from  far-off  lands,  such  as  we  see 
in  museums  like  the  National  Museum  in  Washington 
and  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History  in  New 
York.  The  modem  naturalist  must  realize  that  in  some 
of  its  branches  his  profession,  while  more  than  ever  a 
science,  has  also  become  an  art.  So  our  preparations 
were  necessarily  on  a  very  large  scale  ;  and  as  we  drew 
up  at  the  station  the  array  of  porters  and  of  tents 
looked  as  if  some  small  military  expedition  was  about 
to  start.  As  a  compliment,  which  I  much  appreciated, 
a  large  American  flag  was  floating  over  my  own  tent ; 
and  in  the  front  line,  flanking  this  tent  on  either  hand, 
were  other  big  tents  for  the  members  of  the  party,  with 
a  dining  tent  and  a  skinning  tent ;  while  behind  were 
the  tents  of  the  two  hundred  porters,  the  gun-bearers,  the 
tent-boys,  the  askaris,  or  native  soldiers,  and  the  horse- 
boys, or  saises.   In  front  of  the  tents  stood  the  men  in  two 

2 


18  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

lines,  the  first  containing  the  fifteen  askaris,  the  second 
the  porters  with  their  head-men.  The  askaris  were 
uniformed,  each  in  a  red  fez,  a  blue  blouse,  and  white 
knickerbockers,  and  each  carrying  his  rifle  and  belt. 
The  porters  were  chosen  from  several  different  tribes  or 
races,  to  minimize  the  danger  of  combination  in  the 
event  of  mutiny. 

Here  and  there  in  East  Africa  one  can  utilize  ox- 
waggons  or  pack-trains  of  donkeys  ;  but  for  a  consider- 
able expedition  it  is  still  best  to  use  a  safari  of  native 
porters,  of  the  type  by  which  the  commerce  and  ex- 
ploration of  the  country  have  always  been  carried  on. 
The  backbone  of  such  a  safari  is  generally  composed 
of  Swahili,  the  coast  men,  negroes  who  have  acquired 
the  Moslem  religion,  together  with  a  partially  Arabi- 
cized  tongue  and  a  strain  of  Arab  blood  from  the  Arab 
warriors  and  traders  who  have  been  dominant  in  the 
coast  towns  for  so  many  centuries.  It  was  these  Swa- 
hili trading  caravans,  under  Arab  leadership,  which,  in 
their  quest  for  ivory  and  slaves,  trod  out  the  routes 
which  the  early  white  explorers  followed.  Without 
their  work  as  a  preliminary,  the  work  of  the  white 
explorers  could  not  have  been  done ;  and  it  was  the 
SwahiH  porters  themselves  who  rendered  this  work 
itself  possible.  To  this  day  every  hunter,  trader,  mis- 
sionary, or  explorer  must  use  either  a  Swahili  safari  or 
one  modelled  on  the  Swahili  basis.  The  part  played  by 
the  white-topped  ox-waggon  in  the  history  of  South 
Africa,  and  by  the  camel  caravan  in  North  Africa,  has 
been  played  in  middle  Africa  by  the  files  of  strong, 
patient,  childlike  savages,  who  have  borne  the  burdens 
of  so  many  masters  and  employers  hither  and  thither, 
through  and  across,  the  dark  heart  of  the  continent. 

Equatorial  Africa  is  in  most  places  none  too  healthy 


CH.  I]  PREPARATIONS  19 

a  place  for  the  white  man,  and  he  must  care  for  himself 
as  he  would  scorn  to  do  in  the  lands  of  pine  and  birch 
and  frosty  weather.  Camping  in  the  Rockies  or  the 
North  Woods  can  with  advantage  be  combined  with 
"  roughing  it  ";  and  the  early  pioneers  of  the  West,  the 
explorers,  prospectors,  and  hunters,  who  always  roughed 
it,  were  as  hardy  as  bears,  and  lived  to  a  hale  old  age,  if 
Indians  and  accidents  permitted.  But  in  tropical  Africa 
a  lamentable  proportion  of  the  early  explorers  paid  in 
health  or  life  for  the  hardships  they  endured  ;  and 
throughout  most  of  the  country  no  man  can  long  rough 
it,  in  the  Western  and  Northern  sense,  with  impunity. 

At  Kapiti  Plains  our  tents,  our  accommodation 
generally,  seemed  almost  too  comfortable  for  men  who 
knew  camp  life  only  on  the  Great  Plains,  in  the 
Rockies,  and  in  the  North  Woods.  My  tent  had  a  fly, 
which  was  to  protect  it  from  the  great  heat ;  there  was 
a  little  rear  extension  in  which  I  bathed — a  hot  bath, 
never  a  cold  bath,  is  almost  a  tropic  necessity  ;  there 
was  a  ground  canvas,  of  vital  moment  in  a  land  of  ticks, 
jiggers,  and  scorpions  ;  and  a  cot  to  sleep  on,  so  as  to 
be  raised  from  the  ground.  Quite  a  contrast  to  life  on 
the  round-up !  Then,  I  had  two  tent-boys  to  see  after 
my  belongings,  and  to  wait  at  table  as  well  as  in  the 
tent.  Ali,  a  Mohammedan  mulatto  (Arab  and  negro), 
was  the  chief  of  the  two,  and  spoke  some  English,  while 
under  him  was  "  Bill,"  a  speechless  black  boy,  Ali 
being  particularly  faithful  and  efficient.  Two  other 
Mohammedan  negroes,  clad  like  the  askaris,  reported  to 
me  as  my  gun-bearers,  Muhammed  and  Bakiri ;  seemingly 
excellent  men,  loyal  and  enduring,  no  trackers,  but  with 
keen  eyes  for  game,  and  the  former  speaking  a  little 
English.  My  two  horse-boys,  or  saises,  were  both 
pagans.     One,  Hamisi,  must  have  had  in  his  veins  Galla 


20  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

or  other  non-negro  blood ;  derived  from  the  Hamitic, 
or  bastard  Semitic,  or  at  least  non-negro,  tribes  which, 
pushing  slowly  and  fitfully  southward  and  south- 
westward  among  the  negro  peoples,  have  created  an 
intricate  tangle  of  ethnic  and  linguistic  types  from  the 
middle  Nile  to  far  south  of  the  Equator.  Hamisi  always 
wore  a  long  feather  in  one  of  his  sandals,  the  only 
ornament  he  affected.  The  other  sais  was  a  silent, 
gentle-mannered  black  heathen ;  his  name  was  Simba, 
a  lion,  and,  as  I  shall  later  show,  he  was  not  unworthy 
of  it.  The  two  horses  for  which  these  men  cared  were 
stout,  quiet  little  beasts ;  one,  a  sorrel,  I  named  Tran- 
quillity, and  the  other,  a  brown,  had  so  much  the  coblike 
build  of  a  zebra  that  we  christened  him  Zebra-shape. 
One  of  Kermit's  two  horses,  by  the  way,  was  more 
romantically  named  after  Huandaw,  the  sharp-eared 
steed  of  the  "  Mabinogion."  Cuninghame,  lean,  sinewy, 
bearded,  exactly  the  type  of  hunter  and  safari  manager 
that  one  would  wish  for  such  an  expedition  as  ours,  had 
ridden  up  wdth  us  on  the  train,  and  at  the  station  we 
met  Tarlton,  and  also  two  settlers  of  the  neighbourhood. 
Sir  Alfred  Pease  and  Mr.  Chfford  Hill.  Hill  was  an 
Africander.  He  and  his  cousin,  Harold  Hill,  after 
serving  through  the  South  African  War,  had  come  to 
the  new  country  of  British  East  Africa  to  settle,  and 
they  represented  the  ideal  type  of  settler  for  taking  the 
lead  in  the  spread  of  empire.  They  were  descended 
from  the  English  colonists  who  came  to  South  Africa 
in  1820 ;  they  had  never  been  in  England,  neither  had 
Tarlton.  It  was  exceedingly  interesting  to  meet  these 
Australians  and  Africanders,  who  typified  in  their  lives 
and  deeds  the  greatness  of  the  British  Empire,  and  yet 
had  never  seen  England. 

As  for  Sir  Alfred,  Kermit  and  I  were  to  be  his  guests 


CH.  I]  KAPITI  STATION  21 

for  the  next  fortnight,  and  we  owe  primarily  to  him,  to 
his  mastery  of  hunting  craft,  and  his  unvarying  and 
generous  hospitality  and  kindness,  the  pleasure  and 
success  of  our  introduction  to  African  hunting.  His 
life  had  been  one  of  such  varied  interest  as  has  only 
been  possible  in  our  own  generation.  He  had  served 
many  years  in  Parliament ;  he  had  for  some  years  been 
a  magistrate  in  a  peculiarly  responsible  post  in  the 
Transvaal ;  he  had  journeyed  and  hunted  and  explored 
in  the  northern  Sahara,  in  the  Soudan,  in  Somaliland, 
in  Abyssinia ;  and  now  he  was  ranching  in  East  Africa. 
A  singularly  good  rider  and  one  of  the  best  game  shots 
I  have  ever  seen,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  find 
a  kinder  host  or  a  hunter  better  fitted  to  teach  us  how 
to  begin  our  work  with  African  big  game. 

At  Kapiti  Station  there  was  little  beyond  the  station 
buildings,  a  "  compound  "  or  square  enclosure  in  which 
there  were  many  natives,  and  an  Indian  store.  The 
last  was  presided  over  by  a  turbaned  Mussulman,  the 
agent  of  other  Indian  traders  who  did  business  in 
Machakos-boma,  a  native  village  a  dozen  miles  distant ; 
the  means  of  communication  being  two-wheeled  carts, 
each  drawn  by  four  humped  oxen,  driven  by  a  wellnigh 
naked  savage. 

For  forty-eight  hours  we  were  busy  arranging  our 
outfit,  and  the  naturalists  took  much  longer.  The 
provisions  were  those  usually  included  in  an  African 
hunting  or  exploring  trip,  save  that,  in  memory  of  my 
days  in  the  West,  I  included  in  each  provision  box  a 
few  cans  of  Boston  baked  beans,  California  peaches,  and 
tomatoes.  We  had  plenty  of  warm  bedding,  for  the 
nights  are  cold  at  high  altitudes,  even  under  the  Equator. 
While  hunting  I  wore  heavy  shoes,  with  hobnails  or 
rubber   soles ;    khaki    trousers,   the    knees   faced   with 


22  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

leather,  and  the  legs  buttoning  tight  from  the  knee  to 
below  the  ankle,  to  avoid  the  need  of  leggings  ;  a  khaki - 
coloured  army  shirt,  and  a  sun  helmet,  which  I  wore  in 
deference  to  local  advice,  instead  of  my  beloved  and 
far  more  convenient  slouch  hat.  My  rifles  were  an 
army  Springfield,  30-calibre,  stocked  and  sighted  to  suit 
myself ;  a  Winchester  -405  ;  and  a  double-barrelled 
•500- '450  Holland,  a  beautiful  weapon  presented  to 
me  by  some  English  friends.^ 

^  Mr.  E.  N.  Buxton  took  the  lead  in  the  matter  when  he  heard 
that  I  intended  making  a  trip  after  big  game  in  Africa.  I 
received  the  rifle  at  the  White  House,  while  I  was  President. 
Inside  the  case  was  the  following  list  of  donors : 

LIST    OF   ZOOLOGISTS   AND    SPORTSMEN   WHO    ARE 

DONORS  OF  A  DOUBLE  ELEPHANT  RIFLE  TO 

THE  HON.  THEODORE  ROOSEVELT, 

PRESIDENT  U.S.A. 

IN    RECOGNITION    OF    HIS    SERVICES    ON    BEHALF    OF    THE    PRESERVATION 

OF    SPECIES    BY    MEANS    OF   NATIONAL    PARKS    AND    FOREST 

RESERVES,    AND    BY    OTHER    MEANS 

E.  N.  Buxton,  Esq. 

Rt.  Hon.  Lord  Avebury,  D.C.L.     ("  The  Pleasures  of  Life,"  etc.) 

Major-General  Sir  F.  Reginald  Wingate,  K.C.B.  (Governor- 
General  of  the  Soudan.) 

Sir  Edmund  G.  Loder,  Bart. 

Hon.  N.  C.  Rothschild. 

The  Earl  of  Lonsdale.     (Master  of  Hounds.) 

Sir  R.  G.  Harvey,  Bart. 

The  Right  Hon.  Lord  Curzon  of  Kedleston,  G.C.S.L,  G.C.I.E. 

St,  George  Littledale,  Esq. 

Dr.  p.  Chalmers  Mitchell,  F.R.S.,  F.Z.S.  (Secretary  of  the 
Zoological  Society.) 

C.  E.  Green,  Esq.     (Master  of  Essex  Hounds.) 

F.  C.  Selous,  Esq.     ("  A  Hunter's  W^anderings,"  etc.) 
Count  Blijcher. 

Lieut. -Colonel  C.  Delme  Radcliffe,  C.M.G,,  M.V.O. 
Maurice  Egerton,  Esq. 
Lord  Desborough,  C.V.O. 
Captain  M.  McNeill. 


CH.  I]  OUR  ARxMAMENT  28 

Kermit's  battery  was  of  the  same  type,  except  that 
instead  of  a  Springfield  he  had  another  Winchester, 
shooting  the  army  ammunition,  and  his  double-ban*el 
was  a  Rigby.  In  addition  I  had  a  Fox  No.  12  shot- 
gun ;  no  better  gun  was  ever  made. 

Claude  H.  Tritton,  Esq. 

J.  TURNEH-TURNER,  EsQ. 

Hon.  L.  W.  Rothschild,  M.P. 

Right  Hon.  Sir  E.  Grev,  Bart.,  M.P.  (Foreign  Secretary  and 
author  of  "  Dry  Fly  Fishing.") 

Sir  M.  dk  C.  Findlay,  C.M.G.     (British  Minister  at  Dresden.) 

C.  Phillipi's-Wolley,  Esq.,  F.R.G.S.     ("  Sport  in  the  Caucasus.") 

Right  Hon.  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan,  Bart.,  D.C.L.  ("The 
American  Revolution.") 

Warburtox  Pike,  Esq. 

Sir  Wm.  E.  Garstin,  G.C.M.G. 

His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  K.G.  (Author  of  "  A  Great 
Estate.") 

Her  Grace  the  Duchess  of  Bedford. 

Lord  Brassey,  G.C.B.,  M.V.O.     (Owner  of  the  Sunbeam.) 

Hon.  T.  a.  Brassey.     (Editor  of  the  Naval  Annual,) 

Rhys  Williams,  Esq. 

Major-Genf.ral  a.  a.  A.  Kinloch,  C.B.  ("  Large  Game  in 
Thibet.") 

Sir  Wm.  Lee-Warner,  K.C.S.I.  ("The  Protected  Princes  of 
India.") 

The  Right  Rev.  the  Lord  Bishop  of  London. 

M.\jor-General  Dalrymple  White. 

Colonel  Claude  Cane. 

Right  Hon.  Sydntey  Buxton,  M.P.  (Postmaster-General,  "  Fish- 
ing and  Shooting.") 

Major  C.  E.  Radclyffe,  D.S.O. 

Sir  a.  E.  Pease,  Bart.     ("  Cleveland  Hounds.") 

Sir  H.  H.  Johnston,  K.C.B.,  G.C.M.G.  ("The  Uganda  Pro- 
tectorate.") 

Abel  Chapman,  Esq.     ("  Wild  Spain.") 

J.  G.  Millais,  Esq.,  F.Z.S.     ("  A  Breath  from  the  Veldt.") 

E.  Lort-Phillips,  Esq.     (Author  of  ornithological  works.) 
R.  Kearton,  Esq.,  F.Z.S.     ("  Wild  Nature's  Ways.") 

J.  H.  GuRNEY,  Esq.,  F.Z.S.     (Works  on  ornithology.) 

F.  J.   Jackson,  C.B.,  C.M.G.,   Lieut.-Governor  East  African 

Protectorate.     ("  Big  Game,"  Badminton  Library.) 
Coix)NEL  Sir  F.  Lugard,  K.C.M.G.,  C.B.,  D.S.O. 


24  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

There  was  one  other  bit  of  impedimenta,  less  usual 
for  African  travel,  but  perhaps  almost  as  essential  for 
real  enjoyment  even  on  a  hunting  trip,  if  it  is  to  be  of 
any  length.  This  was  the  "  pigskin  library,"  so  called 
because  most  of  the  books  were  bound  in  pigskin. 
They  were  carried  in  a  light  aluminium  and  oilcloth 
case,  which,  with  its  contents,  weighed  a  little  less  than 
sixty  pounds,  making  a  load  for  one  porter.  Including 
a  few  volumes  carried  in  the  various  bags,  so  that  I 
might  be  sure  always  to  have  one  with  me,  and 
"  Gregorovius,"  read  on  the  voyage  outward,  the  list 
was  as  printed  in  Appendix  E. 

It  represents  in  part  Kermit's  taste,  in  part  mine ; 
and,  I  need  hardly  say,  it  also  represents  in  no  way  all 
the  books  we  most  care  for,  but  merely  those  which,  for 
one  reason  or  another,  we  thought  we  should  like  to 
take  on  this  particular  trip. 

I  used  my  Whitman  tree  army  saddle  and  my  army 
field-glasses  ;  but,  in  addition,  for  studying  the  habits  of 
the  game,  I  carried  a  telescope  given  me  on  the  boat  by 
a  fellow  traveller  and  big-game  hunter,  an  Irish  Hussar 
Captain  from  India — and  incidentally  I  am  out  in  my 
guess  if  this  same  Irish  Hussar  Captain  be  not  worth 
watching  should  his  country  ever  again  be  engaged  in 

Lady  Lugard.     ("  A  Tropical  Dependency.") 

Sir  Clement  L.  Hill,  K.C.B.,  M.P.     (Late  Head  of  the  African 

Department,  Foreign  Office.) 
Sir  H.  Seton-Karr,  M.P.,  C.M.G.     ("  My  Sporting  Holidays.") 
Captain  Boyd  Alexander.     ("  From  the  Niger  to  the  Nile.") 
Sir  J.  Kirk,  K.C.B.,  G.C.M.G.     (Dr.  Livingstone's  companion, 

1858-64.) 
Moreton  Frewen,  Esq. 
The  Earl  of  AVarwick. 
P.  L.  Sclater,  Esq.,  D.Sc,  Ph.D.     (Late  Secretary  Zoological 

Society.) 
Colonel  J.  H.  Patterson,  D.S.O.     («  The  Tsavo  Lion.") 


CH.  t]  our  camp  25 

war.  I  had  a  very  ingenious  beam  or  scale  for  weigh- 
ing game,  designed  and  presented  to  me  by  my  friend, 
Mr.  Thompson  Seton.  I  had  a  sUcker  for  wet  weather, 
an  army  overcoat,  and  a  mackinaw  jacket  for  cold,  if  I 
had  to  stay  out  overnight  in  the  mountains.  In  my 
pockets  I  carried,  of  course,  a  knife,  a  compass,  and  a 
waterproof  matchbox.  Finally,  just  before  leaving 
home,  I  had  been  sent,  for  good  luck,  a  gold-mounted 
rabbit's  foot,  by  Mr.  John  L.  Sullivan,  at  one  time  ring 
champion  of  the  world. 

Our  camp  was  on  a  bare,  dry  plain,  covered  with 
brown  and  withered  grass.  At  most  hours  of  the  day 
we  could  see  round  about,  perhaps  a  mile  or  so  distant, 
or  less,  the  game  feeding.  South  of  the  track  the  reserve 
stretched  for  a  long  distance  ;  north  it  went  for  but  a 
mile,  just  enough  to  prevent  thoughtless  or  cruel  people 
from  shooting  as  they  went  by  in  the  train.  There  was 
very  little  water  ;  what  we  drank,  by  the  way,  was  care- 
fully boiled.  The  drawback  to  the  camp,  and  to  all  this 
plains  region,  lay  in  the  ticks,  which  swarmed,  and  were 
a  scourge  to  man  and  beast.  Every  evening  the  saises 
picked  them  by  hundreds  off  each  horse,  and  some  of 
our  party  were  at  times  so  bitten  by  the  noisome  little 
creatures  that  they  could  hardly  sleep  at  night,  and  in 
one  or  two  cases  the  man  was  actually  laid  up  for  a 
couple  of  days  ;  and  two  of  our  horses  ultimately  got 
tick  fever,  but  recovered. 

In  mid-afternoon  of  our  third  day  in  this  camp  we  at 
last  had  matters  in  such  shape  that  Kermit  and  I  could 
begin  our  hunting ;  and  forth  we  rode,  he  with  Hill,  I 
with  Sir  Alfred,  each  accompanied  by  his  gun-bearers 
and  sais,  and  by  a  few  porters  to  carry  in  the  game. 
For  two  or  three  miles  our  little  horses  shuffled  steadily 
northward  across  the  desolate  flats  of  short  grass  until 


26  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  ch.  i] 

the  ground  began  to  rise  here  and  there  into  low  hills, 
or  kopjes,  with  rock-strewn  tops.  It  should  have  been 
the  rainy  season,  the  season  of  "  the  big  rains  ";  but  the 
rains  were  late,  as  the  parched  desolation  of  the  land- 
scape bore  witness  ;  nevertheless,  there  were  two  or 
three  showers  that  afternoon.  We  soon  began  to  see 
game,  but  the  flatness  of  the  country  and  the  absence  of 
all  cover  made  stalking  a  matter  of  difficulty  ;  the  only 
bushes  were  a  few  sparsely-scattered  mimosas,  stunted 
things,  two  or  three  feet  high,  scantily  leaved,  but 
abounding  in  bulbous  swellings  on  the  twigs,  and  in 
long,  sharp  spikes  of  thorns.  There  were  herds  of  harte- 
beest  and  wildebeest,  and  smaller  parties  of  beautiful 
gazelles.  The  last  were  of  two  kinds,  named  severally, 
after  their  discoverers,  the  explorers  Grant  and  Thomson ; 
many  of  the  creatures  of  this  region  commemorate  the 
men — Schilling,  Jackson,  Neumann,  Kirke,  Chanler, 
Abbot — who  first  saw  and  hunted  them  and  brought 
them  to  the  notice  of  the  scientific  world.  The 
Thomson's  gazelles,  or  tommies,  as  they  are  always 
locally  called,  are  pretty,  alert  little  things,  half  the  size 
of  our  prongbuck  ;  their  big  brothers,  the  Grant's,  are 
among  the  most  beautiful  of  all  antelopes,  being  rather 
larger  than  a  whitetail  deer,  with  singularly  graceful 
carriage,  while  the  old  bucks  carry  long  lyre-shaped 
horns. 

Distances  are  deceptive  on  the  bare  plains  under  the 
African  sunlight.  I  saw  a  fine  Grant,  and  stalked  him 
in  a  rain  squall,  but  the  bullets  from  the  little  Springfield 
fell  short  as  he  raced  away  to  safety ;  I  had  under- 
estimated the  range.  Then  I  shot,  for  the  table,  a  good 
buck  of  the  smaller  gazelle,  at  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  yards  ;  the  bullet  went  a  little  high,  breaking  his 
back  above  the  shoulders. 


CH.  I]  WILDEBEEST  27 

But  what  I  really  wanted  were  two  good  specimens, 
bull  and  cow,  of  the  wildebeest.  These  powerful,  un- 
gainly beasts,  a  variety  of  the  brindled  gnu  or  blue 
wildebeest  of  South  Africa,  are  interesting  creatures  of 
queer,  eccentric  habits.  With  their  shaggy  manes,  heavy 
forequarters,  and  generally  bovine  look,  they  remind 
one  somewhat  of  our  bison  at  a  distance  ;  but  of  course 
they  are  much  less  bulky,  a  big  old  bull  in  prime  con- 
dition rarely  reaching  a  weight  of  seven  hundred  pounds. 
They  are  beasts  of  the  open  plains,  ever  alert  and  wary. 
The  cows,  with  their  calves  and  one  or  more  herd-bulls, 
keep  in  parties  of  several  score  ;  the  old  bulls,  singly  or 
two  or  three  together,  keep  by  themselves  or  with  herds 
of  zebra,  hartebeest,  or  gazelle  ;  for  one  of  the  interesting 
features  of  African  wild  life  is  the  close  association  and 
companionship  so  often  seen  between  totally  different 
species  of  game.  Wildebeest  are  as  savage  as  they  are 
suspicious  ;  when  wounded  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
charge  a  man  who  comes  close,  although  of  course 
neither  they  nor  any  other  antelopes  can  be  called 
dangerous  when  in  a  wild  state,  any  more  than  moose 
or  other  deer  can  be  called  dangerous  ;  when  tame, 
however,  wildebeest  are  very  dangerous  indeed — more 
so  than  an  ordinary  domestic  bull.  The  wild,  queer- 
looking  creatures  prance  and  rollick  and  cut  strange 
capers  when  a  herd  first  makes  up  its  mind  to  flee  from 
a  stranger's  approach  ;  and  even  a  solitary  bull  will 
sometimes  plunge  and  buck  as  it  starts  to  gallop  off; 
while  a  couple  of  bulls,  when  the  herd  is  frightened, 
may  relieve  their  feelings  by  a  moment's  furious  battle, 
occasionally  dropping  to  their  knees  before  closing.  At 
this  time,  the  end  of  April,  there  were  little  calves  with 
the  herds  of  cows ;  but  in  many  places  in  Equatorial 
Africa  the  various  species  of  antelopes  seem  to  have  no 


28  THE  PLEISTOCENE  AGE  [ch.  i 

settled  rutting-time  or  breeding-time  ;  at  least,  we  saw 
calves  of  all  ages. 

Our  hunt  after  wildebeest  this  afternoon  was  success- 
ful ;  but,  though  by  veldt  law  each  animal  was  mine 
because  I  hit  it  first,  yet  in  reality  the  credit  was  com- 
munistic, so  to  speak,  and  my  share  was  properly  less 
than  that  of  others.  I  first  tried  to  get  up  to  a  solitary 
old  bull,  and  after  a  good  deal  of  manoeuvring,  and  by 
taking  advantage  of  a  second  rain  squall,  I  got  a  standing 
shot  at  him  at  four  hundred  yards,  and  hit  him,  but  too 
far  back.  Although  keeping  a  good  distance  away,  he 
tacked  and  veered  so,  as  he  ran,  that  by  much  running 
myself  I  got  various  other  shots  at  him,  at  very  long 
range,  but  missed  them  all,  and  he  finally  galloped  over 
a  distant  ridge,  his  long  tail  switching,  seemingly  not 
much  the  worse.  We  followed  on  horseback,  for  I  hate 
to  let  any  wounded  thing  escape  to  suffer.  But  mean- 
while he  had  run  into  view  of  Kermit ;  and  Kermit — 
who  is  of  an  age  and  build  which  better  fit  him  for 
successful  breakneck  galloping  over  unknown  country 
dotted  with  holes  and  bits  of  rotten  ground — took  up 
the  chase  with  enthusiasm.  Yet  it  was  sunset,  after 
a  run  of  six  or  eight  miles,  when  he  finally  ran  into  and 
killed  the  tough  old  bull,  which  had  turned  to  bay, 
snorting  and  tossing  its  horns. 

Meanwhile  I  managed  to  get  within  three  hundred 
and  fifty  yards  of  a  herd,  and  picked  out  a  large  cow 
which  was  unaccompanied  by  a  calf.  Again  my  bullet 
went  too  far  back,  and  I  could  not  hit  the  animal  at 
that  distance  as  it  ran.  But  after  going  half  a  mile  it 
lay  down,  and  would  have  been  secured  without  diffi- 
culty if  a  wretched  dog  had  not  run  forward  and  put  it 
up.  My  horse  was  a  long  way  back  ;  but  Pease,  who 
had  been  looking  on  at  a  distance,  was  mounted,  and 


A  herd  of  zebra  and  liartebeest 

One  of  the  interesting  features  of  African  wild  life  is  the  close  association  and  companionship 

so  often  seen  between  two  totally  different  species  of  game 

From  photographs  by  Keriiiit  Roosevelt 


CH.  i]  KITANGA  29 

sped  after  it.  By  the  time  I  had  reached  my  horse 
Pease  was  out  of  sight ;  but,  riding  hard  for  some  miles, 
I  ov^ertook  him,  just  before  the  sun  went  down,  standing 
by  the  cow,  which  he  had  ridden  down  and  slain.  It 
was  long  after  nightfall  before  we  reached  camp,  ready 
for  a  hot  bath  and  a  good  supper.  As  always  thereafter 
with  anything  we  shot,  we  used  the  meat  for  food,  and 
preserved  the  skins  for  the  National  Museum.  Both 
the  cow  and  the  bull  were  fat  and  in  fine  condition  ; 
but  they  were  covered  with  ticks,  especially  wherever 
the  skin  was  bare.  Around  the  eyes  the  loathsome 
creatures  swarmed  so  as  to  make  complete  rims,  like 
spectacles  ;  and  in  the  armpits  and  the  groin  they  were 
massed  so  that  they  looked  like  barnacles  on  an  old  boat. 
It  is  astonishing  that  the  game  should  mind  them  so 
little ;  the  wildebeest  evidently  dreaded  far  more  the 
biting  flies  which  hung  around  them,  and  the  maggots 
of  the  bot-flies  in  their  nostrils  must  have  been  a  sore 
torment.     Nature  is  merciless  indeed. 

The  next  day  we  rode  some  sixteen  miles  to  the 
beautiful  hills  of  Kitanga,  and  for  over  a  fortnight  were 
either  Pease's  guests  at  his  farm — ranch,  as  we  should 
call  it  in  the  West — or  were  on  safari  under  his 
guidance. 


CHAPTER  II 

ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH 

The  house  at  which  we  were  staying  stood  on  the 
beautiful  Kitanga  Hills.  They  were  so  named  after  an 
Englishman,  to  whom  the  natives  had  given  the  name 
of  Kitanga.  Some  years  ago,  as  we  were  told,  he  had 
been  killed  by  a  lion  near  where  the  ranch  house  now 
stood  ;  and  we  were  shown  his  grave  in  the  little 
Machakos  graveyard.  The  house  was  one  story  high, 
clean  and  comfortable,  with  a  veranda  running  round 
three  sides  ;  and  on  the  veranda  were  lion-skins  and  the 
skull  of  a  rhinoceros.  From  the  house  we  looked  over 
hiUs  and  wide,  lonely  plains ;  the  green  valley  below, 
with  its  flat-topped  acacias,  was  very  lovely ;  and  in  the 
evening  we  could  see,  scores  of  miles  away,  the  snowy 
summit  of  mighty  Kilimanjaro  turn  crimson  in  the 
setting  sun.  The  twilights  were  not  long ;  and  when 
night  fell,  stars  new  to  Northern  eyes  flashed  glorious  in 
the  sky.  Above  the  horizon  hung  the  Southern  Cross, 
and  directly  opposite  in  the  heavens  was  our  old  familiar 
friend  the  Wain,  the  Great  Bear,  upside  down  and 
pointing  to  a  North  Star  so  low  behind  a  hill  that  we 
could  not  see  it.  It  is  a  dry  country,  and  we  saw  it  in 
the  second  year  of  a  drought ;  yet  I  believe  it  to  be  a 
country  of  high  promise  for  settlers  of  white  race.  In 
many  ways  it  reminds  one  rather  curiously  of  the  great 

30 


CH.  II]  WATER  STORAGE  81 

plains  of  the  West,  where  they  slope  upward  to  the 
foothills  of  the  Rockies.  It  is  a  white  man's  country. 
Although  under  the  Equator,  the  altitude  is  so  high 
that  the  nights  are  cool,  and  the  region  as  a  whole  is 
very  healthy.  I  saw  many  children — of  the  Boer 
immigrants,  of  English  settlers,  even  of  American 
missionaries — and  they  looked  sound  and  well.  Of 
course,  there  was  no  real  identity  in  any  feature  ;  but 
again  and  again  the  landscape  struck  me  by  its  general 
likeness  to  the  cattle  country  I  knew  so  well.  As  my 
horse  shuffled  forward,  under  the  bright,  hot  sunlight, 
across  the  endless  flats  or  gently  rolling  slopes  of  brown 
and  withered  grass,  I  might  have  been  on  the  plains 
anywhere  from  Texas  to  Montana.  The  hills  were  like 
our  Western  buttes  ;  the  half-dry  watercourses  were 
fringed  with  trees,  just  as  if  they  had  been  the  Sandy, 
or  the  Dry,  or  the  Beav^er,  or  the  Cottonwood,  or  any 
of  the  multitude  of  creeks  that  repeat  these  and  similar 
names,  again  and  again,  from  the  Panhandle  to  the 
Saskatchewan.  Moreover  a  Westerner,  far  better  than 
an  Easterner,  could  see  the  possibiUties  of  the  country. 
There  should  be  storage  reservoirs  in  the  hills  and  along 
the  rivers — in  my  judgment  built  by  the  Government, 
and  paid  for  by  the  water-users  in  the  shape  of  water- 
rents — and  irrigation  ditches.  With  the  water  stored 
and  used  there  would  be  an  excellent  opening  for  small 
farmers,  for  the  settlers,  the  actual  home-makers,  who, 
above  all  others,  should  be  encouraged  to  come  into  a 
white  man's  country  like  this  of  the  highlands  of  East 
Africa.  Even  as  it  is,  many  settlers  do  well ;  it  is  hard 
to  realize  that  right  under  the  Equator  the  conditions 
are  such  that  wheat,  potatoes,  strawberries,  apples,  all 
flourish.  No  new  country  is  a  place  for  weaklings  ;  but 
the  right  kind  of  man,  the  settler  who  makes  a  success 


32       ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH     [ch.  ii 

in  similar  parts  of  our  own  West,  can  do  well  in  East 
Africa,  ^^'hile  a  man  with  money  can  undoubtedly  do 
very  well  indeed ;  and  incidentally  both  men  will  be 
leading  their  lives  under  conditions  peculiarly  attractive 
to  a  certain  kind  of  spirit.  It  means  hard  work,  of 
course ;  but  success  generally  does  imply  hard  work. 

The  plains  were  generally  covered  only  with  the 
thick  grass  on  which  the  great  herds  of  game  fed  ;  here 
and  there  small  thorn-trees  grew  upon  them,  but  usually 
so  small  and  scattered  as  to  give  no  shelter  or  cover. 
By  the  occasional  watercourses  the  trees  grew  more 
thickly,  and  also  on  the  hills  and  in  the  valleys  between. 
Most  of  the  trees  were  mimosas,  or  of  similar  kind, 
usually  thorny ;  but  there  were  giant  cactus  -  like 
euphorbias,  shaped  like  candelabra,  and  named  accord- 
ingly ;  and  on  the  higher  hiUs  fig-trees,  wild  olives,  and 
many  others  whose  names  I  do  not  know,  but  some 
of  which  were  stately  and  beautiful.  Many  of  the 
mimosas  were  in  bloom,  and  covered  with  sweet - 
smelling  yellow  blossoms.  There  were  many  flowers. 
On  the  dry  plains  there  were  bushes  of  the  colour  and 
size  of  our  own  sagebrush,  covered  with  flowers  like 
morning  glories.  There  were  also  wild  sweet- peas,  on 
which  the  ostriches  fed,  as  they  did  on  another  plant 
with  a  lilac  flower  of  a  faint  heliotrope  fragrance. 
Among  the  hills  there  were  masses  of  singularly 
fragrant  flowers  like  pink  jessamines,  growing  on 
bushes  sometimes  fifteen  feet  high  or  over.  There 
were  white  flowers  that  smelt  like  narcissus,  blue 
flowers,  red  lilies,  orange  tiger-lilies,  and  many  others 
of  many  kinds  and  colours,  while  here  and  there  in  the 
pools  of  the  rare  rivers  grew  the  sweet-scented  purple 
lotus- Hly. 

There  was  an  infinite  variety  of  birds,  small  and  large, 


CH.  Ti]         BIRDS  OF  THE  DISTRICT  33 

dull-coloured  and  of  the  most  brilliant  plumage.  For 
the  most  part  they  either  had  no  names  at  all  or  names 
that  meant  nothing  to  us.  There  were  glossy  starlings 
of  many  kinds,  and  scores  of  species  of  weaver-finches, 
some  brilliantly  coloured,  others  remarkable  because 
of  the  elaborate  nests  they  built  by  communities  among 
the  trees.  There  were  many  kinds  of  shrikes,  some  of 
them  big  parti-coloured  birds,  almost  like  magpies,  and 
with  a  kestrel-like  habit  of  hovering  in  the  air  over  one 
spot ;  others  very  small  and  prettily  coloured.  There 
was  a  little  red-billed  finch  with  its  outer  tail  feathers 
several  times  the  length  of  its  head  and  body.  There 
was  a  little  emerald  cuckoo,  and  a  tiny  thing,  a  barbet, 
that  looked  exactly  like  a  kingfisher,  four  inches  long. 
Eared  owls  flew  up  from  the  reeds  and  grass.  There 
were  big,  restless,  wonderfully- coloured  plantain-eaters 
in  the  woods,  and  hornbills,  with  strange  swollen  beaks. 
A  true  lark,  coloured  like  our  meadow-lark  (to  which  it 
is  in  no  way  related)  sang  from  bushes  ;  but  the  clapper- 
lark  made  its  curious  clapping  sounds  (apparently  with 
its  wings,  like  a  ruffed  grouse)  while  it  zigzagged  in  the 
air.  Little  pipits  sang  overhead  like  our  Missouri  sky- 
larks. There  were  nightjars,  and  doves  of  various 
kinds,  one  of  which  uttered  a  series  of  notes  slightly 
resembling  the  call  of  our  whip-poor-will  or  chuckwiU's 
widow.  The  beautiful  little  sunbirds  were  the  most 
gorgeous  of  all.  Then  there  were  bustards,  great  and 
small,  and  snake-eating  secretary  birds,  on  the  plains  ; 
and  francolins,  and  African  spur-fowl,  with  brilliant 
naked  throats,  and  sand  grouse  that  flew  in  packs 
uttering  guttural  notes.  The  wealth  of  bird  life  was 
bewildering.  There  was  not  much  bird  music,  judged 
by  the  standards  of  a  temperate  climate ;  but  the 
bulbuls   and  one  or  two  warblers   sang  very  sweetly. 

3 


84         ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN   RANCH   [ch.  ii 

The  naturalists  caught  shrews  and  mice  in  their  traps  ; 
molerats  with  velvety  fur,  which  burrowed  like  our 
pocket  gophers ;  rats  that  lived  in  holes  like  those  of 
our  kangaroo  rat ;  and  one  mouse  that  was  striped  like 
our  striped  gopher.  There  were  conies  among  the 
rocks  on  the  hills  ;  they  looked  like  squat,  heavy  wood- 
chucks,  but  their  teeth  were  somewhat  like  those  of  a 
wee  rhinoceros,  and  they  had  little  hoof-like  nails 
instead  of  claws.  There  were  civets  and  wild-cats,  and 
things  like  a  small  mongoose.  But  the  most  interesting 
mammal  we  saw  was  a  brilliantly-coloured  yellow  and 
blue,  or  yellow  and  slate,  bat,  which  we  put  up  one  day 
while  beating  through  a  ravine.  It  had  been  hanging 
from  a  mimosa  twig,  and  it  flew  well  in  the  strong  sun- 
light, looking  like  some  huge  parti-coloured  butterfly. 

It  was  a  settled  country,  this  in  which  we  did  our 
first  hunting,  and  for  this  reason  all  the  more  interesting. 
The  growth  and  development  of  East  and  Middle 
Africa  are  phenomena  of  such  absorbing  interest,  that  I 
was  delighted  at  the  chance  to  see  the  parts  where  settle- 
ment has  already  begun  before  plunging  into  the 
absolute  wilderness.  There  was  much  to  remind  one  of 
conditions  in  Montana  and  Wyoming  thirty  years  ago  ; 
the  ranches  planted  down  among  the  hills  and  on  the 
plains  still  teeming  with  game,  the  spirit  of  daring 
adventure  everywhere  visible,  the  hope  and  the  heart- 
breaking disappointment,  the  successes  and  the  failures. 
But  the  problem  offered  by  the  natives  bore  no  resem- 
blance to  that  once  offered  by  the  presence  of  our 
tribes  of  horse  Indians,  few  in  numbers  and  incredibly 
formidable  in  war.  The  natives  of  East  Africa  are 
numerous ;  many  of  them  are  agricultural  or  pastoral 
peoples  after  their  own  fashion ;  and  even  the  bravest 
of  them,  the  warlike  Masai,  are  in  no  way  formidable 


CH.  II]  THE  WAKAMBA  85 

as  our  Indians  were  formidable  when  they  went  on  the 
war-path.  The  ranch  country  I  first  visited  was  in 
what  was  once  the  domain  of  the  Wakamba,  and  in  the 
greater  part  of  it  the  tribes  still  dwell.  They  are  in 
most  ways  primitive  savages,  with  an  imperfect  and 
feeble  social,  and  therefore  military,  organization ;  they 
live  in  small  communities  under  their  local  chiefs  ;  they 
file  their  teeth,  and  though  they  wear  blankets  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  whites,  these  blankets  are  often 
cast  aside ;  even  when  the  blanket  is  worn,  it  is  often 
in  such  fashion  as  merely  to  accentuate  the  otherwise 
absolute  nakedness  of  both  sexes.  Yet  these  savages  are 
cattle-keepers  and  cattle-raisers,  and  the  women  do  a 
good  deal  of  simple  agricultural  work  ;  unfortunately, 
they  are  wastefully  destructive  of  the  forests.  The  chief 
of  each  little  village  is  recognized  as  the  official  head- 
man by  the  British  official,  is  given  support,  and  is 
required  to  help  the  authorities  keep  peace  and  stamp 
out  cattle  disease — the  two  most  important  functions  of 
government  so  far  as  the  Wakamba  themselves  are 
concerned.  All  the  tribes  have  their  herds  of  black, 
brown,  and  white  goats,  of  mottled  sheep,  and  especially 
of  small  humped  cattle.  The  cattle  form  their  pride 
and  joy.  During  the  day  each  herd  is  accompanied  by 
the  herdsmen,  and  at  night  it  is  driven  within  its  boma, 
or  circular  fence  of  thorn-bushes.  Except  for  the  milk, 
which  they  keep  in  their  foul,  smoky  calabashes,  the 
natives  really  make  no  use  of  their  cattle ;  they  do  not 
know  how  to  work  them,  and  they  never  eat  them  even 
in  time  of  starvation.  When  there  is  prolonged  drought, 
and  consequent  failure  of  crops,  the  foolish  creatures  die 
by  the  hundreds  when  they  might  readily  be  saved  if 
they  were  willing  to  eat  the  herds  which  they  persist  in 
treating  as  ornaments  rather  than  as  made  for  use. 


36        ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

Many  of  the  natives  work  for  the  settlers,  as  cattle- 
keepers,  as  ostrich-keepers,  or,  after  a  fashion,  as 
labourers.  The  settlers  evidently  much  prefer  to  rely 
upon  the  natives  for  unskilled  labour  rather  than  see 
coolies  from  Hindostan  brought  into  the  country.  At 
Sir  Alfred  Pease's  ranch,  as  at  most  of  the  other  farms 
of  the  neighbourhood,  we  found  little  Wakamba  settle- 
ments. Untold  ages  separated  employers  and  employed ; 
yet  those  that  I  saw  seemed  to  get  on  well  together. 
The  Wakamba  are  as  yet  not  sufficiently  advanced  to 
warrant  their  sharing  in  the  smallest  degree  in  the  com- 
mon government ;  the  *'  just  consent  of  the  governed  " 
in  their  case,  if  taken  hterally,  would  mean  idleness, 
famine,  and  endless  internecine  warfare.  They  cannot 
govern  themselves  from  within  ;  therefore  they  must  be 
governed  from  without  ;  and  their  need  is  met  in 
highest  fashion  by  firm  and  just  control,  of  the  kind  that 
on  the  whole  they  are  now  getting.  At  Kitanga  the 
natives  on  the  place  sometimes  worked  about  the  house; 
and  they  took  care  of  the  stock.  The  elders  looked 
after  the  mild  little  humped  cattle — bulls,  steers,  and 
cows  ;  and  the  children,  often  the  merest  toddlers,  took 
naturally  to  guarding  the  parties  of  pretty  little  calves, 
during  the  daytime,  when  they  were  separated  from 
their  mothers.  It  was  an  ostrich-farm,  too  ;  and  in  the 
morning  and  evening  we  would  meet  the  great  birds,  as 
they  went  to  their  grazing-grounds  or  returned  to  the 
ostrich  boma,  mincing  along  with  their  usual  air  of 
foolish  stateliness,  convoyed  by  two  or  three  boys,  each 
with  a  red  blanket,  a  throwing  stick,  copper  wire  round 
his  legs  and  arms,  and  perhaps  a  feather  stuck  in  his 
hair. 

There  were  a  number  of  ranches  in  the  neighbour- 
hood— using  "  neighbourhood "  in   the   large  Western 


CH.  II]  BOER  SETTLERS  87 

sense,  for  they  were  many  miles  apart.     The  Hills — 
Clifford  and  Harold — were  Africanders  ;  they  knew  the 
country,  and  were  working  hard  and  doing  well ;  and  in 
the  midst  of  their  work  they  spared  the  time  to  do  their 
full  part  in  insuring  a  successful  hunt  to  me,  an  entire 
stranger.     All  the  settlers  I  met  treated  me  with  the 
same   large   and    thoughtful   courtesy — and   what   fine 
fellows   they  were  !    and  their  wives  even  finer.      At 
Bondini  was  Percival,  a  tall  sinewy  man,  a  fine  rider 
and  shot ;  like  so  many  other  men  whom  I  met,  he 
wore  merely  a  helmet,  a  flannel  shirt,  short  breeches  or 
trunks,  and  puttees  and  boots,  leaving  the  knee  entirely 
bare.     I  shall  not  soon  forget  seeing  him  one  day,  as  he 
walked  beside  his   twelve-ox  team,  cracking  his  long 
whip,  while  in  the  big  waggon  sat  pretty  Mrs.  Percival 
with  a  puppy  and  a  little  cheetah  cub,  which  we  had 
found  and  presented  to  her,  and  which  she  was  taming. 
They  all — Sir  Alfred,  the  Hills,  everyone — behaved  as 
if  each  was  my  host  and  felt  it  peculiarly  incumbent  on 
him  to  give  me  a  good  time  ;  and  among  these  hosts 
one  who  did  very  much  for  me  was  Captain  Arthur 
Slatter.     I  was  his  guest  at  Kilimakiu,  where  he  was 
running  an  ostrich-farm  ;  he  had  lost  his  right  hand,  yet 
he  was  an  exceedingly  good  game  shot,  both  with  his 
light  and  his  heavy  rifles. 

At  Kitanga,  Sir  Alfred's  place,  two  Boers  were 
working,  Messrs.  Prinsloo  and  Klopper.  We  fore- 
gathered, of  course,  as  I,  too,  was  of  Dutch  ancestry. 
They  were  strong,  upstanding  men,  good  mechanics, 
good  masons,  and  Prinsloo  spoke  English  well.  I 
afterward  stopped  at  the  farm  of  Klopper 's  father,  and 
at  the  farm  of  another  Boer  named  Loijs ;  and  I  met 
other  Boers  while  out  hunting  —  Erasmus,  Botha, 
Joubert,  Meyer.     They  were  descendants  of  the  Voor- 


38        ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

trekkers  with  the  same  names  who  led  the  hard-fighting 
farmers  northward  from  the  Cape  seventy  years  ago, 
and  were  kinsfolk  of  the  men  who  since  then  have 
made  these  names  honourably  known  throughout  the 
world.  There  must,  of  course,  be  many  Boers  who 
have  gone  backward  under  the  stress  of  a  hard  and 
semi- savage  life  ;  just  as  in  our  communities  of  the 
frontier,  the  backwoods,  and  the  lonely  mountains,  there 
are  shiftless  '*  poor  whites  "  and  "  mean  whites  "  mingled 
with  the  sturdy  men  and  women  who  have  laid  deep  the 
foundations  of  our  national  greatness.  But  personally 
I  happened  not  to  come  across  these  shiftless  "  mean 
white  "  Boers.  Those  that  I  met,  both  men  and  women, 
were  of  as  good  a  type  as  anyone  could  wish  for  in  his 
own  countrymen  or  could  admire  in  another  nationality. 
They  fulfilled  the  three  prime  requisites  for  any  race  : 
they  worked  hard,  they  could  fight  hard  at  need,  and 
they  had  plenty  of  children.  These  are  the  three 
essential  qualities  in  any  and  every  nation  ;  they  are  by 
no  means  all-sufficient  in  themselves,  and  there  is  need 
that  many  others  should  be  added  to  them ;  but  the 
lack  of  any  one  of  them  is  fatal,  and  cannot  be  made 
good  by  the  presence  of  any  other  set  of  attributes. 

It  was  pleasant  to  see  the  good  terms  on  which  Boer 
and  Briton  met.  Many  of  the  English  settlers  whose 
guest  I  was,  or  with  whom  I  hunted — the  Hills,  Captain 
Slatter,  Heatley,  Judd — had  fought  through  the  South 
African  War ;  and  so  had  all  the  Boers  I  met.  The 
latter  had  been  for  the  most  part  members  of  various 
particularly  hard-fighting  commandos ;  when  the  war 
closed  they  felt  very  bitterly,  and  wished  to  avoid  living 
under  the  British  flag.  Some  moved  west  and  some 
east ;  those  I  met  were  among  the  many  hundreds, 
indeed  thousands,  who  travelled  northward— a  few  over- 


CH.  II]  E^GLISH  AND  DUTCH  39 

land,  most  of  them  by  water — to  German  East  Africa. 
But  in  the  part  in  which  they  happened  to  settle  they 
were  decimated  by  fever,  and  their  stock  perished  of 
cattle  sickness  ;  and  most  of  them  had  again  moved 
northward,  and  once  more  found  themselves  under  the 
British  flag.  They  were  being  treated  precisely  on  an 
equality  with  the  British  settlers  ;  and  every  well-wisher 
to  his  kind,  and  above  all  every  well-wisher  to  Africa, 
must  hope  that  the  men  who  in  South  Africa  fought  so 
valiantly  against  one  another,  each  for  the  right  as  he 
saw  it,  will  speedily  grow  into  a  companionship  of 
mutual  respect,  regard,  and  consideration  such  as  that 
which,  for  our  inestimable  good  fortune,  now  knits 
closely  together  in  our  own  land  the  men  who  wore 
the  blue  and  the  men  who  wore  the  grey  and  their 
descendants.  There  could  be  no  better  and  manlier 
people  than  those,  both  English  and  Dutch,  who  are  at 
this  moment  engaged  in  the  great  and  difficult  task  of 
adding  East  Africa  to  the  domain  of  civilization  ;  their 
work  is  bound  to  be  hard  enough  anyhow,  and  it  would 
be  a  lamentable  calamity  to  render  it  more  difficult  by 
keeping  alive  a  bitterness  which  has  lost  all  point  and 
justification,  or  by  failing  to  recognize  the  fundamental 
virtues,  the  fundamental  characteristics,  in  which  the 
men  of  the  two  stocks  are  in  reality  so  much  alike. 

Messrs.  Klopper  and  Loijs,  whose  farms  I  visited, 
were  doing  well.  The  latter,  with  three  of  his  sons,  took 
me  out  with  pride  to  show  me  the  dam  which  they  had 
built  across  a  dry  watercourse,  so  as  to  make  a  storage 
reservoir  when  the  rains  came.  The  houses  were  of 
stone,  and  clean  and  comfortable ;  the  floors  were 
covered  with  the  skins  of  buck  and  zebra ;  the  chairs 
were  home-made,  as  was  most  of  the  other  furniture ; 
the  "  rust  bunks,"  or  couches,  strongly  and  gracefully 


40        ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

shaped,  and  filled  with  plaited  raw  hide,  were  so  attrac- 
tive that  I  ordered  one  to  take  home.  There  were 
neatly  kept  little  flower-gardens,  suffering  much  from 
the  drought ;  there  were  ovens  and  out  -  buildings ; 
cattle-sheds  for  the  humped  oxen  and  the  herds  of 
pretty  cows  and  calves ;  the  biltong  was  drying  in 
smoke-houses  ;  there  were  patches  of  ground  in  cultiva- 
tion, for  corn  and  vegetables ;  and  the  wild  veldt  came 
up  to  the  door-sills,  and  the  wild  game  grazed  quietly 
on  all  sides  within  sight  of  the  houses.  It  was  a  very 
good  kind  of  pioneer  life ;  and  there  could  be  no  better 
pioneer  settlers  than  Boers  such  as  I  saw. 

The  older  men  wore  full  beards,  and  were  spare  and 
sinewy.  The  young  men  were  generally  smooth-faced 
or  moustached,  strongly  built,  and  rather  shy.  The 
elder  women  were  stout,  cordial,  motherly  housewives  ; 
the  younger  were  often  really  pretty.  At  their  houses 
I  was  received  with  hearty  hospitality,  and  given  coffee 
or  fresh  milk,  while  we  conversed  through  the  medium 
of  the  sons  or  daughters,  who  knew  a  little  English. 
They  all  knew  that  I  was  of  Dutch  origin,  and  were 
much  interested  when  I  repeated  to  them  the  only 
Dutch  I  knew,  a  nursery  song  which,  as  I  told  them, 
had  been  handed  down  to  me  by  my  own  forefathers, 
and  which  in  return  I  had  repeated  so  many,  many 
times  to  my  children  when  they  were  little.  It  runs  as 
follows,  by  the  way ;  but  I  have  no  idea  how  the  words 
are  speUed,  as  I  have  no  written  copy ;  it  is  supposed 
to  be  sung  by  the  father,  who  holds  the  little  boy  or 
little  girl  on  his  knee,  and  tosses  him  or  her  up  in  the 
air  when  he  comes  to  the  last  line : 

"  Trippa,  troppa,  tronjes, 
De  varken's  in  de  boonjes, 
De  koejes  in  de  klaver, 
De  paardeen  in  de  haver, 


CH.  II]  BRITONS  AND  BOERS  41 

De  eenjes  in  de  water- plass  ! 

So  groot  myn  kleine  (here  insert  the 

little  boy's  or  little  girPs  name)  wass  !" 

My  pronunciation  caused  trouble  at  first ;  but  I  think 
they  understood  me  the  more  readily  because  doubtless 
their  own  usual  tongue  was  in  some  sort  a  dialect ;  and 
some  of  them  already  knew  the  song,  w^hile  they  were 
all  pleased  and  amused  at  my  remembering  and  repeat- 
ing it ;  and  we  were  speedily  on  a  most  friendly  footing. 
The  essential  identity  of  interest  between  the  Boer 
and  British  settlers  was  shown  by  their  attitude  toward 
the  district  commissioner,  Mr.  Humphries,  who  was 
just  leaving  for  his  biennial  holiday,  and  who  dined 
with  us  in  our  tent  on  his  way  out.  From  both  Boer 
farmer  and  English  settler — and  from  the  American 
missionaries  also — 1  heard  praise  of  Humphries,  as  a 
strong  man,  not  in  the  least  afraid  of  either  settler  or 
native,  but  bound  to  do  justice  to  both,  and,  what  was 
quite  as  important,  sympathizing  ivitk  the  settlers  and 
knowing  and  understanding  tlieir  needs.  A  new  country 
in  which  white  pioneer  settlers  are  struggling  with  the 
iron  difficulties  and  hardships  of  frontier  life  is,  above 
all  others,  that  in  which  the  officials  should  be  men 
having  both  knowledge  and  sympathy  with  the  other 
men  over  whom  they  are  placed  and  for  whom  they 
should  work. 

♦  My  host  and  hostess.  Sir  Alfred  and  Lady  Pease, 
were  on  the  best  terms  with  all  their  neighbours,  and 
their  friendly  interest  was  returned.  Now  it  was  the 
wife  of  a  Boer  farmer  who  sent  over  a  basket  of  flowers, 
now  came  a  box  of  apples  from  an  English  settler  on 
the  hills ;  now  Prinsloo  the  Boer  stopped  to  dinner ; 
now  the  McMillans — American  friends,  of  whose  farm 
and   my  stay  thereon   I   shall  speak   later — rode  over 


42         ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

from  their  house  on  the  Mua  Hills,  with  their  guest, 
Selous,  to  take  lunch.  This,  by  the  way,  was  after  I 
had  shot  my  first  lions,  and  I  was  much  pleased  to  be 
able  to  show  Selous  the  trophies. 

My  gentle-voiced  hostess  and  her  daughter  had  seen 
many  strange  lands  and  strange  happenings,  as  was 
natural  with  a  husband  and  father  of  such  adventure- 
loving  nature.  They  took  a  keen  interest,  untinged  by 
the  slightest  nervousness,  in  every  kind  of  wild  creature, 
from  lions  and  leopards  down.  The  game  was  in  sight 
from  the  veranda  of  the  house  almost  every  hour  of  the 
day.  Early  one  morning,  in  the  mist,  three  hartebeests 
came  right  up  to  the  wire  fence,  two  score  yards  from 
the  house  itself;  and  the  black  and  white  striped 
zebra  and  ruddy  hartebeest  grazed  or  rested  through 
the  long  afternoons  in  plain  view  on  the  hillsides 
opposite. 

It  is  hard  for  one  who  has  not  himself  seen  it  to 
realize  the  immense  quantities  of  game  to  be  found  on 
the  Kapiti  Plains  and  Athi  Plains  and  the  hills  that 
bound  them.  The  common  game  of  the  plains,  the 
animals  of  which  I  saw  most  while  at  Kitanga  and  in 
the  neighbourhood,  were  the  zebra,  wildebeest,  harte- 
beest. Grant's  gazelle,  and  "tommies,"  or  Thomson's 
gazelle  ;  the  zebra  and  the  hartebeest,  usually  known 
by  the  Swahili  name  of  kongoni,  being  by  far  the  most 
plentiful.  Then  there  were  impalla,  mountain  reed- 
buck,  duyker,  steinbuck,  and  diminutive  dikdik.  As 
we  travelled  and  hunted,  we  were  hardly  ever  out  of 
sight  of  game ;  and  on  Pease's  farm  itself  there  were 
many  thousand  head,  and  so  there  were  on  Slatter's. 
If  wealthy  men,  who  desire  sport  of  the  most  varied 
and  interesting  kind,  would  purchase  farms  like  these, 
they  could  get,  for  much  less  money,  many  times  the 


CH.  II]       PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  43 

interest  and   enjoyment   a   deer-forest  or  grouse-moor 
can  afford. 

The  wildebeest  or  gnu  were  the  shyest  and  least 
plentiful,  but  in  some  ways  the  most  interesting,  be- 
cause of  the  queer  streak  of  ferocious  eccentricity 
evident  in  all  their  actions.  They  were  of  all  the 
animals  those  that  were  most  exclusively  dwellers  in 
the  open,  where  there  was  neither  hill  nor  bush.  Their 
size  and  their  dark  bluish  hides,  sometimes  showing 
white  in  the  sunlight,  but  more  often  black,  rendered 
them  more  easily  seen  than  any  of  their  companions. 
But  hardly  any  plains  animal  of  any  size  makes  any 
effort  to  escape  its  enemies  by  eluding  their  observa- 
tion. Very  much  of  what  is  commonly  said  about 
"  protective  coloration  "  has  no  basis  whatever  in  fact. 
Black  and  white  are  normally  the  most  conspicuous 
colours  in  nature  (and  yet  are  borne  by  numerous 
creatures  who  have  succeeded  well  in  the  struggle  for 
life) ;  but  almost  any  tint,  or  combination  of  tints, 
among  the  greys,  browns,  and  duns  harmonizes  fairly 
well  with  at  least  some  surroundings  in  most  land- 
scapes ;  and  in  but  a  few  instances  among  the  larger 
mammals,  and  in  almost  none  among  those  frequenting 
the  open  plains,  is  there  the  slightest  reason  for  sup- 
posing that  the  creature  gains  any  benefit  whatever 
from  what  is  loosely  called  its  "protective  coloration." 
Giraffes,  leopards,  and  zebras,  for  instance,  have  actually 
been  held  up  as  instances  of  creatures  that  are  "  pro- 
tectingly  "  coloured,  and  are  benefited  thereby.  The 
giraffe  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  objects  in  nature, 
and  never  makes  the  slightest  effort  to  hide.  Near  by 
its  mottled  hide  is  very  noticeable,  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  under  any  ordinary  circumstances  any  possible  foe 
trusting  to  eyesight  would  discover  the  giraffe  so  far 


44         ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

away  that  its  colouring  would  seem  uniform — that  is, 
would,   because   of  the   distance,  be   indistinguishable 
from  a  general  tint,  which  really  might  have  a  slight 
protective  value.     In  other  words,  while  it  is  possible 
that   the   giraffe's    beautifully   waved    colouring    may 
under  certain  circumstances,  and  in  an  infinitesimally 
small  number  of  cases,  put  it  at  a  slight  disadvantage 
in  the  struggle  for  life,  in  the  enormous  majority  of 
cases — a  majority  so  great  as  to  make  the  remaining 
cases  negligible — it  has  no  effect  whatever,  one  way  or 
the  other ;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  under  no  conditions 
is  its  colouring  of  the  slightest  value  to  it  as  affording 
it  "  protection  "  from  foes  trusting  to  their  eyesight. 
So  it  is  with  the  leopard.     It  is  undoubtedly  much  less 
conspicuous  than  if  it  were  black ;  and  yet  the  black 
leopards,  the  melanistic  individuals,  thrive  as  well  as 
their  spotted  brothers ;  while,  on  the  whole,  it  is  prob- 
ably slightly  more  conspicuous  than  if  it  were  nearly 
unicolour,   like   the  American  cougar.      As  compared 
with  the  cougar's  tawny  hide,  the  leopard's  coloration 
represents  a  very  slight  disadvantage,  and  not  an  advan- 
tage, to  the  beast ;  but  its  life  is  led  under  conditions 
which  make  either  the  advantage  or  the  disadvantage  so 
slight   as  to  be  negligible.     Its  peculiar   coloration  is 
probably  in  actual  fact  of  hardly  the  slightest  service  to 
it  from  the  "  protective  "  standpoint,  whether  as  regards 
escaping  from  its  enemies  or  approaching  its  prey.     It 
has  extraordinary  facility  in  hiding ;  it  is  a  master  of  the 
art  of  stealthy  approach  ;  but  it  is  normally  nocturnal, 
and  by  night  the  colour  of  its  hide  is  of  no  consequence 
whatever ;   while  by  day,  as  I   have  already  said,  its 
varied    coloration    renders    it    slightly   more    easy   to 
detect  than  is  the  case  with  the  cougar. 

All  of  this  appUes  with  peculiar  force  to  the  zebra, 


CH.  II]         ZEBRAS  AND  GAZELLES  45 

which  it  has  also  been  somewhat  the  fashion  of  recent 
years  to  hold  up  as  an  example  of  "  protective  colora- 
tion." As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  zebra's  coloration  is 
not  protective  at  all ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  exceedingly 
conspicuous,  and  under  the  actual  conditions  of  the 
zebra's  life,  probably  never  hides  it  from  its  foes ;  the 
instances  to  the  contrary  being  due  to  conditions  so 
exceptional  that  they  may  be  disregarded.  If  any  man 
seriously  regards  the  zebra's  coloration  as  "  protective," 
let  him  try  the  experiment  of  wearing  a  hunting-suit  of 
the  zebra  pattern  ;  he  will  speedily  be  undeceived. 
The  zebra  is  peculiarly  a  beast  of  the  open  plains,  and 
makes  no  effort  ever  to  hide  from  the  observation  of  its 
foes.  It  is  occasionally  found  in  open  forest,  and  may 
there  now  and  then  escape  observation  simply  as  any 
animal  of  any  colour — a  dun  hartebeest  or  a  nearly 
black  bushbuck — may  escape  observation.  At  a  dis- 
tance of  over  a  few  hundred  yards  the  zebra's  colora- 
tion ceases  to  be  conspicuous  simply  because  the 
distance  has  caused  it  to  lose  all  its  distinctive  character 
— that  is,  all  the  quality  which  could  possibly  make  it 
protective.  Near  by  it  is  always  very  conspicuous,  and 
if  the  conditions  are  such  that  any  animal  can  be  seen  at 
all,  a  zebra  will  catch  the  eye  much  more  quickly  than 
a  Grant's  gazelle,  for  instance.  These  gazelles,  by  the 
way,  although  much  less  conspicuously  coloured  than 
the  zebra,  bear  when  young,  and  the  females  even  when 
adult,  the  dark  side  stripe  which  characterizes  all  sexes  and 
ages  of  the  smaller  gazelle,  the  "  tommy  ";  it  is  a  very 
conspicuous  marking,  quite  inexplicable  on  any  theory 
of  protective  coloration.  The  truth  is  that  no  game  of 
the  plains  is  helped  in  any  way  by  its  coloration  in 
evading  its  foes,  and  none  seeks  to  escape  the  vision  of 
its  foes.     The  larger  game  animals  of  the  plains  are 


46        ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

always  walking  and  standing  in  conspicuous  places,  and 
never  seek  to  hide  or  take  advantage  of  cover ;  while, 
on  the  contrary,  the  little  grass  and  bush  antelopes,  like 
the  duyker  and  steinbuck,  trust  very  much  to  their 
power  of  hiding,  and  endeavour  to  escape  the  sight  of 
their  foes  by  lying  absolutely  still,  in  the  hope  of  not 
being  made  out  against  their  background.  On  the 
plains  one  sees  the  wildebeest  farthest  off  and  with 
most  ease ;  the  zebra  and  hartebeest  next ;  the  gazelle 
last. 

The  wildebeest  are  very  wary.  While  the  hunter  is 
still  a  long  way  off  the  animal  will  stop  grazing  and 
stand  with  head  raised,  the  heavy  shoulders  and  short 
neck  making  it  unmistakable.  Then,  when  it  makes  up 
its  mind  to  allow  no  closer  approach,  it  brandishes  its 
long  tail,  springs  and  plunges,  runs  once  or  twice  in 
semicircles,  and  is  off,  the  head  held  much  lower  than 
the  shoulders,  the  tail  still  lashing ;  and  now  and  then  a 
bull  may  toss  up  the  dust  with  its  horns.  The  herds  of 
cows  and  calves  usually  contain  one  or  two  or  more 
bulls ;  and  in  addition,  dotted  here  and  there  over  the 
plain,  are  single  bulls  or  small  parties  of  bulls,  usually 
past  their  prime  or  not  yet  full  grown.  These  bulls  are 
often  found  in  the  company  of  hartebeests  or  zebras, 
and  stray  zebras  and  hartebeests  are  often  found  with  the 
wildebeest  herds.  The  stomachs  of  those  I  opened 
contained  nothing  but  grass ;  they  are  grazers,  not 
browsers.  The  hartebeest  are  much  faster,  and  if 
really  frightened  speedily  leave  their  clumsy-looking 
friends  behind ;  but  the  wildebeest,  as  I  have  seen 
them,  are  by  far  the  most  wary.  The  wildebeest  and 
zebra  seemed  to  me  to  lie  down  less  freely  than  the 
hartebeest ;  but  I  frequently  came  on  herds  of  both 
lying  down  during  the  heat  of  the  day.      Sometimes 


CH.  II]  ANTELOPE  47 

part  of  the  herd  will  stand  drowsily  erect  and  the  rest 
lie  down. 

Near  Kitanga  there  were  three  wildebeest  which  were 
usually  found  with  a  big  herd  of  hartebeest,  and  which 
regularly  every  afternoon  lay  down  for  some  hours,  just 
as  their  friends  did.  The  animal  has  a  very  bovine 
look,  and  though  called  an  antelope  it  is  quite  as  close 
kin  to  the  oxen  as  it  is  to  many  of  the  other  beasts 
also  called  antelope.  The  fact  is  that  antelope  is  not 
an  exact  term  at  all,  but  merely  means  any  hollow- 
horned  ruminant  which  the  observer  happens  to  think  is 
not  a  sheep,  goat,  or  ox.  When,  with  Linnaeus,  the 
first  serious  effort  at  the  systematization  of  living  nature 
began,  men  naturally  groped  in  the  effort  to  see  correctly 
and  to  express  what  they  saw.  When  they  came  to 
describe  the  hollow-horned  ruminants,  they,  of  course, 
already  had  names  at  hand  for  anything  that  looked  like 
one  of  the  domestic  creatures  with  which  they  were 
familiar  ;  and  as  "  antelope  "  was  also  already  a  name  of 
general,  though  vague,  currency  for  some  wild  creatures, 
they  called  everything  an  antelope  that  did  not  seem  to 
come  in  one  of  the  more  familiar  domestic  categories. 
Study  has  shown  that  sheep  and  goats  grade  into  one 
another  among  the  wild  species ;  and  the  so-called 
antelopes  include  forms  differing  from  one  another  quite 
as  sharply  as  any  of  them  differ  from  their  kinsfolk  that 
are  represented  in  the  farmyard. 

Zebras  share  with  hartebeest  the  distinction  of  being 
the  most  abundant  game  animal  on  the  plains,  through- 
out the  whole  Athi  region.  The  two  creatures  are  fond 
of  associating  together,  usually  in  mixed  herds,  but 
sometimes  there  will  merely  be  one  or  two  individuals 
of  one  species  in  a  big  herd  of  the  other.  They  are 
sometimes,  though  less  frequently  tlian  the  hartebeest. 


48         ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

found  in  open  bush  country ;  but  they  Hve  in  the  open 
plains  by  choice. 

I  could  not  find  out  that  they  had  fixed  times  for 
resting,  feeding,  and  going  to  water.  They  and  the 
hartebeest  formed  the  favourite  prey  of  the  numerous 
lions  of  the  neighbourhood,  and  I  believe  that  the 
nights,  even  the  moonlight  nights,  were  passed  by  both 
animals  under  a  nervous  strain  of  apprehension,  ever 
dreading  the  attack  of  their  arch-enemy,  and  stampeding 
from  it.  Their  stampedes  cause  the  utmost  exasperation 
to  the  settlers,  for  when  in  terror  of  the  real  or  imaginary 
attack  of  a  lion,  their  mad,  heedless  rush  takes  them 
through  a  wire  fence  as  if  it  were  made  of  twine  and 
pasteboard.  But  a  few  months  before  my  arrival  a 
mixed  herd  of  zebra  and  hartebeest,  stampeded  either 
by  lions  or  wild-dogs,  rushed  through  the  streets  of 
Nairobi,  several  being  killed  by  the  inhabitants,  and 
one  of  the  victims  falling  just  outside  the  Episcopal 
Church.  The  zebras  are  nearly  powerless  when  seized 
by  lions,  but  they  are  bold  creatures  against  less  formid- 
able foes,  trusting  in  their  hoofs  and  their  strong  jaws ; 
they  will,  when  in  a  herd,  drive  off  hyenas  or  wild-dogs, 
and  will  turn  on  hounds  if  the  hunter  is  not  near.  If 
the  lion  is  abroad  in  the  daytime,  they,  as  well  as  the 
other  game,  seem  to  realize  that  he  cannot  run  them 
down ;  and  though  they  follow  his  movements  with 
great  alertness,  and  keep  at  a  respectful  distance,  they 
show  no  panic.  Ordinarily,  as  I  saw  them,  they  did 
not  seem  very  shy  of  men,  but  in  this  respect  all  the 
game  displayed  the  widest  differences,  from  time  to 
time,  without  any  real  cause,  that  I  could  discern,  for 
the  difference.  At  one  hour,  or  on  one  day,  the  zebra 
and  hartebeest  would  flee  from  our  approach  when  half 
a  mile  off",  and  again  they  would  permit  us  to  come 


CH.  ii]  ;5EBRAS  49 

within  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  before  moving  slowly 
away.  On  two  or  three  occasions  at  lunch  herds  of 
zebra  remained  for  half  an  hour  watching  us  with  much 
curiosity  not  over  a  hundred  yards  off.  Once,  when  we 
had  been  vainly  beating  for  lions  at  the  foot  of  the 
Elukania  ridge,  at  least  a  thousand  zebras  stood,  in 
lierds,  on  every  side  of  us,  throughout  lunch  ;  they  were 
from  two  to  four  hundred  yards  distant,  and  I  was 
especially  struck  by  the  fact  that  those  which  were  to 
leeward  and  had  our  wind  were  no  more  alarmed  than 
the  others.  I  have  seen  them  water  at  dawn  and 
sunset,  and  also  in  the  middle  of  the  day ;  and  I  have 
seen  them  grazing  at  every  hour  of  the  day,  although  I 
believe  most  freely  in  the  morning  and  evening.  At 
noon,  and  until  the  late  afternoon,  those  I  saw  were 
not  infrequently  resting,  either  standing  or  lying  down. 
They  are  noisy.  Hartebeests  merely  snort  or  sneeze 
now  and  then,  but  the  shrill,  querulous  barking  of  the 
"  bonte  quaha,"  as  the  Boers  call  the  zebra,  is  one  of  the 
common  sounds  of  the  African  plains,  both  by  day  and 
night.  It  is  usually  represented  in  books  by  the  syllables 
"qua- ha-ha";  but  of  course  our  letters  and  syllables 
were  not  made  to  represent,  and  can  only  in  arbitrary 
and  conventional  fashion  represent,  the  calls  of  birds 
and  mammals  ;  the  bark  of  the  bonte  quagga  or  common 
zebra  could  just  as  well  be  represented  by  the  syllables 
"  ba-wa-wa,"  and  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  can  readily  be 
mistaken  for  the  bark  of  a  shrill-voiced  dog.  After  one 
of  a  herd  has  been  killed  by  a  lion  or  a  hunter,  its 
companions  are  particularly  apt  to  keep  uttering  their 
cry.  Zebras  are  very  beautiful  creatures,  and  it  was 
an  unending  pleasure  to  watch  them.  I  never  molested 
them  save  to  procure  specimens  for  the  museums,  or 
food  for  the  porters,  who  like  their  rather  rank  flesh. 

4 


50        ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH    [ch.  ii 

They  were  covered  with  ticks  Uke  the  other  game ;  on 
the  groin,  and  many  of  the  tenderest  spots,  the  odious 
creatures  were  in  soHd  clusters  ;  yet  the  zebras  were  all 
in  high  condition,  with  masses  of  oily  yellow  fat.  One 
stallion  weighed  six  hundred  and  fifty  pounds. 

The  hartebeest — Coke's  hartebeest,  known  locally  by 
the  Swahili  name  of  "  kongoni " — were  at  least  as  plenti- 
ful, and  almost  as  tame,  as  the  zebras.     As  with  the 
other  game  of  Equatorial  Africa,  we  found  the  young  of 
all  ages ;  there  seems  to  be  no  especial  breeding- time, 
and  no  one  period  among  the  males  corresponding  to  the 
rutting  season  among  Northern  animals.  The  hartebeests 
were  usually  inseparable  companions  of  the  zebras  ;  but, 
though  they  were  by  preference  beasts  of  the  bare  plain, 
they  were  rather  more  often  found  in  open  bush  than 
were  their  striped  friends.     There  are  in  the  country 
numerous  anthills,  which  one   sees   in  every  stage  of 
development,  fro^l  a  patch  of  bare  earth  with  a  few 
funnel-like  towers,  to  a  hillock  a  dozen  feet  high  and  as 
many  yards  in  circumference.     On  these  big  anthills 
one  or  two  kongoni  will  often  post  themselves  as  look- 
outs, and  are  then  almost  impossible  to  approach.     The 
bulls   sometimes   fight    hard    among   themselves,    and, 
although  their  horns  are  not  very  formidable  weapons, 
yet  I  knew  of  one  case  in  which  a  bull  was  killed  in 
such  a  duel,  his  chest  being  ripped  open  by  his  adver- 
sary's horns  ;  and  now  and  then  a  bull  will  kneel  and 
grind  its  face  and  horns  into  the  dust  or  mud.     Often  a 
whole  herd  will  gather  around  and  on  an  anthill,  or  even 
a  small  patch  of  level  ground,  and  make  it  a  regular 
stamping-ground,  treading  it  into  dust  with  their  sharp 
hoofs.     They  have  another  habit  which  I  have  not  seen 
touched  on  in  the  books.     Ordinarily  their  droppings 
are  scattered  anywhere  on  the  plain  ;   but  again  and 


CH.  ii]  GRANT'S  GAZELLE  51 

again  I  found  where  hartebeests — and,  more  rarely, 
Grant's  gazelles— had  in  large  numbers  deposited  their 
droppings  for  some  time  in  one  spot.  Hartebeest  are 
homely  creatures,  with  long  faces,  high  withers,  and 
showing,  when  first  in  motion,  a  rather  ungainly  gait ; 
but  they  are  among  the  swiftest  and  most  enduring 
of  antelope,  and  when  at  speed  their  action  is  easy 
and  regular.  When  pursued  by  a  dog  they  will  often 
play  before  him,  just  as  a  tommy  will,  taking  great 
leaps  with  all  four  legs  inclined  backward,  evidently  in 
a  spirit  of  fun  and  derision.  In  the  stomachs  of  those  I 
killed,  as  in  those  of  the  zebras,  I  found  only  grass  and 
a  few  ground-plants  ;  even  in  the  open  bush  or  thinly- 
wooded  country  they  seemed  to  graze,  and  not  browse. 
One  fat  and  heavy  bull  weighed  340  pounds  ;  a  very  old 
bull,  with  horns  much  worn  down,  299  pounds  ;  and  a 
cow  in  high  condition,  315  pounds. 

The  Grant's  gazelle  is  the  most  beautiful  of  all  these 
plains  creatures.  It  is  about  the  size  of  a  big  white-tail 
deer ;  one  heavy  buck  which  I  shot,  although  with  poor 
horns,  weighed  171  pounds.  The  finest  among  the  old 
bucks  have  beautiful  lyre-shaped  horns,  over  two  feet 
long,  and  their  proud,  graceful  carriage  and  lightness  of 
movement  render  them  a  delight  to  the  eye.  As  I  have 
already  said,  the  young  and  the  females  have  the  dark 
side  stripe  which  marks  all  the  tommies  ;  but  the  old 
bucks  lack  this,  and  their  colour  fades  into  the  brown 
or  sandy  of  the  dry  plains  far  more  completely  than  is 
the  case  with  zebra  or  kongoni.  Like  the  other  game 
of  the  plains,  they  are  sometimes  found  in  small  parties, 
or  else  in  fair- sized  herds,  by  themselves,  and  sometimes 
with  other  beasts  ;  I  have  seen  a  single  fine  buck  in  a 
herd  of  several  hundred  zebra  and  kongoni.  The 
Thomson's  gazelles,  hardly  a  third  the  weight  of  their 


52         ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH  [ch    ir 

larger  kinsfolk,  are  found  scattered  everywhere  ;  they 
are  not  as  highly  gregarious  as  the  zebra  and  kongoni, 
and  are  not  found  in  such  big  herds  ;  but  their  httle 
bands — now  a  buck  and  several  does,  now  a  couple  of 
does  with  their  fawns,  now  three  or  four  bucks  together, 
now  a  score  of  individuals — are  scattered  everywhere  on 
the  flats.  Like  the  Grants,  their  flesh  is  delicious,  and 
they  seem  to  have  much  the  same  habits.  But  they 
have  one  very  marked  characteristic — their  tails  keep 
up  an  incessant  nervous  twitching,  never  being  still  for 
more  than  a  few  seconds  at  a  time,  while  the  larger 
gazelle  in  this  part  of  its  range  rarely  moves  its  tail  at 
all.  They  are  grazers,  and  they  feed,  rest,  and  go  to 
water  at  irregular  times,  or,  at  least,  at  different  times 
in  different  localities  ;  and  although  they  are  most  apt 
to  rest  during  the  heat  of  the  day,  I  have  seen  them 
get  up  soon  after  noon,  having  lain  down  for  a  couple 
of  hours,  feed  for  an  hour  or  so,  and  then  lie  down 
again.  In  the  same  way  the  habits  of  the  game  as  to 
migration  vary  with  the  different  districts,  in  Africa  as 
in  America.  There  are  places  where  all  the  game, 
perhaps  notably  the  wildebeests,  gather  in  herds  of 
thousands,  at  certain  times,  and  travel  for  scores  of 
miles,  so  that  a  district  which  is  teeming  with  game  at 
one  time  may  be  almost  barren  of  large  wild  life  at 
another.  But  my  information  was  that  around  the 
Kapiti  plains  there  was  no  such  complete  and  extensive 
shift.  If  the  rains  are  abundant  and  the  grass  rank, 
most  of  the  game  will  be  found  far  out  in  the  middle  of 
the  plains ;  if,  as  was  the  case  at  the  time  of  my  visit, 
there  has  been  a  long  drought,  the  game  will  be  found 
ten  or  fifteen  miles  away,  near  or  among  the  foothills. 

Unless  there  was  something  special  on,  like  a  lion  or 
rhinoceros  hunt,  I  usually  rode  off  followed  only  by  my 


CH.  II]  SOLITARY  RIDES  53 

sais  and  gun-bearers.  I  cannot  describe  the  beauty  and 
the  unceasing  interest  of  these  rides,  through  the  teem- 
ing herds  of  game.  It  was  hke  retracing  the  steps  of 
time  for  sixty  or  seventy  years,  and  being  back  in  the 
days  of  CornwaUis  Hams  and  Gordon  Gumming,  in 
the  palmy  times  of  the  giant  fauna  of  South  Africa. 
On  Pease's  own  farm  one  day  I  passed  through  scores 
of  herds  of  the  beautiful  and  wonderful  wild  creatures 
I  have  spoken  of  above ;  all  told  there  were  several 
thousands  of  them.  With  the  exception  of  the  wilde- 
beest, most  of  them  were  not  shy,  and  I  could  have 
taken  scores  of  shots  at  a  distance  of  a  couple  of  hundred 
yards  or  thereabouts.  Of  course,  I  did  not  shoot  at 
anything  unless  we  were  out  of  meat  or  needed  the 
skin  for  the  collection ;  and  when  we  took  the  skin  we 
almost  always  took  the  meat  too,  for  the  porters, 
although  they  had  their  rations  of  rice,  depended  for 
much  of  their  well-being  on  our  success  with  the  rifle. 

These  rides  through  the  wild,  lonely  country,  with 
only  my  silent  black  followers,  had  a  pecuHar  charm. 
When  the  sky  was  overcast  it  was  cool  and  pleasant, 
for  it  is  a  high  country ;  as  soon  as  the  sun  appeared 
the  vertical  tropic  rays  made  the  air  quiver  above  the 
scorched  land.  As  we  passed  down  a  hill-side  we 
brushed  through  aromatic  shrubs,  and  the  hot,  pleasant 
fragrance  enveloped  us.  When  we  came  to  a  nearly 
dry  watercourse,  there  would  be  beds  of  rushes,  beautiful 
lilies  and  lush  green  plants  with  staring  flowers,  and 
great  deep  green  fig-trees,  or  flat-topped  mimosas.  In 
many  of  these  trees  there  were  sure  to  be  native  bee- 
hives ;  these  were  sections  of  hollow  logs  hung  from 
the  branches ;  they  formed  striking  and  characteristic 
features  of  the  landscape.  Wherever  there  was  any 
moisture  there  were  flowers,  brilliant  of  hue  and  many 


54        ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH   [ch.  ii 

of  them  sweet  of  smell ;  and  birds  of  numerous  kinds 
abounded.  When  we  left  the  hills  and  the  wooded 
watercourses  we  might  ride  hour  after  hour  across  the 
barren  desolation  of  the  flats,  while  herds  of  zebra  and 
hartebeest  stared  at  us  through  the  heat  haze.  Then 
the  zebra,  with  shrill,  barking  neighs,  would  file  off 
across  the  horizon,  or  the  high-withered  hartebeests, 
snorting  and  bucking,  would  rush  off  in  a  confused 
mass,  as  unreasoning  panic  succeeded  foolish  confidence. 
If  I  shot  anything,  vultures  of  several  kinds  and  the 
tall,  hideous  marabout  storks  gathered  before  the 
skinners  were  through  with  their  work ;  they  usually 
stayed  at  a  wary  distance,  but  the  handsome  ravens, 
glossy-hued,  with  white  napes,  big-billed,  long-winged, 
and  short-tailed,  came  round  more  familiarly. 

I  rarely  had  to  take  the  trouble  to  stalk  anything ; 

the  shooting  was  necessarily  at  rather  long  range,  but 

by  manoeuvring   a   little,  and   never  walking   straight 

toward  a  beast,  I  was  usually  able  to  get  whatever  the 

naturalists  wished.     Sometimes  I  shot  fairly  well,  and 

sometimes  badly.     On  one  day,  for  instance,  the  entry 

in  my  diary  ran :  "  Missed  steinbuck,  pig,  impalla  and 

Grant ;    awful."      On   another   day  it   ran   in   part   as 

follows :    *'  Out  with   Heller.     Hartebeest,   250  yards, 

facing  me  ;  shot  through  face,  broke  neck.     Zebra,  very 

large,  quartering,  160  yards,  between  neck  and  shoulder. 

Buck    Grant,    220    yards,   walking,   behind    shoulder. 

Steinbuck,    180     yards,    standing,    behind     shoulder." 

Generally  each  head  of  game  bagged  cost  me  a  goodly 

number  of  bullets  ;  but  only  twice  did  I  wound  animals 

which   I   failed  to   get ;    in  the    other  cases  the  extra 

cartridges  represented  either  misses  at  animals  which 

got  clean  away  untouched,  or  else  a  running  fusillade  at 

wounded  animals  which  I  eventually  got.     I  am  a  very 

strong  believer  in  making  sure,  and,  therefore,  in  shoot- 


CH.  II]  SMALLER  ANTELOPES  55 

ing  at  a  wounded  animal  as  long  as  there  is  the  least 
chance  of  its  getting  off.  The  expenditure  of  a  few 
cartridges  is  of  no  consequence  whatever  compared  to 
the  escape  of  a  single  head  of  game  which  should  have 
been  bagged.  Shooting  at  long  range  necessitates 
much  running.  Some  of  my  successful  shots  at  Grant's 
gazelle  and  kongoni  were  made  at  300,  350,  and  400 
yards  ;  but  at  such  distances  my  proportion  of  misses 
was  very  large  indeed — and  there  were  altogether  too 
many  even  at  shorter  ranges. 

The  so-called  grass  antelopes,  the  steinbuck  and 
duyker,  were  the  ones  at  which  I  shot  worst.  They  were 
quite  plentiful,  and  they  got  up  close,  seeking  to  escape 
observation  by  hiding  until  the  last  moment ;  but  they 
were  small,  and  when  they  did  go  they  rushed  half- 
hidden  through  the  grass  and  in  and  out  among  the 
bushes  at  such  a  speed,  and  with  such  jumps  and  twists 
and  turns,  that  I  found  it  wellnigh  impossible  to  hit 
them  with  the  rifle.  The  few  I  got  were  generally  shot 
when  they  happened  to  stand  still. 

On  the  steep,  rocky,  bush-clad  hills  there  were  little 
klipspringers  and  the  mountain  reedbuck,  or  Chanler's 
reedbuck,  a  very  pretty  little  creature.  Usually  we 
found  the  reedbuck  does  and  their  fawns  in  small 
parties,  and  the  bucks  by  themselves  ;  but  we  saw  too 
few  to  enable  us  to  tell  whether  this  represented  their 
normal  habits.  They  fed  on  the  grass,  the  hill  plants, 
and  the  tips  of  certain  of  the  shrubs,  and  were  true 
mountaineers  in  their  love  of  the  rocks  and  rough 
ground,  to  which  they  fled  in  frantic  haste  when 
alarmed.  They  were  shy  and  elusive  little  things,  but 
not  wary  in  the  sense  that  some  of  the  larger  antelopes 
are  wary.  I  shot  two  does  with  three  bullets,  all  of 
which  hit.  Then  I  tried  hard  for  a  buck  ;  at  last,  late 
one  evening,  I  got  up  to  one  feeding  on  a  steep  hillside, 


56         ON  AN  EAST  AFRICAN  RANCH   [ch.  ii 

and  actually  took  ten  shots  to  kill  him,  hitting  him  no 
less  than  seven  times. 

Occasionally  we  drove  a  ravine  or  a  range  of  hills  by 
means  of  beaters.  On  such  occasions  all  kinds  of  things 
were  put  up.  Most  of  the  beaters,  especially  if  they 
w^ere  wild  savages  impressed  for  the  purpose  from  some 
neighbouring  tribe,  carried  thro  wing-sticks,  with  which 
they  were  very  expert,  as,  indeed,  were  some  of  the 
colonials,  like  the  Hills.  Hares,  looking  and  behaving 
much  like  small  jack-rabbits,  were  plentiful  both  on  the 
plains  and  in  the  ravines,  and  dozens  of  these  were 
knocked  over  ;  while  on  several  occasions  I  saw  franco - 
lins  and  spurfowl  cut  down  on  the  wing  by  a  throwing- 
stick  hurled  from  some  unusually  dexterous  hand. 

The  beats,  with  the  noise  and  laughter  of  the  good- 
humoured,  excitable  savages,  and  the  alert  interest  as 
to  what  would  turn  up  next,  were  great  fun ;  but  the 
days  I  enjoyed  most  were  those  spent  alone  with  my 
horse  and  gun-bearers.  We  might  be  off  by  dawn,  and 
see  the  tropic  sun  flame  splendid  over  the  brink  of  the 
world ;  strange  creatures  rustled  through  the  bush  or 
fled  dimly  through  the  long  grass,  before  the  light  grew 
bright ;  and  the  air  was  fresh  and  sweet  as  it  blew  in 
our  faces.  When  the  still  heat  of  noon  drew  near  I 
would  stop  under  a  tree,  with  my  water  canteen  and 
my  lunch.  The  men  lay  in  the  shade,  and  the  hobbled 
pony  grazed  close  by,  while  I  either  dozed  or  else 
watched  through  my  telescope  the  herds  of  game  lying 
down  or  standing  drowsily  in  the  distance.  As  the 
shadows  lengthened  I  would  again  mount,  and  finally 
ride  homeward  as  the  red  sunset  paled  to  amber  and 
opal,  and  all  the  vast,  mysterious  African  landscape 
grew  to  wonderful  beauty  in  the  dying  twilight. 


CHAPTER  III 

LION-HUNTING  ON  THE  KAPITI  PLAINS 

The  dangerous  game  of  Africa  are  the  lion,  buffalo, 
elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  leopard.  The  hunter  who 
follows  any  of  these  animals  always  does  so  at  a  certain 
risk  to  life  or  limb — a  risk  which  it  is  his  business  to 
minimize  by  coolness,  caution,  good  judgment,  and 
straight  shooting.  Tlie  leopard  is  in  point  of  pluck  and 
ferocity  more  than  the  equal  of  the  other  four ;  but  his 
small  size  always  renders  it  likely  that  he  will  merely 
maul,  and  not  kill,  a  man.  My  friend  Carl  Akely,  of 
Chicago,  actually  killed  bare-handed  a  leopard  which 
sprang  on  him.  He  had  already  wounded  the  beast 
twice,  crippling  it  in  one  front  and  one  hind  paw  ; 
whereupon  it  charged,  followed  him  as  he  tried  to 
dodge  the  charge,  and  struck  him  full  just  as  he  turned. 
It  bit  him  in  one  arm,  biting  again  and  again  as  it 
worked  up  the  arm  from  the  wrist  to  the  elbow ;  but 
Akely  threw  it,  holding  its  throat  with  the  other  hand, 
and  Hinging  its  body  to  one  side.  It  luckily  fell  on  its 
side,  with  its  two  wounded  legs  uppermost,  so  that  it 
could  not  tear  him.  He  fell  forward  with  it  and 
crushed  in  its  chest  with  his  knees,  until  he  distinctly  felt 
one  of  its  ribs  crack  ;  this,  said  Akely,  was  the  first 
moment  when  he  felt  he  might  conquer.  Redoubling 
his  efforts,  with  knees  and   hand,  he  actually  choked 

57 


58  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

and  crushed  the  Hfe  out  of  it,  although  his  arm  was 
badly  bitten.  A  leopard  will  charge  at  least  as  readily 
as  one  of  the  big  beasts,  and  is  rather  more  apt  to  get 
his  charge  home,  but  the  risk  is  less  to  life  than  to  limb. 
There  are  other  animals  often  or  occasionally  danger- 
ous to  human  life  which  are,  nevertheless,  not  dangerous 
to  the  hunter.  Crocodiles  are  far  greater  pests,  and  far 
more  often  man-eaters,  than  lions  or  leopards ;  but  their 
shooting  is  not  accompanied  by  the  smallest  element  of 
risk.  Poisonous  snakes  are  fruitful  sources  of  accident, 
but  they  are  actuated  only  by  fear  and  the  anger  born 
of  fear.  The  hippopotamus  sometimes  destroys  boats 
and  kills  those  in  them ;  but  again  there  is  no  risk  in 
hunting  him.  Finally,  the  hyena,  too  cowardly  ever  to 
be  a  source  of  danger  to  the  hunter,  is  sometimes  a 
dreadful  curse  to  the  weak  and  helpless.  The  hyena  is 
a  beast  of  unusual  strength  and  of  enormous  power  in 
his  jaws  and  teeth,  and  thrice  over  would  he  be  dreaded 
were  fang  and  sinew  driven  by  a  heart  of  the  leopard's 
cruel  courage.  But  though  the  creature's  foul  and  evil 
ferocity  has  no  such  backing  as  that  yielded  by  the 
angry  daring  of  the  spotted  cat,  it  is  yet  fraught  with  a 
terror  all  its  own ;  for  on  occasion  the  hyena  takes  to 
man-eating  after  its  own  fashion.  Carrion-feeder  though 
it  is,  in  certain  places  it  will  enter  native  huts  and  carry 
away  children  or  even  sleeping  adults  ;  and  where  famine 
or  disease  has  worked  havoc  among  a  people,  the  hideous 
spotted  beasts  become  bolder  and  prey  on  the  survivors. 
For  some  years  past  Uganda  has  been  scourged  by  the 
sleeping-sickness,  which  has  ravaged  it  as  in  the  Middle 
Ages  the  Black  Death  ravaged  Europe.  Hundreds 
of  thousands  of  natives  have  died.  Every  effort  has 
been  made  by  the  Government  officials  to  cope  with 
the  disease ;  and  among  other  things  sleeping-sickness 


CH.  Ill]  RAVAGES  OF  HYENAS  59 

camps  have  been  established,  where  those  stricken  by 
the   dread    malady   can   be   isolated   and   cease   to   be 
possible  sources  of  infection  to  their  fellows.     Recovery 
among  those  stricken  is  so  rare  as  to  be  almost  unknown, 
but  the  disease  is  often  slow,  and  months  may  elapse 
during  which  the  diseased  man  is  still  able  to  live  his 
life  much  as  usual.     In  the  big  camps  of  doomed  men 
and  women  thus  established  there  were,  therefore,  many 
persons  carrying   on   their   avocations    much  as  in  an 
ordinary  native  village.     But  the  hyenas  speedily  found 
that  in  many  of  the  huts  the  inmates  were  a  helpless 
prey.     In  1908  and  throughout  the  early  part  of  1909 
they  grew  constantly  bolder,  haunting  these  sleeping- 
sickness  camps,  and  each  night  entering  them,  bursting 
into  the  huts  and  carrying  off  and  eating  the  dying 
people.     To  guard  against  them,  each  little  group  of 
huts  was  enclosed  by  a  thick  hedge  ;  but  after  a  while 
the  hyenas  learned  to  break  through  the  hedges,  and 
continued   their  ravages,   so   that   every  night   armed 
sentries  had  to  patrol  the  camps,  and  every  night  they 
could  be  heard  firing  at  the  marauders. 

The  men  thus  preyed  on  were  sick  to  death,  and  for 
the  most  part  helpless.  But  occasionally  men  in  ftiU 
vigour  are  attacked.  One  of  Pease's  native  hunters  was 
seized  by  a  hyena  as  he  slept  beside  the  camp-fire,  and 
part  of  his  face  torn  off.  Selous  informed  me  that  a 
friend  of  his,  Major  R.  T.  Coryndon,  then  Administrator 
of  North- Western  Rhodesia,  was  attacked  by  a  hyena 
but  two  or  three  years  ago.  At  the  time  Major  Coryndon 
was  lying,  wrapped  in  a  blanket,  beside  his  waggon.  A 
hyena,  stealthily  approaching  through  the  night,  seized 
him  by  the  hand  and  dragged  him  out  of  bed ;  but,  as 
he  struggled  and  called  out,  the  beast  left  him  and  ran 
off  into  the  darkness.     In  spite  of  his  torn  hand  the 


60  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

Major  was  determined  to  get  his  assailant,  which  he  felt 
sure  would  soon  return.  Accordingly,  he  went  back  to 
his  bed,  drew  his  cocked  rifle  beside  him,  pointing 
toward  his  feet,  and  feigned  sleep.  When  all  was  still 
once  more,  a  dim  form  loomed  up  through  the  un- 
certain light,  toward  the  foot  of  the  bed ;  it  was  the 
ravenous  beast  returning  for  his  prey,  and  the  Major 
shot  and  killed  it  where  it  stood. 

A  few  months  ago  a  hyena  entered  the  outskirts  of 
Nairobi,  crept  into  a  hut,  and  seized  and  killed  a  native 
man.  At  Nairobi  the  wild  creatures  are  always  at  the 
threshold  of  the  town,  and  often  cross  it.  At  Governor 
Jackson's  table,  at  Government  House,  I  met  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Sandiford.  Mr.  Sandiford  is  managing  the  rail- 
road. A  few  months  previously,  while  he  was  sitting 
with  his  family  in  his  own  house  in  Nairobi,  he  happened 
to  ask  his  daughter  to  look  for  something  in  one  of  the 
bedrooms.  She  returned  in  a  minute,  quietly  remark- 
ing :  "  Father,  there's  a  leopard  under  the  bed."  So 
there  was ;  and  it  was  then  remembered  that  the  house- 
cat  had  been  showing  a  marked  and  alert  distrust  of 
the  room  in  question — very  probably  the  leopard  had 
got  into  the  house  while  trying  to  catch  her  or  one  of 
the  dogs.  A  neighbour  with  a  rifle  was  summoned,  and 
shot  the  leopard. 

Hyenas  not  infrequently  kill  mules  and  donkeys, 
tearing  open  their  bellies,  and  eating  them  while  they 
are  still  alive.  Yet  when  themselves  assailed  they 
usually  behave  with  abject  cowardice.  The  Hills  had 
a  large  Airedale  terrier,  an  energetic  dog  of  much 
courage.  Not  long  before  our  visit  this  dog  put  up 
a  hyena  from  a  bushy  ravine  in  broad  daylight,  ran 
after  it,  overtook  it,  and  flew  at  it.  The  hyena  made 
no   effective  fight,  although  the  dog — not  a  third  its 


CH.  Ill]  HYENAS  61 

weight — bit  it  severely,  and  delayed  its  flight  so  that 
it  was  killed.  During  the  first  few  weeks  of  our  trip  I 
not  infrequently  heard  hyenas  after  nightfall,  but  saw 
none.  Kermit,  however,  put  one  out  of  a  ravine  or  dry 
creek-bed — a  donga,  as  it  is  locally  called — and  though 
the  brute  had  a  long  start  he  galloped  after  it  and 
succeeded  in  running  it  down.  The  chase  was  a  long 
one,  for  twice  the  hyena  got  in  such  rocky  country  that 
he  almost  distanced  his  pursuer ;  but  at  last,  after 
covering  nearly  ten  miles,  Kermit  ran  into  it  in  the 
open,  shooting  it  from  the  saddle  as  it  shambled  along 
at  a  canter  growling  with  rage  and  terror.  I  would  not 
have  recognized  the  cry  of  the  hyenas  from  what  I  had 
read,  and  it  was  long  before  I  heard  them  laugh.  Pease 
said  that  he  had  only  once  heard  them  really  laugh.  On 
that  occasion  he  was  watching  for  lions  outside  a  Somali 
zareba.  Suddenly  a  leopard  leaped  clear  over  the 
zareba,  close  beside  him,  and  in  a  few  seconds  came 
flying  back  again,  over  the  high  thorn  fence,  with  a 
sheep  in  its  mouth ;  but  no  sooner  had  it  landed  than 
the  hyenas  rushed  at  it  and  took  away  the  sheep,  and 
then  their  cackling  and  shrieking  sounded  exactly  like 
the  most  unpleasant  kind  of  laughter.  The  normal 
death  of  very  old  lions,  as  they  grow  starved  and  feeble 
— unless  they  are  previously  killed  in  an  encounter  with 
dangerous  game  like  buffalo — is  to  be  killed  and  eaten 
by  hyenas  ;  but  of  course  a  lion  in  full  vigour  pays  no 
heed  to  hyenas,  unless  it  is  to  kill  one  if  it  gets  in 
the  way. 

During  the  last  few  decades,  in  Africa,  hundreds  of 
white  hunters,  and  thousands  of  native  hunters,  have 
been  killed  or  wounded  by  lions,  buffaloes,  elephants, 
and  rhinos.  All  are  dangerous  game  ;  each  species  has 
to  its  gruesome  credit  a  long  list  of  mighty  hunters 


62  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

slain  or  disabled.  Among  those  competent  to  express 
judgment  there  is  the  widest  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  comparative  danger  in  hunting  the  several  kinds  of 
animals.  Probably  no  other  hunter  who  has  ever  lived 
has  combined  Selous's  experience  with  his  skill  as  a 
hunter  and  his  power  of  accurate  observation  and  narra- 
tion. He  has  killed  between  three  and  four  hundred  lions, 
elephants,  buffaloes,  and  rhinos,  and  he  ranks  the  lion  as 
much  the  most  dangerous,  and  the  rhino  as  much  the 
least,  while  he  puts  the  buffalo  and  elephant  in  between, 
and  practically  on  a  par.  Governor  Jackson  has 
killed  between  eighty  and  ninety  of  the  four  animals ; 
and  he  puts  the  buffalo  unquestionably  first  in  point  of 
formidable  capacity  as  a  foe,  the  elephant  equally  un- 
questionably second,  the  lion  third,  and  the  rhino  last. 
Stigand  puts  them  in  the  following  order  :  lion,  elephant, 
rhino,  leopard,  and  buffalo.  Drummond,  who  wrote  a 
capital  book  on  South  African  game,  who  was  for 
years  a  professional  hunter  like  Selous,  and  who  had 
fine  opportunities  for  observation,  but  who  was  a  much 
less  accurate  observer  than  Selous,  put  the  rhino  as  un- 
questionably the  most  dangerous,  with  the  lion  as  second, 
and  the  buffalo  and  elephant  nearly  on  a  level.  Samuel 
Baker,  a  mighty  hunter  and  good  observer,  but  with  less 
experience  of  African  game  than  any  one  of  the  above, 
put  the  elephant  first,  the  rhino  second,  the  buffalo  seem- 
ingly third,  and  the  lion  last.  The  experts  of  greatest 
experience  thus  absolutely  disagree  among  themselves  ; 
and  there  is  the  same  wide  divergence  of  view  among 
good  hunters  and  trained  observers  whose  oppor- 
tunities have  been  less.  Mr.  Abel  Chapman,  for 
instance,  regards  both  the  elephant  and  the  rhino  as 
more  dangerous  than  the  lion,  and  many  of  the  hunters 
I  met  in  East  Africa  seemed  inclined  to  rank  the  buffalo 


CH.  Ill]         VICTIMS  OF  BIG  GAME  63 

as  more  dangerous  than  any  other  animal.  A  man  who 
has  shot  but  a  dozen  or  a  score  of  these  various  animals, 
all  put  together,  is  not  entitled  to  express  any  but  the 
most  tentative  opinion  as  to  their  relative  prowess  and 
ferocity ;  yet  on  the  whole  it  seems  to  me  that  the 
weight  of  opinion  among  those  best  fitted  to  judge 
is  that  the  lion  is  the  most  formidable  opponent  of  the 
hunter,  under  ordinary  conditions.  This  is  my  own  view. 
Butwe  must  everkeep  in  mind  the  fact  that  the  surround- 
ing conditions,  the  geographical  locality,  and  the  wide 
individual  variation  of  temper  within  the  ranks  of  each 
species,  must  all  be  taken  into  account.  In  certain 
circumstances  a  lion  may  be  easily  killed,  whereas  a 
rhino  would  be  a  dangerous  foe.  Under  other  con- 
ditions the  rhino  could  be  attacked  with  impunity,  and 
the  lion  only  with  the  utmost  hazard ;  and  one  bull 
buffalo  might  flee  and  one  bull  elephant  charge,  and 
yet  the  next  couple  met  with  might  show  an  exact 
reversal  of  behaviour. 

At  any  rate,  during  the  last  three  or  four  years  in 
German  and  British  East  Africa  and  Uganda  over  fifty 
white  men  have  been  killed  or  mauled  by  lions,  buffa- 
loes, elephants,  and  rhinos,  and  the  lions  have  much 
the  largest  list  of  victims  to  their  credit.  In  Nairobi 
churchyard  I  was  shown  the  graves  of  seven  men  who 
had  been  killed  by  lions,  and  of  one  who  had  been  killed 
by  a  rhino.  The  first  man  to  meet  us  on  the  African 
shore  was  Mr.  Campbell,  Governor  Jackson's  A.D.C., 
and  only  a  year  previously  he  had  been  badly  mauled 
by  a  lion.  We  met  one  gentleman  who  had  been 
crippled  for  life  by  a  lioness.  He  had  marked  her  into 
some  patches  of  brush,  and,  coming  up,  tried  to  put  her 
out  of  one  thick  clump.  Failing,  he  thought  she  might 
have  gone  into  another  thicket,  and  walked  towards  it. 


64  LIOX-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

Instantly  that  his  back  was  turned,  the  lioness,  who  had 
really  been  in  the  first  clump  of  brush,  raced  out  after 
him,  threw  him  down,  and  bit  him  again  and  again 
before  she  was  driven  ofif!  One  night  we  camped  at  tlie 
very  spot  where,  a  score  of  years  before,  a  strange 
tragedy  had  happened.  It  was  in  the  early  days  of  the 
opening  of  the  country,  and  an  expedition  was  going 
towards  Uganda.  One  of  the  officials  in  charge  was 
sleeping  in  a  tent  with  the  flap  open.  There  was  an 
askari  on  duty  ;  yet  a  Hon  crept  up,  entered  the  tent, 
and  seized  and  dragged  forth  the  man.  He  struggled 
and  made  outcry ;  there  was  a  rush  of  people,  and  the 
lion  dropped  his  prey  and  bounded  off.  The  man's 
wounds  were  dressed,  and  he  was  put  back  to  bed  in  his 
own  tent ;  but  an  hour  or  two  after  the  camp  again 
grew  still  the  lion  returned,  bent  on  the  victim  of  whom 
he  had  been  robbed ;  he  re-entered  the  tent,  seized  the 
unfortunate  wounded  man  with  his  great  fangs,  and 
this  time  made  off  with  him  into  the  surrounding  dark- 
ness, killed  and  ate  him.  Not  far  from  the  scene  of 
this  tragedy  another  had  occurred.  An  English  officer 
named  Stewart,  while  endeavouring  to  kill  his  first  lion, 
was  himself  set  on  and  slain.  At  yet  another  place  we 
were  shown  where  two  settlers,  Messrs.  Lucas  and 
Goldfinch,  had  been  one  killed  and  one  crippled  by  a 
lion  they  had  been  hunting.  They  had  been  following 
the  chase  on  horseback,  and  being  men  of  bold  nature, 
and  having  killed  several  lions,  had  become  too  daring. 
They  hunted  the  lion  into  a  small  piece  of  brush,  and 
rode  too  near  it.  It  came  out  at  a  run,  and  was  on 
them  before  their  horses  could  get  under  way.  Gold- 
finch was  knocked  over,  and  badly  bitten  and  clawed  ; 
Lucas  went  to  his  assistance,  and  was  in  his  turn 
knocked  over,  and  the  lion  then  lay  on  him  and  bit  him 


CH.  Ill]     ADVENTURES  WITH  LIONS  65 

to  death.  Goldfinch,  in  spite  of  his  own  severe  wounds, 
crawled  over  and  shot  the  great  beast  as  it  lay  on  his 
friend. 

Most  of  the  settlers  with  whom  I  was  hunting  had 
met  with  various  adventures  in  connection  with  lions. 
Sir  Alfred  had  shot  many  in  different  parts  of  Africa  ; 
some  had  charged  fiercely,  but  he  always  stopped  them. 
Captain  S latter  had  killed  a  big  male  with  a  mane  a  few 
months  previously.  He  was  hunting  it  in  company  with 
Mr.  Humphries,  the  District  Commissioner  of  whom  1 
have  already  spoken,  and  it  gave  them  some  exciting 
moments,  for  when  hit  it  charged  savagely.  Humphries 
had  a  shot-gun  loaded  with  buckshot,  Slatter  his  rifle. 
When  wounded,  the  lion  charged  straight  home,  hit 
Slatter,  knocking  him  flat,  and  roUing  him  over  and 
over  in  the  sand,  and  then  went  after  the  native  gun- 
bearer,  who  was  running  away — the  worst  possible 
course  to  follow  with  a  charging  lion.  The  mechanism 
of  Slatter's  rifle  was  choked  by  the  sand,  and  as  he  rose 
to  his  feet  he  saw  the  lion  overtake  the  fleeing  man,  rise 
on  his  hind-legs  like  a  rearing  horse — not  springing — 
and  strike  down  the  fugitive.  Humphries  fired  into 
him  with  buckshot,  which  merely  went  through  the 
skin  ;  and  some  minutes  elapsed  before  Slatter  was  able 
to  get  his  rifle  in  shape  to  kill  the  lion,  which,  fortunately, 
had  begun  to  feel  the  effect  of  its  wounds,  and  was  too 
sick  to  resume  hostihties  of  its  own  accord.  The  gun- 
bearer  was  badly  but  not  fatally  injured.  Before  this 
Slatter,  while  on  a  lion  hunt,  had  been  set  afoot  by  one 
of  the  animals  he  was  after,  which  had  killed  his  horse. 
It  was  at  night,  and  the  horse  was  tethered  within  six 
yards  of  his  sleeping  master.  The  latter  was  aroused 
by  the  horse  galloping  off",  and  he  heard  it  staggering 
on  for  some  sixty  yards  before  it  fell.       He  and  his 


66  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  iu 

friend  followed  it  with  lanterns  and  drove  off  the  lion, 
but  the  horse  was  dead.  The  tracks  and  the  marks  on 
the  horse  showed  what  had  happened.  The  lion  had 
sprung  clean  on  the  horse's  back,  his  fore-claws  dug  into 
the  horse's  shoulders,  his  hind-claws  cutting  into  its 
haunches,  while  the  great  fangs  bit  at  the  neck.  The 
horse  struggled  off  at  a  heavy  run,  carrying  its  fearsome 
burden.  After  going  some  sixty  yards  the  lion's  teeth 
went  through  the  spinal  cord,  and  the  ride  was  over. 
Neither  animal  had  made  a  sound,  and  the  lion's  feet 
did  not  touch  the  earth  until  the  horse  fell. 

While  a  magistrate  in  the  Transvaal,  Pease  had 
under  him  as  game  officer  a  white  hunter,  a  fine  fellow, 
who  underwent  an  extraordinary  experience.  He  had 
been  off  some  distance  with  his  Kaffir  boys  to  hunt  a 
lion.  On  his  way  home  the  hunter  was  hunted.  It 
was  after  nightfall.  He  had  reached  a  region  where 
lions  had  not  been  seen  for  a  long  time,  and  where  an 
attack  by  them  was  unknown.  He  was  riding  along  a 
trail  in  the  darkness,  his  big  boar-hound  trotting  ahead, 
his  native  "  boys  "  some  distance  behind.  He  heard  a 
rustle  in  the  bushes  alongside  the  path,  but  paid  no 
heed,  thinking  it  was  a  reedbuck.  Immediately  after- 
ward two  lions  came  out  in  the  path  behind  and  raced 
after  him.  One  sprang  on  him,  tore  him  out  of  the 
saddle,  and  trotted  off,  holding  him  in  its  mouth,  while 
the  other  continued  after  the  frightened  horse.  The 
lion  had  him  by  the  right  shoulder,  and  yet  with  his 
left  hand  he  wrenched  his  knife  out  of  his  belt  and 
twice  stabbed  it.  The  second  stab  went  to  the  heart, 
and  the  beast  let  go  of  him,  stood  a  moment,  and  fell 
dead.  Meanwhile  the  dog  had  followed  the  other  lion, 
which  now,  having  abandoned  the  chase  of  the  horse, 
and  with  the  dog  still  at  his  heels,  came  trotting  back 


CH.  Ill]  CLIFFORD  AND  HAROLD  HILL       67 

to  look  for  the  man.  Crippled  though  he  was,  the 
hunter  managed  to  climb  a  small  tree ;  and  though 
the  lion  might  have  got  him  out  of  it,  the  dog  inter- 
fered. Whenever  the  lion  came  toward  the  tree  the 
dog  worried  him,  and  kept  him  off  until,  at  the  shouts 
and  torches  of  the  approaching  Kaffir  boys,  he  sullenly 
retired,  and  the  hunter  was  rescued. 

Percival  had  a  narrow  escape  from  a  lion,  which 
nearly  got  him,  though  probably  under  a  misunder- 
standing. He  was  riding  through  a  wet  spot  of  ground, 
where  the  grass  was  four  feet  high,  when  his  horse 
suddenly  burst  into  a  run,  and  the  next  moment  a  lion 
had  galloped  almost  alongside  of  him.  Probably  the 
lion  thought  it  was  a  zebra,  for  when  Percival,  leaning 
over,  yelled  in  his  face,  the  lion  stopped  short.  But  he 
at  once  came  on  again,  and  nearly  caught  the  horse. 
However,  they  were  now  out  of  the  tall  gi-ass,  and  the 
lion  gradually  pulled  up  when  they  reached  the  open 
country. 

The  two  Hills,  Clifford  and  Harold,  were  running  an 
ostrich  farm.  The  lions  sometimes  killed  their  ostriches 
and  stock,  and  the  Hills  in  return  had  killed  several 
lions.  The  Hills  were  fine  fellows — Africanders,  as 
their  forefathers  for  three  generations  had  been,  and 
frontiersmen  of  the  best  kind.  From  the  first  moment 
they  and  I  became  fast  friends,  for  we  instinctively 
understood  one  another,  and  found  that  we  felt  alike  on 
all  the  big  questions,  and  looked  at  life,  and  especially 
the  life  of  effort  led  by  the  pioneer  settler,  from  the 
same  standpoint.  They  reminded  me  at  every  moment 
of  those  Western  ranchmen  and  home-makers  with 
whom  I  have  always  felt  a  special  sense  of  companion- 
ship, and  with  whose  ideals  and  aspirations  I  have  always 
felt  a  special  sympathy.     A  couple  of  months  before 


68  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

my  visit  Harold  Hill  had  met  with  a  rather  unpleasant 
adventure.  He  was  walking  home  across  the  lonely 
plains  in  the  broad  daylight,  never  dreaming  that  lions 
might  be  abroad,  and  was  unarmed.  When  still  some 
miles  from  his  house,  while  plodding  along,  he  glanced 
up  and  saw  three  lions  in  the  trail  only  fifty  yards  off, 
staring  fixedly  at  him.  It  happened  to  be  a  place  where 
the  grass  was  rather  tall,  and  lions  are  always  bold  where 
there  is  the  slightest  cover ;  whereas,  unless  angered, 
they  are  cautious  on  bare  ground.  He  halted,  and  then 
walked  slowly  to  one  side,  and  then  slowly  forward 
toward  his  house.  The  lions  followed  him  with  their 
eyes,  and  when  he  had  passed  they  rose  and  slouched 
after  him.  They  were  not  pleasant  followers,  but  to 
hurry  would  have  been  fatal ;  and  he  walked  slowly  on 
along  the  road,  while  for  a  mile  he  kept  catching 
glimpses  of  the  tawny  bodies  of  the  beasts  as  they  trod 
stealthily  forward  through  the  sunburned  grass  along- 
side or  a  little  behind  him.  Then  the  grass  grew  short, 
and  the  lions  halted  and  continued  to  gaze  after  him 
until  he  disappeared  over  a  rise. 

Everywhere  throughout  the  country  we  were  crossing 
were  signs  that  the  lion  was  lord,  and  that  his  reign  was 
cruel.  There  were  many  lions,  for  the  game  on  which 
they  feed  was  extraordinarily  abundant.  They  occasion- 
ally took  the  ostriches  or  stock  of  the  settlers,  or  ravaged 
the  herds  and  flocks  of  the  natives,  but  not  often ;  for 
their  favourite  food  was  yielded  by  the  swarming  herds 
of  kongoni  and  zebras,  on  which  they  could  prey  at 
will.  Later  we  found  that  in  this  region  they  rarely 
molested  the  buffalo,  even  where  they  lived  in  the  same 
reed-beds ;  and  this  though  elsewhere  they  habitually 
prey  on  the  buffalo.  But  where  zebras  and  hartebeests 
could  be  obtained  without  effort,  it  was  evidently  not 


CH.  Ill]        LIONS  AND  THEIR  PREY  69 

worth  their  while  to  challenge  such  formidable  quarry. 
Every  "  kill "  I  saw  was  a  kongoni  or  a  zebra ;  probably 
I  came  across  fifty  of  each.  One  zebra  kill,  which  was 
not  more  than  eighteen  hours  old  (after  the  lapse  of 
that  time  the  vultures  and  marabouts,  not  to  speak 
of  the  hyenas  and  jackals,  leave  only  the  bare  bones), 
showed  just  what  had  occurred.  The  bones  were  all  in 
place,  and  the  skin  still  on  the  lower  legs  and  head 
The  animal  was  lying  on  its  belly,  the  legs  spread  out 
the  neck  vertebras  crushed.  Evidently  the  lion  had 
sprung  clean  on  it,  bearing  it  down  by  his  weight,  while 
he  bit  through  the  back  of  the  neck,  and  the  zebra's 
legs  had  spread  out  as  the  body  yielded  under  the  lion. 
One  fresh  kongoni  kill  showed  no  marks  on  the  haunches, 
but  a  broken  neck  and  claw-marks  on  the  face  and 
withers ;  in  this  case  the  lion's  hind-legs  had  remained 
on  the  ground,  while  with  his  fore-paws  he  grasped  the 
kongoni's  head  and  shoulders,  holding  it  until  the  teeth 
splintered  the  neck-bone. 

One  or  two  of  our  efforts  to  get  lions  failed,  of  course  ; 
the  ravines  we  beat  did  not  contain  them,  or  we  failed 
to  make  them  leave  some  particularly  difficult  hill  or 
swamp — for  lions  lie  close.  But  Sir  Alfred  knew  just 
the  right  place  to  go  to,  and  was  bound  to  get  us  lions — 
and  he  did. 

One  day  we  started  from  the  ranch-house  in  good 
season  for  an  all-day  lion  hunt.  Besides  Kermit  and 
myself,  there  was  a  fellow-guest,  Medlicott,  and  not 
only  our  host,  but  our  hostess  and  her  daughter  ;  and 
we  were  joined  by  Percival  at  lunch,  which  we  took 
under  a  great  fig-tree,  at  the  foot  of  a  high,  rocky  hill. 
Percival  had  with  him  a  little  mongrel  bulldog  and  a 
Masai  "  boy,"  a  fine,  bold-looking  savage,  with  a  hand- 
some head-dress  and  the  usual  formidable  spear.    Master, 


70  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

man,  and  dog  evidently  all  looked  upon  any  form  of 
encounter  with  lions  simply  in  the  light  of  a  spree. 

After  lunch  we  began  to  beat  down  a  long  donga,  or 
dry  watercourse — a  creek,  as  we  should  call  it  in  the 
Western  plains  country.  The  watercourse,  with  low, 
steep  banks,  wound  in  curves,  and  here  and  there  were 
patches  of  brush,  which  might  contain  anything  in  the 
shape  of  lion,  cheetah,  hyena,  or  wild-dog.  Soon  we 
came  upon  lion  spoor  in  the  sandy  bed  ;  first  the  foot- 
prints of  a  big  male,  then  those  of  a  lioness.  We  walked 
cautiously  along  each  side  of  the  donga,  the  horses 
following  close  behind  so  that  if  the  lion  were  missed 
we  could  gallop  after  him  and  round  him  up  on  the 
plain.  The  dogs — for  besides  the  little  bull,  we  had  a 
large  brindled  mongrel  named  Ben,  whose  courage 
belied  his  looks — began  to  show  signs  of  scenting  the 
lion ;  and  we  beat  out  each  patch  of  brush,  the  natives 
shouting  and  throwing  in  stones,  while  we  stood  with 
the  rifles  where  we  could  best  command  any  probable 
exit.  After  a  couple  of  false  alarms,  the  dogs  drew 
toward  one  patch,  their  hair  bristling,  and  showing  such 
eager  excitement  that  it  was  evident  something  big  was 
inside,  and  in  a  moment  one  of  the  boys  called  "  Simba  " 
( Lion),  and  pointed  with  his  finger.  It  was  just  across 
the  little  ravine,  there  about  four  yards  wide  and  as 
many  feet  deep ;  and  I  shifted  my  position,  peering 
eagerly  into  the  bushes  for  some  moments  before  I 
caught  a  glimpse  of  tawny  hide.  As  it  moved,  there  was 
a  call  to  me  to  "  shoot,"  for  at  that  distance,  if  the  lion 
charged,  there  would  be  scant  time  to  stop  it ;  and  I 
fired  into  what  I  saw.  There  was  a  commotion  in  the 
bushes,  and  Kermit  fired  ;  and  immediately  afterward 
there  broke  out  on  the  other  side,  not  the  hoped-for  big 
lion,  but  two  cubs  the  size  of  mastiffs.     Each  was  badly 


CH.  Ill]  A  MANELESS  LION  71 

wounded,  and  we  finished  them  off;  even  if  unwounded, 
they  were  too  big  to  take  alive. 

This  was  a  great  disappointment,  and  as  it  was  well 
on  in  the  afternoon,  and  we  had  beaten  the  country 
most  apt  to  harbour  our  game,  it  seemed  unlikely  that 
we  would  have  another  chance.  Percival  was  on  foot 
and  a  long  way  from  his  house,  so  he  started  for  it ;  and 
the  rest  of  us  also  began  to  jog  homeward.  But  Sir 
Alfred,  although  he  said  nothing,  intended  to  have 
another  try.  After  going  a  mile  or  two,  he  started  off 
to  the  left  at  a  brisk  canter ;  and  we,  the  other  riders, 
followed,  leaving  behind  our  gun-bearers,  saises,  and 
porters.  A  couple  of  miles  away  was  another  donga, 
another  shallow  watercourse,  with  occasional  big  brush 
patches  along  the  winding  bed,  and  toward  this  we 
cantered.  Almost  as  soon  as  we  reached  it  our  leader 
found  the  spoor  of  two  big  lions  ;  and  with  every  sense 
acock,  we  dismounted  and  approached  the  first  patch 
of  tall  bushes.  We  shouted  and  threw  in  stones,  but 
nothing  came  out ;  and  another  small  patch  showed 
the  same  result.  Then  we  mounted  our  horses  again, 
and  rode  toward  another  patch  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off. 
I  was  mounted  on  Tranquillity,  the  stout  and  quiet 
sorrel. 

This  patch  of  tall,  thick  brush  stood  on  the  hither 
bank — that  is,  on  our  side  of  the  watercourse.  We 
rode  up  to  it  and  shouted  loudly.  The  response  was 
immediate  in  the  shape  of  loud  gruntings  and  crash- 
ings  through  the  thick  brush.  We  were  off  our  horses 
in  an  instant,  I  throwing  the  reins  over  the  head  of 
mine ;  and  without  delay  the  good  old  fellow  began 
placidly  grazing,  quite  unmoved  by  the  ominous  sounds 
immediately  in  front. 

1   sprang  to  one  side,  and  for  a  second  or  two  we 


72  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  tii 

waited,  uncertain  whether  we  should  see  the  lions 
charging  out  ten  yards  distant  or  running  away. 
Fortunately,  they  adopted  the  latter  course.  Right 
in  front  of  me,  thirty  yards  off,  there  appeared 
from  behind  the  bushes  which  had  first  screened  him 
from  my  eyes,  the  tawny,  galloping  form  of  a  big  mane- 
less  lion.  Crack  !  the  Winchester  spoke  ;  and  as  the 
soft-nosed  bullet  ploughed  forward  through  his  flank 
the  lion  swerved  so  that  I  missed  him  with  the  second 
shot ;  but  my  third  bullet  went  through  the  spine  and 
forward  into  his  chest.  Down  he  came,  sixty  yards  off, 
his  hind-quarters  dragging,  his  head  up,  his  ears  back, 
his  jaws  open,  and  lips  drawn  up  in  a  prodigious  snarl, 
as  he  endeavoured  to  turn  to  face  us.  His  back  was 
broken  ;  but  of  this  we  could  not  at  the  moment  be 
sure ;  and  if  it  had  merely  been  grazed,  he  might  have 
recovered,  and  then,  even  though  dying,  his  charge 
might  have  done  mischief.  So  Kermit,  Sir  Alfred,  and 
I  fired,  almost  together,  into  his  chest.  His  head  sank, 
and  he  died. 

This  lion  had  come  out  on  the  left  of  the  bushes  ;  the 
other,  to  the  right  of  them,  had  not  been  hit,  and  we 
saw  him  galloping  off  across  the  plain,  six  or  eight 
hundred  yards  away.  A  couple  more  shots  missed, 
and  we  mounted  our  horses  to  try  to  ride  him  down. 
The  plain  sloped  gently  upward  for  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  to  a  low  crest  or  divide,  and  long  before  we  got 
near  him  he  disappeared  over  this.  Sir  Alfred  and 
Kermit  were  tearing  along  in  front  and  to  the  right, 
with  Miss  Pease  close  behind,  while  Tranquillity  carried 
me  as  fast  as  he  could  on  the  left,  with  Medlicott  near 
me.  On  topping  the  divide  Sir  Alfred  and  Kermit 
missed  the  lion,  which  had  swung  to  the  left,  and  they 
raced  aliead  too  far  to  the  right.     Medlicott  and  I,  how- 


CH.  Ill]  A  WOUNDED  LION  73 

ever,  saw  the  lion,  loping  along  close  behind  some 
kongoni ;  and  this  enabled  me  to  get  up  to  him  as 
quickly  as  the  lighter  men  on  the  faster  horses.  The 
going  was  now  slightly  downhill,  and  the  sorrel  took  me 
along  very  well,  while  Medlicott,  whose  horse  was  slow, 
bore  to  the  right  and  joined  the  other  two  men.  We 
gained  rapidly,  and,  finding  out  this,  the  lion  suddenly 
halted  and  came  to  bay  in  a  slight  hollow,  where  the 
grass  was  rather  long.  The  plain  seemed  flat,  and 
we  could  see  the  lion  well  from  horseback ;  but, 
especially  when  he  lay  down,  it  was  most  difficult  to 
make  him  out  on  foot,  and  impossible  to  do  so  when 
kneeling. 

We  were  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  the 
lion.  Sir  Alfred,  Kermit,  Medlicott,  and  Miss  Pease  off 
to  one  side,  and  slightly  above  him  on  the  slope,  while 
I  was  on  the  level,  about  equidistant  from  him  and 
them.  Kermit  and  I  tried  shooting  from  the  horses, 
but  at  such  a  distance  this  was  not  effective.  Then 
Kermit  got  off,  but  his  horse  would  not  let  him  shoot ; 
and  when  I  got  off  I  could  not  make  out  the  animal 
through  the  grass  with  sufficient  distinctness  to  enable 
me  to  take  aim.  Old  Ben  the  dog  had  arrived,  and, 
barking  loudly,  was  strolling  about  near  the  lion,  which 
paid  him  not  the  slightest  attention.  At  this  moment 
my  black  sais,  Simba,  came  running  up  to  me  and  took 
hold  of  the  bridle  ;  he  had  seen  the  chase  from  the  line 
of  march  and  had  cut  across  to  join  me.  There  was  no 
other  sais  or  gun- bearer  anywhere  near,  and  his  action 
was  plucky,  for  he  was  the  only  man  afoot,  with  the  lion 
at  bay.  Lady  Pease  had  also  ridden  up  and  was  an 
interested  spectator  only  some  fifty  yards  behind  me. 

Now,  an  elderly  man  with  a  varied  past  which  in- 
cludes  rheumatism   does    not   vault    lightly   into    the 


74  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

saddle,  as  his  sons,  for  instance,  can ;  and  I  had  already 
made  up  my  mind  that  in  the  event  of  the  lion's 
charging  it  would  be  wise  for  me  to  trust  to  straight 
powder  rather  than  to  try  to  scramble  into  the  saddle 
and  get  under  way  in  time.  The  arrival  of  my  two 
companions  settled  matters.  I  was  not  sure  of  the 
speed  of  Lady  Pease's  horse  ;  and  Simba  was  on  foot, 
and  it  was,  of  course,  out  of  the  question  for  me  to  leave 
him.  So  I  said,  "  Good,  Simba !  now  we'll  see  this 
thing  through,"  and  gentle-mannered  Simba  smiled  a 
shy  appreciation  of  my  tone,  though  he  could  not 
understand  the  words.  I  was  still  unable  to  see  the 
lion  when  I  knelt,  but  he  was  now  standing  up,  look- 
ing first  at  one  group  of  horses  and  then  at  the  other, 
his  tail  lashing  to  and  fro,  his  head  held  low,  and  his 
lips  dropped  over  his  mouth  in  peculiar  fashion,  while 
his  harsh  and  savage  growling  rolled  thunderously  over 
the  plain.  Seeing  Simba  and  me  on  foot,  he  turned 
toward  us,  his  tail  lashing  quicker  and  quicker.  Rest- 
ing my  elbow  on  Simba's  bent  shoulder,  I  took  steady 
aim  and  pressed  the  trigger.  The  bullet  went  in 
between  the  neck  and  shoulder,  and  the  lion  fell  over 
on  his  side,  one  fore-leg  in  the  air.  He  recovered  in  a 
moment  and  stood  up,  evidently  very  sick,  and  once 
more  faced  me,  growling  hoarsely.  I  think  he  was  on 
the  eve  of  charging.  I  fired  again  at  once,  and  this 
bullet  broke  his  back  just  behind  the  shoulders ;  and 
with  the  next  I  killed  him  outright,  after  we  had 
gathered  round  him. 

These  were  two  good -sized  maneless  lions  ;  and  very 
proud  of  them  I  was.  I  think  Sir  Alfred  was  at  least 
as  proud,  especially  because  we  had  performed  the  feat 
alone,  without  any  professional  hunters  being  present. 
"  We  were  all  amateurs,  only  gentleman   riders   up," 


CH.  Ill]        ON  THE  POTHA  STREAM  75 

said  Sir  Alfred.  It  was  late  before  we  got  the  lions 
skinned.  Then  we  set  off  toward  the  ranch,  two  porters 
carrying  each  lion-skin,  strapped  to  a  pole,  and  two 
others  carrying  the  cub-skins.  Night  fell  long  before 
we  were  near  the  ranch  ;  but  the  brilliant  tropical  moon 
lighted  the  trail.  The  stalwart  savages  who  carried  the 
bloody  lion-skins  swung  along  at  a  faster  walk  as  the 
sun  went  down  and  the  moon  rose  higher ;  and  they 
began  to  chant  in  unison,  one  uttering  a  single  word 
or  sentence,  and  the  others  joining  in  a  deep-toned, 
musical  chorus.  The  men  on  a  safari,  and,  indeed, 
African  natives  generally,  are  always  excited  over  the 
death  of  a  lion,  and  the  hunting  tribes  then  chant 
their  rough  hunting  songs,  or  victory  songs,  until  the 
monotonous,  rhythmical  repetitions  make  them  almost 
frenzied.  The  ride  home  through  the  moonlight,  the 
vast  barren  landscape  shining  like  silver  on  either  hand, 
was  one  to  be  remembered,  and,  above  all,  the  sight  of 
our  trophies  and  of  their  wild  bearers. 

Three  days  later  we  had  another  successful  lion  hunt. 
Our  camp  was  pitched  at  a  water-hole  in  a  little  stream 
called  Potha,  by  a  hill  of  the  same  name.  Pease,  Med- 
licott,  and  both  the  Hills  were  with  us,  and  Heller  came 
too,  for  he  liked,  when  possible,  to  be  with  the  hunters, 
so  that  he  could  at  once  care  for  any  beast  that  was 
shot.  As  the  safari  was  stationary,  we  took  fifty  or 
sixty  porters  as  beaters.  It  was  thirteen  hours  before 
we  got  into  camp  that  evening.  The  Hills  had  with 
them  as  beaters  and  water-carriers  half  a  dozen  of  the 
Wakamba  who  were  working  on  their  farm.  It  was 
interesting  to  watch  these  naked  savages,  with  their 
filed  teeth,  their  heads  shaved  in  curious  patterns,  and 
carrying  for  arms  little  bows  and  arrows. 

Before  lunch  we  beat  a  long,  low  hill.     Harold  Hill 


76  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

was  with  me  ;  Medlicott  and  Kermit  were  together. 
We  placed  ourselves,  one  couple  on  each  side  of  a 
narrow  neck,  two-thirds  of  the  way  along  the  crest  of 
the  hill ;  and  soon  after  we  were  in  position  we  heard 
the  distant  shouts  of  the  beaters  as  they  came  toward 
us,  covering  the  crest  and  the  tops  of  the  slopes  on  both 
sides.  It  was  rather  disconcerting  to  find  how  much 
better  Hill's  eyes  were  than  mine.  He  saw  everything 
first,  and  it  usually  took  some  time  before  he  could 
make  me  see  it.  In  this  first  drive  nothing  came  my 
way  except  some  mountain  reedbuck  does,  at  which 
I  did  not  shoot.  But  a  fine  male  cheetah  came  to 
Kermit,  and  he  bowled  it  over  in  good  style  as  it  ran. 

Then  the  beaters  halted,  and  waited  before  resuming 
their  march  until  the  guns  had  gone  clear  round  and 
established  themselves  at  the  base  of  the  farther  end  of 
the  hill.  This  time  Kermit,  who  was  a  couple  of  hundred 
yards  from  me,  killed  a  reedbuck  and  a  steinbuck. 
Suddenly  Hill  said  "  Lion  !"  and  endeavoured  to  point  it 
out  to  me  as  it  crept  cautiously  among  the  rocks  on  the 
steep  hillside  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  away.  At  first 
I  could  not  see  it ;  finally  I  thought  I  did,  and  fired, 
but,  as  it  proved,  at  a  place  just  above  him.  However, 
it  made  him  start  up,  and  I  immediately  put  the  next 
buUet  behind  his  shoulders.  It  was  a  fatal  shot,  but, 
growling,  he  struggled  down  the  hill,  and  I  fired  again 
and  killed  him.  It  was  not  much  of  a  trophy,  however, 
turning  out  to  be  a  half-grown  male. 

We  lunched  under  a  tree,  and  then  arranged  for 
another  beat.  There  was  a  long,  wide  valley,  or  rather 
a  slight  depression  in  the  ground — for  it  was  only  three 
or  four  feet  below  the  general  level — in  which  the  grass 
grew  tall,  as  the  soil  was  quite  wet.  It  was  the  scene 
of  Percival's  adventure  with  the  lion  that  chased  him. 


CH.  Ill]  A  CHARGING  LION  77 

Hill  and  I  stationed  ourselves  on  one  side  of  this  valley 
or  depression  toward  the  upper  end  ;  Pease  took  Kermit 
to  the  opposite  side  ;  and  we  waited,  our  horses  some 
distance  behind  us.  The  beaters  were  put  in  at  the 
lower  end,  formed  a  line  across  the  valley,  and  beat 
slowly  toward  us,  making  a  great  noise. 

They  were  still  some  distance  away  when  Hill  saw 
three  lions,  which  had  slunk  stealthily  off  ahead  of  them 
through  the  grass.  I  have  called  the  grass  tall,  but  this 
was  only  by  comparison  with  the  short  grass  of  the  dry 
plains.  In  the  depression  or  valley  it  was  some  three 
feet  high.  In  such  grass  a  lion,  which  is  marvellously 
adept  at  hiding,  can  easily  conceal  itself,  not  merely 
when  lying  down,  but  when  advancing  at  a  crouching 
gait.     If  it  stands  erect,  however,  it  can  be  seen. 

There  were  two  lions  near  us — one  directly  in  our 
front,  a  hundred  and  ten  yards  off.  Some  seconds 
passed  before  Hill  could  make  me  realize  that  the  dim 
yellow  smear  in  the  yellow-brown  grass  was  a  lion ;  and 
then  I  found  such  difficulty  in  getting  a  bead  on  him 
that  I  overshot.  However,  the  bullet  must  have  passed 
very  close — indeed,  I  think  it  just  grazed  him — for  he 
jumped  up  and  faced  us,  growUng  savagely.  Then,  his 
head  lowered,  he  threw  his  tail  straight  into  the  air  and 
began  to  charge.  The  first  few  steps  he  took  at  a  trot, 
and  before  he  could  start  into  a  gallop  I  put  the  soft- 
nosed  Winchester  bullet  in  between  the  neck  and 
shoulder.  Down  he  went  Mdth  a  roar ;  the  wound  was 
fatal,  but  I  was  taking  no  chances,  and  I  put  two  more 
bullets  in  him.  Then  we  walked  toward  where  Hill 
had  already  seen  another  lion — the  lioness,  as  it  proved. 
Again  he  had  some  difficulty  in  making  me  see  her, 
but  he  succeeded,  and  I  walked  towards  her  through 
the   long  grass,  repressing  the  zeal   of  my  two   gun- 


78  LION-HUNTING  [ch.  hi 

bearers,  who  were  stanch,  but  who  showed  a  tendency 
to  walk  a  Httle  ahead  of  me  on  each  side,  instead  of  a 
little  behind.  I  walked  toward  her  because  I  could  not 
kneel  to  shoot  in  grass  so  tall ;  and  when  shooting  off- 
hand I  like  to  be  fairly  close,  so  as  to  be  sure  that  my 
bullets  go  in  the  right  place.  At  sixty  yards  I  could 
make  her  out  clearly,  snarling  at  me  as  she  faced  me, 
and  I  shot  her  full  in  the  chest.  She  at  once  performed 
a  series  of  extraordinary  antics,  tumbling  about  on  her 
head,  just  as  if  she  were  throwing  somersaults,  first  to 
one  side  and  then  to  the  other.  I  fired  again,  but 
managed  to  shoot  between  the  somersaults,  so  to  speak, 
and  missed  her.  The  shot  seemed  to  bring  her  to 
herself,  and  away  she  tore  ;  but,  instead  of  charging  us, 
she  charged  the  line  of  beaters.  She  was  dying  fast, 
however,  and  in  her  weakness  failed  to  catch  anyone, 
and  she  sank  down  into  the  long  grass.  Hill  and  I 
advanced  to  look  her  up,  our  rifles  at  full  cock,  and 
the  gun-bearers  close  behind.  It  is  ticklish  work  to 
follow  a  wounded  lion  in  tall  grass,  and  we  walked 
carefully,  every  sense  on  the  alert.  We  passed  Heller, 
who  had  been  with  the  beaters.  He  spoke  to  us  with 
an  amused  smile.  His  only  weapon  was  a  pair  of  field- 
glasses,  but  he  always  took  things  as  they  came  with 
entire  coolness,  and  to  be  close  to  a  wounded  lioness 
when  she  charged  merely  interested  him.  A  beater 
came  running  up  and  pointed  toward  where  he  had 
seen  her,  and  we  walked  toM^ard  the  place.  At  thirty 
yards  distance  Hill  pointed,  and,  eagerly  peering,  I 
made  out  the  form  of  the  lioness  showing  indistinctly 
through  the  grass.  She  was  half  crouching,  half  sitting, 
her  head  bent  down,  but  she  still  had  strength  to  do 
mischief  She  saw  us,  but  before  she  could  turn  I  sent 
a  bullet  through  her  shoulders.     Down  she  went,  and 


CH.  Ill]  RETURN  TO  CAMP  79 

was  dead  when  we  walked  up.  A  cub  had  been  seen 
and  another  full-grown  lion,  but  they  had  slunk  off,  and 
we  got  neither. 

This  was  a  full-grown,  but  young,  lioness  of  average 
size ;  her  cubs  must  have  been  several  months  old.  We 
took  her  entire  to  camp  to  weigh :  she  weighed  two 
hundred  and  eighty-three  pounds.  The  first  lion,  which 
we  had  difficulty  in  finding,  as  there  were  no  identifying 
marks  in  the  plain  of  tall  grass,  was  a  good-sized  male, 
weighing  about  four  hundred  pounds,  but  not  yet  full- 
grown,  although  he  was  probably  the  father  of  the  cubs. 

We  were  a  long  way  from  camp,  and,  after  beating 
in  vain  for  the  other  lion,  we  started  back ;  it  was  after 
nightfall  before  we  saw  the  camp  fires.  It  was  two 
hours  later  before  the  porters  appeared,  bearing  on  poles 
the  skin  of  the  dead  lion  and  the  lioness  entire.  The 
moon  was  nearly  full,  and  it  was  interesting  to  see 
them  come  swinging  down  the  trail  in  the  bright  silver 
light,  chanting  in  deep  tones  over  and  over  again  a 
line  or  phrase  that  sounded  like  : 

"  Zou-zou-boule  ma  ja  guntai ;  zou-zou-boule  ma  ja  guntai." 

Occasionally  they  would  interrupt  it  by  the  repetition 
in  unison,  at  short  intervals,  of  a  guttural  ejaculation, 
sounding  like  "huzlem."  They  marched  into  camp, 
then  up  and  down  the  lines,  before  the  rows  of  small 
fires  ;  then,  accompanied  by  all  the  rest  of  the  porters, 
they  paraded  up  to  the  big  fire  where  I  was  standing. 
Here  they  stopped  and  ended  the  ceremony  by  a  minute 
or  two's  vigorous  dancing,  amid  singing  and  wild  shout- 
ing. The  firelight  gleamed  and  flickered  across  the 
grim  dead  beasts  and  the  shining  eyes  and  black 
features  of  the  excited  savages,  while  all  around  the 
moon  flooded  the  landscape  with  her  white  light. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ON  SAFARI :    RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES 

When  we  killed  the  last  lions  we  were  already  on 
safari,  and  the  camp  was  pitched  by  a  water-hole  on  the 
Potha — a  half-dried  stream,  little  more  than  a  string  of 
pools  and  reed-beds,  winding  down  through  the  sun- 
scorched  plain.  Next  morning  we  started  for  another 
water-hole  at  the  rocky  hill  of  Bondoni,  about  eight 
miles  distant. 

Safari  life  is  very  pleasant  and  also  very  picturesque. 
The  porters  are  strong,  patient,  good-humoured  savages, 
with  something  childlike  about  them  that  makes  one 
really  fond  of  them.  Of  course,  like  all  savages  and 
most  children,  they  have  their  limitations,  and  in  dealing 
with  them  firmness  is  even  more  necessary  than  kind- 
ness. But  the  man  is  a  poor  creature  who  does  not  treat 
them  with  kindness  also,  and  I  am  rather  sorry  for  him 
if  he  does  not  grow  to  feel  for  them,  and  to  make  them 
in  return  feel  for  him,  a  real  and  friendly  liking.  They 
are  subject  to  gusts  of  passion,  and  they  are  now  and 
then  guilty  of  grave  misdeeds  and  shortcomings,  some- 
times for  no  conceivable  reason — at  least,  from  the  white 
man's  standpoint.  But  they  are  generally  cheerful,  and 
when  cheerful  are  always  amusing ;  and  they  work  hard 
if  the  white  man  is  able  to  combine  tact  and  considera- 
tion with  that  insistence  on  the  performance  of  duty,  the 

80 


CH.  IV]  BREAKING  CAMP  81 

lack  of  which  they  despise  as  weakness.  Any  little 
change  or  excitement  is  a  source  of  pleasure  to  them. 
When  the  march  is  over  they  sing ;  and  after  two  or 
three  days  in  camp  they  will  not  only  sing,  but  dance 
when  another  march  is  to  begin.  Of  course  at  times 
they  suffer  greatly  from  thirst  and  hunger  and  fatigue, 
and  at  times  they  will  suddenly  grow  sullen  or  rebel 
without  what  seems  to  us  any  adequate  cause  ;  and 
they  have  an  inconsequent  type  of  mind  which  now  and 
then  leads  them  to  commit  follies  all  the  more  exaspera- 
ting because  they  are  against  their  own  interest  no  less 
than  against  the  interest  of  their  employer.  But  they 
do  well  on  the  whole,  and  safari  life  is  attractive  to 
them.  They  are  fed  well ;  the  government  requires 
that  they  be  fitted  with  suitable  clothes  and  given  small 
tents,  so  that  they  are  better  clad  and  sheltered  than 
they  would  be  otherwise  ;  and  their  wages  represent 
money  which  they  could  get  in  no  other  way.  The 
safari  represents  a  great  advantage  to  the  porter,  who  in 
his  turn  alone  makes  the  safari  possible. 

When  we  were  to  march,  camp  was  broken  as  early 
in  the  day  as  possible.  Each  man  had  his  allotted  task, 
and  the  tents,  bedding,  provisions,  and  all  else  were  ex- 
peditiously made  into  suitable  packages.  Each  porter 
is  supposed  to  carry  from  fifty-five  to  sixty  pounds, 
which  may  all  be  in  one  bundle  or  in  two  or  three. 
The  American  flag,  which  flew  over  my  tent,  was  a 
matter  of  much  pride  to  the  porters,  and  was  always 
carried  at  the  head  or  near  the  head  of  the  line  of 
march  ;  and  after  it  in  single  file  came  the  long  line  of 
burden-bearers.  As  they  started,  some  of  them  would 
blow  on  horns  or  whistles,  and  others  beat  little  tom- 
toms ;  and  at  intervals  this  would  be  renewed  again  and 
again  throughout  the  march  ;  or  the  men  might  sud- 

6 


82  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

denly  begin  to  chant,  or  merely  to  keep  repeating  in 
unison  some  one  word  or  one  phrase  which,  when  we 
asked  to  have  it  translated,  might  or  might  not  prove 
to  be  entirely  meaningless.  The  headmen  carried  no 
burdens,  and  the  tent-boys  hardly  anything,  while  the 
saises  walked  with  the  spare  horses.  In  addition  to  the 
canonical  and  required  costume  of  blouse  or  jersey  and 
drawers,  each  porter  wore  a  blanket,  and  usually  some- 
thing else  to  which  his  soul  inclined.  It  might  be  an 
exceedingly  shabby  coat ;  it  might  be,  of  all  things  in 
the  world,  an  umbrella,  an  article  for  which  they  had  a 
special  attachment.  Often  I  would  see  a  porter,  who 
thought  nothing  whatever  of  walking  for  hours  at  mid- 
day under  the  equatorial  sun  with  his  head  bare, 
trudging  along  with  solemn  pride  either  under  an  open 
umbrella,  or  carrying  the  umbrella  (tied  much  like 
Mrs.  Gamp's)  in  one  hand,  as  a  wand  of  dignity.  Then 
their  head-gear  varied  according  to  the  fancy  of  the  in- 
dividual. Normally  it  was  a  red  fez,  a  kind  of  cap  only 
used  in  hot  climates,  and  exquisitely  designed  to  be  use- 
less therein  because  it  gives  absolutely  no  protection 
from  the  sun.  But  one  would  wear  a  skin  cap  ;  another 
would  suddenly  put  one  or  more  long  feathers  in  his 
fez ;  and  another,  discarding  the  fez,  would  revert  to 
some  purely  savage  head-dress  which  he  would  wear 
with  equal  gravity  whether  it  were,  in  our  eyes,  really 
decorative  or  merely  comic.  One  such  head-dress,  for 
instance,  consisted  of  the  skin  of  the  top  of  a  zebra's 
head,  with  the  two  ears.  Another  was  made  of  the 
skins  of  squirrels,  with  the  tails  both  sticking  up  and 
hanging  down.  Another  consisted  of  a  bunch  of 
feathers  woven  into  the  hair,  which  itself  was  pulled  out 
into  strings  that  were  stiffened  with  clay.  Another  was 
really  too  intricate  for  description,  because  it  included 


CH.  IV]  CAMP  ARRANGEMENTS  88 

the  man's  natural  hair,  some  strips  of  skin,  and  an 
empty  tin  can. 

If  it  were  a  long  journey,  and  we  broke  it  by  a  noon- 
day halt,  or  if  it  were  a  short  journey,  and  we  reached 
camp  ahead  of  the  safari,  it  was  interesting  to  see  the 
long  file  of  men  approach.  Here  and  there,  leading  the 
porters,  scattered  through  the  line,  or  walking  alongside, 
were  the  askaris,  the  rifle-bearing  soldiers.  They  were 
not  marksmen,  to  put  it  mildly,  and  I  should  not  have 
regarded  them  as  particularly  efficient  allies  in  a  serious 
fight ;  but  they  were  excellent  for  poUce  duty  in  camp, 
and  were  also  of  use  in  preventing  collisions  with  the 
natives.  After  the  leading  askaris  might  come  one  of 
the  headmen ;  one  of  whom,  by  the  way,  looked  exactly 
like  a  Semitic  negro,  and  always  travelled  with  a  large 
dirty-white  umbrella  in  one  hand  ;  while  another,  a  tall, 
powerful  fellow,  was  a  mission  boy  who  spoke  good 
English.  I  mention  his  being  a  mission  boy  because  it 
is  so  frequently  asserted  that  mission  boys  never  turn 
out  well.  Then  would  come  the  man  with  the  flag, 
followed  by  another  blowing  on  an  antelope  horn,  or 
perhaps  beating  an  empty  can  as  a  drum  ;  and  then  the 
long  line  of  men,  some  carrying  their  loads  on  their 
heads,  others  on  their  shoulders,  others,  in  a  very  few 
cases,  on  their  backs.  As  they  approached  the  halting- 
place  their  spirits  rose,  the  whistles  and  horns  were 
blown,  and  the  improvised  drums  beaten,  and  perhaps 
the  whole  line  would  burst  into  a  chant. 

On  reaching  the  camping  ground  each  man  at  once 
set  about  his  allotted  task,  and  the  tents  were  quickly 
pitched  and  the  camp  put  in  order,  while  water  and 
firewood  were  fetched.  The  tents  were  pitched  in  long 
lines,  in  the  first  of  which  stood  my  tent,  flanked  by 
those  of  the  other  white  men  and  by  the  dining-tent. 


84  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

In  the  next  line  were  the  cook  tent,  the  provision  tent, 
the  store  tent,  the  skinning  tent,  and  the  Hke  ;  and  then 
came  the  lines  of  small  white  tents  for  the  porters. 
Between  each  row  of  tents  was  a  broad  street.  In  front 
of  our  own  tents,  in  the  first  line,  an  askari  was  always 
pacing  to  and  fro  ;  and  when  night  fell  we  would  kindle 
a  camp-fire  and  sit  around  it  under  the  stars.  Before 
each  of  the  porters'  tents  was  a  little  fire,  and  beside  it 
stood  the  pots  and  pans  in  which  the  porters  did  their 
cooking.  Here  and  there  were  larger  fires,  around  which 
the  gun-bearers  or  a  group  of  askaris  or  of  saises  might 
gather.  After  nightfall  the  multitude  of  fires  lit  up  the 
darkness  and  showed  the  tents  in  shadowy  outline  ;  and 
around  them  squatted  the  porters,  their  faces  flickering 
from  dusk  to  ruddy  light,  as  they  chatted  together  or 
suddenly  started  some  snatch  of  wild  African  melody  in 
which  all  their  neighbours  might  join.  After  a  while 
the  talk  and  laughter  and  singing  would  gradually  die 
away,  and  as  we  white  men  sat  around  our  fire  the 
silence  would  be  unbroken  except  by  the  queer  cry  of 
a  hyena,  or  much  more  rarely  by  a  sound  that  always 
demanded  attention — the  yawning  grunt  of  a  questing 
lion. 

If  we  wished  to  make  an  early  start  we  would  break- 
fast by  dawn,  and  then  we  often  returned  to  camp  for 
lunch.  Otherwise  w^e  would  usually  be  absent  all  day, 
carrjdng  our  lunch  with  us.  We  might  get  in  before 
sunset  or  we  might  be  out  till  long  after  nightfall ;  and 
then  the  gleam  of  the  lit  fires  was  a  welcome  sight  as 
we  stumbled  toward  them  through  the  darkness.  Once 
in,  each  went  to  his  tent  to  take  a  hot  bath  ;  and 
then,  clean  and  refreshed,  we  sat  down  to  a  comfortable 
dinner,  with  game  of  some  sort  as  the  principal  dish. 

On  the  first  march  after  leaving  our  lion  camp  at 


CH.  IV]  WART-HOGS  85 

Potha  I  shot  a  wart-hog.      It  was  a  good-sized  sow, 
which,   in    company  with   several  of   her  half-grown 
offspring,  was  grazing  near  our  line  of  march ;  there 
were  some  thorn- trees  which  gave  a  little  cover,  and  I 
killed  her  at  a  hundred  and  eighty  yards,  using   the 
Springfield,  the  lightest  and  handiest  of  all  my  rifles. 
Her  flesh  was  good  to  eat,  and  the  skin,  as  with  all  our 
specimens,  was  saved  for  the  National  Museum.     I  did 
not  again  have  to  shoot  a  sow,  although  I  killed  half- 
grown  pigs  for  the  table,  and  boars  for  specimens.    This 
sow  and  her  porkers  were  not  rooting,  but  were  grazing 
as  if  they  had  been  antelope ;  her  stomach  contained 
nothing   but   chopped    green    grass.       Wart-hogs    are 
common    throughout    the    country    over    which    we 
hunted.     They  are  hideous  beasts,  with  strange   pro- 
tuberances on  their  cheeks  ;  and  when  alarmed  they 
trot  or  gallop  away,  holding  the  tail  perfectly  erect, 
with  the  tassel  bent  forward.     Usually  they  are  seen  in 
family  parties,  but  a  big  boar  will  often  be  alone.    They 
often  root  up  the  ground,  but  the  stomachs  of  those  we 
shot  were  commonly  filled  with  nothing  but  grass.     If 
the  weather  is  cloudy  or  wet  they  may  be  out  all  day 
long,  but  in  hot,  dry  weather  we  generally  found  them 
abroad  only  in  the  morning  and  evening.     A  pig  is 
always  a  comical  animal ;  even  more  so  than  is  the  case 
with  a  bear,  which  also  impresses  one  with  a  sense  of 
grotesque  humour — and  this  notwithstanding  the  fact 
that   both   boar    and    bear    may   be    very   formidable 
creatures.     A  wart-hog  standing  alertly  at  gaze,  head 
and  tail  up,  legs  straddled  out  and  ears  cocked  forward, 
is  rather  a  figure  of  fun  ;  and  not  the  less  so  when,  with 
characteristic  suddenness,  he  bounces  round  with  a  grunt 
and  scuttles  madly  off  to  safety.     Wart-hogs  are  beasts 
of  the  bare  plain  or  open  forest,  and  though  they  will 


86  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

often  lie  up  in  patches  of  brush,  they  do  not  care  for 
thick  timber. 

After  shooting  the  wart-hog  we  marched  on  to  our 
camp  at  Bondoni.  The  gun-bearers  were  Mohammedans, 
and  the  dead  pig  was  of  no  service  to  them ;  and  at 
their  request  I  walked  out  while  camp  was  being  pitched 
and  shot  them  a  buck ;  this  I  had  to  do  now  and  then, 
but  I  always  shot  males,  so  as  not  to  damage  the 
species. 

Next  day  we  marched  to  the  foot  of  Kilimakiu 
Mountain,  near  Captain  Slatter's  ostrich  farm.  Our 
route  lay  across  bare  plains,  thickly  covered  with 
withered  short  grass.  All  around  us  as  we  marched 
were  the  game  herds,  zebras  and  hartebeests,  gazelles 
of  the  two  kinds,  and  now  and  then  wildebeests. 
Hither  and  thither  over  the  plain,  crossing  and  recross- 
ing,  ran  the  dusty  game  trails,  each  with  its  myriad 
hoof-marks — the  round  hoof-prints  of  the  zebra,  the 
heart-shaped  marks  that  showed  where  the  hartebeest 
herd  had  trod,  and  the  delicate  etching  that  betrayed 
where  the  smaller  antelope  had  passed.  Occasionally 
we  crossed  the  trails  of  the  natives,  worn  deep  in  the 
hard  soil  by  the  countless  thousands  of  bare  or  sandalled 
feet  that  had  trodden  them.  Africa  is  a  country  of 
trails.  Across  the  high  veldt,  in  every  direction,  run 
the  tangled  trails  of  the  multitudes  of  game  that  have 
lived  thereon  from  time  immemorial.  The  great  beasts 
of  the  marsh  and  the  forest  made  therein  broad  and 
muddy  trails  which  often  offer  the  only  pathway  by 
which  a  man  can  enter  the  sombre  depths.  In  wet 
ground  and  dry  alike  are  also  found  the  trails  of  savage 
man.  They  lead  from  village  to  village,  and  in  places 
they  stretch  for  hundreds  of  miles,  where  trading  parties 
have  worn  them  in  the  search  for  ivory,  or  in  the  old 


CH.  iv]  KILIMAKIU  87 

days  when  raiding  or  purchasing  slaves.  The  trails 
made  by  the  men  are  made  much  as  the  beasts  make 
theirs.  They  are  generally  longer  and  better  defined, 
although  I  have  seen  hippo  tracks  more  deeply  marked 
than  any  made  by  savage  man.  But  they  are  made 
simply  by  men  following  in  one  another's  footsteps,  and 
they  are  never  quite  straight.  They  bend  now  a  little 
to  one  side,  now  a  little  to  the  other,  and  sudden  loops 
mark  the  spot  where  some  vanished  obstacle  once  stood  ; 
around  it  the  first  trail  makers  went,  and  their  successors 
have  ever  trodden  in  their  footsteps,  even  though  the 
need  for  so  doing  has  long  passed  away. 

Our  camp  at  Kilimakiu  was  by  a  grove  of  shady  trees, 
and  from  it  at  sunset  we  looked  across  the  vast  plain 
and  saw  the  far-off  mountains  grow  umber  and  purple 
as  the  light  waned.  Behind  the  camp  and  the  farm- 
house near  which  we  were  rose  Kilimakiu  Mountain, 
beautifully  studded  with  groves  of  trees  of  many  kinds 
On  its  farther  side  hved  a  tribe  of  the  Wakamba.  Their 
chief,  with  all  the  leading  men  of  his  village,  came  in 
state  to  call  upon  me,  and  presented  me  with  a  fat, 
hairy  sheep  of  the  ordinary  kind  found  in  this  part  of 
Africa,  where  the  sheep  very  wisely  do  not  grow  wool. 
The  headman  was  dressed  in  khaki,  and  showed  me 
with  pride  an  official  document  which  confirmed  him  in 
his  position  by  direction  of  the  government,  and  re- 
quired him  to  perform  various  acts,  chiefly  in  the  way 
of  preventing  his  tribes-people  from  committing  robbery 
or  murder,  and  of  helping  to  stamp  out  cattle  disease. 
Like  all  the  Wakamba,  they  had  flocks  of  goats  and 
sheep,  and  herds  of  humped  cattle  ;  but  they  were 
much  in  need  of  meat,  and  hailed  my  advent.  They 
were  wild  savages,  with  filed  teeth,  many  of  them  stark 
naked,  though  some  of  them  carried  a  blanket.     Their 


88  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

heads  were  curiously  shaved,  so  that  the  hair-tufts  stood 
out  in  odd  patterns  ;  and  they  carried  small  bows,  and 
arrows  with  poisoned  heads. 

The  following  morning  I  rode  out  with  Captain 
Slatter.  We  kept  among  the  hills.  The  long  drought 
was  still  unbroken.  The  little  pools  were  dry  and  their 
bottoms  baked  like  iron,  and  there  was  not  a  drop  in 
the  watercourses.  Part  of  the  land  was  open,  and  part 
covered  with  a  thin  forest  or  bush  of  scattered  mimosa- 
trees.  In  the  open  country  were  many  zebras  and 
hartebeests,  and  the  latter  were  found  even  in  the  thin 
bush.  In  the  morning  we  found  a  small  herd  of  eland, 
at  which,  after  some  stalking,  I  got  a  long  shot  and 
missed.  The  eland  is  the  largest  of  all  the  horned 
creatures  that  are  called  antelope,  being  quite  as  heavy 
as  a  fattened  ox.  The  herd  I  approached  consisted  of 
a  dozen  individuals,  two  of  them  huge  bulls,  their  coats 
having  turned  a  slaty  blue,  their  great  dewlaps  hanging 
down,  and  the  legs  looking  almost  too  small  for  the 
massive  bodies.  The  reddish-coloured  cows  were  of  far 
lighter  build.  Eland  are  beautiful  creatures,  and  ought 
to  be  domesticated.  As  I  crept  toward  them  I  was 
struck  by  their  likeness  to  great  clean,  handsome  cattle. 
They  were  grazing  or  resting,  switching  their  long  tails 
at  the  flies  that  hung  in  attendance  upon  them  and  lit 
on  their  flanks,  just  as  if  they  were  Jerseys  in  a  field  at 
home.  My  bullet  fell  short,  their  size  causing  me  to 
underestimate  the  distance,  and  away  they  went  at  a 
run,  one  or  two  of  the  cows  in  the  first  hurry  and  con- 
fusion skipping  clean  over  the  backs  of  others  that  got 
in  their  way — a  most  unexpected  example  of  agility  in 
such  large  and  ponderous  animals.  After  a  few  hundred 
yards  they  settled  down  to  the  slashing  trot  which  is 
their  natural  gait,  and  disappeared  over  the  brow  of  a  hill. 


CH.  IV]  RHINOCEROS  89 

The  morning  was  a  blank,  but  early  in  the  afternoon 
we  saw  the  eland  herd  again.  They  were  around  a  tree 
in  an  open  space,  and  we  could  not  get  near  them. 
But  instead  of  going  straight  away  they  struck  off  to 
the  right  and  described  almost  a  semicircle,  and  though 
they  were  over  four  hundred  yards  distant,  they  were 
such  big  creatures  and  their  gait  was  so  steady  that  I 
felt  warranted  in  shooting.  On  the  dry  plain  1  could 
mark  where  my  bullets  fell,  and  though  I  could  not  get 
a  good  chance  at  the  bull,  T  finally  downed  a  fine  cow  ; 
and  by  pacing  I  found  it  to  be  a  little  over  a  quarter  of 
a  mile  from  where  I  stood  when  shooting. 

It  was  about  nine  miles  from  camp,  and  I  dared  not 
leave  the  eland  alone,  so  I  stationed  one  of  the  gun- 
bearers  by  the  great  carcass  and  sent  a  messenger  in  to 
Heller,  on  whom  we  depended  for  preserving  the  skins 
of  the  big  game.  Hardly  had  this  been  done  when  a 
Wakamba  man  came  running  up  to  tell  us  that  there 
was  a  rhinoceros  on  the  hill-side  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  away,  and  that  he  had  left  a  companion  to  watch 
it  while  he  carried  us  the  news.  Slatter  and  I  immedi- 
ately rode  in  the  direction  given,  following  our  wild- 
looking  guide ;  the  other  gun-bearer  trotting  after  us. 
In  five  minutes  we  had  reached  the  opposite  hiU-crest, 
where  the  watcher  stood,  and  he  at  once  pointed  out 
the  rhino.  The  huge  beast  was  standing  in  entirely 
open  country,  although  there  were  a  few  scattered  trees 
of  no  great  size  at  some  little  distance  from  him.  We 
left  our  horses  in  a  dip  of  the  ground  and  began  the 
approach  ;  I  cannot  say  that  we  stalked  him,  for  the 
approach  was  loo  easy.  The  wind  blew  from  him  to 
us,  and  a  rhino's  eyesight  is  dull.  Thirty  yards  from 
where  he  stood  was  a  bush  four  or  five  feet  high,  and 
though  it  was  so  thin  that  we  could  distinctly  see  him 


90  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

through  the  leaves,  it  shielded  us  from  the  vision  of  his 
small  piglike  eyes  as  we  advanced  toward  it,  stooping 
and  in  single  file,  I  leading.  The  big  beast  stood  like 
an  uncouth  statue,  his  hide  black  in  the  sunlight ;  he 
seemed  what  he  was,  a  monster  surviving  over  from  the 
world's  past,  from  the  days  when  the  beasts  of  the 
prime  ran  riot  in  their  strength,  before  man  grew  so 
cunning  of  brain  and  hand  as  to  master  them.  So 
little  did  he  dream  of  our  presence  that  when  we  were  a 
hundred  yards  off  he  actually  lay  down. 

Walking  lightly,  and  with  every  sense  keyed  up,  we 
at  last  reached  the  bush,  and  I  pushed  forward  the 
safety  catch  of  the  double-barrelled  Holland  rifle  which 
I  was  now  to  use  for  the  first  time  on  big  game.  As  I 
stepped  to  one  side  of  the  bush  so  as  to  get  a  clear  aim, 
with  Slatter  following,  the  rhino  saw  me  and  jumped  to 
his  feet  with  the  agility  of  a  polo  pony.  As  he  rose  1 
put  in  the  right  barrel,  the  bullet  going  through  both 
lungs.  At  the  same  moment  he  wheeled,  the  blood 
spouting  from  his  nostrils,  and  galloped  full  on  us. 
Before  he  could  get  quite  all  the  way  round  in  his  head- 
long rush  to  reach  us,  I  struck  him  with  my  left-hand 
barrel,  the  bullet  entering  between  the  neck  and  shoulder 
and  piercing  his  heart.  At  the  same  instant  Captain 
Slatter  fired,  his  bullet  entering  the  neck  vertebrs. 
Ploughing  up  the  ground  with  horn  and  feet,  the  great 
bull  rhino,  still  head  toward  us,  dropped  just  thirteen 
paces  from  where  we  stood. 

This  was  a  wicked  charge,  for  the  rhino  meant 
mischief  and  came  on  with  the  utmost  determination. 
It  is  not  safe  to  generalize  from  a  few  instances. 
Judging  from  what  I  have  since  seen,  I  am  inclined 
to  believe  that  both  lion  and  buffalo  are  more  dangerous 
game  than  rhino,  yet  the  first  two  rhinos  I  met  both 


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CH.  IV]  PRESERVING  SKINS  91 

charged,  whereas  we  killed  our  first  four  lions  and  first 
four  buffaloes  without  any  of  them  charging,  though 
two  of  each  were  stopped  as  they  were  on  the  point  of 
charging.  Moreover,  our  experience  with  this  bull 
rhino  illustrates  what  I  have  already  said  as  to  one 
animal  being  more  dangerous  under  certain  conditions, 
and  another  more  dangerous  under  different  conditions. 
If  it  had  been  a  lion  instead  of  a  rhino,  my  first  bullet 
would,  I  believe,  have  knocked  all  the  charge  out  of  it, 
but  the  vitality  of  the  huge  pachyderm  was  so  great,  its 
mere  bulk  counted  for  so  much,  that  even  such  a  hard- 
hitting rifle  as  my  double  Holland — than  which  I  do 
not  believe  there  exists  a  better  weapon  for  heavy  game 
—  could  not  stop  it  outright,  although  either  of  the 
wounds  inflicted  would  have  been  fatal  in  a  few  seconds. 

Leaving  a  couple  of  men  with  the  dead  rhino,  to 
protect  it  from  the  Wakamba  by  day  and  the  lions  by 
night,  we  rode  straight  to  camp,  which  we  reached  at 
sunset.  It  was  necessary  to  get  to  work  on  the  two 
dead  beasts  as  soon  as  possible  in  order  to  be  sure  of 
preserving  their  skins.  Heller  was  the  man  to  be 
counted  on  for  this  task.  He  it  was  who  handled  all 
the  skins,  who,  in  other  words,  was  making  the  expedi- 
tion of  permanent  value  so  far  as  big  game  was  con- 
cerned, and  no  work  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or  night 
ever  came  amiss  to  him.  He  had  already  trained  eight 
Wakamba  porters  to  act  as  skinners  under  his  super- 
vision. On  hearing  of  our  success,  he  at  once  said  that 
we  ought  to  march  out  to  the  game  that  night  so  as  to 
get  to  work  by  daylight.  Moreover,  we  were  not  com- 
fortable at  leaving  only  two  men  with  each  carcass,  for 
lions  were  both  bold  and  plentiful. 

The  moon  rose  at  eight,  and  we  started  as  soon  as 
she  was  above   the   horizon.      We   did   not   take   the 


92  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

horses,  because  there  was  no  water  where  we  were 
going,  and  furthermore  we  did  not  hke  to  expose  them 
to  a  possible  attack  by  hons.  The  march  out  by  moon- 
light was  good  fun,  for  though  I  had  been  out  all  day, 
I  had  been  riding,  not  walking,  and  so  was  not  tired. 
A  hundred  porters  went  with  us  so  as  to  enable  us  to 
do  the  work  quickly  and  bring  back  to  camp  the  skins 
and  all  the  meat  needed,  and  these  porters  carried 
water,  food  for  breakfast,  and  what  little  was  necessary 
for  a  one-night  camp.  We  tramped  along  in  single  file 
under  the  moonlight,  up  and  down  the  hills,  and  through 
the  scattered  thorn  forest.  Kermit  and  Medlicott  went 
first,  and  struck  such  a  pace  that  after  an  hour  we  had 
to  halt  them  so  as  to  let  the  tail  end  of  the  file  of 
porters  catch  up.  Then  Captain  Slatter  and  1  set  a 
more  decorous  pace,  keeping  the  porters  closed  up  in 
line  behind  us.  In  another  hour  we  began  to  go  down 
a  long  slope  toward  a  pin-point  of  light  in  the  distance, 
which  we  knew  was  the  fire  by  the  rhinoceros.  The 
porters,  like  the  big  children  they  were,  felt  in  high 
feather,  and  began  to  chant  to  an  accompaniment  of 
whistling  and  horn-blowing  as  we  tramped  through  the 
dry  grass  which  was  flooded  with  silver  by  the  moon, 
now  high  in  the  heavens. 

As  soon  as  we  reached  the  rhino,  Heller  with  his 
Wakamba  skinners  pushed  forward  the  three-quarters  of 
a  mile  to  the  eland,  returning  after  midnight  with  the 
skin  and  all  the  best  parts  of  the  meat. 

Around  the  dead  rhino  the  scene  was  lit  up  both  by 
the  moon  and  by  the  flicker  of  the  fires.  The  porters 
made  their  camp  under  a  small  tree  a  dozen  rods  to  one 
side  of  the  carcass,  building  a  low  circular  fence  of 
branches,  on  which  they  hung  their  bright-coloured 
blankets,  two   or    three    big  fires  blazing  to  keep  off' 


CH.  IV]  GIRAFFES  93 

possible  lions.  Half  as  far  on  the  other  side  of  the 
rhino  a  party  of  naked  savages  had  established  their 
camp,  if  camp  it  could  be  called,  for  really  all  they  did 
was  to  squat  down  round  a  couple  of  fires  with  a  few 
small  bushes  disposed  round  about.  The  rhino  had 
been  opened,  and  they  had  already  taken  out  of  the 
carcass  what  they  regarded  as  titbits  and  what  we 
certainly  did  not  grudge  them.  Between  the  two 
camps  lay  the  huge  dead  beast,  his  hide  glistening  in 
the  moonlight.  In  each  camp  the  men  squatted  around 
the  fires  chatting  and  laughing  as  they  roasted  strips  of 
meat  on  long  sticks,  the  fitful  blaze  playing  over  them, 
now  leaving  them  in  darkness,  now  bringing  them  out 
into  a  red  relief.  Our  own  tent  was  pitched  under 
another  tree  a  hundred  yards  off,  and  when  I  went  to 
sleep,  I  could  still  hear  the  drumming  and  chanting  of 
our  feasting  porters ;  the  savages  were  less  at  ease,  and 
their  revel  was  quiet. 

Early  next  morning  I  went  back  to  camp,  and  soon 
after  reaching  there  again  started  out  for  a  hunt.  In 
the  afternoon  I  came  on  giraffes  and  got  up  near  enough 
to  shoot  at  them.  But  they  are  such  enormous  beasts 
that  I  thought  them  far  nearer  than  they  were.  My 
bullet  fell  short,  and  they  disappeared  among  the 
mimosas,  at  their  strange  leisurely-looking  gallop.  Of 
all  the  beasts  in  an  African  landscape  none  is  more 
striking  than  the  giraffe.  Usually  it  is  found  in  small 
parties  or  in  herds  of  fifteen  or  twenty  or  more 
individuals.  Although  it  will  drink  regularly  if  occa- 
sion offers,  it  is  able  to  get  along  without  water  for 
months  at  a  time,  and  frequents  by  choice  the  dry  plains 
or  else  the  stretches  of  open  forest  where  the  trees  are 
scattered  and  ordinarily  somewhat  stunted.  Like  the 
rhinoceros — the  ordinary  or  prehensile-lipped  rhinoceros 


94  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

— the  giraffe  is  a  browsing  and  not  a  grazing  animal. 
The  leaves,  buds,  and  twigs  of  the  mimosas  or  thorn- 
trees  form  its  customary  food.  Its  extraordinary  height 
enables  it  to  bring  into  play  to  the  best  possible  ad- 
vantage its  noteworthy  powers  of  vision,  and  no  animal 
is  harder  to  approach  unseen.  Again  and  again  I  have 
made  it  out  a  mile  off,  or  rather  have  seen  it  a  mile  off 
when  it  was  pointed  out  to  me,  and  looking  at  it 
through  my  glasses,  would  see  that  it  was  gazing 
steadily  at  us.  It  is  a  striking-looking  animal  and 
handsome  in  its  way,  but  its  length  of  leg  and  neck  and 
sloping  back  make  it  appear  awkward  even  at  rest. 
When  alarmed  it  may  go  off  at  a  long  swinging  pace  or 
walk,  but  if  really  frightened  it  strikes  into  a  peculiar 
gallop  or  canter.  The  tail  is  cocked  and  twisted,  and 
the  huge  hind-legs  are  thrown  forward  well  to  the  out- 
side of  the  fore-legs.  The  movements  seem  deliberate, 
and  the  giraffe  does  not  appear  to  be  going  at  a  fast 
pace,  but  if  it  has  any  start  a  horse  must  gallop  hard  to 
overtake  it.  When  it  starts  on  this  gait,  the  neck  may 
be  dropped  forward  at  a  sharp  angle  with  the  straight 
line  of  the  deep  chest,  and  the  big  head  be  thrust  in 
advance.  They  are  defenceless  things,  and,  though  they 
may  kick  at  a  man  who  incautiously  comes  within 
reach,  they  are  in  no  way  dangerous. 

The  following  day  I  again  rode  out  with  Captain 
Slatter.  During  the  morning  we  saw  nothing  except 
the  ordinary  game,  and  we  lunched  on  a  hill-top,  ten 
miles  distant  from  camp,  under  a  huge  fig-tree  with 
spreading  branches  and  thick,  deep -green  foliage. 
Throughout  the  time  we  were  taking  lunch  a  herd  of 
zebras  watched  us  from  near  by,  standing  motionless 
with  their  ears  pricked  forward,  their  beautifully  striped 
bodies  showing  finely  in  the  sunlight.     We  scanned  the 


CH.  IV]  A  BULL  GIRAFFE  95 

country  round  about  with  our  glasses,  and  made  out 
first  a  herd  of  eland,  a  mile  in  our  rear,  and  then  three 
giraffes  a  mile  and  a  half  in  our  front.  I  wanted  a  bull 
eland,  but  I  wanted  a  giraffe  still  more,  and  we  mounted 
our  horses  and  rode  toward  where  the  three  tall  beasts 
stood,  on  an  open  hill-side  with  trees  thinly  scattered 
ov^er  it.  Half  a  mile  from  them  we  left  the  horses  in  a 
thick  belt  of  timber  beside  a  dry  watercourse,  and  went 
forward  on  foot. 

There  was  no  use  in  trying  a  stalk,  for  that  would 
merely  have  aroused  the  giraffe's  suspicion.  But  we 
knew  they  were  accustomed  to  the  passing  and  repassing 
of  Wakamba  men  and  women,  whom  they  did  not  fear 
if  they  kept  at  a  reasonable  distance,  so  we  walked  in 
single  file  diagonally  in  their  direction  ;  that  is,  toward 
a  tree  which  I  judged  to  be  about  three  hundred  yards 
from  them.  I  was  carrying  the  Winchester  loaded  with 
full  metal-patched  bullets.  I  wished  to  get  for  the 
Museum  both  a  bull  and  a  cow.  One  of  the  three 
giraffes  was  much  larger  than  the  other  two,  and  as  he 
was  evidently  a  bull  I  thought  the  two  others  were 
cows. 

As  we  reached  the  tree  the  giraffes  showed  symptoms 
of  uneasiness.  One  of  the  smaller  ones  began  to  make 
off,  and  both  the  others  shifted  their  positions  slightly, 
curling  their  tails.  I  instantly  dropped  on  my  knee, 
and  getting  the  bead  just  behind  the  big  bull's  shoulder, 
I  fired  with  the  three-hundred-yard  sight.  I  heard  the 
"  pack  "  of  the  bullet  as  it  struck  just  where  I  aimed  ; 
and  away  went  all  three  giraffes  at  their  queer  rocking- 
horse  canter.  Running  forward  I  emptied  my  magazine, 
firing  at  the  big  bull  and  also  at  one  of  his  smaller  com- 
panions, and  then,  slipping  into  the  barrel  what  proved 
to  be  a  soft- nosed  bullet,  I  fired  at  the  latter  again. 


96  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

The  giraffe  was  going  straight  away  and  it  was  a  long 
shot,  at  four  or  five  hundred  yards ;  but  by  good  luck 
the  bullet  broke  its  back  and  down  it  came.  The  others 
were  now  getting  over  the  crest  of  the  hill,  but  the  big 
one  was  evidently  sick,  and  we  called  and  beckoned  to 
the  two  saises  to  hurry  up  with  the  horses.  The 
moment  they  arrived  we  jumped  on,  and  Captain  Slatter 
cantered  up  a  neighbouring  hill  so  as  to  mark  the 
direction  in  which  the  giraffes  went  if  I  lost  sight  of 
them.  Meanwhile  I  rode  full  speed  after  the  giant 
quarry.  I  was  on  the  tranquil  sorrel,  the  horse  I  much 
preferred  in  riding  down  game  of  any  kind,  because  he 
had  a  fair  turn  of  speed,  and  yet  was  good  about  letting 
me  get  on  and  off.  As  soon  as  I  reached  the  hill-crest 
I  saw  the  giraffes  ahead  of  me,  not  as  far  off  as  I  had 
feared,  and  I  raced  toward  them  without  regard  to 
rotten  ground  and  wart-hog  holes.  The  wounded  one 
lagged  behind,  but  when  I  got  near  he  put  on  a  spurt, 
and  as  I  thought  I  was  close  enough  I  leaped  off,  throw- 
ing the  reins  over  the  sorrel's  head,  and  opened  fire. 
Down  went  the  big  bull,  and  I  thought  my  task  was 
done.  But  as  I  went  back  to  mount  the  sorrel  he 
struggled  to  his  feet  again  and  disappeared  after  his 
companion  among  the  trees,  which  were  thicker  here,  as 
we  had  reached  the  bottom  of  the  valley.  So  I  tore 
after  him  again,  and  in  a  minute  came  to  a  dry  water- 
course. Scrambling  into  and  out  of  this,  I  saw  the 
giraffes  ahead  of  me  just  beginning  the  ascent  of  the 
opposite  slope  ;  and  touching  the  horse  with  the  spur,  I 
flew  after  the  wounded  bull.  This  time  I  made  up  my 
mind  I  would  get  up  close  enough ;  but  Tranquillity 
did  not  quite  like  the  look  of  the  thing  ahead  of  him. 
He  did  not  refuse  to  come  up  to  the  giraffe,  but  he 
evidently  felt  that,  with  such  an  object  close  by  and 


CH.  IV]       ANOTHER  GIRAFFE  HUNT  97 

evident  in  the  landscape,  it  behoved  him  to  be  careful 
as  to  what  might  be  hidden  therein,  and  he  shied  so  at 
each  bush  we  passed  that  we  progressed  in  series  of 
loops.  So  off  I  jumped,  throwing  the  reins  over  his 
head,  and  opened  fire  once  more  ;  and  this  time  the 
great  bull  went  down  for  good. 

Tranquillity  recovered  his  nerve  at  once,  and  grazed 
contentedly  while  I  admired  the  huge  proportions  and 
beautiful  colouring  of  my  prize.  In  a  few  minutes 
Captain  Slatter  loped  up,  and  the  gun-bearers  and  saises 
followed.  As  if  by  magic,  three  or  four  Wakamba 
turned  up  immediately  afterward,  their  eyes  glistening 
at  the  thought  of  the  feast  ahead  for  the  whole  tribe. 
It  was  mid-afternoon,  and  there  was  no  time  to  waste. 
My  sais,  Simba,  an  excellent  long-distance  runner,  was 
sent  straight  to  camp  to  get  Heller  and  pilot  him  back 
to  the  dead  giraffes.  Beside  each  of  the  latter — for 
they  had  fallen  a  mile  apart — we  left  a  couple  of  men 
to  build  fires.  Then  we  rode  toward  camp.  To  my 
regret,  the  smaller  giraffe  turned  out  to  be  a  young  bull 
and  not  a  cow. 

At  this  very  time,  and  utterly  without  our  knowledge, 
there  was  another  giraffe  hunt  going  on.  Sir  Alfred 
had  taken  out  Kermit  and  Medlicott,  and  they  came 
across  a  herd  of  a  dozen  giraffes  right  out  in  the  open 
plains.  Medlicott 's  horse  was  worn  out,  and  he  could 
not  keep  up,  but  both  the  others  were  fairly  well 
mounted.  .  Both  were  light  men  and  hard  riders,  and, 
although  the  giraffes  had  three-quarters  of  a  mile  the 
start,  it  was  not  long  before  both  were  at  the  heels  of 
the  herd.  They  singled  out  the  big  bull — which,  by  the 
way,  turned  out  to  be  an  even  bigger  bull  than  mine — 
and  fired  at  him  as  they  galloped.  In  such  a  headlong, 
helter-skelter  chase,  however,  it  is  no  easy  matter  to 

7 


98  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

score  a  hit  from  horseback  unless  one  is  very  close  up  ; 
and  Sir  Alfred  made  up  his  mind  to  try  to  drive  out 
the  bull  from  the  rest  of  the  herd.  He  succeeded  ;  but 
at  this  moment  his  horse  put  a  fore-foot  into  a  hole  and 
turned  a  complete  somersault,  almost  wrenching  out  his 
shoulder.  Sir  Alfred  was  hurled  off  head  over  heels, 
but  even  as  he  rolled  over,  clutching  his  rifle,  he  twisted 
himself  round  to  his  knees  and  took  one  last  shot  at  the 
flying  giraffe.  This  left  Kermit  alone,  and  he  galloped 
hard  on  the  giraffe's  heels,  firing  again  and  again  with 
his  Winchester.  Finally,  his  horse  became  completely 
done  out  and  fell  behind  ;  whereupon  Kermit  jumped 
off*,  and,  being  an  excellent  long-distance  runner,  ran 
after  the  giraffe  on  foot  for  more  than  a  mile.  But  he 
did  not  need  to  shoot  again.  The  great  beast  had  been 
mortally  wounded,  and  it  suddenly  slowed  down,  halted, 
and  fell  over  dead.  As  a  matter  of  curiosity  we  kept 
the  Winchester  bullets  both  from  Kermit 's  giraffe  and 
from  mine.  I  made  a  point  of  keeping  as  many  as 
possible  of  the  bullets  with  which  the  different  animals 
were  slain,  so  as  to  see  exactly  what  was  done  by  the 
different  types  of  rifles  we  had  with  us. 

When  I  reached  camp  I  found  that  Heller  had 
already  started.  Next  morning  I  rode  down  to  see  him, 
and  found  him  hard  at  work  with  the  skins ;  but  as  it 
would  take  him  two  or  three  days  to  finish  them  and 
put  them  in  condition  for  transport,  we  decided  that 
the  safari  should  march  back  to  the  Potha  camp,  and 
that  from  there  we  would  send  Percival's  ox-waggon 
to  bring  back  to  the  camp  all  the  skins,  Heller  and  his 
men  accompanying  him.  The  plan  was  carried  out, 
and  the  following  morning  we  shifted  the  big  camp  as 
proposed. 

Heller,  thus  left  behind,  came  near  having  an  un- 


CH.  IV]  NATIVE  NATURALISTS  99 

pleasant  adventure.  He  slept  in  his  own  tent,  and  his 
Wakamba  skinners  slept  under  the  fly  not  far  off.  One 
night  they  let  the  fires  die  down,  and  were  roused  at 
midnight  by  hearing  the  grunting  of  a  hungry  lion 
apparently  not  a  dozen  yards  off  in  the  darkness. 
Heller  quickly  lit  his  lantern,  and  sat  up  with  his  shot- 
gun loaded  with  bird-shot,  the  only  weapon  he  had  with 
him.  The  lion  walked  round  and  round  the  tent, 
grunting  at  intervals.  Then,  after  some  minutes  of 
suspense,  he  drew  off.  While  the  grunting  had  been 
audible,  not  a  sound  came  from  the  tent  of  the  Wakam- 
bas,  who  all  cowered  under  their  blankets  in  perfect 
silence.  But  once  he  had  gone,  there  was  a  great 
chattering,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  fires  were  roaring, 
nor  were  they  again  suffered  to  die  down. 

Heller's  skinners  had  learned  to  work  very  well  when 
under  his  eye.  He  had  encountered  much  difficulty  in 
getting  men  who  would  do  the  work,  and  had  tried  the 
representatives  of  various  tribes,  but  without  success, 
until  he  struck  the  Wakamba.  These  were  real  savages, 
who  filed  their  teeth  and  delighted  in  raw  flesh,  and 
Heller's  explanation  of  their  doing  well  was  that  their 
taste  for  the  raw  flesh  kept  them  thoroughly  interested 
in  their  job,  so  that  they  learned  without  difficulty. 
The  porters  speedily  christened  each  of  the  white  men 
by  some  title  of  their  own,  using  the  ordinary  Swahili 
title  of  Bwana  (master)  as  a  prefix.  Heller  was  the 
Bwana  Who  Skinned  ;  Loring,  who  collected  the  small 
mammals,  was  named,  merely  descriptively,  the  Mouse 
Master,  Bwana  Pania.  I  was  always  called  Bwana 
Makuba,  the  Chief  or  Great  Master  ;  Kermit  was  first 
called  Bwana  Medogo,  the  Young  Master,  and  after- 
ward was  christened  *'  the  Dandy,"  Bwana  Merodadi. 

From    Potha    the    safari    went    in     two     days     to 


100  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

McMillan's  place,  Juja  Farm,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Athi.  I  stayed  behind,  as  I  desired  to  visit  the  Ameri- 
can Mission  Station  at  Machakos.  Accordingly,  Sir 
Alfred  and  I  rode  thither.  Machakos  has  long  been  a 
native  town,  for  it  was  on  the  route  formerly  taken  by 
the  Arab  caravans  that  went  from  the  coast  to  the 
interior  after  slaves  and  ivory.  Riding  toward  it,  we 
passed  herd  after  herd  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  goats,  each 
guarded  by  two  or  three  savage  herdsmen.  The  little 
town  itself  was  both  interesting  and  attractive.  Besides 
the  natives,  there  were  a  number  of  Indian  traders  and 
the  English  Commissioner  and  Assistant  Commissioner, 
with  a  small  body  of  native  soldiers.  The  latter  not  a 
long  time  before  had  been  just  such  savages  as  those 
round  about  them,  and  the  change  for  the  better 
wrought  in  their  physique  and  morale  by  the  ordered 
discipline  to  which  they  had  submitted  themselves 
could  hardly  be  exaggerated.  When  we  arrived,  the 
Commissioner  and  his  assistant  were  engaged  in  cross- 
examining  some  neighbouring  chiefs  as  to  the  cattle 
sickness.  The  English  rule  in  Africa  has  been  of 
incalculable  benefit  to  Africans  themselves,  and  indeed 
this  is  true  of  the  rule  of  most  European  nations.  Mis- 
takes have  been  made,  of  course,  but  they  have  proceeded 
at  least  as  often  from  an  unwise  effort  to  accomplish  too 
much  in  the  way  of  beneficence,  as  from  a  desire  to 
exploit  the  natives.  Each  of  the  civilized  nations  that 
has  taken  possession  of  any  part  of  Africa  has  had  its 
own  peculiar  good  qualities  and  its  own  peculiar  defects. 
Some  of  them  have  done  too  much  in  supervising  and 
ordering  the  lives  of  the  natives,  and  in  interfering  with 
their  practices  and  customs.  The  English  error,  like 
our  own  under  similar  conditions,  has,  if  anything,  been 


CH.  IV]       THE  WHITE  MAN'S  WORK  101 

in  the  other  direction.  The  effort  has  been  to  avoid 
wherever  possible  all  interference  with  tribal  customs, 
even  when  of  an  immoral  and  repulsive  character,  and 
to  do  no  more  than  what  is  obviously  necessary,  such 
as  insistence  upon  keeping  the  peace,  and  preventing 
the  spread  of  cattle  disease.  Excellent  reasons  can  be 
advanced  in  favour  of  this  policy,  and  it  must  always  be 
remembered  that  a  fussy  and  ill-considered  benevolence 
is  more  sure  to  awaken  resentment  than  cruelty  itself; 
while  the  natives  are  apt  to  resent  deeply  even  things 
that  are  obviously  for  their  ultimate  welfare.  Yet  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  with  caution  and  wisdom  it 
would  be  possible  to  proceed  somewhat  farther  than  has 
yet  been  the  case  in  the  direction  of  pushing  upward 
some  at  least  of  the  East  African  tribes,  and  this  though 
I  recognize  fully  that  many  of  these  tribes  are  of  a  low 
and  brutalized  type.  Having  said  this  much  in  the 
way  of  criticism,  I  wish  to  add  my  tribute  of  unstinted 
admiration  for  the  disinterested  and  efficient  work  being 
done,  alike  in  the  interest  of  the  white  man  and  the 
black,  by  the  government  officials  whom  I  met  in  East 
Africa.  They  are  men  in  whom  their  country  has  every 
reason  to  feel  a  just  pride. 

We  lunched  with  the  American  missionaries.  Mission 
work  among  savages  offisrs  many  difficulties,  and  often 
the  wisest  and  most  earnest  effi^rt  meets  with  disheart- 
eningly  little  reward  ;  while  lack  of  common  sense,  and 
of  course  above  all,  lack  of  a  firm  and  resolute  disinter- 
estedness, insures  the  worst  kind  of  failure.  There  are 
missionaries  who  do  not  do  well,  just  as  there  are  men 
in  every  conceivable  walk  of  life  who  do  not  do  well ; 
and  excellent  men  who  are  not  missionaries,  including 
both  government  officials  and  settlers,  are  only  too  apt 


102  RHINO  AND  GIRAFFES  [ch.  iv 

to  jump  at  the  chance  of  criticizing  a  missionary  for 
every  alleged  sin   of  either   omission   or   commission. 
Finally,  zealous  missionaries,  fervent  in  the  faith,  do 
not  always  find  it  easy  to  remember  that  savages  can 
only  be  raised  by  slow  steps,  that  an  empty  adherence 
to  forms   and    ceremonies   amounts   to   nothing,   that 
industrial   training   is   an   essential   in  any  permanent 
upward  movement,  and  that  the  gradual  elevation  of 
mind  and  character  is  a  prerequisite  to  the  achievement 
of  any  kind  of  Christianity  which  is  worth  calling  such. 
Nevertheless,  after  all  this  has  been  said,  it  remains  true 
that  the  good  done  by  missionary  effort  in  Africa  has 
been  incalculable.    There  are  parts  of  the  great  continent, 
and  among  them  I  include  many  sections  of  East  Africa, 
which  can  be  made  a  white  man's  country  ;  and  in  these 
parts  every  effort  should  be  made  to  favour  the  growth 
of  a  large  and  prosperous  white  population.     But  over 
most  of  Africa  the  problem  for  the  white  man  is  to 
govern,  with  wisdom  and  firmness,  and  when  necessary 
with  severity,  but  always  with  a  single  eye  to  their  own 
interests  and  development,  the  black  and  brown  races. 
To  do  this  needs  sympathy  and  devotion  no  less  than 
strength  and  wisdom,  and  in  the  task  the  part  to  be 
played  by  the  missionary  and  the  part  to  be  played  by 
the  official  are  aUke  great,  and  the  two  should  work 
hand  in  hand. 

After  returning  from  Machakos,  I  spent  the  night  at 
Sir  Alfred's,  and  next  morning  said  good-bye  with  most 
genuine  regret  to  my  host  and  his  family.  Then, 
followed  by  my  gun-bearers  and  sais,  I  rode  off"  across 
the  Athi  Plains.  Through  the  bright  white  air  the  sun 
beat  down  mercilessly,  and  the  heat  haze  wavered  above 
the  endless  flats  of  scorched  grass.     Hour  after  hour  we 


CH.  iv]  THE  ATHI  103 

went  slowly  forward,  through  the  morning,  and  through 
the  burning  heat  of  the  equatorial  noon,  until  in  mid- 
afternoon  we  came  to  the  tangled  tree  growth  which 
fringed  the  half-dried  bed  of  the  Athi.  Here  I  off- 
saddled  for  an  hour ;  then,  mounting,  1  crossed  the 
river  bed  where  it  was  waterless,  and  before  evening  fell 
I  rode  up  to  Juja  Farm. 


P 


CHAPTER  V 

JUJA  FARM:    HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD 

At  Juja  Farm  we  were  welcomed  with  the  most 
generous  hospitality  by  my  fellow-countryman  and  his 
wife,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  N.  McMillan.  Selous  had  been 
staying  with  them,  and  one  afternoon  I  had  already 
ridden  over  from  Sir  Alfred's  ranch  to  take  tea  with 
them  at  their  other  house,  on  the  beautiful  Mua  Hills. 

Juja  Farm  lies  on  the  edge  of  the  Athi  Plains,  and 
the  house  stands  near  the  junction  of  the  Nairobi  and 
Rewero  Rivers.  The  house,  like  almost  all  East 
African  houses,  was  of  one  story,  a  broad,  vine-shaded 
veranda  running  around  it.  There  were  numerous  out- 
buildings of  every  kind  ;  there  were  flocks  and  herds, 
cornfields,  a  vegetable  garden,  and,  immediately  in  front 
of  the  house,  a  very  pretty  flower-garden,  carefully 
tended  by  unsmiling  Kikuyu  savages.  All  day  long 
these  odd  creatures  worked  at  the  grass  and  among  the 
flower-beds.  According  to  the  custom  of  their  tribe, 
their  ears  were  slit  so  as  to  enable  them  to  stretch  the 
lobes  to  an  almost  incredible  extent,  and  in  these 
apertures  they  wore  fantastically  carved  native  orna- 
ments. One  of  them  had  been  attracted  by  the  shining 
surface  of  an  empty  tobacco-can,  and  he  wore  this  in 
one  ear  to  match  the  curiously  carved  wooden  drum  he 
carried  in  the  other.     Another,  whose  arms  and  legs 

104 


CH.  v]   SOMALIS,  KIKUYUS,  AND  MASAI  105 

were  massive  with  copper  and  iron  bracelets,  had  been 
given  a  blanket  because  he  had  no  other  garment ;  he 
got  along  quite  well  with  the  blanket,  excepting  when 
he  had  to  use  the  lawn-mower,  and  then  he  would 
usually  wrap  the  blanket  around  his  neck,  and  handle 
the  lawn-mower  with  the  evident  feeling  that  he  had 
done  all  that  the  most  exacting  conventionalism  could 
require. 

The  house-boys  and  gun-bearers,  and  most  of  the 
boys  who  took  care  of  the  horses,  were  Somalis,  whereas 
the  cattle-keepers  who  tended  the  herds  of  cattle  were 
Masai,  and  the  men  and  women  who  worked  in  the 
fields  were  Kikuyus.  The  three  races  had  nothing  to  do 
with  one  another,  and  the  few  Indians  had  nothing  to 
do  with  any  of  them.  The  Kikuyus  lived  in  their 
beehive  huts  scattered  in  small  groups  ;  the  SomaUs  all 
dwelt  in  their  own  little  village  on  one  side  of  the 
farm,  and  half  a  mile  off  the  Masai  dwelt  in  their 
village.  Both  the  Somalis  and  Masai  were  fine,  daring 
fellows  ;  the  Somalis  were  Mohammedans  and  horse- 
men ;  the  Masai  were  cattle- herders,  who  did  their  work 
as  they  did  their  fighting,  on  foot,  and  were  wild 
heathen  of  the  most  martial  type.  They  looked  care- 
fully after  the  cattle,  and  were  delighted  to  join  in 
the  chase  of  dangerous  game,  but  regular  work  they 
thoroughly  despised.  Sometimes  when  we  had  gathered 
a  mass  of  Kikuyus  or  of  our  own  porters  together  to  do 
some  job,  two  or  three  Masai  would  stroll  up  to  look  on 
with  curiosity,  sword  in  belt  and  great  spear  in  hand ; 
their  features  were  well  cut,  their  hair  curiously  plaited, 
and  they  had  the  erect  carriage  and  fearless  bearing  that 
naturally  go  with  a  soldierly  race. 

Within  the  house,  with  its  bedrooms  and  dining- 
room,   its    library   and    drawing-room,   and    the    cool, 


106  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

shaded  veranda,  everything  was  so  comfortable  that  it 
was  hard  to  reahze  that  we  were  far  in  the  interior  of 
Africa  and  almost  under  the  Equator.  Our  hostess  was 
herself  a  good  rider  and  good  shot,  and  had  killed  her 
lion  ;  and  both  our  host  and  a  friend  who  was  staying 
with  him,  Mr.  Bulpett,  were  not  merely  mighty  hunters 
who  had  bagged  every  important  variety  of  large  and 
dangerous  game,  but  were  also  explorers  of  note,  whose 
travels  had  materially  helped  in  widening  the  area  of 
our  knowledge  of  what  was  once  the  dark  continent. 

Many  birds  sang  in  the  garden — bulbuls,  thrushes, 
and  warblers ;  and  from  the  naiTow  fringe  of  dense 
woodland  along  the  edges  of  the  rivers  other  birds 
called  loudly,  some  with  harsh,  some  with  musical, 
voices.  Here  for  the  first  time  we  saw  the  honey- 
guide,  the  bird  that  insists  upon  leading  any  man 
it  sees  to  honey,  so  that  he  may  rob  the  hive  and  give 
it  a  share. 

Game  came  right  around  the  house.  Hartebeests, 
wildebeests,  and  zebras  grazed  in  sight  on  the  open 
plain.  The  hippopotami  that  lived  close  by  in  the 
river  came  out  at  night  into  the  garden.  A  couple  of 
years  before  a  rhino  had  come  down  into  the  same 
garden  in  broad  dayHght,  and  quite  wantonly  attacked 
one  of  the  Kikuyu  labourers,  tossing  him  and  breaking 
his  thigh.  It  had  then  passed  by  the  house  out  to  the 
plain,  where  it  saw  an  ox-cart,  which  it  immediately 
attacked  and  upset,  cannoning  off  after  its  charge  and 
passing  up  through  the  span  of  oxen,  breaking  all  the 
yokes  but  fortunately  not  killing  an  animal.  Then  it 
met  one  of  the  men  of  the  house  on  horseback,  immedi- 
ately assailed  him,  and  was  killed  for  its  pains. 

My  host  was  about  to  go  on  safari  for  a  couple  of 
months  with  Selous,  and  to  manage  their  safari  they 


CH.  v]  WATERBUCK  107 

had  one  of  the  noted  professional  hunters  of  East 
Africa,  Mr.  H.  Judd ;  and  Judd  was  kind  enough  to 
take  me  out  hunting  almost  every  day  that  we  were 
at  Juja.  We  would  breakfast  at  dawn,  and  leave  the 
farm  about  the  time  that  it  grew  light  enough  to  see. 
Ordinarily  our  course  was  eastward,  toward  the  Athi,  a 
few  miles  distant.  These  morning  rides  were  very  beau- 
tiful. In  our  front  was  the  mountain  mass  of  Donyo 
Sabuk,  and  the  sun  rose  behind  it,  flooding  the  heavens 
with  gold  and  crimson.  The  morning  air  blew  fresh  in 
our  faces,  and  the  unshod  feet  of  our  horses  made  no 
sound  as  they  trod  the  dew-drenched  grass.  On  every 
side  game  stood  to  watch  us — ^herds  of  hartebeests  and 
zebras,  and  now  and  then  a  herd  of  wildebeests  or  a  few 
straggling  old  wildebeest  bulls.  Sometimes  the  zebras 
and  kongoni  were  very  shy,  and  took  fright  when  we 
were  yet  a  long  way  off;  at  other  times  they  would 
stand  motionless,  and  permit  us  to  come  within  fair 
gunshot,  and  after  we  had  passed  we  could  still  see 
them  regarding  us  without  their  having  moved.  The 
wildebeests  were  warier ;  usually,  when  we  were  yet  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  or  so  distant,  the  herd,  which  had  been 
standing  with  heads  up,  their  short,  shaggy  necks  and 
heavy  withers  giving  the  animals  an  unmistakable 
look,  would  take  fright,  and,  with  heavy  curvets  and 
occasional  running  in  semicircles,  would  make  off,  heads 
held  down  and  long  tails  lashing  the  air. 

In  the  open  woods  which  marked  the  border  between 
the  barren  plains  and  the  forested  valley  of  the  Athi, 
Kermit  and  I  shot  waterbuck  and  impalla.  The  water- 
buck  is  a  stately  antelope  with  long,  coarse  grey  hair 
and  fine  carriage  of  the  head  and  neck  ;  the  male  alone 
carries  horns.  We  found  them  usually  in  parties  of  ten 
or  a  dozen,  both  of  bulls  and  cows  ;  but  sometimes  a 


108  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

party  of  cows  would  go  alone,  or  three  or  four  bulls 
might  be  found  together.  In  spite  of  its  name,  we  did 
not  find  it  much  given  to  going  in  the  water,  although 
it  would  cross  the  river  fearlessly  whenever  it  desired  ; 
it  was,  however,  always  found  not  very  far  from  water. 
It  liked  the  woods,  and  did  not  go  many  miles  from  the 
streams,  yet  we  frequently  saw  it  on  the  open  plains  a 
mile  or  two  from  trees,  feeding  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
zebra  and  the  hartebeest.  This  was,  however,  usually 
quite  early  in  the  morning  or  quite  late  in  the  afternoon. 
In  the  heat  of  the  day  it  clearly  preferred  to  be  in  the 
forest,  along  the  stream's  edge,  or  in  the  bush-clad 
ravines. 

The  impalla  are  found  in  exactly  the  same  kind  of 
country  as  the  water-buck,  and  often  associate  with 
them.  To  my  mind  they  are  among  the  most  beautiful 
of  all  antelope.  They  are  about  the  size  of  a  white- 
tailed  deer,  their  beautiful  annulated  horns  making  a 
single  spiral,  and  their  coat  is  like  satin  with  its  con- 
trasting shades  of  red  and  white.  They  have  the  most 
graceful  movements  of  any  animal  I  know,  and  it  is 
extraordinary  to  see  a  herd  start  off"  when  frightened, 
both  buck  and  does  bounding  clear  over  the  top  of  the 
tall  bushes,  with  a  peculiar  birdlike  motion  and  light- 
ness. Usually  a  single  old  buck  will  be  found  with  a 
large  company  of  does  and  fawns ;  the  other  bucks  go 
singly  or  in  small  parties.  It  was  in  the  middle  of 
May,  and  we  saw  fawns  of  all  ages.  When  in  the 
open,  where,  like  the  waterbuck,  it  often  went  in  the 
morning  and  evening,  the  impalla  was  very  shy,  but  I 
did  not  find  it  particularly  so  among  the  woods.  In  con- 
nection with  shooting  two  of  the  impalla,  there  occurred 
little  incidents  which  are  worthy  of  mention. 

In   one   case    I    had  just   killed    a   waterbuck  cow, 


CH.  v]  AN  I M  PALL  A  109 

hitting  it  at  a  considerable  distance  and  by  a  lucky 
fluke,  after  a  good  deal  of  bad  shooting.  We  started 
the  porters  in  with  the  waterbuck,  and  then  rode  west 
through  an  open  country,  dotted  here  and  there  with 
trees  and  with  occasional  ant-hills.  In  a  few  minutes  we 
saw  an  impalla  buck,  and  I  crept  up  behind  an  ant-hill 
and  obtained  a  shot  at  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
yards.  The  buck  dropped,  and  as  I  was  putting  in 
another  cartridge  I  said  to  Judd  that  I  didn't  like  to 
see  an  animal  drop  like  that,  so  instantaneously,  as 
there  was  always  the  possibility  that  it  might  only  be 
creased,  and  that  if  an  animal  so  hurt  got  up,  it  always 
went  off  exactly  as  if  unhurt.  When  we  raised  our 
eyes  again  to  look  for  the  impalla,  it  had  vanished.  I 
was  sure  that  we  would  never  see  it  again,  and  Judd  felt 
much  the  same  way ;  but  we  walked  in  the  direction 
toward  which  its  head  had  been  pointed,  and  Judd 
ascended  an  ant-hill  to  scan  the  surrounding  country 
with  his  glasses.  He  did  so,  and  after  a  minute  remarked 
that  he  could  not  see  the  wounded  impalla  ;  when  a 
sudden  movement  caused  us  to  look  down,  and  there  it 
was,  lying  at  our  very  feet,  on  the  side  of  the  ant-hill, 
unable  to  rise.  I  had  been  using  a  sharp-pointed  bullet 
in  the  Springfield,  and  this  makes  a  big  hole.  The 
bullet  had  gone  too  far  back,  in  front  of  the  hips. 
I  should  not  have  wondered  at  all  if  the  animal  had 
failed  to  get  up  after  falling,  but  I  did  not  understand 
why,  as  it  recovered  enough  from  the  shock  to  be 
able  to  get  up,  it  had  not  continued  to  travel,  instead 
of  falling  after  going  one  hundred  yards.  Indeed,  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  a  deer  or  prong-buck,  hit  in  the 
same  fashion,  would  have  gone  off  and  would  have 
given  a  long  chase  before  being  overtaken.  Judging 
from  what  others   have  said,  I   have  no   doubt  that 


110  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

African  game  is  very  tough  and  succumbs  less  easily 
to  wounds  than  is  the  case  with  animals  of  the  northern 
temperate  zone ;  but  in  my  own  experience,  I  several 
times  saw  African  antelopes  succumb  to  wounds  quicker 
than  the  average  northern  animal  would  have  succumbed 
to  a  similar  wound.  One  was  this  impalla.  Another 
was  the  cow  eland  I  first  shot ;  her  hind-leg  was  broken 
high  up,  and  the  wound,  though  crippling,  was  not  such 
as  would  have  prevented  a  moose  or  wapiti  from  hob- 
bling away  on  three  legs  ;  yet  in  spite  of  hard  struggles 
the  eland  was  wholly  unable  to  regain  her  feet. 

The  impalla  thus  shot,  by  the  way,  although  in  fine 
condition  and  with  a  coat  of  glossy  beauty,  was  infested 
by  ticks  ;  around  the  horns  the  horrid  little  insects  were 
clustered  in  thick  masses  for  a  space  of  a  diameter  of 
some  inches.  It  was  to  me  marvellous  that  they  had 
not  set  up  inflammation  or  caused  great  sores,  for  they 
were  so  thick  that  at  a  distance  of  a  few  feet  they  gave 
the  appearance  of  there  being  some  big  gland  or  bare 
place  at  the  root  of  each  horn. 

The  other  impalla  buck  also  showed  an  unexpected 
softness,  succumbing  to  a  wound  which  I  do  not  believe 
would  have  given  me  either  a  white-tailed  or  a  black-tailed 
deer.  I  had  been  vainly  endeavouring  to  get  a  water- 
buck  bull,  and  as  the  day  was  growing  hot  I  was  riding 
homeward,  scanning  the  edge  of  the  plain  where  it 
merged  into  the  trees  that  extended  out  from  the  steep 
bank  that  hemmed  in  one  side  of  the  river  bottom. 
From  time  to  time  we  would  see  an  impalla  or  a  water- 
buck  making  its  way  from  the  plain  back  to  the  river 
bottom,  to  spend  the  day  in  the  shade.  One  of  these  I 
stalked,  and  after  a  good  deal  of  long-range  shooting 
broke  a  hind-leg  high  up.  It  got  out  of  sight,  and  we 
rode  along  the  edge  of  th^  steep  descent  which  led 


CH.  v]  A  SNAKE  111 

down  into  the  river  bottom  proper.  In  the  bottom 
there  were  large,  open,  grassy  places,  while  the  trees 
made  a  thick  fringe  along  the  river  course.  We  had 
given  up  the  impalla  and  turned  out  towards  the  plain, 
when  one  of  my  gun- bearers  whistled  to  us,  and  said  he 
had  seen  the  wounded  animal  cross  the  bottom  and  go 
into  the  fringe  of  trees  bounding  a  deep  pool,  in  which 
we  knew  there  were  both  hippos  and  crocodiles.  We 
were  off  our  horses  at  once,  and,  leaving  them  at  the 
top,  scrambled  down  the  descent  and  crossed  the  bottom 
to  the  spot  indicated.  The  impalla  had  lain  down  as 
soon  as  it  reached  cover,  and  as  we  entered  the  fringe 
of  wood  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  it  getting  up  and  making 
off.  Yet  fifty  yards  farther  it  stopped  again,  standing 
right  on  the  brink  of  the  pool,  so  close  that  when  I  shot 
it,  it  fell  over  into  the  water. 

When,  after  arranging  for  this  impalla  to  be  carried 
back  to  the  farm,  we  returned  to  where  our  horses  had 
been  left,  the  boys  told  us  with  much  excitement  that 
there  was  a  large  snake  near  by  ;  and,  sure  enough,  a 
few  yar/ls  off,  coiled  up  in  the  long  grass  under  a  small 
tree,  was  a  python.  I  could  not  see  it  distinctly,  and, 
using  a  solid  bullet,  I  just  missed  the  backbone,  the 
bullet  going  through  the  body  about  its  middle. 
Immediately  the  snake  lashed  at  me  with  open  jaws, 
and  then,  uncoiling,  came  gliding  rapidly  in  our 
direction.  I  do  not  think  it  was  charging  ;  I  think 
it  was  merely  trying  to  escape.  But  Judd,  who 
was  utterly  unmoved  by  lion,  leopard,  or  rhino,  evidently 
held  this  snake  in  respect,  and  yelled  to  me  to  get  out 
of  the  way.  Accordingly,  I  jumped  back  a  few  feet, 
and  the  snake  came  over  the  ground  where  I  had  stood  ; 
its  evil  genius  then  made  it  halt  for  a  moment  and  raise 
its  head  to  a  height  of  perhaps  three  feet,  and  I  killed  it 


112  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

by  a  shot  through  the  neck.  The  porters  were  much 
wrought  up  about  the  snake,  and  did  not  at  all  like  my 
touching  it  and  taking  it  up,  first  by  the  tail  and  then 
by  the  head.  It  was  only  twelve  feet  long.  We  tied 
it  to  a  long  stick  and  sent  it  in  by  two  porters. 

Another  day  we  beat  for  lions,  but  without  success. 
We  rode  to  a  spot  a  few  miles  off,  where  we  were  joined 
by  three  Boer  farmers.  They  were  big,  upstanding 
men,  looking  just  as  Boer  farmers  ought  to  look  who 
had  been  through  a  war  and  had  ever  since  led  the 
adventurous  life  of  frontier  farmers  in  wild  regions. 
They  were  accompanied  by  a  pack  of  big,  rough-looking 
dogs,  but  were  on  foot,  walking  with  long  and  easy 
strides.  The  dogs  looked  a  rough-and-ready  lot,  but 
on  this  particular  morning  showed  themselves  of  little 
use  ;  at  any  rate,  they  put  up  nothing. 

But  Kermit  had  a  bit  of  deserved  good  luck.  While 
the  main  body  of  us  went  down  the  river-bed,  he  and 
McMillan,  with  a  few  natives,  beat  up  a  side  ravine, 
down  the  middle  of  which  ran  the  usual  dry  water- 
course fringed  wdth  patches  of  brush.  In  one  of  these 
they  put  up  a  leopard,  and  saw  it  slinking  forward 
ahead  of  them  through  the  bushes.  Then  they  lost 
sight  of  it,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  in  a 
large  thicket.  So  Kermit  went  on  one  side  of  it  and 
McMillan  on  the  other,  and  the  beaters  approached 
to  try  and  get  the  leopard  out.  Of  course,  none  of  the 
beaters  had  guns  ;  their  function  was  merely  to  make  a 
disturbance  and  rouse  the  game,  and  they  were  cautioned 
on  no  account  to  get  into  danger.  But  the  leopard  did 
not  wait  to  be  driven.  Without  any  warning,  out  he 
came  and  charged  straight  at  Kermit,  who  stopped  him 
when  he  was  but  six  yards  off  with  a  bullet  in  the  fore 
part  of  the  body ;  the  leopard  turned,  and  as  he  galloped 


-^     -2 


CH.  v]  A  LEOPARD  HUNT  113 

back  Kermit  hit  him  again,  crippHng  him  in  the  hips. 
The  wounds  were  fatal,  and  they  would  have  knocked 
the  fight  out  of  any  animal  less  plucky  and  savage  than 
the  leopard  ;  but  not  even  in  Africa  is  there  a  beast  of 
more  unflinching  courage  than  this  spotted  cat.     The 
beaters  were  much  excited  by  the  sight  of  the  charge 
and  the  way  in  which  it  was  stopped,  and  they  pressed 
jubilantly  forward — too  heedlessly.     One  of  them,  who 
was  on  McMillan's  side  of  the  thicket,  went  too  near  it, 
and  out  came  the  wounded  leopard  at  him.     It  was 
badly  crippled,  or  it  would  have  got  the  beater  at  once ; 
as  it  was,    it   was   slowly   overtaking   him   as   he  ran 
through  the  tall  grass,  when  McMillan,  standing  on  an 
ant-heap,  shot  it  again.     Yet,  in  spite  of  having  this 
third  bullet  in  it,  it  ran  down  the  beater  and  seized 
him,  worrying  him  with  teeth  and  claws.     But  it  was 
weak  because  of  its  wounds,  and  the  powerful  savage 
wrenched  himself  free,  while  McMillan  fired  into  the 
beast  again,  and  back  it  went  through  the  long  grass 
into  the  thicket.     There  was  a  pause,  and  the  wounded 
beater   was    removed    to   a   place   of   safety,   while   a 
messenger  was  sent   on  to  us  to   bring  up  the  Boer 
dogs.     But  while  they  were  waiting,  tlie  leopard,  on 
its  own  initiative,  brought  matters  to  a  crisis  ;  for  out  it 
came  again  straight  at  Kermit,  and  this  time  it  dropped 
dead  to  Kermit's  bullet.     No  animal  could  have  shown 
a  more  fearless  and   resolute  temper.     It  was  an  old 
female,  but  small,   its  weight  being   a   little   short  of 
seventy   pounds.     The  smallest  female  cougar  I  ever 
killed  was  heavier  than  this,  and  one  very  big  male  cougar 
which  I  killed  in  Colorado  was  three  times  the  weight. 
Yet  I  have  never  heard  of  any  cougar  which  displayed 
anything  like  the  spirit  and  ferocity  of  this  little  leopard, 
or  which  in  any  way  approached  it  as  a  dangerous  foe. 

8 


114  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

It  was  sent  back  to  camp  in  company  with  the  wounded 
beater,  after  the  wounds  of  the  latter  had  been  dressed  ; 
they  were  not  serious,  and  he  was  speedily  as  well 
as  ever. 

The  rivers  that  bounded  Juja  Farm,  not  only  the  Athi, 
but  the  Nairobi  and  Rewero,  contained   hippopotami 
and  crocodiles  in   the   deep  pools.     I  was  particularly 
anxious  to  get  one  of  the  former,  and  early  one  morning 
Judd  and  I  rode  off  across  the  plains,  through  the  herds 
of  grazing  game  seen  dimly  in  the  dawn,  to  the  Athi. 
We  reached  the  river,  and   leaving  our  horses,  went 
down  into  the  wooded  bottom,  soon  after  sunrise.     Judd 
had  with  him  a  Masai,  a  keen-eyed  hunter,  and  I  my 
two    gun-bearers.      We    advanced    with    the    utmost 
caution  toward  the  brink  of  a  great  pool ;  on  our  way 
we  saw  a  bushbuck,  but  of  course  did  not  dare  to  shoot 
at  it,  for  hippopotami  are  wary,  except  in  very  unfre- 
quented regions,  and  any  noise  will  disturb  them.     As 
we  crept  noiselessly  up  to  the  steep  bank  which  edged 
the  pool,  the  sight  was  typically  African.     On  the  still 
water  floated  a  crocodile,  nothing  but  his  eyes  and  nos- 
trils visible.     The  bank  was  covered  with  a  dense  growth 
of  trees,  festooned  with  vines  ;  among  the  branches  sat 
herons ;  a  little  cormorant  dived  into  the  water  ;  and 
a  very  small  and  brilliantly  coloured  kingfisher,  with  a 
red  beak  and  large  turquoise  crest,  perched  unheedingly 
within  a  few  feet  of  us.     Here  and  there  a  dense  growth 
of  the  tall  and  singularly  graceful  papyrus  rose  out  of 
the  water,  the  feathery  heads,  which  crowned  the  long 
smooth  green  stems,  waving  gently  to  and  fro. 

We  scanned  the  waters  carefully,  and  could  see  no 
sign  of  hippos,  and,  still  proceeding  with  the  utmost 
caution,  we  moved  a  hundred  yards  farther  down  to 
another   lookout.      Here  the  Masai  detected  a   hippo 


CH.  v]  A  WOUNDED  RHINO  115 

head  a  long  way  off  on  the  other  side  of  the  pool,  and 
we  again  drew  back  and  started  cautiously  forward  to 
reach  the  point  opposite  which  he  had  seen  the  head. 

But  we  were  not  destined  to  get  that  hippo.  Just  as 
we  had  about  reached  the  point  at  which  we  had 
intended  to  turn  in  toward  the  pool,  there  was  a 
succession  of  snorts  in  our  front,  and  the  sound  of  the 
trampling  of  heavy  feet  and  of  a  big  body  being  shoved 
through  a  dense  mass  of  tropical  bush.  My  companions 
called  to  me  in  loud  whispers  that  it  was  a  rhinoceros 
coming  at  us,  and  to  "  Shoot,  shoot !"  In  another 
moment  the  rhinoceros  appeared,  twitching  its  tail  and 
tossing  and  twisting  its  head  from  side  to  side  as  it 
came  toward  us.  It  did  not  seem  to  have  very  good 
horns,  and  I  would  much  rather  not  have  killed  it,  but 
there  hardly  seemed  any  alternative,  for  it  certainly 
showed  every  symptom  of  being  bent  on  mischief.  My 
first  shot,  at  under  forty  yards,  produced  no  effect  what- 
ever, except  to  hasten  its  approach.  I  was  using  the 
Winchester,  with  full-jacketed  bullets ;  my  second 
bullet  went  in  between  the  neck  and  shoulder,  bringing 
it  to  a  halt.  I  fired  into  the  shoulder  again,  and  as  it 
turned  toward  the  bush  I  fired  into  its  flank  both  the 
bullets  still  remaining  in  my  magazine. 

For  a  moment  or  two  after  it  disappeared  we  heard 
the  branches  crash,  and  then  there  was  silence.  In  such 
cover  a  wounded  rhino  requires  cautious  handling,  and 
as  quietly  as  possible  we  walked  through  the  open  forest 
along  the  edge  of  the  dense  thicket  into  which  the 
animal  had  returned.  The  thicket  was  a  tangle  of  thorn 
bushes,  reeds,  and  small,  low-branching  trees;  it  was 
impossible  to  see  ten  feet  through  it,  and  a  man  could 
only  penetrate  it  with  the  utmost  slowness  and  difficulty, 
whereas  the  movements  of  the  rhino  were  very  little 


116  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

impeded.  At  the  far  end  of  the  thicket  we  examined 
the  grass  to  see  if  the  rhino  had  passed  out,  and  sure 
enough  there  was  the  spoor,  with  so  much  blood  along 
both  sides  that  it  was  evident  the  animal  was  badly  hit. 
It  led  across  this  space  and  into  another  thicket  of  the 
same  character  as  the  first,  and  again  we  stole  cautiously 
along  the  edge  some  ten  yards  out.  I  had  taken  the 
heavy  Holland  double-barrel,  and  with  the  safety  catch 
pressed  forward  under  my  thumb,  I  trod  gingerly 
through  the  grass,  peering  into  the  thicket  and  expec- 
tant of  developments.  In  a  minute  there  was  a  furious 
snorting  and  crashing  directly  opposite  us  in  the  thicket, 
and  I  brought  up  my  rifle,  but  the  rhino  did  not  quite 
place  us,  and  broke  out  of  the  cover  in  front,  some 
thirty  yards  away,  and  I  put  both  barrels  into  and 
behind  the  shoulder.  The  terrific  striking  force  of  the 
heavy  gun  told  at  once,  and  the  rhino  wheeled,  and 
struggled  back  into  the  thicket,  and  we  heard  it  fall. 
With  the  utmost  caution,  bending  and  creeping  under 
the  branches,  we  made  our  way  in,  and  saw  the  beast 
lying  with  its  head  toward  us.  We  thought  it  was 
dead,  but  would  take  no  chances,  and  I  put  in  another, 
but,  as  it  proved,  needless,  heavy  bullet. 

It  was  an  old  female,  considerably  smaller  than  the 
bull  I  had  already  shot,  with  the  front  horn  measuring 
fourteen  inches  as  against  his  nineteen  inches  ;  as  always 
with  rhinos,  it  was  covered  with  ticks,  which  clustered 
thickly  in  the  folds  and  creases  of  the  skin,  around  and 
in  the  ears,  and  in  all  the  tender  places.  McMillan  sent 
out  an  ox- waggon  and  brought  it  in  to  the  house,  where 
we  weighed  it.  It  was  a  little  over  two  thousand  two 
hundred  pounds.  It  had  evidently  been  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood in  which  we  found  it  for  a  considerable  time, 
for  a  few  hundred  yards  away  we  found  its  stamping 


CH.  v]    DANGERS  OF  RHINO-HUNTING      117 

ground,  a  circular  spot  where  the  earth  had  been  all 
trampled  up  and  kicked  about,  according  to  the  custom 
of  rhinoceroses ;  they  return  day  after  day  to  such 
places  to  deposit  their  dung,  which  is  then  kicked  about 
with  the  hind  feet.  As  with  all  our  other  specimens, 
the  skin  was  taken  off  and  sent  back  to  the  National 
Museum.  The  stomach  was  filled  with  leaves  and 
twigs,  this  kind  of  rhinoceros  browsing  on  the  tips  of 
the  branches  by  means  of  its  hooked,  prehensile 
upper  lip. 

Now,  I  did  not  want  to  kill  this  rhinoceros,  and  I  am 
not  certain  that  it  really  intended  to  charge  us.  It  may 
very  well  be  that  if  we  had  stood  firm  it  would,  after 
much  threatening  and  snorting,  have  turned  and  made 
off.  Veteran  hunters  like  Selous  could,  I  doubt  not, 
have  afforded  to  wait  and  see  what  happened.  But  I 
let  it  get  within  forty  yards,  and  it  still  showed  every 
symptom  of  meaning  mischief,  and  at  a  shorter  range  I 
could  not  have  been  sure  of  stopping  it  in  time.  Often 
under  such  circumstances  the  rhino  does  not  mean  to 
charge  at  all,  and  is  acting  in  a  spirit  of  truculent  and 
dull  curiosity ;  but  often,  when  its  motions  and  actions 
are  indistinguishable  from  those  of  an  animal  which  does 
not  mean  mischief,  it  turns  out  that  a  given  rhino  does 
mean  mischief.  A  year  before  I  arrived  in  East  Africa 
a  surveyor  was  charged  by  a  rhinoceros  entirely  without 
provocation  ;  he  was  caught  and  killed.  Chanler 's  com- 
panion on  his  long  expedition,  the  Austrian  Von  Hohnel, 
was  very  severely  wounded  by  a  rhino,  and  nearly  died. 
The  animal  charged  through  the  line  of  march  of  the 
safari,  and  then  deliberately  turned,  hunted  down  Von 
Hohnel,  and  tossed  him.  Again  and  again  there  have 
been  such  experiences,  and  again  and  again  hunters  who 
did  not  wish  to  kill  rhinos  have  been  forced  to  do  so  in 


118  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

order  to  prevent  mischief.     In  such  circumstances  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  men  will  take  too  many  chances 
when  face  to  face  with  a  creature  whose  actions  are 
threatening  and  whose  intentions  it  is  absolutely  im- 
possible to  divine.     In  fact,  I  do  not  see  how  the  rhino- 
ceros can  be  permanently  preserved,  save  in  very  out- 
of-the-way  places  or  in  regular  game  reserves.     There 
is  enough  interest  and  excitement  in  the  pursuit  to 
attract  every  eager  young  hunter,  and,  indeed,    very 
many  eager   old   hunters ;   and   the   beast's   stupidity, 
curiosity,  and  truculence  make   up  a  combination  of 
qualities  which  inevitably  tend  to  insure  its  destruction. 
As  we  brought  home  the  whole  body  of  this  rhino- 
ceros, and  as  I  had  put  into  it  eight  bullets,  live  from 
the  Winchester  and  three  from  the  Holland,  I  was  able 
to  make  a  tolerably  fair  comparison  between  the  two. 
With  the  full-jacketed  bullets  of  the  Winchester  I  had 
mortally  wounded  the  animal ;  it  would  have  died  in  a 
short  time,  and  it  was  groggy  when  it  came  out  of  the 
brush  in  its  final  charge  ;  but  they  inflicted  no  such 
smashing  blow  as   the  heavy  bullets  of  the  Holland. 
Moreover,    when   they   struck   the   heavy   bones   they 
tended  to  break  into  fragments,  while  the  big  Holland 
bullets   ploughed  through.     The  Winchester   and  the 
Springfield  were  the  weapons  one  of  which  I  always 
carried  in  my  own  hand,  and  for  any  ordinary  game  I 
much  preferred  them  to  any  other  rifles.     The  Win- 
chester did  admirably  with  lions,  giraffes,  elands,  and 
smaller  game,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  with  hippos.     For 
heavy  game  like  the  rhinoceroses  and  buffaloes  I  found 
that  for   me   personally  the   heavy  Holland   was   un- 
questionably the  proper  weapon.     But  in  writing  this 
I  wish  most  distinctly  to  assert  my  full  knowledge  of 
the  fact  that  the  choice  of  a  rifle  is  almost  as  much  a 


CH.  v]  ON  THE  REWERO  119 

matter  of  personal  idiosyncrasy  as  the  choice  of  a  friend. 
The  above  must  be  taken  as  merely  the  expression  of 
my  personal  preferences.  It  will  doubtless  arouse  as 
much  objection  among  the  ultra- champions  of  one  type 
of  gun  as  among  the  ultra-champions  of  another.  The 
truth  is  that  any  good  modern  rifle  is  good  enough. 
The  determining  factor  is  the  man  behind  the  gun. 

In  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which  we  killed  the 
rhino  Judd  took  me  out  again  to  try  for  hippos,  this 
time  in  the  Rewero,  which  ran  close  by  the  house.  We 
rode  upstream  a  couple  of  miles.  Then  we  sent  back 
our  horses,  and  walked  down  the  river  bank  as  quietly 
as  possible,  Judd  scanning  the  pools  and  the  eddies  in 
the  running  stream  from  every  point  of  vantage.  Once 
we  aroused  a  crocodile,  which  plunged  into  the  water. 
The  stream  was  full  of  fish,  some  of  considerable  size ; 
and  in  the  meadow  land  on  our  side  we  saw  a  flock  of 
big,  black  wild-geese  feeding.  But  we  got  within  half 
a  mile  of  McMillan's  house  without  seeing  a  hippo,  and 
the  light  was  rapidly  fading.  .Judd  announced  that  we 
would  go  home,  but  took  one  last  look  around  the  next 
bend,  and  instantly  sank  to  his  knees,  beckoning  to  me. 
I  crept  forward  on  all-fours,  and  he  pointed  out  to  me 
an  object  in  the  stream,  fifty  yards  off",  under  the  over- 
hanging branch  of  a  tree,  which  jutted  out  from  the 
steep  bank  opposite.  In  that  light  I  should  not  myself 
have  recognized  it  as  a  hippo  head  ;  but  it  was  one, 
looking  toward  us,  with  the  ears  up  and  the  nostrils, 
eyes,  and  forehead  above  water.  I  aimed  for  the  centre  ; 
the  sound  told  that  the  bullet  had  struck  somewhere  on 
the  head,  and  the  animal  disappeared  without  a  splash. 
Judd  was  sure  I  had  killed,  but  I  was  by  no  means  so 
confident  myself,  and  there  was  no  way  of  telling  until 
next  morning,  for  the  hippo  always  sinks  when  shot, 


120  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

and  does  not  rise  to  the  surface  for  several  hours. 
Accordingly,  back  we  walked  to  the  house. 

At  sunrise  next  morning  Cuninghame,  Judd,  and 
I,  with  a  crowd  of  porters,  were  down  at  the  spot. 
There  was  a  very  leaky  boat  in  which  we  three 
embarked,  intending  to  drift  and  paddle  downstream 
while  the  porters  walked  along  the  bank.  We  did  not 
have  far  to  go,  for  as  we  rounded  the  first  point  we 
heard  the  porters  break  into  guttural  exclamations  of 
delight,  and  there  ahead  of  us,  by  a  little  island  of 
papyrus,  was  the  dead  hippo.  With  the  help  of  the 
boat,  it  was  towed  to  a  conv  enient  landing-place,  and 
then  the  porters  dragged  it  ashore.  It  was  a  cow,  of 
good  size  for  one  dwelling  in  a  small  river,  where  they 
never  approach  the  dimensions  of  those  making  their 
homes  in  a  great  lake  like  the  Victoria  Nyanza.  This 
one  weighed  nearly  two  thousand  eight  hundred  pounds, 
and  I  could  well  believe  that  a  big  lake  bull  would 
weigh  between  three  and  four  tons. 

In  wild  regions  hippos  rest  on  sandy  bars,  and  even 
come  ashore  to  feed,  by  day  ;  but  wherever  there  are 
inhabitants  they  land  to  feed  only  at  night.  Those  in 
the  Rewero  continually  entered  McMillan's  garden. 
Where  they  are  numerous  they  sometimes  attack  small 
boats  and  kill  the  people  in  them  ;  and  where  they  are 
so  plentiful  they  do  great  damage  to  the  plantations  of 
the  natives,  so  much  so  that  they  then  have  to  be  taken 
off  the  list  of  preserved  game  and  their  destruction 
encouraged.  Their  enormous  jaws  sweep  in  quantities 
of  plants,  or  lush  grass,  or  corn  or  vegetables,  at  a 
mouthful,  while  their  appetite  is  as  gigantic  as  their 
body.  In  spite  of  their  short  legs,  they  go  at  a  good 
gait  on  shore,  but  the  water  is  their  real  home,  and 
they  always  seek  it  when  alarmed.     They  dive  and  float 


CH.  V]  CHEETAHS  121 

wonderfully,  rising  to  the  surface  or  sinking  to  the 
bottom  at  will,  and  they  gallop  at  speed  along  the 
bottoms  of  lakes  or  rivers,  with  their  bodies  wholly 
submerged  ;  but  as  is  natural  enough,  in  view  of  their 
big  bodies  and  short  legs,  they  are  not  fast  swimmers 
for  any  length  of  time.  They  make  curious  and  un- 
mistakable trails  along  the  banks  of  any  stream  in  which 
they  dwell ;  their  short  legs  are  wide  apart,  and  so  when 
they  tread  out  a  path  they  leave  a  ridge  of  high  soil 
down  the  centre.  Where  they  have  lived  a  long  time, 
the  rutted  paths  are  worn  deep  into  the  soil,  but  always 
carry  this  distinguishing  middle  ridge. 

The  full-jacketed  Winchester  bullet  had  gone  straight 
into  the  brain  ;  the  jacket  had  lodged  in  the  cranium, 
but  the  lead  went  on,  entering  the  neck  and  breaking 
the  atlas  vertebra. 

At  Juja  Farm  many  animals  were  kept  in  cages. 
They  included  a  fairly  friendly  leopard,  and  five  hons, 
two  of  which  were  anything  but  friendly.  There  were 
three  cheetahs,  nearly  full  grown ;  these  were  con- 
tinually taken  out  on  leashes,  Mi-s.  McMillan  strolling 
about  with  them  and  leading  them  to  the  summer- 
house.  They  were  good-tempered,  but  they  did  not 
lead  well.  Cheetahs  are  interesting  beasts  ;  they  are 
aberrant  cats,  standing  very  high  on  their  legs,  and  with 
non-retractile  claws  like  a  dog.  They  are  nearly  the 
size  of  a  leopard,  but  are  not  ordinarily  anything  like  as 
ferocious,  and  prey  on  the  smaller  antelope,  occasionally 
taking  something  as  big  as  a  half-grown  kongoni.  For 
a  short  run,  up  to  say  a  quarter  of  a  mile  or  even 
perhaps  half  a  mile,  they  are  the  swiftest  animals  on 
earth,  and  with  a  good  start  easily  overtake  the  fastest 
antelope ;  but  their  bolt  is  soon  shot,  and  on  the  open 
plain  they  can  readily  be  galloped  down  with  a  horse. 


122  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

When  they  sit  on  their  haunches  their  attitude  is  that 
neither  of  a  dog  nor  of  a  cat  so  much  as  of  a  big 
monkey.  On  the  whole,  they  are  much  more  easily 
domesticated  than  most  other  cats,  but,  as  with  all 
highly  developed  wild  creatures,  they  show  great  indi- 
vidual variabiUty  of  character  and  disposition.  They 
have  a  very  curious  note,  a  bird-like  chirp,  in  uttering 
which  they  twist  the  upper  lip  as  if  whistling.  When 
I  first  heard  it  I  was  sure  that  it  was  uttered  by  some 
bird,  and  looked  about  quite  a  time  before  finding  that 
it  was  the  call  of  a  cheetah. 

Then  there  was  a  tame  wart-hog,  very  friendly 
indeed,  which  usually  wandered  loose,  and  was  as 
comical  as  pigs  generally  are,  with  its  sudden  starts  and 
grunts.  Finally,  there  was  a  young  tommy  buck  and 
a  Grant's  gazelle  doe,  both  of  which  were  on  good  terms 
with  everyone  and  needed  astonishingly  little  looking 
after  to  prevent  their  straying.  When  I  was  returning 
to  the  house  on  the  morning  I  killed  the  rhinoceros,  1 
met  the  string  of  porters  and  the  ox- waggon  just  after 
they  had  left  the  gate  on  their  way  to  the  carcass.  The 
Grant  doe  had  been  attracted  by  the  departure,  and 
was  following  immediately  behind  the  last  porter.  A 
wild-looking  Masai  warrior,  to  whom,  as  I  learned,  the 
especial  care  of  the  gazelle  had  been  entrusted  for  that 
day,  was  running  as  hard  as  he  could  after  her  from  the 
gate ;  when  he  overtook  her  he  ran  in  between  her  and 
the  rearmost  porter,  and  headed  her  for  the  farm  gate, 
uttering  what  sounded  Uke  wild  war-cries,  and  brandish- 
ing his  spear.  They  formed  a  really  absurd  couple,  the 
little  doe  slowly  and  decorously  walking  back  to  the 
farm,  quite  unmoved  by  the  clamour  and  threats,  while 
her  guardian,  the  very  image  of  what  a  savage  warrior 
should  look  when  on  the  war-path,  walked  close  behind. 


CH.  v]  JUJA  FARM  AND  KAMITI  RANCH    123 

waving  his  spear  and  uttering  deep-toned  shouts,  with 
what  seemed  a  ludicrous  disproportion  of  effort  to  the 
result  needed. 

The  game  comes  right  to  the  outskirts  of  Nairobi. 
One  morning  Kermit  walked  out  from  the  McMillans' 
town-house,  where  we  were  staying,  in  company  with 
Percival,  the  game-ranger,  and  got  photographs  of 
zebras,  kongoni,  and  Kavirondo  cranes ;  and  a  leopard 
sometimes  came  up  through  the  garden  on  to  the 
veranda  of  the  house  itself. 

Antelopes  speedily  become  very  tame,  and  recognize 
clearly  their  friends.  Leslie  Tarlton's  brother  was 
keeping  a  couple  of  young  kongoni  and  a  partly-grown 
Grant's  gazelle  on  his  farm  just  outside  Nairobi. 
Tarlton's  young  antelopes  went  freely  into  the  country 
round  about,  but  never  fled  with  the  wild  herds  ;  and 
they  were  not  only  great  friends  with  Tarlton's  dogs, 
but  recognized  them  as  protectors.  Hyenas  and  other 
beasts  frequently  came  round  the  farm  after  nightfall, 
and  at  their  approach  the  antelopes  fled  at  speed  to 
where  the  dogs  were,  and  then  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  leave  them. 

We  spent  a  delightful  week  at  Juja  Farm,  and  then 
moved  to  Kamiti  Ranch,  the  neighbouring  farm,  owned 
by  Mr.  Hugh  H.  Heatley,  who  had  asked  me  to  visit 
him  for  a  buffalo  hunt.  While  in  the  highlands  of 
British  East  Africa  it  is  utterly  impossible  for  a  stranger 
to  realize  that  he  is  under  the  Equator  ;  the  climate  is 
delightful  and  healthy.  It  is  a  white  man's  country,  a 
country  which  should  be  filled  with  white  settlers ;  and 
no  place  could  be  more  attractive  for  \'isitors.  There  is 
no  more  danger  to  health  incident  to  an  ordinary  trip  to 
East  Africa  than  there  is  to  an  ordinary  trip  to  the 
Riviera.     Of  course,  if  one  goes  on  a  hunting  trip  ther§ 


124  HIPPO  AND  LEOPARD  [ch.  v 

is  always  a  certain  amount  of  risk,  including  the  risk  of 
fever,  just  as  there  would  be  if  a  man  camped  out  in 
some  of  the  Italian  marshes.  But  the  ordinary  visitor 
need  have  no  more  fear  of  his  health  than  if  he  were 
travelling  in  Italy,  and  it  is  hard  to  imagine  a  trip 
better  worth  making  than  the  trip  from  Mombasa  to 
Nairobi  and  on  to  the  Victoria  Nyanza. 


CHAPTER  VI 

A  BUFFALO  HUNT  BY  THE  KAMITI 

Heatley's  Ranch  comprises  twenty  thousand  acres 
lying  between  the  Rewero  and  Kamiti  Rivers.  It  is 
seventeen  miles  long,  and  four  across  at  the  widest 
place.  It  includes  some  bits  of  natural  scenery  as 
beautiful  as  can  well  be  imagined  ;  and  though  Heatley, 
a  thorough  farmer  and  the  son  and  grandson  of  farmers, 
was  making  it  a  successful  farm,  with  large  herds  of 
cattle,  much-improved  stock,  hundreds  of  acres  under 
cultivation,  a  fine  dairy,  and  the  like,  yet  it  was  also 
a  game  reserve  such  as  could  not  be  matched  either  in 
Europe  or  America.  From  Juja  Farm  we  marched 
a  dozen  miles,  and  pitched  our  tent  close  beside  the 
Kamiti. 

The  Kamiti  is  a  queer  little  stream,  running  for  most 
of  its  course  through  a  broad  swamp  of  tall  papyrus. 
Such  a  swamp  is  almost  impenetrable.  The  papyrus 
grows  to  a  height  of  over  twenty  feet,  and  the  stems 
are  so  close  together  that  in  most  places  it  is  impossible 
to  see  anything  at  a  distance  of  six  feet.  Ten  yards 
from  the  edge,  when  within  the  swamp,  I  was  wholly 
unable  to  tell  in  which  direction  the  open  ground  lay, 
and  could  get  out  only  by  either  following  my  back 
track  or  listening  for  voices.  Underfoot  the  mud  and 
water  are  hip-deep.     This  swamp  was  the  home  of  a 

125 


126  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

herd  of  buffalo,  numbering  perhaps  a  hundred  indi- 
viduals. They  are  semi-aquatic  beasts,  and  their 
enormous  strength  enables  them  to  plough  through  the 
mud  and  water  and  burst  their  way  among  the  papyrus 
stems  without  the  slightest  difficulty,  whereas  a  man  is 
nearly  helpless  when  once  he  has  entered  the  reed-beds. 
They  had  made  paths  hither  and  thither  across  the 
swamp,  these  paths  being  three  feet  deep  in  ooze  and 
black  water.  There  were  little  islands  in  the  swamp  on 
which  they  could  rest.  Toward  its  lower  end,  where 
it  ran  into  the  Nairobi,  the  Kamiti  emerged  from  the 
papyrus  swamp  and  became  a  rapid  brown  stream  of 
water,  with  only  here  and  there  a  papyrus  cluster  along 
its  banks. 

The  Nairobi,  which  cut  across  the  lower  end  of  the 
farm,  and  the  Rewero,  which  bounded  it  on  the  other 
side  from  the  Kamiti,  were  as  different  as  possible  from 
the  latter.  Both  were  rapid  streams  broken  by  riffle 
and  waterfall,  and  running  at  the  bottom  of  tree-clad 
valleys.  The  Nairobi  Falls,  which  were  on  Heatley's 
Ranch,  were  singularly  beautiful.  Heatley  and  I  visited 
them  one  evening  after  sunset,  coming  home  from  a 
day's  hunt.  It  was  a  ride  I  shall  long  remember.  We 
left  our  men,  and  let  the  horses  gallop.  As  the  sun 
set  behind  us,  the  long  lights  changed  the  look  of  the 
country  and  gave  it  a  beauty  that  had  in  it  an  element 
of  the  mysterious  and  the  unreal.  The  mountains 
loomed  both  larger  and  more  vague  than  they  had  been 
in  the  bright  sunlight,  and  the  plains  lost  their  look 
of  parched  desolation  as  the  afterglow  came  and  went. 
We  were  galloping  through  a  world  of  dim  shade  and 
dying  colour ;  and,  in  this  world,  our  horses  suddenly 
halted  on  the  brink  of  a  deep  ravine  from  out  of  which 
came  the  thunder  of  a  cataract.     We  reined  up  on  a 


CH.  vi]      THE  KAMITI  AND  REWERO  127 

jutting  point.  The  snowy  masses  of  the  fall  foamed 
over  a  ledge  on  our  right,  and  below  at  our  feet  was  a 
great  pool  of  swirling  water.  Thick-foliaged  trees,  of 
strange  shape  and  festooned  with  creepers,  climbed  the 
sheer  sides  of  the  ravine.  A  black-and-white  eagle 
perched  in  a  blasted  tree-top  in  front,  and  the  bleached 
skull  of  a  long-dead  rhinoceros  glimmered  white  near 
the  brink  to  one  side. 

On  another  occasion  we  took  our  lunch  at  the  foot  of 
Rewero  Falls.  These  are  not  as  high  as  the  falls  of  the 
Nairobi,  but  they  are  almost  as  beautiful.  We  clambered 
down  into  the  ravine  a  little  distance  below,  and  made 
our  way  toward  them,  beside  the  brawling,  rock-choked 
torrent.  Great  trees  towered  overhead,  and  among  their 
tops  the  monkeys  chattered  and  screeched.  The  fall 
itself  was  broken  in  two  parts  like  a  miniature  Niagara, 
and  the  spray  curtain  shifted  to  and  fro  as  the  wind 
blew. 

The  lower  part  of  the  farm,  between  the  Kamiti  and 
Rewero  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Nairobi,  consisted  of 
immense  rolling  plains,  and  on  these  the  game  swarmed 
in  almost  incredible  numbers.  There  were  Grant's  and 
Thomson's  gazelles,  of  which  we  shot  one  or  two  for  the 
table.  There  was  a  small  herd  of  blue  wildebeest,  and 
among  them  one  very  large  bull  with  an  unusually  fine 
head  ;  Kermit  finally  killed  him.  There  were  plenty  of 
wart-hogs,  which  were  to  be  found  feeding  right  out  in 
the  open,  both  in  the  morning  and  the  evening.  One 
day  Kermit  got  a  really  noteworthy  sow,  with  tusks 
much  longer  than  those  of  the  average  boar.  He  ran 
into  her  on  horseback  after  a  sharp  chase  of  a  mile  or 
two,  and  shot  her  from  the  saddle  as  he  galloped  nearly 
alongside,  holding  his  rifle  as  the  old  buffalo-runners 
used   to   hold   theirs — that   is,   not   bringing   it  to  his 


128  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

shoulder.  I  killed  two  or  three  half-grown  pigs  for 
the  table,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  I  missed  several 
chances  at  good  boars.  Finally,  one  day  I  got  up  to 
just  two  hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  a  good  boar  as  he 
stood  broadside  to  me.  Firing  with  the  little  Spring- 
field, I  put  the  bullet  through  both  shoulders,  and  he 
was  dead  when  we  came  up. 

But  of  course  the  swarms  of  game  consisted  of  zebra 
and  hartebeest.  At  no  time,  when  riding  in  any  direc- 
tion across  these  plains,  were  we  ever  out  of  sight  of 
them.  Sometimes  they  would  act  warily,  and  take  the 
alarm  when  we  were  a  long  distance  off.  At  other 
times  herds  would  stand  and  gaze  at  us  while  we  passed 
within  a  couple  of  hundred  yards.  One  afternoon  we 
needed  meat  for  the  safari,  and  Cuninghame  and  I  rode 
out  to  get  it.  Within  half  a  mile  we  came  upon  big 
herds  both  of  hartebeest  and  zebra.  They  stood  to  give 
me  long-range  shots  at  about  three  hundred  yards.  I 
wounded  a  zebra,  after  which  Cuninghame  rode.  While 
he  was  off,  1  killed  first  a  zebra  and  then  a  hartebeest, 
and  shortly  afterward  a  cloud  of  dust  announced  that 
Cuninghame  was  bringing  a  herd  of  game  toward  me. 
I  knelt  motionless,  and  the  long  files  of  red- coated 
hartebeest  and  brilliantly  striped  zebra  came  galloping 
past.  They  were  quite  a  distance  off,  but  I  had  time 
for  several  shots  at  each  animal  I  selected,  and  1 
dropped  one  more  zebra  and  one  more  hartebeest,  in 
addition,  I  regret  to  add,  to  wounding  another  harte- 
beest. The  four  hartebeest  and  zebra  lay  within  a  space 
of  a  quarter  of  a  mile  ;  and  half  a  mile  farther  I  bagged 
a  tommy  at  two  hundred  yards.  His  meat  was  for  our 
own  table,  the  kongoni  and  the  zebra  being  for  the 
safari. 

On    another    day   when    Heat  ley   and    I    were    out 


CH.  VI]  KONGONI  AND  ZEBRA  129 

together,  he  stationed  me  among  some  thin  thorn- 
bushes  on  a  httle  knoll,  and  drove  the  game  by  me, 
hoping  to  get  me  a  shot  at  some  wildebeest.  The 
scattered  thorn-bushes  were  only  four  or  five  feet 
high,  and  so  thin  that  there  was  no  difficulty  in  looking 
through  them  and  marking  every  movement  of  the 
game  as  it  approached.  The  wildebeest  took  the  wrong 
direction  and  never  came  near  me,  though  they  certainly 
fared  as  badly  as  if  they  had  done  so,  for  they  passed  by 
Kermit,  and  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  he  killed  the 
big  bull.  A  fine  cock  ostrich  passed  me  and  I  much 
wished  to  shoot  at  him,  but  did  not  Uke  to  do  so, 
because  ostrich-farming  is  one  of  the  staple  industries 
of  the  region,  and  it  is  not  well  to  have  even  the  wild 
birds  shot.  The  kongoni  and  the  zebra  streamed  by 
me,  herd  after  herd,  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  them, 
many  passing  within  fifty  yards  of  my  shelter,  now  on 
one  side,  now  on  the  other  ;  they  went  at  an  easy  lope, 
and  I  was  interested  to  see  that  many  of  the  kongoni 
ran  with  their  mouths  open.  This  is  an  attitude  which 
we  usually  associate  with  exhaustion,  but  such  cannot 
have  been  the  case  with  the  kongoni — they  had  merely 
cantered  for  a  mile  or  so.  The  zebra  were,  as  usual, 
noisy,  a  number  of  them  uttering  their  barking  neigh 
as  they  passed.  I  do  not  know  how  it  is  ordinarily,  but 
these  particular  zebra — all  stallions,  by  the  way — kept 
their  mouths  open  throughout  the  time  they  were 
neighing,  and  their  ears  pricked  forward  ;  they  did  not 
keep  their  mouths  open  while  merely  galloping,  as  did 
the  kongoni.  We  had  plenty  of  meat,  and  the  naturalists 
had  enough  specimens  ;  and  I  was  glad  that  there  was 
no  need  to  harm  the  beautiful  creatures.  They  passed 
so  close  that  I  could  mark  every  slight  movement,  and 
the  ripple  of  the  muscles  under  the  skin.     The  very 

9 


130  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

young  fawns  of  the  kongoni  seemed  to  have  httle  fear 
of  a  horseman,  if  he  approached  while  they  were  lying 
motionless  on  the  ground ;  but  they  would  run  from  a 
man  on  foot. 

There   were   interesting   birds,    too.      Close   by  the 
woods  at  the  river's  edge  we  saw  a  big  black  ground 
hornbill  walking   about,  on   the  lookout  for  its  usual 
dinner  of  small  snakes  and  lizards.     Large  flocks  of  the 
beautiful  Kavirondo  cranes  stalked  over  the  plains  and 
cultivated   fields,   or   flew   by  with   mournful,  musical 
clangour.     But  the  most  interesting  birds  we  saw  were 
the    black   whydah    finches.     The   female    is    a    dull- 
coloured,  ordinary-looking  bird,  somewhat  like  a  female 
bobolink.     The  male  in  his  courtship  dress  is  clad  in  a 
uniform  dark  glossy  suit,  and  his  tail-feathers  are  almost 
like  some  of  those  of  a  barnyard  rooster,  being  over 
twice  as  long  as  the  rest  of  the  bird,  with  a  downward 
curve  at  the  tips.     The  females  were  generally  found  in 
flocks,  in  which  there  would  often  be  a  goodly  number 
of  males  also,  and  when  the  flocks  put  on  speed  the 
males  tended  to  drop  behind.     The  flocks  were  feed- 
ing in  Heatley's  grain-fields,  and  he  was  threatening 
vengeance  upon  them.     I  was  sorry,  for  the  male  birds 
certainly  have  habits  of  peculiar  interest.     They  were 
not  shy,  although  if  we  approached  too  near  them  in 
their   favourite   haunts  —  the   grassland   adjoining   the 
papyrus  beds — they  would   fly  off  and   perch   on   the 
tops  of  the  papyrus  stems.     The  long  tail  hampers  the 
bird  in  its  flight,  and  it  is  often  held  at  rather  an  angle 
downward,  giving  the  bird  a  peculiar  and  almost  insect- 
like  appearance.     But   the  marked  and  extraordinary 
peculiarity  was  the  custom  the  cocks  had  of  dancing  in 
artificially-made  dancing-rings.     For  a  mile  and  a  half 
beyond  our  camp,  down  the  course  of  the  Kamiti,  the 


CH.  VI]  HABITS  OF  KAVIRONDO  CRANES   131 

grassland  at  the  edge  of  the  papyrus  was  thickly  strewn 
with  these  dancing-rings.  Each  was  about  two  feet  in 
diameter,  sometimes  more,  sometimes  less.  A  tuft  of 
growing  grass,  perhaps  a  foot  high,  was  left  in  the 
centre.  Over  the  rest  of  the  ring  the  grass  was  cut  off 
close  by  the  roots,  and  the  blades  strewn  evenly  over 
the  surface  of  the  ring.  The  cock  bird  would  alight  in 
the  ring  and  hop  to  a  height  of  a  couple  of  feet,  wings 
spread  and  motionless,  tail  drooping,  and  the  head 
usually  thrown  back.  As  he  came  down  he  might  or 
might  not  give  an  extra  couple  of  little  hops.  After  a 
few  seconds  he  would  repeat  the  motion,  sometimes 
remaining  almost  in  the  same  place,  at  other  times 
going  forward  during  and  between  the  hops  so  as  finally 
to  go  completely  round  the  ring.  As  there  were  many 
scores  of  these  dancing-places  within  a  comparatively 
limited  territory,  the  effect  was  rather  striking  when  a 
large  number  of  birds  were  dancing  at  the  same  time. 
As  one  walked  along,  the  impression  conveyed  by  the 
birds  continually  popping  above  the  grass  and  then 
immediately  sinking  back  was  somewhat  as  if  a  man 
was  making  peas  jump  in  a  tin  tray  by  tapping  on  it. 
The  favourite  dancing  times  were  in  the  early  morning, 
and,  to  a  less  extent,  in  the  evening.  We  saw  dancing- 
places  of  every  age,  some  with  the  cut  grass  which 
strewed  the  floor  green  and  fresh,  others  with  the  grass 
dried  into  hay  and  the  bare  earth  showing  through. 

But  the  game  we  were  after  was  the  buffalo  herd  that 
haunted  the  papyrus  swamp.  As  I  have  said  before, 
the  buffalo  is  by  many  hunters  esteemed  the  most 
dangerous  of  African  game.  It  is  an  enormously 
powerful  beast  with,  in  this  country,  a  coat  of  black 
hair,  which  becomes  thin  in  the  old  bulls,  and  massive 
horns,  which  rise  into  great  bosses  at  the  base,  these 


132  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

bosses  sometimes  meeting  in  old  age  so  as  to  cover  the 
forehead  with  a  frontlet  of  horn.  Their  habits  vary 
much  in  different  places.  Where  they  are  much  per- 
secuted, they  lie  in  the  densest  cover,  and  only  venture 
out  into  the  open  to  feed  at  night.  But  Heatley, 
though  he  himself  had  killed  a  couple  of  bulls,  and  the 
Boer  farmer  who  was  working  for  him  another,  had 
preserved  the  herd  from  outside  molestation,  and  their 
habits  were  doubtless  much  what  they  would  have  been 
in  regions  where  man  is  a  rare  visitor. 

The  first  day  we  were  on  Heatley's  farm,  we  saw  the 
buffalo,  to  the  number  of  seventy  or  eighty,  grazing  in 
the  open,  some  hundreds  of  yards  from  the  papyrus 
swamp,  and  this  shortly  after  noon.  For  a  mile  from 
the  papyrus  swamp  the  country  was  an  absolutely  flat 
plain,  gradually  rising  into  a  gentle  slope,  and  it  was  an 
impossibility  to  approach  the  buffalo  across  this  plain 
save  in  one  way,  to  be  mentioned  hereafter.  Probably 
when  the  moon  was  full  the  buffalo  came  out  to  graze  by 
night.  But  while  we  were  on  our  hunt  the  moon  was 
young,  and  the  buffalo  evidently  spent  most  of  the 
night  in  the  papyrus,  and  came  out  to  graze  by  day. 
Sometimes  they  came  out  in  the  early  morning,  some- 
times in  the  late  evening,  but  quite  as  often  in  the 
bright  daylight.  We  saw  herds  come  out  to  graze  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  again  at  three  in  the 
afternoon.  They  usually  remained  out  several  hours, 
first  grazing  and  then  lying  down.  Flocks  of  the  small 
white  cow-heron  usually  accompanied  them,  the  birds 
stalking  about  among  them  or  perching  on  their  backs  ; 
and  occasionally  the  whereabouts  of  the  herd  in  the 
papyrus  swamp  could  be  determined  by  seeing  the  flock 
of  herons  perched  on  the  papyrus  tops.  We  did  not 
see  any  of  the   red-billed   tick-birds   on   the   buffalo ; 


CH.  vt]        dangerous  buffaloes  183 

indeed,  the  only  ones  that  we  saw  in  this  neighbourhood 
happened  to  be  on  domestic  cattle — in  other  places  we 
found  them  very  common  on  rhinoceros.  At  night  the 
buffalo  sometimes  came  right  into  the  cultivated  fields, 
and  even  into  the  garden  close  by  the  Boer  farmer's 
house,  and  once  at  night  he  had  shot  a  bull.  The  bullet 
went  through  the  heart,  but  the  animal  ran  to  the 
papyrus  swamp,  and  was  found  next  day  dead  just 
within  the  edge.  Usually  the  main  herd,  of  bulls,  cows, 
and  calves,  kept  together  ;  but  there  were  outlying  bulls 
found  singly  or  in  small  parties.  Not  only  the  natives, 
but  the  whites,  were  inclined  to  avoid  the  immediate 
neighbourhood  of  the  papyrus  swamp,  for  there  had 
been  one  or  two  narrow  escapes  from  unprovoked 
attacks  by  the  buffalo.  The  farmer  told  us  that  a  man 
who  was  coming  to  see  him  had  been  regularly  followed 
by  three  bulls,  who  pursued  him  for  quite  a  distance. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  in  certain  circumstances  buffalo, 
in  addition  to  showing  themselves  exceedingly  dangerous 
opponents  when  wounded  by  hunters,  become  truculent 
and  inclined  to  take  the  offensive  themselves.  There 
are  places  in  East  Africa  where,  as  regards  at  least 
certain  herds,  this  seems  to  be  the  case  ;  and  in  Uganda 
the  buffalo  have  caused  such  loss  of  life,  and  such 
damage  to  the  native  plantations,  that  they  are  now 
ranked  as  vermin  and  not  as  game,  and  their  killing  is 
encouraged  in  every  possible  way.  The  list  of  white 
hunters  that  have  been  killed  by  buffalo  is  very  long, 
and  includes  a  number  of  men  of  note,  while  accidents 
to  natives  are  of  constant  occurrence. 

The  morning  after  making  our  camp  we  started  at 
dawn  for  the  buffalo  ground,  Kermit  and  I,  Cuninghame 
and  Heatley,  and  the  Boer  farmer,  with  three  big, 
powerful   dogs.      We   walked    near   the   edge   of   the 


184  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

swamp.  The  whydah  birds  were  continually  bobbing 
up  and  down  in  front  of  us  as  they  rose  and  fell  on 
their  dancing-places,  while  the  Kavirondo  cranes  called 
mournfully  all  around.  Before  we  had  gone  two  miles 
buffalo  were  spied,  well  ahead,  feeding  close  to  the 
papyrus.  The  line  of  the  papyrus  which  marked  the 
edge  of  the  swamp  was  not  straight,  but  broken  by 
projections  and  indentations  ;  and  by  following  it  closely 
and  cutting  cautiously  across  the  points,  the  opportunity 
for  stalking  was  good.  As  there  was  not  a  tree  of  any 
kind  anywhere  near,  we  had  to  rely  purely  on  our 
shooting  to  prevent  damage  from  the  buffalo.  Kermit 
and  I  had  our  double-barrels,  with  the  Winchesters  as 
spare  guns,  while  Cuninghame  carried  a  '577,  and 
Heatley  a  magazine  rifle. 

Cautiously  threading  our  way  along  the  edge  of  the 
swamp,  we  got  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  of  the 
buffalo  before  we  were  perceived.  There  were  four 
bulls,  grazing  close  by  the  edge  of  the  swamp,  their 
black  bodies  glistening  in  the  early  sun -rays,  their 
massive  horns  showing  white,  and  the  cow -herons 
perched  on  their  backs.  They  stared  sullenly  at  us 
with  outstretched  heads  from  under  their  great  frontlets 
of  horn.  The  biggest  of  the  four  stood  a  little  out  from 
the  other  three,  and  at  him  I  fired,  the  bullet  telling 
with  a  smack  on  the  tough  hide  and  going  through  the 
lungs.  We  had  been  afraid  they  would  at  once  turn 
into  the  papyrus,  but  instead  of  this  they  started  straight 
across  our  front  directly  for  the  open  country.  This 
was  a  piece  of  huge  good  luck.  Kermit  put  his  first 
barrel  into  the  second  bull,  and  I  my  second  barrel  into 
one  of  the  others,  after  which  it  became  impossible  to 
say  which  bullet  struck  which  animal,  as  the  firing 
became  general.     They  ran  a  quarter  of  a  mile  into  the 


\ 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Kermit  Roosevelt  with  the  first  buffalo 


CH.  v[]         A  WOUNDED  BUFFALO  135 

open,  and  then  the  big  bull  1  had  first  shot,  and  which 
had  no  other  bullet  in  him,  dropped  dead,  while  the 
other  three,  all  of  which  were  wounded,  halted  beside 
him.  We  walked  toward  them,  rather  expecting  a 
charge  ;  but  when  we  were  still  over  two  hundred  yards 
away  they  started  back  for  the  swamp,  and  we  began 
firing.  The  distance  being  long,  I  used  my  Winchester. 
I  aimed  well  before  one  bull,  and  he  dropped  to  the  shot 
as  if  poleaxed,  falling  straight  on  his  back  with  his  legs 
kicking  ;  but  in  a  moment  he  was  up  again  and  after  the 
others.  Later  I  found  that  the  bullet,  a  full-metal 
patch,  had  struck  him  in  the  head,  but  did  not  penetrate 
to  the  brain,  and  merely  stunned  him  for  the  moment. 
All  the  time  we  kept  running  diagonally  to  their  line  of 
flight.  They  were  all  three  badly  wounded,  and  when 
they  reached  the  tall  rank  grass,  high  as  a  man's  head, 
which  fringed  the  papyrus  swamp,  the  two  foremost  lay 
down,  while  the  last  one,  the  one  I  had  floored  with  the 
Winchester,  turned,  and  with  nose  outstretched  began 
to  come  toward  us.  He  was  badly  crippled,  however, 
and  with  a  soft-nosed  bullet  from  my  heavy  Holland  1 
knocked  him  down,  this  time  for  good.  The  other  two 
then  rose,  and  though  each  was  again  hit,  they  reached 
the  swamp,  one  of  them  to  our  right,  the  other  to  the 
left,  where  the  papyrus  came  out  in  a  point. 

We  decided  to  go  after  the  latter,  and,  advancing  very 
cautiously  toward  the  edge  of  the  swamp,  put  in  the 
three  big  dogs.  A  moment  after  they  gave  tongue 
within  the  papyrus  ;  then  we  heard  the  savage  grunt  of 
the  buffalo,  and  saw  its  form  just  within  the  reeds  ;  and 
as  the  rifles  cracked,  down  it  went.  But  it  was  not 
dead,  for  we  heard  it  grunt  savagely,  and  the  dogs 
bayed  as  loudly  as  ever.  Heatley  now  mounted  his 
trained  shooting-pony  and  rode  toward  the  place,  while 


136  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

we  covered  him  with  our  rifles,  his  plan  being  to  run 
right  across  our  front  if  the  bull  charged.  The  bull  was 
past  charging,  lying  just  within  the  reeds,  but  he  was 
still  able  to  do  damage,  for  in  another  minute  one  of  the 
dogs  came  out  by  us  and  ran  straight  back  to  the  farm- 
house, where  we  found  him  dead  on  our  return.  He 
had  been  caught  by  the  buffalo's  horns  when  he  went  in 
too  close.  Heatley,  a  daring  fellow,  with  great  confi- 
dence in  both  his  horse  and  his  rifle,  pushed  forward  as 
we  came  up,  and  saw  the  bull  lying  on  the  ground 
while  the  two  other  dogs  bit  and  worried  it,  and  he  put 
a  bullet  through  its  head. 

The  remaining  bull  got  off  into  the  swamp,  where  a 
week  later  Heatley  found  his  dead  body.  Fortunately 
the  head  proved  to  be  in  less  good  condition  than  any  of 
the  others,  as  one  horn  was  broken  off  about  halfway 
up  ;  so  that  if  any  of  the  four  had  to  escape,  it  was  well 
that  this  should  have  been  the  one. 

Our  three  bulls  were  fine  trophies.  The  largest,  with 
the  largest  horns,  was  the  first  killed,  being  the  one  that 
fell  to  my  first  bullet,  yet  it  was  the  youngest  of  the 
three.  The  other  two  were  old  bulls.  The  second  one 
killed  had  smaller  horns  than  the  other,  but  the  bosses 
met  in  the  middle  of  the  forehead  for  a  space  of  several 
inches,  making  a  solid  shield.  I  had  just  been  reading 
a  pamphlet  by  a  German  specialist  who  had  divided  the 
African  buffalo  into  fifteen  or  twenty  different  species, 
based  upon  differences  in  various  pairs  of  horns.  The 
worth  of  such  fine  distinctions,  when  made  on  in- 
sufficient data,  can  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  on  the 
principles  of  specific  division  adopted  in  the  pamphlet  in 
question,  the  three  bulls  we  had  shot  would  have  repre- 
sented certainly  two,  and  possibly  three,  different 
species. 


CH.  VI]  OUR  NATURALISTS  187 

Heller  was  soon  on  the  ground  with  his  skinning-tent 
and  skinners,  and  the  Boer  farmer  went  back  to  fetch 
the  ox -waggon,  on  which  the  skins  and  meat  were 
brought  into  camp.  Laymen  can  hardly  realize,  and  I 
certainly  did  not,  what  an  immense  amount  of  work  is 
involved  in  preparing  the  skins  of  large  animals,  such 
as  buffalo,  rhino,  hippo,  and  above  all  elephant,  in  hot 
climates.  On  this  first  five  weeks'  trip  we  got  over 
seventy  skins,  including  twenty-two  species,  ranging  in 
size  from  a  dikdik  to  a  rhino,  and  all  of  these  Heller 
prepared  and  sent  to  the  Smithsonian.  Mearns  and 
Loring  were  just  as  busy  shooting  birds  and  trapping 
small  mammals.  Often,  while  Heller  would  be  off  for 
a  few  days  with  Kermit  and  myself,  Mearns  and  Loring 
would  be  camped  elsewhere,  in  a  region  better  suited 
for  the  things  they  were  after.  While  at  Juja  Farm 
they  went  down  the  Nairobi  in  a  boat  to  shoot  water- 
birds,  and  saw  many  more  crocodiles  and  hippo  than  I 
did.  Loring  is  a  remarkably  successful  trapper  of  small 
mammals.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  a  better  collector 
anywhere.  Dr.  Mearns,  in  addition  to  birds  and 
plants,  never  let  pass  the  opportunity  to  collect  any- 
thing else,  from  reptiles  and  fishes  to  land  shells.  More- 
over, he  was  the  best  shot  in  our  party.  He  killed 
two  great  bustards  with  the  rifie,  and  occasionally  shot 
birds  like  vultures  on  the  wing  with  a  rifle.  I  do  not 
believe  that  three  better  men  than  Mearns,  Heller,  and 
Loring,  could  be  found  anywhere  for  such  an  expedition 
as  ours. 

Three  days  passed  before  we  were  again  successful 
with  buffalo.  On  this  occasion  we  started  about  eight 
in  the  morning,  having  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  herd  was  more  likely  to  leave  the  papyrus  late 
than  early.     Our  special  object  was  to  get  a  cow.     We 


138  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

intended  to  take  advantage  of  a  small,  half-dried  water- 
course, an  affluent  of  the  Kamiti,  which  began  a  mile 
beyond  where  we  had  killed  our  bulls,  and  for  three  or 
tour  miles  ran  in  a  course  generally  parallel  to  the 
swamp,  and  at  a  distance  which  varied,  but  averaged 
perhaps  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  When  we  reached  the 
beginning  of  this  watercourse,  we  left  our  horses  and 
walked  along  it.  Like  all  such  watercourses,  it  wound 
in  curves.  The  banks  were  four  or  five  feet  high,  the 
bottom  was  sometimes  dry  and  sometimes  contained 
reedy  pools,  while  at  intervals  there  were  clumps  of 
papyrus.  Heatley  went  ahead,  and  just  as  we  had  about 
concluded  that  the  buffalo  would  not  come  out,  he  came 
back  to  tell  us  that  he  had  caught  a  glimpse  of  several, 
and  believed  that  the  main  herd  was  with  them. 
Cuninghame,  a  veteran  hunter  and  first-class  shot,  than 
whom  there  could  be  no  better  man  to  have  with  one 
when  after  dangerous  game,  took  charge  of  our  further 
movements.  We  crept  up  the  watercourse  until  about 
opposite  the  buffalo,  which  were  now  lying  down. 
Cuninghame  peered  cautiously  at  them,  saw  there  were 
two  or  three,  and  then  led  us  on  all-fours  toward  them. 
There  were  patches  where  the  grass  was  short,  and  other 
places  where  it  was  three  feet  high,  and  after  a  good 
deal  of  cautious  crawling  we  had  covered  half  the  distance 
toward  them,  when  one  of  them  made  us  out,  and 
several  rose  from  their  beds.  They  were  still  at  least 
two  hundred  yards  off — a  long  range  for  heavy  rifles ; 
but  any  closer  approach  was  impossible,  and  we  fired. 
Both  the  leading  bulls  were  hit,  and  at  the  shots  there 
rose  from  the  grass  not  half  a  dozen  buffalo,  but  seventy 
or  eighty,  and  started  at  a  gallop  parallel  to  the  swamp 
and  across  our  front.  In  the  rear  were  a  number  of 
cows  and  calves,  and  I  at  once  singled  out  a  cow  and 


CH.  VI]  A  CRITICAL  MOMENT  139 

fired.  She  plunged  forward  at  the  shot  and  turned 
toward  the  swamp,  going  slowly  and  dead  lame,  for  my 
bullet  had  struck  the  shoulder  and  had  gone  into  the 
cavity  of  the  chest.  But  at  this  moment  our  attention 
was  distracted  from  the  wounded  cow  by  the  conduct 
of  the  herd,  which,  headed  by  the  wounded  bulls,  turned 
in  a  quarter-circle  toward  us,  and  drew  up  in  a  phalanx 
facing  us  with  outstretched  heads.  It  was  not  a  nice 
country  in  which  to  be  charged  by  the  herd,  and  for  a 
moment  things  trembled  in  the  balance.  There  was  a 
perceptible  motion  of  uneasiness  among  some  of  our 
followers.  "  Stand  steady  !  Don't  run  !"  I  called  out. 
*'  And  don't  shoot !"  called  out  Cuninghame,  for  to  do 
either  would  invite  a  charge.  A  few  seconds  passed, 
and  then  the  unwounded  mass  of  the  herd  resumed 
their  flight,  and  after  a  little  hesitation  the  wounded 
bulls  followed.  We  now  turned  our  attention  to  the 
wounded  cow,  which  was  close  to  the  papyrus.  She 
went  down  to  our  shots,  but  the  reeds  and  marsh-grass 
were  above  our  heads  when  we  drew  close  to  the  swamp. 
Once  again  Heatley  went  in  with  his  white  horse,  as 
close  as  it  was  even  reasonably  safe,  with  the  hope 
either  of  seeing  the  cow,  or  of  getting  her  to  charge 
him  and  so  give  us  a  fair  chance  at  her.  But  nothing 
happened,  and  we  loosed  the  two  dogs.  They  took  up 
the  trail  and  went  some  little  distance  into  the  papyrus, 
where  we  heard  them  give  tongue,  and  immediately 
afterward  there  came  the  angry  gi*unt  of  the  wounded 
buffalo.  It  had  risen  and  gone  off  thirty  yards  into  the 
papyrus,  although  mortally  wounded — the  frothy  blood 
from  the  lungs  was  actually  coming  out  of  my  first 
bullet-hole.  Its  anger  now  made  it  foolish,  and  it 
followed  the  dogs  to  the  edge  of  the  papyrus.  Here 
we  caught  a  glimpse  of  it.     Down  it  went  to  our  shots, 


140  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

and  in  a  minute  we  heard  the  moaning  bellow  which  a 
wounded  buffalo  often  gives  before  dying.  Immediately 
afterward  we  could  hear  the  dogs  worrying  it,  while  it 
bellowed  again.  It  was  still  living  as  I  came  up,  and 
though  it  evidently  could  not  rise,  there  was  a  chance 
of  its  damaging  one  of  the  dogs,  so  I  finished  it  off 
with  a  shot  from  the  Winchester.  Heller  reached  it 
that  afternoon,  and  the  skin  and  meat  were  brought  in 
by  the  porters  before  nightfall. 

Cuninghame  remained  with  the  body  while  the  rest 
of  us  rode  off  and  killed  several  different  animals  we 
wanted.  In  the  afternoon  I  returned,  having  a  vaguely 
uncomfortable  feeling  that  as  it  grew  dusk  the  buffalo 
might  possibly  make  their  appearance  again.  Sure 
enough,  there  they  were.  A  number  of  them  were  in 
the  open  plain,  although  close  to  the  swamp,  a  mile  and 
a  half  beyond  the  point  where  the  work  of  cutting  up 
the  cow  was  just  being  finished,  and  the  porters  were 
preparing  to  start  with  their  loads.  It  seemed  very 
strange  that  after  their  experience  in  the  morning  any 
of  the  herd  should  be  willing  to  come  into  the  open  so 
soon.  But  there  they  were.  They  were  grazing  to  the 
number  of  about  a  dozen.  Looking  at  them  through  the 
glass  I  could  see  that  their  attention  was  attracted  to 
us.  They  gazed  at  us  for  some  time,  and  then  walked 
slowly  in  our  direction  for  at  least  a  couple  of  hundred 
yards.  For  a  moment  I  was  even  doubtful  whether 
they  did  not  intend  to  come  toward  us  and  charge. 
But  it  was  only  curiosity  on  their  part,  and  after  having 
gazed  their  fill,  they  sauntered  back  to  the  swamp  and 
•  disappeared.  There  was  no  chance  to  get  at  them,  and, 
moreover,  darkness  was  rapidly  falling. 

Next  morning  we  broke  camp.  The  porters,  strapping 
grown-up  children  that  they  were,  felt  as  much  pleasure 


-35-     ••  -__  '5!^-^ 


i 


-< 


■^^ 


CH.  VI]      AT  MR.  HEATLEY'S  HOUSE  141 

and  excitement  over  breaking  camp  after  a  few  days' 
rest  as  over  reaching  camp  after  a  fifteen-mile  march. 
On  this  occasion,  after  they  had  made  up  their  loads, 
they  danced  in  a  ring  for  half  an  hour,  two  tin  cans 
being  beaten  as  tomtoms.  Then  off  they  strode  in 
a  long  line  with  their  burdens,  following  one  another  in 
Indian  file,  each  greeting  me  with  a  smile  and  a  deep 
"  Yambo,  Bwana  !"  as  he  passed.  I  had  grown  attached 
to  them,  and  of  course  especially  to  my  tent-boys,  gun- 
bearers,  and  saises,  who  quite  touched  me  by  their 
evident  pleasure  in  coming  to  see  me  and  greet  me 
if  I  happened  to  be  away  from  them  for  two  or  three 
days. 

Kermit  and  I  rode  off  with  Heatley  to  pass  the  night 
at  his  house.  This  was  at  the  other  end  of  his  farm,  in 
a  totally  different  kind  of  country — a  country  of  wooded 
hills,  with  glades  and  dells  and  long  green  grass  in  the 
valleys.  It  did  not  in  the  least  resemble  what  one 
would  naturally  expect  in  Equatorial  Afi-ica.  On  the 
contrary,  it  reminded  me  of  the  beautiful  rolling  wooded 
country  of  Middle  Wisconsin.  But  of  course  every- 
thing was  really  different.  There  were  monkeys  and 
leopards  in  the  forests,  and  we  saw  whydah  birds  of  a 
new  kind,  with  red  on  the  head  and  throat,  and 
brilliantly  coloured  woodpeckers,  and  black-and-gold 
weaver-birds.  Indeed,  the  wealth  of  bird-life  was  such 
that  it  cannot  be  described.  Here,  too,  there  were 
many  birds  with  musical  voices,  to  which  we  listened 
in  the  early  morning.  The  best  timber  was  yielded  by 
the  tall  mahogo-tree,  a  kind  of  sandalwood.  This  was 
the  tree  selected  by  the  wild-fig  for  its  deadly  embrace. 
The  wild-fig  begins  as  a  huge  parasitic  vine,  and  ends 
as  one  of  the  largest  and  most  stately,  and  also  one  of 
the  greenest  and  most  shady,  trees  in  this  part  of  A  frica. 


142  A  BUFFALO  HUNT  [ch.  vi 

It  grows  up  the  mahogo  as  a  vine,  and  gradually,  by 
branching,  and  by  the  spreading  of  the  branches,  com- 
pletely envelops  the  trunk,  and  also  grows  along  each 
limb,  and  sends  out  great  limbs  of  its  own.  Every 
stage  can  be  seen,  from  that  in  which  the  big  vine  has 
begun  to  grow  up  along  the  still  flourishing  mahogo, 
through  that  in  which  the  tree  looks  like  a  curious 
composite,  the  limbs  and  thick  foliage  of  the  fig  branch- 
ing out  among  the  limbs  and  scanty  foliage  of  the  still 
living  mahogo,  to  the  stage  in  which  the  mahogo  is 
simply  a  dead  skeleton  seen  here  and  there  through  the 
trunk  or  the  foliage  of  the  fig.  Finally  nothing  remains 
but  the  fig,  which  grows  to  be  a  huge  tree. 

Heatley's  house  was  charming,  with  its  vine-shaded 
veranda,  its  summer-house  and  out-buildings,  and  the 
great  trees  clustered  round  about.  He  was  fond  of 
sport  in  the  right  way — that  is,  he  treated  it  as  sport 
and  not  business,  and  did  not  allow  it  to  interfere  with 
his  prime  work  of  being  a  successful  farmer.  He  had 
big  stock-yards  for  his  cattle  and  swine,  and  he  was 
growing  all  kinds  of  things  of  both  the  temperate  and 
the  tropic  zones — wheat  and  apples,  coffee  and  sugar- 
cane. The  bread  we  ate  and  the  coffee  we  drank  were 
made  from  what  he  had  grown  on  his  own  farm. 
There  were  roses  in  the  garden  and  great  bushes  of 
heliotrope  by  the  veranda,  and  the  drive  to  his  place 
was  bordered  by  trees  from  Australia  and  beds  of  native 
flowers. 

Next  day  we  went  into  Nairobi,  where  we  spent  a 
most  busy  week,  especially  the  three  naturalists ;  for 
the  task  of  getting  into  shape  for  shipment,  and  then 
shipping,  the  many  hundreds  of  specimens — indeed,  all 
told,  there  were  thousands  of  specimens — was  of  Hercu- 
lean proportions.     Governor  Jackson — a  devoted  orni- 


CH.  VI]  NAIROBI  143 

thologist  and  probably  the  best  living  authority  on  East 
African  birds,  taking  into  account  the  standpoints  of 
both  the  closet  naturalist  and  the  field  naturalist — spent 
hours  with  Mearns,  helping  him  to  identify  and  arrange 
the  species. 

Nairobi  is  a  very  attractive  town  and  most  interest- 
ing, with  its  large  native  quarter  and  its  Indian  colony. 
One  of  the  streets  consists  of  little  except  Indian  shops 
and  bazaars.  Outside  the  business  portion,  the  town  is 
spread  over  much  territory,  the  houses  standing  iso- 
lated, each  by  itself,  and  each  usually  bowered  in  trees, 
with  vines  shading  the  verandas  and  pretty  flower- 
gardens  round  about.  Not  only  do  I  firmly  believe  in 
the  future  of  East  Africa  for  settlement  as  a  white 
man's  country,  but  I  feel  that  it  is  an  ideal  playground 
alike  for  sportsmen  and  for  travellers  who  wish  to  live 
in  health  and  comfort,  and  yet  to  see  what  is  beautiful 
and  unusual. 


CHAPTER  VII 

TREKKING  THROUGH  THE  THIRST  TO  THE  SOTIK 

On  June  5  we  started  south  from  Kijabe  to  trek 
through  "the  thirst,"  through  the  waterless  country 
which  hes  across  the  way  to  the  Sotik. 

The  preceding  Sunday  at  Nairobi  I  had  visited 
the  excellent  French  Catholic  Mission,  had  been  most 
courteously  received  by  the  fathers,  had  gone  over  their 
plantations  and  the  school  in  which  they  taught  the 
children  of  the  settlers  (much  to  my  surprise,  among 
them  were  three  Parsee  children,  who  were  evidently 
put  on  a  totally  different  plane  from  the  other  Indians, 
even  the  Goanese),  and  had  been  keenly  interested  in 
their  account  of  their  work  and  of  the  obstacles  with 
which  they  met. 

At  Kijabe  I  spent  several  exceedingly  interesting 
hours  at  the  American  Industrial  Mission.  Its  head, 
Mr.  Hurlburt,  had  called  on  me  in  Washington  at  the 
White  House  in  the  preceding  October,  and  I  had  then 
made  up  my  mind  that  if  the  chance  occurred  I  must 
certainly  visit  his  mission.  It  is  an  interdenominational 
mission,  and  is  carried  on  in  a  spirit  which  coinbines  to 
a  marked  degree  broad  sanity  and  common  sense  with 
disinterested  fervour.  Of  course,  such  work,  under  the 
conditions  which  necessarily  obtain  in  East  Africa,  can 
only  show  gradual  progress  ;  but  I  am  sure  that  mis- 

144 


CH.  vii]  KIJABE  145 

sionary  work  of  the  Kijabe  kind  will  be  an  indispensable 
factor  in  the  slow  uplifting  of  the  natives.  There  is  full 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  industrial  training  is  a 
foundation  stone  in  the  effort  to  raise  ethical  and  moral 
standards.  Industrial  teaching  must  go  hand  in  hand 
with  moral  teaching — and  in  both  the  mere  force  of 
example  and  the  influence  of  firm,  kindly  sympathy  and 
understanding  count  immeasurably.  There  is  further 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  in  such  a  country  the 
missionary  should  either  already  know  how  to,  or  else 
at  once  learn  how  to,  take  the  lead  himself  in  all  kinds 
of  industrial  and  mechanical  work.  Finally  the  effort 
is  made  consistently  to  teach  the  native  how  to  live  a 
more  comfortable,  useful,  and  physically  and  morally 
cleanly  life,  not  under  white  conditions,  but  under  the 
conditions  which  he  will  actually  have  to  face  when  he 
goes  back  to  his  people,  to  live  among  them,  and,  if 
things  go  well,  to  be  in  his  turn  a  conscious  or  uncon- 
scious missionary  for  good. 

At  lunch,  in  addition  to  the  missionaries  and  their 
wives  and  children,  there  were  half  a  dozen  of  the 
neighbouring  settlers,  with  their  families.  It  is  always 
a  good  thing  to  see  the  missionary  and  the  settler 
working  shoulder  to  shoulder.  Many  parts  of  East 
Africa  can,  and  I  believe  will,  be  made  into  a  white 
man's  country ;  and  the  process  will  be  helped,  not 
hindered,  by  treating  the  black  man  well.  At  Kijabe, 
nearly  under  the  Equator,  the  beautiful  scenery  was 
almost  northern  in  type ;  at  night  we  needed  blazing 
camp-fires,  and  the  days  were  as  cool  as  September  on 
Long  Island  or  by  the  southern  shores  of  the  Great 
Lakes.  It  is  a  very  healthy  region  ;  the  children  of 
the  missionaries  and  settlers,  of  all  ages,  were  bright 
and  strong ;  those  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hurlburt  had  not 

10 


146  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

been  out  of  the  country  for  eight  years,  and  showed  no 
ill  effects  whatever ;  on  the  contrary,  I  quite  believed 
Mr.  Hurlburt  when  she  said  that  she  regarded  the 
fertile  wooded  hills  of  Kijabe,  with  their  forests  and 
clear  brooks,  as  forming  a  true  health  resort. 

The  northern  look  of  the  place  was  enhanced  by  the 
fact  that  the  forests  contained  junipers  ;  but  they  also 
contained  monkeys,  a  small  green  monkey,  and  the  big 
guereza,  with  its  long  silky  hair  and  bold  black-and- 
white  colouring.  Kermit,  Heller,  and  Loring  shot 
several.  There  were  rhinoceros  and  buffalo  in  the 
neighbourhood.  A  few  days  previously  some  buffalo 
had  charged,  unprovoked,  a  couple  of  the  native  boys  of 
the  mission,  who  had  escaped  only  by  their  agility  in 
tree-climbing.  On  one  of  his  trips  to  an  outlying 
mission  station,  Mr.  Hurlburt  had  himself  narrowly 
escaped  a  serious  accident.  Quite  wantonly,  a  cow 
rhino,  with  a  calf,  charged  the  safari  almost  before  they 
knew  of  its  presence.  It  attacked  Hurlburt's  mule, 
which  fortunately  he  was  not  riding,  and  tossed  and 
kiUed  it ;  it  passed  through  the  line,  and  then  turned 
and  again  charged  it,  this  time  attacking  one  of  the 
porters.  The  porter  dodged  behind  a  tree,  and  the 
rhino  hit  the  tree,  knocked  off  a  huge  flake  of  bark  and 
wood,  and  galloped  away. 

The  trek  across  "  the  thirst,"  as  any  waterless  country 
is  frequently  called  by  an  Africander,  is  about  sixty 
miles  by  the  road.  On  our  horses  we  could  have  ridden 
it  in  a  night ;  but  on  a  serious  trip  of  any  kind  loads 
must  be  carried,  and  laden  porters  cannot  go  fast,  and 
must  rest  at  intervals.  We  had  rather  more  than  our 
porters  could  carry,  and  needed  additional  transportation 
for  the  water  for  the  safari ;  and  we  had  hired  four  ox- 
waggons.     They  were  under  the  lead  of  a  fine  young 


cH.  viij  COLONIAL  WAGGON-DRIVERS       147 

Colonial  Englishman  named  Ulyate,  whose  great- 
grandfather had  come  to  South  Africa  in  1820,  as  part 
of  the  most  important  English  emigration  that  ever 
went  thither.  His  father  and  sisters  had  lunched  with 
us  at  the  missionaries'  the  day  before ;  his  wife's  baby 
was  too  young  for  her  to  come.  It  was  the  best  kind 
of  pioneer  family  ;  all  the  members,  with  some  of  their 
fellow  colonials,  had  spent  much  of  the  preceding  three 
years  in  adventurous  exploration  of  the  country  in  their 
ox-waggons,  the  wives  and  daughters  as  valiant  as  the 
men ;  one  of  the  two  daughters  I  met  had  driven  one 
of  the  ox-waggons  on  the  hardest  and  most  dangerous 
trip  they  made,  while  her  younger  sister  led  the  oxen. 
It  was  on  this  trip  that  they  had  pioneered  the  way 
across  the  waterless  route  I  w  as  to  take.  For  those 
who,  like  ourselves,  followed  the  path  they  had  thus 
blazed,  there  was  no  danger  to  the  men,  and  merely  dis- 
comfort to  the  oxen  ;  but  the  first  trip  was  a  real  feat, 
for  no  one  could  tell  what  lay  ahead,  or  what  exact 
route  would  be  practicable.  The  family  had  now  settled 
on  a  big  farm,  but  also  carried  on  the  business  of 
"  transport  riding,"  as  freighting  with  waggons  is  called 
in  Africa  ;  and  they  did  it  admirably. 

With  Ulyate  were  three  other  white  waggon-drivers, 
all  colonials  ;  two  of  them  English,  the  third  Dutch,  or 
Boer.  There  was  also  a  Cape  boy,  a  Kaffir  waggon- 
driver,  utterly  different  from  any  of  the  East  African 
natives,  and  dressed  in  ordinary  clothes.  In  addition, 
there  were  various  natives — primitive  savages  in  dress 
and  habit,  but  coming  from  the  cattle-owning  tribes. 
Each  ox-team  was  guided  by  one  of  these  savages, 
who  led  the  first  yoke  by  a  leathern  thong  ;  while  the 
waggon-driver,  with  his  long  whip,  stalked  to  and  fro 
beside  the  line  of  oxen,  or  rode  in  the  waggon.     The 


148  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

huge  waggons,  with  their  white  tops  or  "  sails,"  were 
larger  than  those  our  own  settlers  and  freighters  used. 
Except  one  small  one,  to  which  there  were  but  eight 
oxen,  each  was  drawn  by  a  span  of  seven  or  eight  yoke  ; 
they  were  all  native  humped  cattle. 

We  had  one  hundred  and  ninety-six  porters,  in  addition 
to  the  askaris,  tent-boys,  gun-bearers,  and  saises.  The 
management  of  such  a  safari  is  a  work  of  difficulty  ;  but 
no  better  man  for  the  purpose  than  Cuninghame  could 
be  found  anywhere,  and  he  had  chosen  his  headmen 
well.  In  the  thirst  the  march  goes  on  by  day  and  night. 
The  longest  halt  is  made  in  the  day,  for  men  and 
animals  both  travel  better  at  night  than  under  the 
blazing  noon.  We  were  fortunate  in  that  it  was  just 
after  the  full  of  the  moon,  so  that  our  night  treks  were 
made  in  good  light.  Of  course,  on  such  a  march  the 
porters  must  be  spared  as  much  as  possible  ;  camp  is 
not  pitched,  and  each  white  man  uses  for  the  trip  only 
what  he  wears  or  carries  on  his  horse — and  the  horse 
also  must  be  loaded  as  lightly  as  possible.  I  took 
nothing  but  my  army  overcoat,  rifle  and  cartridges,  and 
three  canteens  of  water.     Kermit  did  the  same. 

The  waggons  broke  camp  about  ten,  to  trek  to  the 
water,  a  mile  and  a  half  off,  where  the  oxen  would  be 
outspanned  to  take  the  last  drink  for  three  days  ;  stock 
will  not  drink  early  in  the  morning  nearly  as  freely  as  if 
the  march  is  begun  later.  We,  riding  our  horses,  fol- 
lowed by  the  long  line  of  burdened  porters,  left  at 
half-past  twelve,  and  in  a  couple  of  hours  overtook  the 
waggons.  The  porters  were  in  high  spirits.  In  the 
morning,  before  the  start,  they  twice  held  regular 
dances,  the  chief  musician  being  one  of  their  own 
number  who  carried  an  extraordinary  kind  of  native 
harp ;  and  after  their  loads  were  allotted  they  marched 


CH.  vii]  ON  THE  MARCH  140 

out  of  camp,  singing  and  blowing  their  horns  and 
whistles.  Three  askaris  brought  up  the  rear  to  look 
after  laggards,  and  see  that  no  weak  or  sick  man  fell  out 
without  our  knowing  or  being  able  to  give  him  help. 

The  trail  led  first  through  open  brush,  or  low  dry 
forest,  and  then  out  on  the  vast  plains,  where  the 
withered  grass  was  dotted  here  and  there  with  low, 
scantily-leaved  thorn-trees,  from  three  to  eight  feet  high. 
Hour  after  hour  we  drew  slowly  ahead  under  the 
shimmering  sunlight.  The  horsemen  walked  first,  with 
the  gun-bearers,  saises,  and  usually  a  few  very  energetic 
and  powerful  porters  ;  then  came  the  safari  in  single 
file  ;  and  then  the  lumbering  white-topped  waggons, 
the  patient  oxen  walking  easily,  each  team  led  by  a  half- 
naked  savage  with  frizzed  hair  and  a  spear  or  throwing- 
stick  in  his  hand,  while  at  intervals  the  long  whips  of 
the  drivers  cracked  like  rifles.  The  dust  rose  in  clouds 
from  the  dry  earth,  and  soon  covered  all  of  us ;  in  the 
distance  herds  of  zebra  and  hartebeest  gazed  at  us  as  we 
passed,  and  we  saw  the  old  spoor  of  rhino,  beasts  we 
hoped  to  avoid,  as  they  often  charge  such  a  caravan. 

Slowly  the  shadows  lengthened,  the  light  waned,  the 
glare  of  the  white,  dusty  plain  was  softened,  and  the 
bold  outlines  of  the  distant  mountains  grew  dim.  Just 
before  nightfall  we  halted  on  the  further  side  of  a  dry 
watercourse.  The  safari  came  up  singing  and  whistling, 
and  the  men  put  down  their  loads,  lit  fires,  and  with 
chatter  and  laughter  prepared  their  food.  The  crossing 
was  not  good,  the  sides  of  the  watercourse  being  steep, 
and  each  waggon  was  brought  through  by  a  double 
span,  the  whips  cracking  lustily  as  an  accompaniment 
to  the  shouts  of  the  drivers,  as  the  thirty  oxen  threw 
their  weight  into  the  yokes  by  which  they  were 
attached  to  the  long  trek  tow.     The  horses  were  fed. 


150  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

We  had  tea,  with  bread  and  cold  meat — and  a  most 
delicious  meal  it  was — and  then  lay  dozing  or  talking 
beside  the  bush-fires.  At  half-past  eight,  the  moon^ 
having  risen,  we  were  off  again.  The  safari  was  still 
in  high  spirits,  and  started  with  the  usual  chanting  and 
drumming. 

We  pushed  steadily  onward  across  the  plain,  the  dust 
rising  in  clouds  under  the  spectral  moonlight.  Some- 
times we  rode,  sometimes  we  walked  to  ease  our  horses. 
The  Southern  Cross  was  directly  ahead,  not  far  above 
the  horizon.  Higher  and  higher  rose  the  moon,  and 
brighter  grew  the  flood  of  her  light.  At  intervals  the 
barking  call  of  zebras  was  heard  on  either  hand.  It  was 
after  midnight  when  we  again  halted.  The  porters  were 
tired,  and  did  not  sing  as  they  came  up ;  the  air  was 
cool,  almost  nipping,  and  they  at  once  huddled  down  in 
their  blankets,  some  of  them  building  fires.  We,  the 
white  men,  after  seeing  our  horses  staked  out,  each  lay 
down  in  his  overcoat  or  jacket  and  slicker,  with  his  head 
on  his  saddle,  and  his  rifle  beside  him,  and  had  a  little 
over  two  hours'  sleep.  At  three  we  were  off"  again,  the 
shivering  porters  making  no  sound  as  they  started  ;  but 
once  under  way,  the  more  irrepressible  spirits  speedily 
began  a  kind  of  intermittent  chant,  and  most  of  the  rest 
by  degrees  joined  in  the  occasional  grunt  or  hum  that 
served  as  chorus. 

For  four  hours  we  travelled  steadily,  first  through 
the  moonlight,  and  then  through  the  reddening  dawn. 
Jackals  shrieked,  and  the  plains  plover  wailed  and 
scolded  as  they  circled  round  us.  When  the  sun  was 
well  up,  we  halted  ;  the  desolate  flats  stretched  far  and 
wide  on  every  side  and  rose  into  lofty  hills  ahead  of  us. 
The  porters  received  their  water  and  food,  and  lay  down 
to  sleep,  some  directly  in  the  open,  others  rigging  little 


CH.  vii]  A  WET  JOURNEY  151 

sun  shelters  under  the  scattering  thorn-bushes.  The 
horses  were  fed,  were  given  half  a  pail  of  water  apiece, 
and  were  turned  loose  to  graze  with  the  oxen ;  this  was 
the  last  time  the  oxen  would  feed  freely,  unless  there 
was  rain  ;  and  this  was  to  be  our  longest  halt.  We  had 
an  excellent  breakfast,  like  our  supper  the  night  before, 
and  then  slept  as  well  as  we  could. 

Noon  came,  and  soon  afterward  we  again  started. 
The  country  grew  hilly  and  brushy.  It  was  too  dry 
for  much  game,  but  we  saw  a  small  herd  of  giraffe, 
which  are  independent  of  water.  Now  riding  our 
horses,  now  leading  them,  we  travelled  until  nearly 
sunset,  when  we  halted  at  the  foot  of  a  steep  divide, 
beyond  which  our  course  lay  across  slopes  that  gradually 
fell  to  the  stream  for  which  we  were  heading.  Here 
the  porters  had  all  the  food  and  water  they  wished,  and 
so  did  the  horses  ;  and,  each  with  a  double  span  of  oxen, 
the  waggons  were  driven  up  the  slope,  the  weary  cattle 
straining  hard  in  the  yokes. 

Black  clouds  had  risen  and  thickened  in  the  west, 
boding  rain.  Three-fourths  of  our  journey  was  over, 
and  it  was  safe  to  start  the  safari  and  then  leave  it  to 
come  on  by  itself,  while  the  ox-waggons  followed  later. 
At  nine,  before  the  moon  struggled  above  the  hill-crests 
to  our  left,  we  were  off.  Soon  we  passed  the  waggons, 
drawn  up  abreast,  a  lantern  high  on  a  pole,  while  the 
tired  oxen  lay  in  their  yokes,  attached  to  the  trek  tow. 
An  hour  afterward  we  left  the  safari  behind,  and  rode 
ahead,  with  only  our  saises  and  gun-bearers.  Gusts  of 
rain  blew  in  our  faces,  and  gradually  settled  into  a 
steady,  gentle  downpour.  Our  horses  began  to  slip  in 
the  greasy  soil ;  we  knew  the  rain  would  refresh  the 
cattle,  but  would  make  the  going  harder. 

At  one  we  halted,  in  the  rain,  for  a  couple  of  hours' 


152  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

rest.  Just  before  this  we  heard  two  lions  roaring,  or 
rather  grunting,  not  far  in  front  of  us  ;  they  were  after 
prey.  Lions  are  bold  on  rainy  nights,  and  we  did  not 
wish  to  lose  any  of  our  horses  ;  so  a  watch  was  organized, 
and  we  kept  ready  for  immediate  action,  but  the  lions 
did  not  come.  The  native  boys  built  fires,  and  lay  close 
to  them,  relieving  one  another,  and  us,  as  sentinels. 
Kermit  and  I  had  our  army  overcoats,  which  are  warm 
and  practically  waterproof ;  the  others  had  coats  almost 
as  good.  We  lay  down  in  the  rain,  on  the  drenched 
grass,  with  our  saddle-cloths  over  our  feet,  and  our 
heads  on  our  saddles,  and  slept  comfortably  for  two 
hours. 

At  three  we  mounted  and  were  off  again,  the  rain 
still  falling.  There  were  steep  ravines  to  cross,  slippery 
from  the  wet ;  but  we  made  good  time,  and  soon  after 
six  ofF-saddled  on  the  farther  side  of  a  steep  drift  or  ford 
in  the  little  Suavi  River.  It  is  a  rapid  stream  flowing 
between  high,  well- wooded  banks ;  it  was  an  attractive 
camp  site,  and,  as  we  afterward  found,  the  nights  were 
so  cool  as  to  make  great  camp-fires  welcome.  At  half- 
past  ten  the  safari  appeared,  in  excellent  spirits,  the  flag 
waving,  to  an  accompaniment  of  chanting  and  horn- 
blowing  ;  and,  to  their  loudly  expressed  satisfaction,  the 
porters  were  told  that  they  should  have  an  extra  day's 
rations,  as  well  as  a  day's  rest.  Camp  was  soon  pitched, 
and  all,  of  every  rank,  slept  soundly  that  night,  though 
the  lions  moaned  near  by.  The  waggons  did  not  get 
in  until  ten  the  follo\^dng  morning.  By  that  time  the 
oxen  had  been  nearly  three  days  without  water,  so,  by 
dawn,  they  were  unyoked  and  driven  down  to  drink 
before  the  drift  was  attempted,  the  waggons  being  left 
a  mile  or  two  back.  The  approaches  to  the  drift  were 
steep  and  difficult,  and,  with  two  spans  to  each,  the 


CH.  vii]  THE  GUASO  NYERO  158 

waggons  swayed  and  plunged  over  the  twisted  boulder- 
choked  trails  down  into  the  river-bed,  crossed  it,  and, 
with  lurching  and  straining,  men  shouting  and  whips 
cracking,  drew  slowly  up  the  opposite  bank. 

After  a  day's  rest,  we  pushed  on  in  two  days'  easy 
travelling  to  the  Guaso  Nyero  of  the  south.  Our  camps 
were  pleasant,  by  running  streams  of  swift  water  ;  one 
was  really  beautiful,  in  a  grassy  bend  of  a  rapid  little 
river,  by  huge  African  yew-trees,  with  wooded  cliffs  in 
front.  It  was  cool,  rainy  weather,  with  overcast  skies 
and  misty  mornings,  so  that  it  seemed  strangely  unlike 
the  tropics.  The  country  was  alive  with  herds  of  Masai 
cattle,  sheep,  and  donkeys.  The  Masai,  herdsmen  by 
profession  and  warriors  by  preference,  with  their  great 
spears  and  ox-hide  shields,  were  stalwart  savages,  and 
showed  the  mixture  of  types  common  to  this  part  of 
Africa,  which  is  the  edge  of  an  ethnic  whirlpool.  Some 
of  them  were  of  seemingly  pure  negro  type  ;  others, 
except  in  their  black  skin,  had  little  negro  about  them, 
their  features  being  as  clear-cut  as  those  of  ebony  Nilotic 
Arabs.  They  were  dignified,  but  friendly  and  civil, 
shaking  hands  as  soon  as  they  came  up  to  us. 

On  the  Guaso  Nyero  was  a  settler  from  South  Africa, 
with  his  family ;  and  we  met  another  settler  travelling 
with  a  big  flock  of  sheep,  which  he  had  bought  for  trading 
purposes.  The  latter,  while  journeying  over  our  route 
with  cattle,  a  month  before,  had  been  attacked  by  lions  one 
night.  They  seized  his  cook  as  he  lay  by  the  fire,  but 
fortunately  grabbed  his  red  blanket,  which  they  carried 
off,  and  the  terrified  man  escaped ;  and  they  killed  a 
cow  and  a  calf.  Ulyate's  brother-in-law.  Smith,  had 
been  rendered  a  hopeless  cripple  for  life,  six  months 
previously,  by  a  lioness  he  had  wounded.  Another 
settler,  while  at  one  of  our  camping-places,  lost  two  of 


154  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

his  horses,  which  were  killed,  although  within  a  boma. 
One  night  lions  came  within  threatening  proximity  of 
our  ox-waggons  ;  and  we  often  heard  them  moaning  in 
the  early  part  of  the  night,  roaring  when  full  fed  toward 
morning ;  but  we  were  not  molested. 

The  safari  was  in  high  feather,  for  the  days  were  cool, 
the  work  easy,  and  we  shot  enough  game  to  give  them 
meat.  When  we  broke  camp  after  breakfast,  the  porters 
would  all  stand  ranged  by  their  loads  ;  then  Tarlton 
would  whistle,  and  a  chorus  of  whistles,  horns,  and  tom- 
toms would  answer,  as  each  porter  lifted  and  adjusted 
his  burden,  fell  into  his  place,  and  then  joined  in  some 
shrill  or  guttural  chorus  as  the  long  line  swung  off  at 
its  mar3hing  pace.  After  nightfall  the  camp-fires 
blazed  in  the  cool  air,  and  as  we  stood  or  sat  around 
them  each  man  had  tales  to  tell — Cuninghame  and 
Tarlton  of  elephant-hunting  in  the  Congo,  and  of 
perilous  adventures  hunting  lion  and  buffalo  ;  Mearns 
of  long  hikes  and  fierce  fighting  in  the  steaming  Philip- 
pine forests  ;  Loring  and  Heller  of  hunting  and  collect- 
ing in  Alaska,  in  the  Rockies,  and  among  the  deserts  of 
the  Mexican  border ;  and  always  our  talk  came  back  to 
strange  experiences  with  birds  and  beasts,  both  great 
and  small,  and  to  the  ways  of  the  great  game.  The 
three  naturalists  revelled  in  the  teeming  bird  life,  with 
its  wealth  of  beauty  and  colour  ;  nor  was  the  beauty 
only  of  colour  and  shape,  for  at  dawn  the  bird  songs 
made  real  music.  The  naturalists  trapped  many  small 
mammals  :  big-eared  mice  looking  like  our  white-footed 
mice,  mice  with  spiny  fur,  mice  that  lived  in  trees,  rats 
striped  like  our  chipmunks,  rats  that  jumped  like 
jerboas,  big  cane-rats,  dormice,  and  tiny  shrews.  Meer- 
cats,  things  akin  to  a  small  mongoose,  lived  out  in  the 
open  plains,  burrowing  in  companies  hke  prairie-dogs. 


Waxbills  and  one  weaver-bird  drinking 


Young  dikdik 


A  courser 


Tame  serval  kitten 


An  elephant  shrew 


A  banded  mongoose 


A  springhaas 


Colobns  monkey 


CH.  VII]  A  BULL  TOPI  155 

very  spry  and  active,  and  looking  like  picket  pins  when 
they  stood  up  on  end  to  survey  us.  I  killed  a  nine-foot 
python  which  had  swallowed  a  rabbit.  Game  was  not 
plentiful,  but  we  killed  enough  for  the  table.  I  shot  a 
wildebeest  bull  one  day,  having  edged  up  to  it  on  foot, 
after  missing  it  standing  ;  I  broke  it  down  with  a  bullet 
through  the  hips  as  it  galloped  across  my  front  at  three 
hundred  yards.  Kermit  killed  our  first  topi,  a  bull — a 
beautiful  animal,  the  size  of  a  hartebeest,  its  glossy  coat 
with  a  satin  sheen,  varying  from  brown  to  silver  and 
purple. 

By  the  Guaso  Nyero  we  halted  for  several  days,  and 
we  arranged  to  leave  Mearns  and  Loring  in  a  permanent 
camp,  so  that  they  might  seriously  study  and  collect  the 
birds  and  small  mammals  while  the  rest  of  us  pushed 
wherev^er  we  wished  after  the  big  game.  The  tents 
were  pitched,  and  the  ox-waggons  drawn  up  on  the 
southern  side  of  the  muddy  river,  by  the  edge  of  a  wide 
plain,  on  which  we  could  see  the  game  grazing  as  we 
walked  around  camp.  The  alluvial  flats  bordering  the 
river  and  some  of  the  higher  plains  were  covered  with 
an  open  forest  growth,  the  most  common  tree  looking 
exactly  like  a  giant  sage-brush,  thirty  feet  high ;  and 
there  were  tall  aloes  and  cactus  and  flat-topped  mimosa. 
We  found  a  wee  hedgehog,  with  much  white  about  it. 
He  would  cuddle  up  in  my  hand,  snuffing  busily  with 
his  funny  little  nose.  We  did  not  have  the  heart  to 
turn  the  tame,  friendly  little  fellow  over  to  the  natural- 
ists, and  so  we  let  him  go.  Birds  abounded.  One  kind 
of  cuckoo  called  like  a  whip-poor-will  in  the  early  morn- 
ing and  late  evening,  and  after  nightfall.  Among  our 
friendly  visitors  were  the  pretty,  rather  strikingly 
coloured  little  chats — Livingstone's  wheatear — which 
showed  real  curiosity  in  coming  into  camp.     They  were 


156  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

nesting  in  burrows  on  the  open  plains  round  about. 
M  earns  got  a  white  egg  and  a  nest  at  the  end  of  a  Httle 
burrow  two  feet  long  ;  wounded,  the  birds  ran  into 
holes  or  burrows.  They  sang  attractively  on  the  wing, 
often  at  night.  The  plover-like  coursers — very  pretty 
birds — continually  circled  round  us  with  querulous 
clamour.  Gorgeously  coloured,  diminutive  sunbirds,  of 
many  different  kinds,  were  abundant ;  they  had  an 
especial  fondness  for  the  gaudy  flowers  of  the  tall  mint 
which  grew  close  to  the  river.  We  got  a  small  cobra, 
less  than  eighteen  inches  long  ;  it  had  swallowed  another 
snake  almost  as  big  as  itself ;  unfortunately  the  head  of 
the  swallowed  snake  was  digested,  but  the  body  looked 
like  that  of  a  young  pufF- adder. 

The  day  after  reaching  this  camp  1  rode  off  for  a 
hunt,  accompanied  by  my  two  gun-bearers  and  with  a 
dozen  porters  following,  to  handle  whatever  1  killed. 
One  of  my  original  gun-bearers,  Mahomet,  though  a 
good  man  in  the  field,  had  proved  in  other  respects  so 
unsatisfactory  that  he  had  been  replaced  by  another,  a 
Wakamba  heathen  named  Gouvimali.  I  could  not 
remember  his  name  until,  as  a  mnemonic  aid,  Kermit 
suggested  that  1  think  of  Gouverneur  Morris,  the  old 
Federahst  statesman,  whose  life  1  had  once  studied. 
He  was  a  capital  man  for  the  work. 

Half  a  mile  from  camp  I  saw  a  buck  tommy  with  a 
good  head,  and  as  we  needed  his  dehcious  venison  for 
our  own  table,  I  dismounted,  and  after  a  little  care 
killed  him,  as  he  faced  me  at  two  hundred  and  ten 
yards.  Sending  him  back  by  one  of  the  porters,  I  rode 
on  toward  two  topi  we  saw  far  in  front.  But  there 
were  zebra,  hartebeest,  and  wildebeest  in  between,  all 
of  which  ran ;  and  the  topi  proved  wary.  I  was  still 
walking  after  them  when  we  made  out  two  eland  bulls 


CH.  VII]     ELANDS  FOR  THE  MUSEUM  157 

ahead  and  to  our  left.  The  ground  was  too  open  to 
admit  of  the  possibiHty  of  a  stalk ;  but,  leaving  my 
horse  and  the  porters  to  follow  slowly,  the  gun-bearers 
and  I  walked  quartering  toward  them.  They  hesitated 
about  going,  and  when  I  had  come  as  close  as  I  dared, 
I  motioned  to  the  two  gun-bearers  to  continue  walking, 
and  dropped  on  one  knee.  I  had  the  little  Springfield, 
and  was  anxious  to  test  the  new  sharp-pointed  military 
bullet  on  some  large  animal.  The  biggest  bull  was  half 
facing  me,  just  two  hundred  and  eighty  yards  off.  I 
fired  a  little  bit  high  and  a  trifle  to  the  left ;  but  the 
tiny  ball  broke  his  back,  and  the  splendid  beast,  heavy 
as  a  prize  steer,  came  plunging  and  struggling  to  the 
ground.  The  other  bull  started  to  run  off,  but  after  I 
had  walked  a  hundred  yards  forward,  he  actually  trotted 
back  toward  his  companion,  then  halted,  turned,  and 
galloped  across  my  front  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and 
eighty  yards  ;  and  him,  too,  I  brought  down  with  a 
single  shot.  The  little  full-jacketed,  sharp-pointed  bullet 
made  a  terrific  rending  compared  with  the  heavier, 
ordinary-shaped  bullet  of  the  same  composition. 

I  was  much  pleased  with  my  two  prizes,  for  the 
National  Museum  particularly  desired  a  good  group 
of  eland.  They  were  splendid  animals,  like  beautiful 
heavy  cattle,  and  I  could  not  sufficiently  admire  their 
sleek,  handsome,  striped  coats,  their  shapely  heads,  fine 
horns,  and  massive  bodies.  The  big  bull,  an  old  one, 
looked  blue  at  a  distance.  He  was  very  heavy,  and  his 
dewlap  hung  down  just  as  with  cattle.  His  companion, 
although  much  less  heavy,  was  a  full-grown  bull  in  his 
prime,  with  longer  horns,  for  the  big  one's  horns  had 
begun  to  wear  down  at  the  tips.  In  their  stomachs 
were  grass  blades,  and,  rather  to  my  surprise,  aloe- 
leaves. 


158  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

We  had  two  canvas  cloths  with  us,  which  Heller  had 
instructed  me  to  put  over  anything  I  shot,  in  order  to 
protect  it  from  the  sun ;  so,  covering  both  bulls,  I 
left  a  porter  with  them,  and  sent  in  another  to  notify 
Heller,  who  came  out  with  an  ox-waggon  to  bring  in 
the  skins  and  meat.  I  had  killed  these  two  eland  bulls, 
as  well  as  the  buck  gazelle  (bringing  down  each  with  a 
single  bullet)  within  three-quarters  of  an  hour  after 
leaving  camp. 

I  wanted  a  topi,  and  continued  the  hunt.  The 
country  swarmed  with  the  herds  and  flocks  of  the 
ISIasai,  who  own  a  wealth  of  live  stock.  Each  herd  of 
cattle  and  donkeys  or  flock  of  sheep  was  guarded  by 
its  herdsmen — bands  of  stalwart,  picturesque  warriors, 
with  their  huge  spears  and  ox-hide  shields,  occasionally 
strolled  by  us ;  and  we  passed  many  bomas,  the  kraals 
where  the  stock  is  gathered  at  night,  with  the  mud  huts 
of  the  owners  ringing  them.  Yet  there  was  much  game 
in  the  country  also,  chiefly  zebra  and  hartebeest ;  the 
latter,  according  to  their  custom,  continually  jumping 
up  on  ant-hills  to  get  a  clearer  view  of  me,  and  some- 
times standing  on  them  motionless  for  a  considerable 
time,  as  sentries  to  scan  the  country  around. 

At  last  we  spied  a  herd  of  topi,  distinguishable  from 
the  hartebeest  at  a  very  long  distance  by  their  dark 
colouring,  the  purples  and  browns  giving  the  coat  a 
heavy  shading,  which  when  far  off*,  in  certain  lights, 
looks  almost  black.  Topi,  hartebeest,  and  wildebeest 
belong  to  the  same  group,  and  are  speciaUzed,  and  their 
peculiar  physical  and  mental  traits  developed,  in  the 
order  named.  The  wildebeest  is  the  least  normal  and 
most  grotesque  and  odd-looking  of  the  three,  and  his 
idiosyncrasies  of  temper  are  also  the  most  marked.  The 
hartebeest  comes  next,  with  his  very  high  withers,  long 


CH.  vTi]  A  HERD  OF  TOPI  159 

face,  and  queerly  shaped  horns  ;  while  the  topi,  although 
with  a  general  hartebeest  look,  has  the  features  of  shape 
and  horn  less  pronounced,  and  bears  a  greater  resem- 
blance to  his  more  ordinary  kinsfolk.  In  the  same  way, 
though  it  will  now  and  then  buck  and  plunge  when  it 
begins  to  run  after  being  startled,  its  demeanour  is  less 
pronounced  in  this  respect.  The  topi's  power  of  leap- 
ing is  great.  I  have  seen  one,  when  frightened,  bound 
clear  over  a  companion,  and  immediately  afterward  over 
a  high  anthill. 

The  herd  of  topi  we  saw  was  more  shy  than  the 
neighbouring  zebra  and  hartebeest.  There  was  no 
cover,  and  I  spent  an  hour  trying  to  walk  up  to  them 
by  manoeuvring  in  one  way  and  another.  They  did  not 
run  clear  away,  but  kept  standing  and  letting  me 
approach  to  distances  varying  from  four  hundred  and 
fifty  to  six  hundred  yards,  tempting  me  to  shoot,  while, 
nevertheless,  I  could  not  estimate  the  range  accurately, 
and  was  not  certain  whether  I  was  over  or  under- 
shooting. So  I  fired  more  times  than  I  care  to  mention 
before  I  finally  got  my  topi — ^at  just  five  hundred  and 
twenty  yards.  It  was  a  handsome  cow,  weighing  two 
hundred  and  sixty  pounds,  for  topi  are  somewhat 
smaller  than  kongoni.  The  beauty  of  its  coat,  in 
texture  and  colouring,  struck  me  afresh  as  I  looked  at 
the  sleek  creature  stretched  out  on  the  grass.  Like  the 
eland,  it  was  free  from  ticks,  for  the  hideous  pests  do 
not  frequent  this  part  of  the  country  in  any  great 
numbers. 

I  reached  camp  early  in  the  afternoon,  and  sat  down 
at  the  mouth  of  my  tent  to  enjoy  myself.  It  was  on 
such  occasions  that  the  "  pigskin  library  "  proved  itself 
indeed  a  blessing.  In  addition  to  the  original  books 
we  had  picked  up  one  or  two  old  favourites  on  the 


160  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

way :  "  Alice's  Adventures,"  for  instance,  and  Fitz- 
gerald— I  say  Fitzgerald,  because  reading  other  versions 
of  Omar  Khayyam  always  leaves  me  with  the  feeling 
that  Fitzgerald  is  the  major  partner  in  the  book  we 
really  like.  Then  there  was  a  book  I  had  not  read, 
Dumas's  "  Louves  de  Machecoul."  This  was  presented 
to  me  at  Port  Said  by  M.  Jusserand,  the  brother  of 
an  old  and  valued  friend,  the  French  ambassador 
at  Washington — the  vice-president  of  the  "  Tennis 
Cabinet."  We  had  been  speaking  of  Balzac,  and  I 
mentioned  regretfully  that  I  did  not  at  heart  care  for 
his  longer  novels,  excepting  the  "  Chouans,"  and,  as 
John  Hay  once  told  me,  that  in  the  eye  of  all  true 
Balzacians,  to  like  the  "  Chouans "  merely  aggravates 
the  offence  of  not  liking  the  novels  which  they  deem 
really  great.  M.  Jusserand  thereupon  asked  me  if  I  knew 
Dumas's  Vendean  novel.  Being  a  fairly  good  Dumas 
man,  I  was  rather  ashamed  to  admit  that  1  did  not ; 
whereupon  he  sent  it  to  me,  and  I  enjoyed  it  to  the  full. 
The  next  day  was  Kermit's  red-letter  day.  We  were 
each  out  until  after  dark.  I  merely  got  some  of  the 
ordinary  game,  taking  the  skins  for  the  naturalists,  the 
flesh  for  our  following ;  he  killed  two  cheetahs,  and 
a  fine  maned  lion,  finer  than  any  previously  killed. 
There  were  three  cheetahs  together.  Kermit,  who  was 
with  Tarlton,  galloped  the  big  male,  and,  although  it 
had  a  mile's  start,  ran  into  it  in  three  miles,  and  shot  it 
as  it  lay  under  a  bush.  He  afterwards  shot  another,  a 
female,  who  was  lying  on  a  stone  kopje.  Neither  made 
any  attempt  to  charge.  The  male  had  been  eating  a 
tommy.  The  lion  was  with  a  lioness,  which  wheeled  to 
one  side  as  the  horsemen  galloped  after  her  maned  mate. 
He  turned  to  bay  after  a  run  of  less  than  a  mile,  and 
started  to  charge  from  a  distance  of  two  hundred  yards  ; 


CH.  VII]  AFTER  LIONS  161 

but  Kermit's  first  bullets  mortally  wounded  him  and 
crippled  him  so  that  he  could  not  come  at  any  pace, 
and  was  easily  stopped  before  covering  half  the  distance. 
Although  nearly  a  foot  longer  than  the  biggest  of  the 
lions  I  had  already  killed,  he  was  so  gaunt — whereas 
they  were  very  fat — that  he  weighed  but  little  more, 
only  four  hundred  and  twelve  pounds. 

The  following  day  I  was  out  by  myself,  after  impalla 
and  Roberts'  gazelle  ;  and  the  day  after  I  went  out  with 
Tarlton  to  try  for  lion.  We  were  away  from  camp  for 
over  fifteen  hours.  Each  was  followed  by  his  sais  and 
gun-bearers,  and  we  took  a  dozen  porters  also.  The 
day  may  be  worth  describing,  as  a  sample  of  the  days 
when  we  did  not  start  before  dawn  for  a  morning's 
hunt. 

We  left  camp  at  seven,  steering  for  a  high,  rocky  hill, 
four  miles  off.  We  passed  zebra  and  hartebeest,  and  on 
the  hill  came  upon  Chanler's  reedbuck  ;  but  we  wanted 
none  of  these.  Continually  Tarlton  stopped  to  examine 
some  distant  object  with  his  glasses,  and  from  the  hill 
we  scanned  the  country  far  and  wide ;  but  we  saw 
nothing  we  desired,  and  continued  on  our  course.  The 
day  was  windy  and  cool,  and  the  sky  often  overcast. 
Slowly  we  walked  across  the  stretches  of  brown  grass- 
land, sometimes  treeless,  sometimes  scantily  covered 
with  an  open  growth  of  thorn-trees,  each  branch  armed 
with  long  spikes,  needle-sharp  ;  and  among  the  thorns 
here  and  there  stood  the  huge  cactus-like  euphorbias, 
shaped  like  candelabra,  groups  of  tall  aloes,  and  gnarled 
wild  olives  of  great  age,  with  hoary  trunks  and  twisted 
branches.  Now  and  then  there  would  be  a  dry  water- 
course, with  flat-topped  acacias  bordering  it,  and  perhaps 
some  one  pool  of  thick  greenish  water.  There  was  game 
always  in  view,  and  about  noon  we  sighted  three  rhinos 

11 


162  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

— a  bull,  a  cow,  and  a  big  calf— nearly  a  mile  ahead  of 
us.  We  were  travelling  down  wind,  and  they  scented 
us,  but  did  not  charge,  making  off  in  a  semicircle,  and 
halting  when  abreast  of  us.  We  examined  them  care- 
fully through  the  glasses.  The  cow  was  bigger  than  the 
bull,  and  had  fair  horns,  but  nothing  extraordinary ; 
and  as  we  were  twelve  miles  from  camp,  so  that  Heller 
would  have  had  to  come  out  for  the  night  if  we  shot 
her,  we  decided  to  leave  her  alone.  Then  our  attention 
was  attracted  by  seeing  the  game  all  gazing  in  one 
direction,  and  we  made  out  a  hyena.  I  got  a  shot  at  it, 
at  three  hundred  yards,  but  missed.  Soon  afterward  we 
saw  another  rhino,  but  on  approaching  it  proved  to  be 
about  two- thirds  grown,  with  a  stubby  horn.  We  did 
not  wish  to  shoot  it,  and  therefore  desired  to  avoid 
a  charge ;  and  so  we  passed  three  or  four  hundred  yards 
to  leeward,  trusting  to  its  bad  eyesight.  Just  opposite 
it,  when  it  was  on  our  right,  we  saw  another  hyena  on 
our  left,  about  as  far  off  as  the  rhino.  I  decided  to 
take  a  shot,  and  run  the  chance  of  disturbing  the  rhino. 
So  I  knelt  down  and  aimed  with  the  little  Springfield, 
keeping  the  Holland  by  me  to  be  ready  for  events. 
I  never  left  camp,  on  foot  or  on  horseback,  for  any  dis- 
tance, no  matter  how  short,  without  carrying  one  of  the 
repeating-rifles  ;  and  when  on  a  hunt  my  two  gun- 
bearers  carried,  one  the  other  magazine  rifle,  and  one 
the  double-barrelled  Holland. 

Tarlton,  whose  eye  for  distance  was  good,  told  me 
the  hyena  was  over  three  hundred  yards  off;  it  was 
walking  slowly  to  the  left.  I  put  up  the  three-hundred- 
yard  sight,  and  drew  a  rather  coarse  bead ;  and  down 
went  the  hyena  with  its  throat  cut.  The  little  sharp- 
pointed,  full-jacketed  bullet  makes  a  slashing  wound. 
Tlie   distance  was  ^ust  three  hundred  and  fifty  long 


CH.  vii]   A  TYPICAL  AFRICAN  SCENE  163 

paces.  As  soon  as  I  had  pulled  trigger  I  wheeled  to 
watch  the  rhino.  It  started  round  at  the  shot  and 
gazed  toward  us  with  its  ears  cocked  forward,  but  made 
no  movement  to  advance.  While  a  couple  of  porters 
were  dressing  the  hyena,  I  could  not  help  laughing  at 
finding  that  we  were  the  centre  of  a  thoroughly  African 
circle  of  deeply  interested  spectators.  We  were  in  the 
middle  of  a  vast  plain,  covered  with  sun-scorched  grass, 
and  here  and  there  a  stunted  thorn  ;  in  the  background 
were  isolated  barren  hills,  and  the  mirage  wavered  in 
the  distance.  Vultures  wheeled  overhead.  The  rhino, 
less  than  half  a  mile  away,  stared  steadily  at  us.  Wilde- 
beest— their  heavy  forequarters  and  the  carriage  of 
their  heads  making  them  look  like  bison — and  harte- 
beest  were  somewhat  nearer,  in  a  ring  all  round  us, 
intent  upon  our  proceedings.  Four  topi  became  so 
much  interested  that  they  approached  within  two 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  and  stood  motionless.  A  buck 
tommy  came  even  closer,  and  a  zebra  trotted  by  at 
about  the  same  distance,  uttering  its  queer  bark  or 
neigh.  It  continued  its  course  past  the  rhino,  and 
started  a  new  train  of  ideas  in  the  latter's  muddled 
reptilian  brain  ;  round  it  wheeled,  gazed  after  the  zebra, 
and  then  evidently  concluded  that  everything  was 
normal,  for  it  lay  down  to  sleep. 

On  we  went,  past  a  wildebeest  herd  lying  down  ;  at 
a  distance  they  looked  exactly  like  bison  as  they  used  to 
lie  out  on  the  prairie  in  the  old  days.  We  halted  for 
an  hour  and  a  half  to  rest  the  men  and  horses,  and  took 
our  lunch  under  a  thick-trunked  olive-tree  that  must 
have  been  a  couple  of  centuries  old.  Again  we  went 
on,  ever  scanning  through  the  glasses  every  distant 
object  which  we  thought  might  possibly  be  a  lion,  and 
ever    being    disappointed,      A    serval-cat  jumped   up 


164  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

ahead  of  us  in  the  tall  grass,  but  I  missed  it.  Then, 
trotting  on  foot,  I  got  ahead  of  two  wart-hog  boars,  and 
killed  the  biggest ;  making  a  bad  initial  miss  and  then 
emptying  my  magazine  at  it  as  it  ran.  We  sent  it  in  to 
camp,  and  went  on,  following  a  donga,  or  small  water- 
course, fringed  with  big  acacias.  The  afternoon  was 
wearing  away,  and  it  was  time  for  lions  to  be  abroad. 

The  sun  was  near  the  horizon  when  Tarlton  thought 
he  saw  something  tawny  in  the  watercourse  ahead  of 
us,  behind  a  grassy  ant-hill,  toward  which  we  walked 
after  dismounting.  Some  buck  were  grazing  peacefully 
beyond  it,  and  for  a  moment  we  supposed  that  this  was 
what  he  had  seen.  But  as  we  stood,  one  of  the  porters 
behind  called  out  "  Simba  !"  and  we  caught  a  glimpse  of 
a  big  lioness  galloping  down  beside  the  trees,  just 
beyond  the  donga  ;  she  was  out  of  sight  in  an  instant. 
Mounting  our  horses,  we  crossed  the  donga  ;  she  was 
not  to  be  seen,  and  we  loped  at  a  smart  pace  parallel 
with  the  line  of  trees,  hoping  to  see  her  in  the  open. 
But,  as  it  turned  out,  as  soon  as  she  saw  us  pass,  she 
crouched  in  the  bed  of  the  donga.  We  had  gone  by  her 
a  quarter  of  a  mile  when  a  shout  from  one  of  our 
followers  announced  that  he  had  seen  her,  and  back  we 
galloped,  threw  ourselves  from  our  horses,  and  walked 
toward  where  the  man  was  pointing.  Tarlton  took  his 
big  double-barrel  and  advised  me  to  take  mine,  as  the 
sun  had  just  set  and  it  was  likely  to  be  close  work  ;  but 
I  shook  my  head,  for  the  Winchester  "405  is,  at  least 
for  me  personally,  the  "  medicine  gun  "  for  lions.  In 
another  moment  up  she  jumped,  and  galloped  slowly 
down  the  other  side  of  the  donga,  switching  her  tail 
and  growling.  I  scrambled  across  the  donga,  and  just 
before  she  went  round  a  clump  of  trees,  eighty  yards 
oif,  I  fired.     The  bullet  hit  her  fair,  and  going  forward, 


CH.  vii]  A  MASAI  KRAAL  165 

injured  her  spine.  Over  she  rolled,  growling  savagely, 
and  dragged  herself  into  the  watercourse ;  and  running 
forward,  I  finished  her  with  two  bullets  behind  the 
shoulder.  She  was  a  big,  fat  lioness,  very  old,  with 
two  cubs  inside  her  ;  her  lower  canines  were  much 
worn  and  injured.  She  was  very  heavy,  and  probably 
weighed  considerably  over  three  hundred  pounds. 

The  light  was  growing  dim,  and  the  camp  was  eight 
or  ten  miles  away.  The  porters — they  are  always  much 
excited  over  the  death  of  a  lion — wished  to  carry  the 
body  whole  to  camp,  and  I  let  them  try.  While  they 
were  lashing  it  to  a  pole  another  Hon  began  to  moan 
hungrily  half  a  mile  away.  Then  we  started ;  there 
was  no  moon,  but  the  night  was  clear,  and  we  could 
guide  ourselves  by  the  stars.  The  porters  staggered 
under  their  heavy  load,  and  we  made  slow  progress ; 
most  of  the  time  Tarlton  and  I  walked,  with  our 
double-barrels  in  our  hands,  for  it  was  a  dangerous 
neighbourhood.  Again  and  again  we  heard  lions,  and 
twice  one  accompanied  us  for  some  distance,  grunting 
occasionally,  while  we  kept  the  men  closed.  Once  the 
porters  were  thrown  into  a  panic  by  a  succession  of 
steam-engine-like  snorts  on  our  left,  which  announced 
the  immediate  proximity  of  a  rhino.  They  halted  in  a 
huddle  while  Tarlton  and  I  ran  forward  and  crouched 
to  try  to  catch  the  great  beast's  loom  against  the  sky- 
line, but  it  moved  off.  Four  miles  from  camp  was  a 
Masai  kraal,  and  we  went  toward  this  when  we  caught 
the  gleam  of  the  fires,  for  the  porters  were  getting 
exhausted. 

The  kraal  was  in  shape  a  big  oval,  with  a  thick  wall 
of  thorn-bushes,  eight  feet  high,  the  low  huts  standing 
just  within  this  wall,  while  the  cattle  and  sheep  were 
crowded  into  small   bomas   in   the   centre.     The   fires 


166  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

gleamed  here  and  there  within,  and  as  we  approached 
we  heard  the  talking  and  laughing  of  men  and  women, 
and  the  lowing  and  bleating  of  the  pent-up  herds  and 
flocks.  We  hailed  loudly,  explaining  our  needs.  At 
first  they  were  very  suspicious.  They  told  us  we  could 
not  bring  the  lion  within,  because  it  would  frighten  the 
cattle,  but  after  some  parley  consented  to  our  building 
a  fire  outside  and  skinning  the  animal.  They  passed 
two  brands  over  the  thorn  fence,  and  our  men  speedily 
kindled  a  blaze,  and  drew  the  lioness  beside  it.  By  this 
time  the  Masai  were  reassured,  and  a  score  of  their 
warriors,  followed  soon  by  half  a  dozen  women,  came 
out  through  a  small  opening  in  the  fence,  and  crowded 
close  around  the  fire,  with  boisterous,  noisy  good 
humour.  They  showed  a  tendency  to  chaff  our  porters. 
One,  the  humorist  of  the  crowd,  excited  much  merri- 
ment by  describing,  with  pantomimic  accompaniment 
of  gestures,  how  when  the  white  man  shot  a  Hon  it 
might  bite  a  Swahili,  who  thereupon  would  call  for  his 
mother.  But  they  were  entirely  friendly,  and  offered 
me  calabashes  of  milk.  The  men  were  tall,  finely- 
shaped  savages,  their  hair  plastered  with  red  mud,  and 
drawn  out  into  longish  ringlets.  They  were  naked 
except  for  a  blanket  worn,  not  round  the  loins,  but 
over  the  shoulders  ;  their  ears  were  slit,  and  from  them 
hung  bone  and  wooden  ornaments ;  they  wore  metal 
bracelets  and  anklets,  and  chains  which  passed  around 
their  necks,  or  else  over  one  side  of  the  neck  and  under 
the  opposite  arm.  The  women  had  pleasant  faces,  and 
were  laden  with  metal  ornaments — chiefly  wire  anklets, 
bracelets,  and  necklaces  —  of  many  pounds  weight. 
The  features  of  the  men  were  bold  and  clear-cut,  and 
their  bearing  warlike  and  self-reliant.  As  the  flame  of 
the  fire  glanced  over  them,  and  brought  their  faces  and 


€U.  VII]  A  FIVE  DAYS'  BAG  167 

bronze  figures  into  lurid  relief  against  the  darkness,  the 
likeness  was  striking,  not  to  the  West  Coast  negroes, 
but  to  the  engravings  on  the  tombs,  temples,  and 
palaces  of  ancient  Egypt  ;  they  might  have  been 
soldiers  in  the  armies  of  Thothmes  or  Rameses.  They 
stood  resting  on  their  long  staffs,  and  looked  at  me  as 
I  leaned  on  my  rifle  ;  and  they  laughed  and  jested  with 
their  women,  who  felt  the  lion's  teeth  and  claws  and 
laughed  back  at  the  men.  Our  gun-bearers  worked  at 
the  skinning,  and  answered  the  jests  of  their  warlike 
friends  with  the  freedom  of  men  who  themselves  followed 
a  dangerous  trade.  The  two  horses  stood  quiet  just 
outside  the  circle  ;  and  over  all  the  firelight  played  and 
leaped. 

It  was  after  ten  when  we  reached  camp,  and  I  enjoyed 
a  hot  bath  and  a  shave  before  sitting  down  to  a  supper 
of  eland  venison  and  broiled  spurfowl ;  and  surely  no 
supper  ever  tasted  more  delicious. 

Next  day  we  broke  camp.  My  bag  for  the  five  days 
illustrates  ordinary  African  shooting  in  this  part  of  the 
continent.  Of  course,  I  could  have  killed  many  other 
things ;  but  I  shot  nothing  that  was  not  absolutely 
needed,  either  for  scientific  purposes  or  for  food.  The 
skin  of  every  animal  I  shot  was  preserved  for  the 
National  Museum.  The  bag  included  fourteen  animals, 
of  ten  different  species :  one  lioness,  one  hyena,  one 
wart-hog  boar,  two  zebra,  two  eland,  one  wildebeest, 
two  topi,  two  impalla,  one  Roberts'  gazelle,  one 
Thomson's  gazelle.  Except  the  lioness  and  one  impalla 
(both  of  which  I  shot  running),  all  were  shot  at  rather 
long  ranges  ;  seven  were  shot  standing,  two  walking, 
five  running.  The  average  distance  at  which  they  were 
shot  was  a  little  over  two  hundred  and  twenty  yards. 
I  used  sixty-five  cartridges — an  amount  which  will  seem 


168  TREKKING  [ch.  vii 

excessive  chiefly  to  those  who  are  not  accustomed 
actually  to  count  the  cartridges  they  expend,  to  measure 
the  distances  at  which  they  fire,  and  to  estimate  for 
themselves  the  range,  on  animals  in  the  field  when  they 
are  standing  or  running  a  good  way  off.  Only  one 
wounded  animal  got  away ;  and  eight  of  the  animals  I 
shot  had  to  be  finished  with  one  bullet — two  in  the  case 
of  the  lioness — as  they  lay  on  the  ground.  Many  of  the 
cartridges  expended  really  represented  range-finding. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK 

Our  next  camp  was  in  the  middle  of  the  vast  plains, 
by  some  limestone  springs,  at  one  end  of  a  line  of  dark 
acacias.  There  were  rocky  koppies  two  or  three  miles 
off  on  either  hand.  From  the  tents  and  white-topped 
waggons  we  could  see  the  game  grazing  on  the  open 
flats  or  among  the  scattered  wizened  thorns.  The  skies 
were  overcast  and  the  nights  cool.  In  the  evenings  the 
camp-fires  blazed  in  front  of  the  tents,  and  after  supper 
we  gathered  round  them,  talking  or  sitting  silently,  or 
listening  to  Kermit  strumming  on  his  mandolin. 

The  day  after  reaching  this  camp  we  rode  out,  hoping 
to  get  either  rhino  or  giraffe.  We  needed  additional 
specimens  of  both  for  the  naturalists,  who  especially 
wanted  cow  giraffes.  It  was  cloudy  and  cool,  and  the 
common  game  was  shy.  Though  we  needed  meat,  I 
could  not  get  within  fair  range  of  the  wildebeest,  harte- 
beest,  topi,  or  big  gazelle.  However,  I  killed  a  couple 
of  tommies,  one  by  a  good  shot,  the  other  running,  after 
1  had  missed  him  in  rather  scandalous  fashion  while  he 
was  standing. 

An  hour  or  two  after  leaving  the  tents  we  made  out 
on  the  sky-line,  a  couple  of  miles  to  our  left,  some 
objects  which  scrutiny  showed  to  be  giraffe.  After 
coming  within  a  mile  the  others  halted,  and   I    rode 

169 


170  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK      [ch.  viii 

ahead  on  the  tranquil  sorrel,  heading  for  a  point  toward 
which  the  giraffe  were  walking.  Stalking  was  an  im- 
possibihty,  and  I  was  prepared  either  to  manoeuvre  for 
a  shot  on  foot  or  to  ride  them,  as  circumstances  might 
determine.  I  carried  the  little  Springfield,  being  desirous 
of  testing  the  small,  solid,  sharp-pointed  army  bullet  on 
the  big  beasts.  As  I  rode,  a  wildebeest  bull  played 
around  me  within  two  hundred  yards,  prancing,  flourish- 
ing his  tail,  tossing  his  head,  and  uttering  his  grunting 
bellow.  It  almost  seemed  as  if  he  knew  I  would  not 
shoot  at  him,  or  as  if  for  the  moment  he  had  been 
infected  with  the  absurd  tameness  which  the  giraffe 
showed. 

There  were  seven  giraffes,  a  medium-sized  bull,  four 
cows,  and  two  young  ones ;  and,  funnily  enough,  the 
young  ones  were  by  far  the  shyest  and  most  suspicious. 
I  did  not  want  to  kill  a  bull  unless  it  was  exceptionally 
large ;  w^hereas  I  did  want  two  cows  and  a  young  one 
for  the  Museum.  When  quarter  of  a  mile  away  I  dis- 
mounted, threw  the  reins  over  Tranquillity's  head — 
whereat  the  good  placid  old  fellow  at  once  began 
grazing — and  walked  diagonally  toward  the  biggest 
cow,  which  was  ahead  of  the  others.  The  tall,  hand- 
some, ungainly  creatures  were  nothing  like  as  shy  as 
the  smaller  game  had  shown  themselves  that  morning, 
and,  of  course,  they  offered  such  big  targets  that  three 
hundred  yards  was  a  fair  range  for  them.  At  two 
hundred  and  sixty  yards  I  fired  at  the  big  cow  as  she 
stood  almost  facing  me,  twisting  and  curling  her  tail. 
The  bullet  struck  fair,  and  she  was  off  at  a  hurried, 
clumsy  gallop.  I  gave  her  another  bullet,  but  it  was 
not  necessary,  and  down  she  went.  The  second  cow,  a 
fine  young  heifer,  was  now  cantering  across  my  front, 
and  with  two  more  shots  I  got  her,  the  sharp-pointed 


i^. 


-vr?«- 


Giraffe  at  home 
Frov!  photographs  hy  Kermit  Roosevelt 


CH.  viii]       TAMENESS  OF  GIRAFFES  171 

bullets  penetrating  well,   and  not   splitting  into  frag- 
ments, but  seeming  to  cause  a  rending  shock. 

I  met  with  much  more  difficulty  in  trying  to  kill  the 
young  one  I  needed.  I  walked  and  trotted  a  mile  after 
the  herd.  The  old  ones  showed  little  alarm,  standing 
again  and  again  to  look  at  me.  Finally  I  shot  one  of 
the  two  young  ones,  at  four  hundred  and  ten  long  paces, 
while  a  cow  stood  much  nearer,  and  the  bull  only  three 
hundred  yards  off.  But  this  was  not  all.  The  four 
survivors  did  not  leave  even  after  such  an  experience, 
but  stayed  in  the  plain,  not  far  off,  for  several  hours, 
and  thereby  gave  Kermit  a  chance  to  do  something 
much  better  worth  while  than  shooting  them.  His 
shoulder  was  sore,  and  he  did  not  wish  to  use  a  rifle, 
and  so  was  devoting  himself  to  his  camera,  which  one 
of  his  men  always  carried.  With  this,  after  the  exercise 
of  much  patience,  he  finally  managed  to  take  a  number 
of  pictures  of  the  giraffe,  getting  within  fifty  yards  of 
the  bull. 

Nor  were  the  giraffes  the  only  animals  that  showed  a 
tameness  bordering  on  stupidity.  Soon  afterward  we 
made  out  three  rhino,  a  mile  away.  They  were  out  in 
the  bare  plain,  alternately  grazing  and  enjoying  a  noon- 
tide rest ;  the  bull  by  himself,  the  cow  with  her  calf  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  off.  There  was  not  a  scrap  of  cover, 
but  we  walked  up  wind  to  within  a  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  of  the  bull.  Even  then  he  did  not  seem  to  see  us, 
but  the  tick-birds,  which  were  clinging  to  his  back  and 
sides,  gave  the  alarm,  and  he  trotted  to  and  fro,  un- 
certain as  to  the  cause  of  the  disturbance.  If  Heller 
had  not  had  his  hands  full  with  the  giraffes  I  might 
have  shot  the  bull  rhino  ;  but  his  horn  and  bulk  of  body, 
though  fair,  were  not  remarkable,  and  I  did  not  molest 
him      He  went  toward  the  cow,  which  left  her  calf  and 


172  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK      [ch.  viii 

advanced  toward  him  in  distinctly  bellicose  style  ;  then 
she  recognized  him,  her  calf  trotted  up,  and  the  three 
animals  stood  together,  tossing  their  heads,  and  evi- 
dently trying  to  make  out  what  was  near  them.  But 
we  were  down  wind,  and  they  do  not  see  well,  with  their 
little  twinkling  pig's  eyes.  We  were  anxious  not  to  be 
charged  by  the  cow  and  calf,  as  her  horn  was  very  poor, 
and  it  would  have  been  unpleasant  to  be  obliged  to 
shoot  her,  and  so  we  drew  off. 

Next  day,  when  Kermit  and  I  were  out  alone  with 
our  gun-bearers,  we  saw  another  rhino,  a  bull,  with  a 
stubby  horn.  This  rhino,  like  the  others  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood, was  enjoying  his  noonday  rest  in  the  open, 
miles  from  cover.  "Look  at  him,"  said  Kermit, 
'*  standing  there  in  the  middle  of  the  African  plain, 
deep  in  prehistoric  thought."  Indeed  the  rhinoceros 
does  seem  like  a  survival  from  the  elder  world  that  has 
vanished  ;  he  was  in  place  in  the  Pliocene  Age  ;  he  would 
not  have  been  out  of  place  in  the  Miocene  ;  but  nowadays 
he  can  only  exist  at  all  in  regions  that  have  lagged 
behind,  while  the  rest  of  the  world,  for  good  or  for  evil, 
has  gone  forward.  Like  other  beasts,  rhinos  differ  in 
habits  in  different  places.  This  prehensile-lipped  species 
is  everywhere  a  browser,  feeding  on  the  twigs  and  leaves 
of  the  bushes  and  low  trees ;  but  in  their  stomachs  I 
have  found  long  grass  stems  mixed  with  the  twig  tips 
and  leaves  of  stunted  bush.  In  some  regions  they  live 
entirely  in  rather  thick  bush ;  whereas  on  the  plains 
over  which  we  were  hunting  the  animals  haunted  the 
open  by  preference,  feeding  through  thin  bush,  where 
they  were  visible  miles  away,  and  usually  taking  their 
rest,  either  standing  or  lying,  out  on  the  absolutely  bare 
plains.  They  drank  at  the  small  shallow  rain  pools, 
seemingly  once  every  twenty -four  hours ;  and  I   saw 


CH.  VIII]  WILDEBEEST  173 

one  going  to  water  at  noon,  and  otliers  just  at  dark ; 
and  their  hours  for  feeding  and  resting  were  also  irregular, 
though  they  were  apt  to  lie  down  or  stand  motionless 
during  the  middle  of  the  day.  Doubtless  in  very  hot 
weather  they  prefer  to  rest  under  a  tree ;  but  we  were 
hunting  in  cool  weather,  during  which  they  paid  no 
heed  whatever  to  the  sun.  Their  sight  is  veiy  bad, 
their  scent  and  hearing  acute. 

On  this  day  Kermit  was  shooting  from  his  left 
shoulder,  and  did  very  well,  killing  a  fine  Roberts' 
gazelle  and  three  topi.  I  also  shot  a  topi  bull,  as  Heller 
wished  a  good  series  for  the  National  Museum.  The 
topi  and  wildebeest  1  shot  were  all  killed  at  long  range, 
the  average  distance  for  the  first  shot  being  over  three 
hundred  and  fifty  yards ;  and  in  the  Sotik,  where 
hunters  were  few,  the  game  seemed  if  anything  shyer 
than  on  the  Athi  plains,  where  hunters  were  many. 
But  there  were  wide  and  inexplicable  differences  in  this 
respect  among  the  animals  of  the  same  species.  One 
day  I  wished  to  get  a  doe  tommy  for  the  Museum.  I 
saw  scores,  but  they  were  all  too  shy  to  let  me  approach 
within  shot,  yet  four  times  I  passed  within  eighty  yards 
of  bucks  of  the  same  species  which  paid  hardly  any  heed 
to  me.  Another  time  I  walked  for  five  minutes  along- 
side a  big  party  of  Roberts'  gazelles,  within  a  hundred 
and  fifty  yards,  trying  in  vain  to  pick  out  a  buck  worth 
shooting  ;  half  an  hour  afterward  1  came  on  another 
party  which  contained  such  a  buck,  but  they  would  not 
let  me  get  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile. 

Wildebeest  are  usually  the  shyest  of  all  game.  Each 
herd  has  its  own  recognized  beat,  to  which  it  ordinarily 
keeps.  Near  this  camp  there  was  a  herd  almost  always 
to  be  found  somewhere  near  the  southern  end  of  a  big 
hill  two   miles   east   of  us  ;  while  a  solitary  bull  was 


174  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK      [ch.  yiii 

invariably  seen  around  the  base  of  a  small  hill  a  couple 
of  miles  south-west  of  us.  The  latter  was  usually  in 
the  company  of  a  mixed  herd  of  Roberts'  and  Thomson's 
gazelles.  Here,  as  everywhere,  we  found  the  different 
species  of  game  associating  freely  with  one  another. 
One  little  party  interested  us  much.  It  consisted  of 
two  Roberts'  bucks,  two  Roberts'  does,  and  one  Thom- 
son's doe,  which  was  evidently  a  maitresse  fevnne^  of 
strongly  individualized  character.  The  four  big  gazelles 
had  completely  surrendered  their  judgment  to  that  of 
the  little  tommy  doe.  She  was  the  acknowledged 
leader :  when  she  started  they  started  and  followed  in 
whatever  direction  she  led ;  when  she  stopped  they 
stopped  ;  if  she  found  a  given  piece  of  pasture  good, 
upon  it  they  grazed  contentedly.  Around  this  camp 
the  topi  were  as  common  as  hartebeest ;  they  might  be 
found  singly,  or  in  small  parties,  perhaps  merely  of  a 
bull,  a  cow,  and  a  calf;  or  they  might  be  mixed  with 
zebra,  wildebeest,  and  hartebeest.  Like  the  hartebeest, 
but  less  frequently,  they  would  mount  ant-hills  to  get 
a  better  look  over  the  country.  The  wildebeest  were 
extraordinarily  tenacious  of  life,  and  the  hartebeest  and 
topi  only  less  so.  I  more  than  once  had  sharp  runs  on 
horseback  after  wounded  individuals  of  all  three  kinds. 
On  one  occasion  I  wounded  a  wildebeest  bull  a  couple 
of  miles  from  camp.  I  was  riding  my  zebra-shaped  brown 
pony,  who  galloped  well ;  and  after  a  sharp  run  through 
the  bush  I  overhauled  the  wildebeest ;  but  when  I 
jumped  off,  the  pony  bolted  for  camp,  and  as  he 
disappeared  in  one  direction  my  game  disappeared  in 
the  other. 

At  last  a  day  came  when  I  saw  a  rhino  with  a  big 
body  and  a  good  horn.  We  had  been  riding  for  a 
couple  of  hours  ;  the  game  was  all  around  us.     Two 


CH.  viii]  A  FINE  RHINOCEROS  175 

giraffes  stared  at  us  with  silly  curiosity  rather  than 
alarm  ;  twice  I  was  within  range  of  the  bigger  one.  At 
last  Bakhari,  the  gun-bearer,  pointed  to  a  grey  mass  on 
the  plain,  and  a  glance  through  the  glasses  showed  that 
it  was  a  rhino  lying  asleep  with  his  legs  doubled  under 
him.  He  proved  to  be  a  big  bull,  with  a  front  horn 
nearly  twenty-six  inches  long.  I  was  anxious  to  try  the 
sharp -pointed  bullets  of  the  little  Springfield  rifle  on 
him ;  and  Cuninghame  and  I,  treading  cautiously, 
walked  up  wind  straight  toward  him,  our  horses  follow- 
ing a  hundred  yards  behind.  He  was  waked  by  the 
tick- birds,  and  twisted  his  head  to  and  fro,  but  at  first 
did  not  seem  to  hear  us,  although  looking  in  our 
direction.  When  we  were  a  hundred  yards  off  he 
rose  and  faced  us,  huge  and  threatening,  head  up  and 
tail  erect.  But  he  lacked  heart  after  all.  I  fired  into 
his  throat,  and,  instead  of  charging,  he  whipped  round 
and  was  off  at  a  gallop,  immediately  disappearing  over 
a  slight  rise.  We  ran  back  to  our  horses,  mounted, 
and  galloped  after  him.  He  had  a  long  start,  and, 
though  evidently  feeling  his  wound,  was  going  strong, 
and  it  was  some  time  before  we  overtook  him.  I 
tried  to  gallop  alongside,  but  he  kept  swerving ;  so, 
jumping  off  (fortunately,  I  was  riding  Tranquillity), 
I  emptied  the  magazine  at  his  quarters  and  flank. 
Rapid  galloping  does  not  tend  to  promote  accuracy 
of  aim ;  the  rhino  went  on,  and,  remounting,  I  fol- 
lowed, overtook  him,  and  repeated  the  performance. 
This  time  he  wheeled  and  faced  round,  evidently  with 
the  intention  of  charging ;  but  a  bullet  straight  in  his 
chest  took  all  the  fight  out  of  him,  and  he  continued 
his  flight.  But  his  race  was  evidently  run,  and  when  I 
next  overtook  him  I  brought  him  down.  I  had  put 
nine  bullets  into  him,  and  though  they  had  done  their 


176  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK     [ch.  viii 

work  well,  and  I  was  pleased  to  have  killed  the  huge 
brute  with  the  little  sharp-pointed  bullets  of  the  Spring- 
field,  I  was  confirmed  in  my  judgment  that  for  me 
personally  the  big  Holland  rifle  was  the  best  weapon  for 
heavy  game,  although  I  did  not  care  as  much  for  it 
against  lighter-bodied  beasts  like  lions.  In  all  we 
galloped  four  miles  after  this  wounded  rhino  bull. 

We  sent  a  porter  to  bring  out  Heller,  and  an  ox- 
waggon  on  which  to  take  the  skin  to  camp.  While 
waiting  for  them  I  killed  a  topi  bull,  at  two  hundred  and 
sixty  yards,  with  one  bullet,  and  a  wildebeest  bull  with 
a  dozen.  I  crippled  him  with  my  first  shot  at  three 
hundred  and  sixty  yards,  and  then  walked  and  trotted 
after  him  a  couple  of  miles,  getting  running  and  stand- 
ing shots  at  from  three  hundred  to  five  hundred  yards. 
I  hit  him  several  times.  As  with  everything  else  I  shot, 
the  topi  and  wildebeest  were  preserved  as  specimens  for 
the  Museum,  and  their  flesh  used  for  food.  Our  porters 
had  much  to  do,  and  they  did  it  well,  partly  because 
they  were  fed  well.  We  killed  no  game  of  which  we 
did  not  make  the  fullest  use.  It  would  be  hard  to 
convey  to  those  who  have  not  seen  it  on  the  ground  an 
accurate  idea  of  its  abundance.  When  I  was  walking 
up  to  this  rhino,  there  were  in  sight  two  giraffes,  several 
wildebeest  bulls,  and  herds  of  hartebeest,  topi,  zebra, 
and  the  big  and  little  gazelles. 

In  addition  to  being  a  mighty  hunter,  and  an  adept 
in  the  by  no  means  easy  work  of  handling  a  large  safari 
in  the  wilderness,  Cuninghame  was  also  a  good  field 
naturalist  and  taxidermist,  and  at  this  camp  we  got  so 
many  specimens  that  he  was  obliged  to  spend  most  of 
his  time  helping  Heller  ;  and  they  pressed  into  the  work 
at  times  even  Tarlton.  Accordingly,  Kermit  and  I 
generally   went   off   by   ourselves,   either  together   or 


CH.  viii]     SPEED  OF  THE  CHEETAH  177 

separately.  Once,  however,  Kermit  went  with  Tarlton, 
and  was,  as  usual,  lucky  with  cheetahs,  killing  two. 
Tarlton  was  an  accomplished  elephant,  buffalo,  and 
rhino  hunter,  but  he  preferred  the  chase  of  the  lion  to 
all  other  kinds  of  sport ;  and  if  lions  were  not  to  be 
found,  he  liked  to  follow  anything  else  after  which  he 
could  gallop  on  horseback.  Kermit  was  also  a  good 
and  hard  rider.  On  this  occasion  they  found  a  herd  of 
eland,  and  galloped  into  it.  The  big  bull  they  over- 
hauled at  once,  but  saw  that  his  horns  were  poor  and 
left  him.  Then  they  followed  a  fine  cow,  with  an 
unusually  good  head.  She  started  at  a  rattling  pace, 
and  once  leaped  clear  over  another  cow  that  got  in  her 
way  ;  but  they  rode  into  her  after  a  mile's  smart  gallop 
— not  a  racing  gallop  by  any  means — and  after  that  she 
was  as  manageable  as  a  tame  ox.  Cantering  and  trotting 
within  thirty  yards  of  her  on  either  quarter,  they  drove 
her  toward  camp  ;  but  when  it  was  still  three-quarters 
of  a  mile  distant  they  put  up  a  cheetah,  and  tore  after 
it ;  and  they  overtook  and  killed  it  just  before  it  reached 
cover.  A  cheetah  with  a  good  start  can  only  be  over- 
taken by  hard  running.  This  one  behaved  just  as  did 
the  others  they  ran  down.  For  a  quarter  of  a  mile  no 
animal  in  the  world  has  a  cheetah's  speed  ;  but  he 
cannot  last.  When  chased  the  cheetahs  did  not  sprint, 
but  contented  themselves  with  galloping  ahead  of  the 
horses.  At  first  they  could  easily  keep  their  distance, 
but  after  a  mile  or  two  their  strength  and  wind  gave 
out,  and  then  they  always  crouched  flat  to  the  earth, 
and  were  shot  without  their  making  any  attempt  to 
charge.  But  a  wart-hog  boar  which  Kermit  ran  down 
the  same  day  and  shot  with  his  revolver  did  charge,  and 
wickedly. 

While  running  one  of  his  cheetahs,  Kermit  put  up 

12 


178  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK       [ch.  viii 

two  old  wildebeest  bulls,  and  they  joined  in  the  pro- 
cession, looking  as  if  they  too  were  pursuing  the  cheetah. 
The  cheetah  ran  first ;  the  two  bulls,  bounding  and 
switching  their  tails,  came  next ;  and  Kermit,  racing  in 
the  rear,  gained  steadily.  Wildebeest  are  the  oddest 
in  nature  and  conduct,  and  in  many  ways  the  most 
interesting,  of  all  antelopes.  There  is  in  their  temper 
something  queer,  fiery,  eccentric,  and  their  actions  are 
abrupt  and  violent.  A  single  bull  will  stand  motionless, 
with  head  raised  to  stare  at  an  intruder  until  the  latter 
is  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off;  then  down  goes  his  head,  his 
tail  is  lashed  up  and  around,  and  off  he  gallops,  plunging, 
kicking,  and  shaking  his  head.  He  may  go  straight 
away,  he  may  circle  round,  or  even  approach  nearer  to 
the  intruder ;  and  then  he  halts  again  to  stare  motion- 
less, and  perhaps  to  utter  his  grunt  of  alarm  and 
defiance.  A  herd,  when  approached,  after  fixed  staring, 
will  move  off,  perhaps  at  a  canter.  Soon  the  leaders 
make  a  half-wheel,  and  lead  their  followers  in  a  semi- 
circle ;  suddenly  a  couple  of  old  bulls  leave  the  rest, 
and  at  a  tearing  gallop  describe  a  semicircle  in  exactly 
the  opposite  direction,  racing  by  their  comrades  as  these 
canter  the  other  way.  With  one  accord  the  whole 
troop  may  then  halt  and  stare  again  at  the  object  they 
suspect ;  then  off  they  all  go  at  a  headlong  run,  kicking 
and  bucking,  tearing  at  full  speed  in  one  direction,  then 
suddenly  wheeling  in  semicircles  so  abrupt  as  to  be 
almost  zigzags,  the  dust  flying  in  clouds  ;  and  two  bulls 
may  suddenly  drop  to  their  knees,  and  for  a  moment 
or  two  fight  furiously  in  their  own  peculiar  fashion. 
By  careful  stalking,  Kermit  got  some  good  pictures  of 
the  wildebeest,  in  spite  of  their  wariness.  Like  other 
game,  they  seem  most  apt  to  lie  down  during  the  heat 
of  the  day ;  but  they  may  lie  down  at  night  too.     At 


Wildebeest  at  home 

Two  bulls  may  suddenly  drop  to  their  knees  and  for  a  moment  or  two  fight  furiously 

From  />/wt0graJ>/is  by  Kcrniit  Roosevelt 


CH.  viii]        A  LARGE  COW  RHINO  179 

any  rate,  I  noticed  one  herd  of  hartebeest  which,  after 
feeding  through  the  late  afternoon,  lay  down  at 
nightfall. 

After  getting  the  bull  rhino,  Heller  needed  a  cow 
and  calf  to  complete  the  group  ;  and  Kermit  and  I  got 
him  what  he  needed  one  day  when  we  were  out  alone 
with  our  gun-bearers.  About  the  middle  of  the  fore- 
noon we  made  out  the  huge  grey  bulk  of  the  rhino, 
standing  in  the  bare  plain,  with  not  so  much  as  a  bush 
two  feet  high  within  miles ;  and  we  soon  also  made  out 
her  calf  beside  her.  Getting  the  wind  right,  we  rode 
up  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile,  and  then  dismounted  and 
walked  slowly  toward  her.  It  seemed  impossible  that 
on  that  bare  plain  we  could  escape  even  her  dull  vision, 
for  she  stood  with  her  head  in  our  direction ;  yet  she 
did  not  see  us,  and  actually  lay  down  as  we  walked 
toward  her.  Careful  examination  through  the  glasses 
showed  that  she  was  an  unusually  big  cow,  with  thick 
horns  of  fair  length — twenty-three  inches  and  thirteen 
inches  respectively.  Accordingly  we  proceeded,  making 
as  little  noise  as  possible.  At  fifty  yards  she  made  us 
out,  and  jumped  to  her  feet  with  unwieldy  agility. 
Kneeling,  I  sent  the  bullet  from  the  heavy  Holland  just 
in  front  of  her  right  shoulder  as  she  half  faced  me.  It 
went  through  her  vitals,  lodging  behind  the  opposite 
shoulder  ;  and  at  once  she  began  the  curious  death  waltz 
which  is  often,  though  by  no  means  always,  the  sign  of 
immediate  dissolution  in  a  mortally  wounded  rhino. 
Kermit  at  once  put  a  bullet  from  his  Winchester  behind 
her  shoulder,  for  it  is  never  safe  to  take  chances  with  a 
rhino ;  and  we  shot  the  calf,  which  when  dying  uttered 
a  screaming  whistle  almost  like  that  of  a  small  steam- 
engine.  In  a  few  seconds  both  fell,  and  we  walked  up 
to  them,  examined  them,  and  then  continued  our  ride, 


180  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK       [ch.  viii 

sending  in  a  messenger  to  bring  Cuninghame,  Heller, 
and  an  ox-waggon  to  the  carcasses. 

The  stomach  of  this  rhino  contained  some  grass  stems 
and  blades,  some  leaves  and  twig  tips  of  bushes,  but 
chiefly  the  thick,  thorny,  fleshy  leaves  of  a  kind  of 
Euphorbia.  As  the  juice  of  the  euphorbia's  cactus-like 
leaves  is  acrid  enough  to  blister — not  to  speak  of  the 
thorns — this  suffices  to  show  what  a  rhino's  palate 
regards  as  agreeably  stimulating.  This  species  of  rhino, 
by  the  way,  affords  a  curious  illustration  of  how  blind 
many  men  who  live  much  of  their  lives  outdoors  may 
be  to  facts  which  stare  them  in  the  face.  For  years 
most  South  African  hunters,  and  most  naturalists, 
believed  in  the  existence  of  two  species  of  prehensile- 
lipped,  or  so-called  "  black,"  rhinoceros :  one  with  the 
front  horn  much  the  longer,  one  with  the  rear  horn  at 
least  equal  to  the  front.  It  was  Selous,  a  singularly 
clear-sighted  and  keen  observer,  who  first  proved  con- 
clusively that  the  difference  was  purely  imaginary. 
Now,  the  curious  thing  is  that  these  experienced 
hunters  usually  attributed  entirely  different  tempera- 
ments to  these  two  imaginary  species.  The  first  kind, 
that  with  the  long  front  horn,  they  described  as  a 
miracle  of  dangerous  ferocity,  and  the  second  as  com- 
paratively mild  and  inoffensive ;  and  these  veterans 
(Drummond  is  an  instance)  persuaded  themselves  that 
this  was  true,  although  they  were  writing  in  each  case 
of  identically  the  same  animal ! 

After  leaving  the  dead  rhinos  we  rode  for  several 
miles,  over  a  plain  dotted  with  game,  and  took  our 
lunch  at  the  foot  of  a  big  range  of  hills,  by  a  rapid  little 
brook,  running  under  a  fringe  of  shady  thorns.  Then 
we  rode  back  to  camp.  Lines  of  zebras  filed  past  on  the 
horizon.      Ostriches   fled   while  we  were   yet   far   off*. 


CH.  viii]        COLOURING  OF  GAME  181 

Topi,  hartebeest,  wildebeest,  and  gazelle  gazed  at  us  as 
we  rode  by,  the  sunlight  throwing  their  shapes  and 
colours  into  bold  relief  against  the  parched  brown  grass. 
I  had  an  hour  to  myself  after  reaching  camp,  and  spent 
it  with  Lowell's  "  Essays."  I  doubt  whether  any  man 
takes  keener  enjoyment  in  the  wilderness  than  he  who 
also  keenly  enjoys  many  other  sides  of  life  ;  just  as  no 
man  can  relish  books  more  than  some  at  least  of  those 
who  also  love  horse  and  rifle  and  the  winds  that  blow 
across  lonely  plains  and  through  the  gorges  of  the 
mountains. 

Next  morning  a  lion  roared  at  dawn  so  near  camp 
that  we  sallied  forth  after  him.  We  did  not  find  him, 
but  we  enjoyed  our  three  hours'  ride  through  the  fresh 
air  before  breakfast,  with  game,  as  usual,  on  every  hand. 
Some  of  the  animals  showed  tameness,  some  wild- 
ness,  the  difference  being  not  between  species  and 
species,  but  between  given  individuals  of  almost  every 
species.  While  we  were  absent  two  rhinos  passed  close 
by  camp,  and  stopped  to  stare  curiously  at  it  ;  we  saw 
them  later  as  they  trotted  away,  but  their  horns  were 
not  good  enough  to  tempt  us. 

At  a  distance  the  sunlight  plays  pranks  with  the 
colouring  of  the  animals.  Cock  ostriches  always  show 
jet  black,  and  are  visible  at  a  greater  distance  than  any 
of  the  common  game ;  the  neutral  tint  of  the  hens 
making  them  far  less  conspicuous.  Both  cocks  and 
hens  are  very  wary,  sharp-sighted,  and  hard  to  approach. 
Next  to  the  cock  ostrich  in  conspicuousness  comes  the 
wildebeest,  because  it  shows  black  in  most  lights ;  yet 
when  headed  away  from  the  onlooker,  the  sun  will  often 
make  the  backs  of  a  herd  look  whitish  in  the  distance. 
Wildebeest  are  warier  than  most  other  game.  Round 
this  camp  the  topi  were  as  tame  as  the  hartebeest ;  they 


182  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK        [ch.  viii 

look  very  dark  in  most  lights,  only  less  dark  than  the 
wildebeest,   and  so  are  also  conspicuous.     The   harte- 
beest  change  from  a  deep  brown  to  a  light  foxy  red, 
according  to  the  way  they  stand  toward  the  sun  ;  and 
when  a  herd  was  feeding  away  from  us,  their  white 
sterns  showed  when  a  very  long  way  off.     The  zebra's 
stripes  cease  to  be  visible  after   he   is  three  hundred 
yards  off,  but  in  many  lights  he  glistens  white  in  the 
far  distance,  and  is  then  very  conspicuous.    On  this  day 
I  came  across  a  mixed  herd  of  zebra  and  eland  in  thin 
bush,  and  when  still  a  long  way  off  the  zebras  caught 
the  eye,   while   their   larger   companions   were   as  yet 
hardly  to    be    made   out   without   field-glasses.      The 
gazelles  usually  show  as  sandy-coloured,  and  are  there- 
fore rather  less  conspicuous  than  the  others  when  still ; 
but  they  are  constantly  in  motion,  and  in  some  lights 
show  up  as  almost  white.     When  they  are  far  off  the 
sun-rays  may  make  any  of  these  animals  look  very  dark 
or  very  light.     In  fact,  all  of  them  are  conspicuous  at 
long  distances,  and  none  of  them  make  any  effort  to 
escape  observation,  as  do  certain  kinds  that  haunt  dense 
bush  and  forest.     But  constant  allowance  must  be  made 
for  the  wide  variations  among  individuals.     Ordinarily 
tommies   are   the   tamest   of  the   game,  with  the   big- 
gazelle  and  the   zebra   next ;   but   no   two   herds  will 
behave  alike.     I  have  seen  a  wildebeest  bull  look  at 
me  motionless  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  while 
the  zebras,  tommies,  and  big  gazelles  which  were   his 
companions  fled  in  panic  ;  and  I  left  him  still  standing, 
as  I  walked  after  the  gazelles,  to  kill  a  buck  for  the 
table.     The  game  is   usually  sensitive   to  getting  the 
hunter's  wind ;  but  on  these  plains  I  have  again  and 
again  seen  game  stand  looking  at  us  within  fairly  close 
range  to  leeward,  and  yet  on  the  same  day  seen  the 


CH.  viii]  RUBBING-POSTS  183 

same  kind  of  game  flee  in  mad  fright  when  twice  the 
distance  to  windward.  Sometimes  there  are  inexpHcable 
variations  between  the  conduct  of  beasts  in  one  locaHty 
and  in  another.  In  East  Africa  the  hyenas  seem  only 
occasionally  to  crunch  the  long  bones  of  the  biggest 
dead  animals ;  whereas  Cuninghame,  who  pointed  out 
this  fact  to  me,  stated  that  in  South  Africa  the  hyenas, 
of  the  same  kind,  always  crunched  up  the  big  bones, 
eating  both  the  marrow  and  fragments  of  the  bone 
itself. 

Now  and  then  the  game  will  choose  a  tree  as  a 
rubbing-post,  and  if  it  is  small  will  entirely  destroy  the 
tree ;  and  I  have  seen  them  use  for  the  same  purpose 
an  oddly-shaped  stone,  one  corner  of  which  they  had 
worn  quite  smooth.  They  have  stamping-grounds, 
small  patches  of  bare  earth  from  which  they  have 
removed  even  the  roots  of  the  grass  and  bushes  by  the 
trampling  of  their  hoofs,  leaving  nothing  but  a  pool  of 
dust.  One  evening  I  watched  some  zebras  stringing 
slowly  along  in  a  line  which  brought  them  past  a  couple 
of  these  stamping-grounds.  As  they  came  in  succession 
to  each  bare  place  half  the  herd,  one  after  another,  lay 
down  and  rolled  to  and  fro,  sending  up  spurts  of  dust  so 
thick  that  the  animal  was  hidden  from  sight ;  while 
perhaps  a  companion,  which  did  not  roll,  stood  near  by, 
seemingly  to  enjoy  the  dust. 

On  this  same  evening  we  rode  campward  facing  a 
wonderful  sunset.  The  evening  was  lowering  and  over- 
cast. The  darkening  plains  stretched  dim  and  vague 
into  the  far  distance.  The  sun  went  down  under  a 
frowning  sky,  behind  shining  sheets  of  rain,  and  it 
turned  their  radiance  to  an  angry  splendour  of  gold  and 
murky  crimson. 

At  this  camp  the  pretty  little  Livingstone's  wheatears 


184  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK        [ch.  viii 

or  chats  were  very  familiar,  flitting  within  a  few  yards 
of  the  tents.  They  were  the  earhest  birds  to  sing.  Just 
before  our  eyes  could  distinguish  the  first  faint  streak  of 
dawn,  first  one  and  then  another  of  them  would  begin 
to  sing,  apparently  either  on  the  ground  or  in  the  air, 
until  there  was  a  chorus  of  their  sweet  music.  Then 
they  were  silent  again  until  the  sun  was  about  to  rise. 
We  always  heard  them  when  we  made  a  very  early 
start  to  hunt.  By  the  way,  with  the  game  of  the  plains 
and  the  thin  bush,  we  found  that  nothing  was  gained 
by  getting  out  early  in  the  morning  ;  we  were  quite  as 
likely  to  get  what  we  wanted  in  the  evening,  or,  indeed, 
at  high  noon. 

The  last  day  at  this  camp  Kermit,  Tarlton,  and  I 
spent  on  a  twelve-hour  lion  hunt.  I  opened  the  day 
inauspiciously,  close  to  camp,  by  missing  a  zebra,  which 
we  wished  for  the  porters.  Then  Kermit,  by  a  good 
shot,  killed  a  tommy  buck  with  the  best  head  we  had 
yet  got.  Early  in  the  afternoon  we  reached  our  objec- 
tive— some  high  koppies,  broken  by  cliffs  and  covered 
with  brush.  There  were  klipspringers  on  these  koppies 
— little  rock-loving  antelopes,  with  tiny  hoofs  and  queer 
brittle  hair  ;  they  are  marvellous  jumpers,  and  continu- 
ally utter  a  bleating  whistle.  I  broke  the  neck  of  one 
as  it  ran  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards  ;  but 
the  shot  was  a  fluke,  and  did  not  make  amends  for  the 
way  I  had  missed  the  zebra  in  the  morning.  Among 
the  thick  brush  on  these  hills  were  huge  euphorbias, 
aloes  bearing  masses  of  orange  flowers,  and  a  cactus-like 
ground  plant  with  pretty  pink  blossoms.  All  kinds  of 
game  from  the  plains,  even  rhino,  had  wandered  over 
these  hill-tops. 

But  what  especially  interested  us  was  that  we  im- 
mediately found  fresh  beds  of  lions,  and  one  regular 


CH.  viii]  A  DIFFICULT  SHOT  185 

lair.  Again  and  again,  as  we  beat  cautiously  through 
the  bushes,  the  rank  smell  of  the  beasts  smote  our 
nostrils.  At  last,  as  we  sat  at  the  foot  of  one  koppie, 
Kermit  spied  through  his  glasses  a  lion  on  the  side  of 
the  koppie  opposite,  the  last  and  biggest,  and  up  it  we 
climbed.  On  the  very  summit  was  a  mass  of  cleft  and 
broken  boulders,  and  while  on  these  Kermit  put  up  two 
lions  from  the  bushes  which  crowded  beneath  them. 
I  missed  a  running  shot  at  the  lioness  as  she  made  off 
through  the  brush.  He  probably  hit  the  lion,  and  very 
cautiously,  with  rifles  at  the  ready,  we  beat  through  the 
thick  cover  in  hopes  of  finding  it,  but  in  vain.  Then  we 
began  a  hunt  for  the  lioness,  as  apparently  she  had  not 
left  the  koppie.  Soon  one  of  the  gun-bearers,  who  was 
standing  on  a  big  stone,  peering  under  some  thick 
bushes,  beckoned  excitedly  to  me,  and  when  I  jumped 
up  beside  him  he  pointed  at  the  lioness.  In  a  second 
I  made  her  out.  The  sleek,  sinister  creature  lay  not 
ten  paces  off,  her  sinuous  body  following  the  curves  of 
the  rock  as  she  crouched  flat,  looking  straight  at  me. 
A  stone  covered  the  lower  part,  and  the  left  of  the 
upper  part,  of  her  head  ;  but  I  saw  her  two  unwinking 
green  eyes  looking  into  mine.  As  she  could  have 
reached  me  in  two  springs,  perhaps  in  one,  I  wished 
to  shoot  straight ;  but  I  had  to  avoid  the  rock  which 
covered  the  lower  part  of  her  face,  and,  moreover,  I 
fired  a  little  too  much  to  the  left.  The  bullet  went 
through  the  side  of  her  head  and  in  between  the  neck 
and  shoulder,  inflicting  a  mortal,  but  not  immediately 
fatal,  wound.  However,  it  knocked  her  off  the  little 
ledge  on  which  she  was  lying,  and,  instead  of  charging, 
she  rushed  up  hill.  We  promptly  followed,  and  again 
clambered  up  the  mass  of  boulders  at  the  top.  Peering 
over  the  one  on  which  I  had  climbed,  there  was  the 


186  HUNTING  IN  THP:  SOTIK       [ch.  viii 

lioness  directly  at  its  foot,  not  twelve  feet  away,  lying- 
flat  on  her  belly.  I  could  only  see  the  aftermost  third 
of  her  back.  I  at  once  fired  into  lier  spine.  With 
appalling  grunts  she  dragged  herself  a  few  paces  down- 
hill ;  and  another  bullet  behind  the  shoulder  finished 
her. 

She  was  skinned  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and  just  before 
sundown  we  left  the  koppie.  At  its  foot  was  a  deserted 
Masai  cattle  kraal,  and  a  mile  from  this  was  a  shallow, 
muddy  pool,  fouled  by  the  countless  herds  of  game  that 
drank  thereat.  Toward  this  we  went,  so  that  the  thirsty 
horses  and  men  might  drink  their  full.  As  we  came 
near  we  saw  three  rhinoceroses  leaving  the  pool.  It  was 
already  too  dusk  for  good  shooting,  and  we  were  rather 
relieved  when,  after  some  inspection,  they  trotted  ofl 
and  stood  at  a  little  distance  in  the  plain.  Our  men 
and  horses  drank,  and  then  we  began  our  ten  miles' 
march  through  the  darkness  to  camp.  One  of  Kermit's 
gun-bearers  saw  a  pufif-adder  (among  the  most  deadly 
of  all  snakes)  ;  with  delightful  nonchalance  he  stepped 
on  its  head,  and  then  held  it  up  for  me  to  put  my  knife 
through  its  brain  and  neck.  I  slipped  it  into  my  saddle 
pocket,  where  its  blood  stained  the  pigskin  cover  of  the 
little  pocket  "Nibelungenlied"  which  that  day  I  happened 
to  carry.  Immediately  afterward  there  was  a  fresh 
alarm  from  our  friends  the  three  rhinos.  Dismounting, 
and  crouching  down,  we  caught  the  loom  of  their  bulky 
bodies  against  the  horizon  ;  but  a  shot  in  the  ground 
seemed  to  make  them  hesitate,  and  they  finally  con- 
cluded not  to  charge.  So,  with  the  lion-skin  swinging 
behind  between  two  porters,  a  dead  puff-adder  in  my 
saddle  pocket,  and  three  rhinos  threatening  us  in  the 
darkness  to  one  side,  we  marched  campward  through 
the  African  night. 


CH.  Mil]    PHOTOGRAPHING  A  LIONESS      187 

Next  day  we  shifted  camp  to  a  rush- fringed  pool  by 
a  grove  of  tall,  flat-topped  acacias  at  the  foot  of  a  range 
of  low,  steep  mountains.     Before  us  the  plain  stretched, 
and  in  front  of  our  tents  it  was  dotted  by  huge  candel- 
abra euphorbias.     I  shot  a  buck  for  the  table  just  as  we 
pitched   camp.     There  were   Masai   kraals   and   cattle 
herds  near  by,  and  tall  warriors,  pleasant  and  friendly, 
strolled  among  our  tents,  their  huge  razor-edged  spears 
tipped  with  furry  caps  to  protect  the  points.     Kermit 
was  off  all  day  with  Tarlton,  and  killed  a  magnificent 
lioness.     In  the  morning,  on  some  high  hills,  he  obtained 
a  good  impalla  ram,  after  persevering  hours  of  climbing 
and  running — for  only  one  of  the  gun-bearers  and  none 
of  the  whites  could  keep  up  with  him  on  foot  when  he 
went  hard.     In  the  afternoon  at  four  he  and  Tarlton 
saw  the  lioness.     She  was  followed  by  three  three-parts- 
grown  young  lions,  doubtless  her  cubs,  and,  without 
any  concealment,  was  walking  across  the  open   plain 
toward  a  pool  by  which  lay  the  body  of  a  wildebeest 
bull  she  had  killed  the  preceding  night.     The  smaller 
lions  saw  the  hunters  and   shrank  back,  but  the  old 
lioness  never  noticed  them  until  they  were  within  a 
hundred    and   fifty   yards.      Then   she   ran   back,   but 
Kermit  crumpled  her  up  with  his  first  bullet.     He  then 
put  another  bullet  in  her,  and  as  she  seemed  disabled 
walked  up  within  fifty  yards,  and  took  some  photos. 
By  this  time  she  was  recovering,  and,  switching  her  tail, 
she  gathered  her  hind-quarters  under  her  for  a  charge  ; 
but  he  stopped  her  with  another  bullet,  and  killed  her 
outright  with  a  fourth. 

We  heard  that  Mearns  and  Loring,  whom  we  had 
left  ten  days  before,  had  also  killed  a  lioness.  A  Masai 
brought  in  word  to  them  that  he  had  marked  her  down 
taking  her  noonday  rest  near  a  kongoni  she  had  killed  ; 


188  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK        [ch.  viii 

and  they  rode  out,  and  Loring  shot  her.  She  charged 
him  savagely  ;  he  shot  her  straight  through  the  heart, 
and  she  fell  literally  at  his  feet.  The  three  naturalists 
were  all  good  shots,  and  were  used  to  all  the  mishaps 
and  adventures  of  life  in  the  wilderness.  Not  only 
would  it  have  been  indeed  difficult  to  find  three  better 
men  for  their  particular  work — Heller's  work,  for 
instance,  with  Cuninghame's  help,  gave  the  chief  point 
to  our  big-game  shooting — but  it  would  have  been 
equally  difficult  to  find  three  better  men  for  any 
emergency.  I  could  not  speak  too  highly  of  them  ; 
nor,  indeed,  of  our  two  other  companions,  Cuninghame 
and  Tarlton,  whose  mastery  of  their  own  field  was  as 
noteworthy  as  the  pre-eminence  of  the  naturalists  in 
their  field. 

The  following  morning  the  headmen  asked  that  we 
get  the  porters  some  meat.  Tarlton,  Kermit,  and  I 
sallied  forth  accordingly.  The  country  was  very  dry, 
and  the  game  in  our  immediate  neighbourhood  was  not 
plentiful  and  was  rather  shy.  I  killed  three  kongoni 
out  of  a  herd,  at  fi-om  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three 
hundred  and  ninety  paces ;  one  topi  at  three  hundred 
and  thirty  paces,  and  a  Roberts'  gazelle  at  two  hundred 
and  seventy.  Meanwhile,  the  other  two  had  killed  a 
kongoni  and  five  of  the  big  gazelles,  wherever  possible 
the  game  being  hal-lalled  in  orthodox  fashion  by  the 
Mohammedans  among  our  attendants,  so  as  to  fit  it  for 
use  by  their  co-religionists  among  the  porters.  Then 
we  saw  some  giraffiss,  and  galloped  them  to  see  if  there 
was  a  really  big  bull  in  the  lot.  They  had  a  long  start, 
but  Kermit  and  Tarlton  overtook  them  after  a  couple 
of  miles,  while  I  pounded  along  in  the  rear.  However, 
there  was  no  really  good  bull.  Kermit  and  Tarlton 
pulled  up,  and  we  jogged  along  toward   the  koppies 


The  wounded  lioness  ready  to  charge 


The  wounded  lioness 
From  photographs  by  Kermil  Roose-Ml 


CH.  viii]  A  BIG-MA  NED  LION  J  89 

where  two  days  before  I  had  shot  the  Honess.  1  killed 
a  big  bustard,  a  very  handsome,  striking-looking  bird, 
larger  than  a  turkey,  by  a  rather  good  shot  at  two 
hundred  and  thirty  yards. 

It  was  now  mid-day,  and  the  heat  waves  quivered 
above  the  brown  plain.  The  mirage  hung  in  the 
middle  distance,  and  beyond  it  the  bold  hills  rose  like 
mountains  from  a  lake.  In  mid-afternoon  we  stopped 
at  a  little  pool,  to  give  the  men  and  horses  water ;  and 
here  Kermit's  horse  suddenly  went  dead  lame,  and  we 
started  it  back  to  camp  with  a  couple  of  men,  while 
Kermit  went  forward  with  us  on  foot,  as  we  rode  round 
the  base  of  the  first  koppies.  After  we  had  gone  a 
mile  loud  shouts  called  our  attention  to  one  of  the  men 
who  had  left  with  the  lame  horse.  He  was  running 
back  to  tell  us  that  they  had  just  seen  a  big-maned  lion 
walking  along  in  the  open  plain  toward  the  body  of  a 
zebra  he  had  killed  the  night  before.  Immediately 
Tarlton  and  I  galloped  in  the  direction  indicated,  while 
the  heart-broken  Kermit  ran  after  us  on  foot,  so  as  not 
to  miss  the  fun,  the  gun-bearers  and  saises  stringing 
out  behind  him.  In  a  few  minutes  Tarlton  pointed  out 
the  lion,  a  splendid  old  fellow,  a  heavy  male  with  a 
yellow  and  black  mane  ;  and  after  him  we  went.  There 
was  no  need  to  go  fast ;  he  was  too  burly  and  too 
savage  to  run  hard,  and  we  were  anxious  that  our 
hands  should  be  reasonably  steady  when  we  shot.  All 
told,  the  horses,  galloping  and  cantering,  did  not  take 
us  two  miles. 

The  lion  stopped  and  lay  down  behind  a  bush.  Jump- 
ing off,  I  took  a  shot  at  him  at  two  hundred  yards,  but 
only  wounded  him  slightly  in  one  paw,  and  after  a 
moment's  sullen  hesitation  off  he  went,  lashing  his  tail. 
We  mounted  our  horses  and  went  after  him.     Tarlton 


190  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK       [ch.  viii 

lost  sight  of  him,  but  I  marked  him  lying  down  behind 
a  low  grassy  ant-hill.  Again  we  dismounted  at  a  dis- 
tance of  two  hundred  yards,  Tarlton  telling  me  that 
now  he  was  sure  to  charge.  In  all  East  Africa  there 
is  no  man,  not  even  Cuninghame  himself,  whom  I  would 
rather  have  by  me  than  Tarlton,  if  in  difficulties  with  a 
charging  Hon ;  on  this  occasion,  however,  I  am  glad  to 
say  that  his  rifle  was  badly  sighted,  and  shot  altogether 
too  low. 

Again  I  knelt  and  fired,  but  the  mass  of  hair  on  the 
lion  made  me  think  he  was  nearer  than  he  was,  and  I 
undershot,  inflicting  a  flesh  wound  that  was  neither 
crippling  nor  fatal.  He  was  already  grunting  savagely 
and  tossing  his  tail  erect,  with  his  head  held  low,  and  at 
the  shot  the  great  sinewy  beast  came  toward  us  with 
the  speed  of  a  greyhound.  Tarlton  then,  very  properly, 
fired,  for  lion-hunting  is  no  child's  play,  and  it  is  not 
good  to  run  risks.  Ordinarily  it  is  a  very  mean  thing 
to  experience  joy  at  a  friend's  miss,  but  this  was  not  an 
ordinary  case,  and  I  felt  keen  delight  when  the  bullet 
from  the  badly  sighted  rifle  missed,  striking  the  ground 
many  yards  short.  I  was  sighting  carefully,  from  my 
knee,  and  I  knew  I  had  the  lion  all  right,  for  though 
he  galloped  at  a  great  pace,  he  came  on  steadily — ears 
laid  back,  and  uttering  terrific  coughing  grunts — and 
there  was  now  no  question  of  making  allowance  for 
distance,  nor,  as  he  was  out  in  the  open,  for  the  fact 
that  he  had  not  before  been  distinctly  visible.  The 
bead  of  my  foresight  was  exactly  on  the  centre  of  his 
chest  as  I  pressed  the  trigger,  and  the  bullet  went  as 
true  as  if  the  place  had  been  plotted  with  dividers.  The 
blow  brought  him  up  all  standing,  and  he  fell  forward 
on  his  head.  The  soft-nosed  Winchester  bullet  had 
gone  straight  through  the  chest  cavity,  smashing  the 


CH.  viii]  A  CHARGING  LION  191 

lungs  and  the  big  bloodvessels  of  the  heart.  Painfully 
he  recovered  his  feet,  and  tried  to  come  on,  his  ferocious 
courage  holding  out  to  the  last ;  but  he  staggered,  and 
turned  from  side  to  side,  unable  to  stand  firmly,  still 
less  to  advance  at  a  faster  pace  than  a  walk.  He  had 
not  ten  seconds  to  live,  but  it  is  a  sound  principle  to 
take  no  chances  with  lions.  Tarlton  hit  him  with  his 
second  bullet,  probably  in  the  shoulder,  and  with  my 
next  shot  I  broke  his  neck.  I  had  stopped  him  when 
he  was  still  a  hundred  yards  away,  and  certainly  no 
finer  sight  could  be  imagined  than  that  of  this  great 
maned  lion  as  he  charged.  Kermit  gleefully  joined  us 
as  we  walked  up  to  the  body  ;  only  one  of  our  followers 
had  been  able  to  keep  up  with  him  on  his  two-miles 
run.  He  had  had  a  fine  view  of  the  charge,  from  one 
side,  as  he  ran  up,  still  three  hundred  yards  distant ;  he 
could  see  all  the  muscles  play  as  the  lion  galloped  in, 
and  then  everything  relax  as  he  fell  to  the  shock  of  my 
bullet. 

The  lion  was  a  big  old  male,  still  in  his  prime. 
Between  uprights  his  length  was  nine  feet  four  inches, 
and  his  weight  four  hundred  and  ten  pounds,  for  he  was 
not  fat.  We  skinned  him  and  started  for  camp,  which 
we  reached  after  dark.  There  was  a  thunderstorm  in 
the  south-west,  and  in  the  red  sunset  that  burned  behind 
us  the  rain-clouds  turned  to  many  gorgeous  hues.  Then 
daylight  failed,  the  clouds  cleared,  and,  as  we  made  our 
way  across  the  formless  plain,  the  half  moon  hung  high 
overhead,  strange  stars  shone  in  the  brilliant  heavens, 
and  the  Southern  Cross  lay  radiant  above  the  sky-line. 

Our  next  camp  was  pitched  on  a  stony  plain,  by  a 
winding  stream-bed  still  containing  an  occasional  rush- 
I'ringed  pool  of  muddy  water,  fouled  by  the  herds  and 
fiocks   of  the   numerous   Masai.     Game  was  plentiful 


192  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK        [ch.  viii 

around  this  camp.  We  killed  what  we  needed  of  the 
common  kinds,  and  in  addition  each  of  us  killed  a  big 
rhino.  The  two  rhinos  were  almost  exactly  alike,  and 
their  horns  were  of  the  so-called  "  Keitloa  "  type,  the 
fore  horn  twenty-two  inches  long,  the  rear  over  seven- 
teen. The  day  I  killed  mine  I  used  all  three  of  my 
rifles.  We  all  went  out  together,  as  Kermit  was  desirous 
of  taking  photos  of  my  rhino,  if  I  shot  one  ;  he  had  not 
been  able  to  get  good  ones  of  his  on  the  previous  day. 
We  also  took  the  small  ox-waggon,  so  as  to  bring  into 
camp  bodily  the  rhino  —if  we  got  it — and  one  or  two 
zebras,  of  which  we  wanted  the  flesh  for  the  safari,  the 
skeletons  for  the  Museum.  The  night  had  been  cool, 
but  the  day  was  sunny  and  hot.  At  first  we  rode 
through  a  broad  valley,  bounded  by  high,  scrub-covered 
hills.  The  banks  of  the  dry  stream  were  fringed  with 
deep  green  acacias,  and  here  and  there  in  relief  against 
their  dark  foliage  flamed  the  orange-red  flowers  of  the 
tall  aloe  clumps.  With  the  Springfield  I  shot  a  stein- 
buck  and  a  lesser  bustard.  Then  we  came  out  on  the 
vast  rolling  brown  plains.  With  the  Winchester  I  shot 
two  zebra  stalhons,  missing  each  standing,  at  long  range, 
and  then  killing  them  as  they  ran,  one  after  a  two-miles 
hard  gallop  on  my  brown  pony,  which  had  a  good  turn 
of  speed.  I  killed  a  third  zebra  stallion  with  my  Spring- 
field, again  missing  it  standing  and  killing  it  running. 
In  mid-afternoon  we  spied  our  rhino,  and,  getting  near, 
saw  that  it  had  good  horns.  It  was  in  the  middle  of  the 
absolutely  bare  plain,  and  we  walked  straight  up  to  the 
dull-sighted,  dull-witted  beast,  Kermit  with  his  camera, 
I  with  the  Holland  double-barrel.  The  tick-birds 
warned  it,  but  it  did  not  make  us  out  until  we  were 
well  within  a  hundred  yards,  when  it  trotted  toward  us, 
head  and  tail  up.     At  sixty  yards  I  put  the  heavy  bullet 


CH.  viii]  POISONOUS  SNA'KES  193 

straight  into  its  chest,  and  knocked  it  flat  with  the  blow. 
As  it  tried  to  struggle  to  its  feet,  I  again  knocked  it  flat 
with  the  left-hand  barrel ;  but  it  needed  two  more 
bullets  before  it  died,  screaming  like  an  engine  whistle. 
Before  I  fired  my  last  shot  1  had  walked  up  directly 
beside  the  rhino  ;  and  just  then  Tarlton  pointed  out  to 
me  a  greater  bustard,  stalking  along  with  unmoved 
composure  at  a  distance  of  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards. 
I  took  the  Springfield,  and,  kneeling  down  beside  the 
rhino's  hind-quarters,  I  knocked  over  the  bustard,  and 
then  killed  the  rhino.  We  rode  into  camp  by  moon- 
light. Both  these  rhinos  had  their  stomachs  filled  with 
the  closely  chewed  leaves  and  twig-tips  of  short  brush 
mixed  with  grass — rather  thick-stemmed  grass — and  in 
one  case  with  the  pulpy,  spiny  leaves  of  a  low,  ground- 
creeping  euphorbia. 

At  this  camp  we  killed  five  poisonous  snakes  :  a  light- 
coloured  tree-snake,  two  puft-adders,  and  two  seven-foot 
cobras.  One  of  the  latter  three  times  "  spat "  or  ejected 
its  poison  at  us,  the  poison  coming  out  from  the  fangs 
like  white  films  or  threads,  to  a  distance  of  several  feet. 
A  few  years  ago  the  singular  power  of  this  snake,  and 
perhaps  of  certain  other  African  species,  thus  to  eject 
the  poison  at  the  face  of  an  assailant  was  denied  by 
scientists ;  but  it  is  now  well  known.  Selous  had 
already  told  me  of  an  instance  which  came  under  his 
own  observation ;  and  Tarlton  had  once  been  struck  in 
the  eyes  and  for  the  moment  nearly  blinded  by  the 
poison.  He  found  that  to  wash  the  eyes  with  milk  was 
of  much  relief.  On  the  bigger  puff-adder,  some  four 
feet  long,  were  a  dozen  ticks,  some  swollen  to  the  size 
of  cherries  ;  apparently  they  were  disregarded  by  their 
sluggish  and  deadly  host.  Heller  trapped  some  jackals, 
of  two  species  ;  and  two  striped  hyenas,  the  first  we  had 

13 


194  HUNTING  IN  THE  SOTIK  [ch.  viii 

seen,  apparently  more  timid  and  less  noisy  beasts  than 
their  bigger  spotted  brothers. 

One  day  Kermit  had  our  first  characteristic  experience 
with  a  honey-bird — a  smallish  bird,  with  beak  like  a 
grosbeak's  and  toes  like  a  woodpecker's — whose  extra- 
ordinary habits  as  a  honey-guide  are  known  to  all  the 
natives  of  Africa  throughout  its  range.  Kermit  had 
killed  an  eland  bull,  and  while  he  was  resting  his  gun- 
bearers  drew  his  attention  to  the  calling  of  the  honey- 
bird  in  a  tree  near  by.  He  got  up,  and  as  he  approached 
the  bird  it  flew  to  another  tree  in  front  and  again  began 
its  twitter.  This  was  repeated  again  and  again  as  Kermit 
walked  after  it.  Finally  the  bird  darted  round  behind 
his  followers,  in  the  direction  from  which  they  had 
come,  and  for  a  moment  they  thought  it  had  played 
them  false.  But  immediately  afterward  they  saw  that 
it  had  merely  overshot  its  mark,  and  had  now  flown 
back  a  few  rods  to  the  honey-tree,  round  which  it  was 
flitting,  occasionally  twittering.  When  they  came 
toward  the  tree  it  perched  silent  and  motionless  in 
another,  and  thus  continued  while  they  took  some 
honey  —  a  risky  business,  as  the  bees  were  vicious. 
They  did  not  observe  what  the  bird  then  did ;  but 
Cuninghame  told  me  that  in  one  instance  where  a 
honey-bird  led  him  to  honey  he  carefully  watched  it 
and  saw  it  picking  up  either  bits  of  honey  and  comb,  or 
else,  more  probably,  the  bee  grubs  out  of  the  comb — he 
could  not  be  certain  which. 

To  my  mind  no  more  interesting  incident  occurred 
at  this  camp. 


CHAPTER  IX 
TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA 

From  this  camp  we  turned  north  toward  Lake  Nai- 
vasha. 

The  Sotik  country  through  which  we  had  hunted 
was  sorely  stricken  by  drought.  The  grass  was  short 
and  withered,  and  most  of  the  waterholes  were  drying 
up,  while  both  the  game  and  the  flocks  and  herds  of 
the  nomad  Masai  gathered  round  the  watercourses  in 
which  there  were  still  occasional  muddy  pools,  and 
grazed  their  neighbourhood  bare  of  pasturage.  It  was 
an  unceasing  pleasure  to  watch  the  ways  of  the  game 
and  to  study  their  varying  habits.  Where  there  was  a 
river  from  which  to  drink  or  where  there  were  many 
pools,  the  different  kinds  of  buck  and  the  zebra  often 
showed  comparatively  little  timidity  about  drinking, 
and  came  boldly  down  to  the  water's  edge,  sometimes 
in  broad  daylight,  sometimes  in  darkness  ;  although 
even  under  those  conditions  they  were  very  cautious  if 
there  was  cover  at  the  drinking  place.  But  where  the 
pools  were  few  they  never  approached  one  without  feel- 
ing panic  dread  of  their  great  enemy  the  lion,  who,  they 
knew  well,  might  be  lurking  around  their  drinking 
place.  At  such  a  pool  I  once  saw  a  herd  of  zebras 
come  to  water  at  nightfall.  They  stood  motionless 
some  distance  off;  then  they  slowly  approached,  and 

195 


196  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

twice  on  false  alarms  wheeled  and  fled  at  speed.  At 
last  the  leaders  ventured  to  the  brink  of  the  pool,  and 
at  once  the  whole  herd  came  jostling  and  crowding  in 
behind  them,  the  water  gurgling  down  their  thirsty 
throats ;  and  immediately  afterward  off  they  went  at  a 
gallop,  stopping  to  graze  some  hundreds  of  yards  away. 
The  ceaseless  dread  of  the  lion  felt  by  all  but  the 
heaviest  game  is  amply  justified  by  his  ravages  among 
them.  They  are  always  in  peril  from  him  at  the  drink- 
ing places ;  yet  in  my  experience  I  found  that  in  the 
great  majority  of  cases  they  were  killed  while  feeding 
or  resting  far  from  water,  the  Hon  getting  them  far 
more  often  by  stalking  than  by  lying  in  wait.  A  lion 
will  eat  a  zebra  (beginning  at  the  hind-quarters,  by  the 
way,  and  sometimes  having,  and  sometimes  not  having, 
previously  disembowelled  the  animal)  or  one  of  the 
bigger  buck  at  least  once  a  week ;  perhaps  once  every 
five  days.  The  dozen  lions  we  had  killed  would  prob- 
ably, if  left  alive,  have  accounted  for  seven  or  eight 
hundred  buck,  pig,  and  zebra  within  the  next  year.  Our 
hunting  was  a  net  advantage  to  the  harmless  game. 

The  zebras  were  the  noisiest  of  the  game.  After 
them  came  the  wildebeest,  which  often  uttered  their 
queer  grunt.  Sometimes  a  herd  would  stand  and  grunt 
at  me  for  some  minutes  as  I  passed,  a  few  hundred 
yards  distant.  The  topi  uttered  only  a  kind  of  sneeze 
and  the  hartebeest  a  somewhat  similar  sound.  The 
so-called  Roberts'  gazelle  was  merely  the  Grant's  gazelle 
of  the  Athi,  with  the  lyrate  shape  of  the  horns  tending 
to  be  carried  to  an  extreme  of  spread  and  backward 
bend.  The  tommy  bucks  carried  good  horns  ;  the  horns 
of  the  does  were  usually  aborted,  and  were  never  more 
than  four  or  five  inches  long.  The  most  notable  feature 
about  the  tommies  was  the  incessant  switching  of  their 


CH.  IX]  EMOTIONS  OF  GAME  197 

tails,  as  if  jerked  by  electricity.  In  the  Sotik  the  topis 
all  seemed  to  have  calves  of  about  the  same  age,  as  if 
born  from  four  to  six  months  earlier.  The  young  of 
the  other  game  were  of  every  age.  The  males  of  all 
the  antelopes  fought  much  among  themselves.  The 
gazelle  bucks  of  both  species  would  face  one  another, 
their  heads  between  the  fore-legs  and  the  horns  level 
with  the  ground,  and  each  would  punch  his  opponent 
until  the  hair  flew. 

Watching  the  game,  one  was  struck  by  the  intensity 
and  the  evanescence  of  their  emotions.  Civilized  man 
now  usually  passes  his  life  under  conditions  which 
eliminate  the  intensity  of  terror  felt  by  his  ancestors 
when  death  by  violence  was  their  normal  end,  and 
threatened  them  during  every  hour  of  the  day  and 
night.  It  is  only  in  nightmares  that  the  average 
dweller  in  civilized  countries  now  undergoes  the  hideous 
horror  which  was  the  regular  and  frequent  portion  of  his 
ages-vanished  forefathers,  and  which  is  still  an  everyday 
incident  in  the  lives  of  most  wild  creatures.  But  the 
dread  is  short-lived,  and  its  horror  vanishes  with  instan- 
taneous rapidity.  In  these  wilds  the  game  dreaded  the 
lion  and  the  other  flesh-eating  beasts  rather  than  man. 
We  saw  innumerable  kills  of  all  the  buck,  and  of  zebra 
the  neck  being  usually  dislocated,  and  it  was  evident 
that  none  of  the  lion's  victims,  not  even  the  truculent 
wildebeest  or  huge  eland,  had  been  able  to  make  any 
tight  against  him.  The  game  is  ever  on  the  alert 
against  this  greatest  of  foes,  and  every  herd,  almost 
every  individual,  is  in  imminent  and  deadly  peril  every 
few  days  or  nights,  and  of  course  suffers  in  addition 
from  countless  false  alarms.  But  no  sooner  is  the 
danger  over  than  the  animals  resume  their  feeding,  or 
love-making,  or  their  fighting  among  themselves.     Two 


198  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

bucks  will  do  battle  the  minute  the  herd  has  stopped 
running  from  the  foe  that  has  seized  one  of  its  number, 
and  a  buck  will  cover  a  doe  in  the  brief  interval  between 
the  first  and  the  second  alarm,  from  hunter  or  lion. 
Zebra  will  make  much  noise  when  one  of  their  number 
has  been  killed ;  but  their  fright  has  vanished  when 
once  they  begin  their  barking  calls. 

Death  by  violence,  death  by  cold,  death  by  starvation 
— these   are   the  normal   endings   of   the   stately   and 
beautiful    creatures    of    the    wilderness.      The    senti- 
mentalists who  prattle  about  the  peaceful  Hfe  of  nature 
do  not  realize  its  utter  mercilessness  ;  although  all  they 
would  have  to  do  would  be  to  look  at  the  birds  in  the 
winter  woods,  or  even  at  the  insects  on  a  cold  morning 
or  cold  evening.     Life   is   hard   and  cruel  for   all  the 
lower  creatures,  and  for  man  also  in  what  the  senti- 
mentalists  call    a   "  state   of  nature."     The   savage  of 
to-day  shows  us  what  the  fancied  age  of  gold  of  our 
ancestors  was  really  like  ;  it  was  an  age  when  hunger, 
cold,   violence,   and    iron   cruelty   were    the    ordinary 
accompaniments  of  life.     If  Matthew  Arnold,  when  he 
expressed  the  wish  to  know  the  thoughts   of  Earth's 
'*  vigorous,  primitive "  tribes  of  the   past,   had   really 
desired  an  answer  to  his  question,  he  would  have  done 
well  to  visit  the  homes  of  the  existing  representatives  of 
his  "  vigorous,  primitive  "  ancestors,  and  to  watch  them 
feasting  on  blood  and  guts  ;  while  as  for  the  "  pellucid 
and  pure  "  feelings  of  his  imaginary  primitive  maiden, 
they  were  those  of  any  meek,  cowlike   creature  who 
accepted  marriage  by  purchase  or  of  convenience,  as  a 
matter  of  course. 

It  was  to  me  a  perpetual  source  of  wonderment  to 
notice  the  difference  in  the  behaviour  of  different 
individuals  of  the  same  species,  and  in  the  behaviour  of 


CH.  IX]  A  RHINOCEROS  IN  THE  PATH       199 

the  same  individual  at  different  times  ;  as,  for  example, 
in  the  matter  of  wariness,  of  the  times  for  going  to 
water,  of  the  times  for  resting,  and,  as  regards  dangerous 
game,  in  the  matter  of  ferocity.  Their  very  looks 
changed.  At  one  moment  the  sun  would  turn  the 
zebras  of  a  mixed  herd  white,  and  the  hartebeest 
straw-coloured,  so  that  the  former  could  be  seen  much 
farther  off  than  the  latter ;  and  again  the  ^conditions 
would  be  reversed,  when  under  the  light  the  zebras 
would  show  up  grey,  and  the  hartebeest  as  red  as 
foxes. 

I  had  now  killed  almost  all  the  specimens  of  the 
common  game  that  the  Museum  needed.  However,  we 
kept  the  skin  or  skeleton  of  whatever  we  shot  for  meat. 
Now  and  then,  after  a  good  stalk,  I  would  get  a  boar 
with  unusually  fine  tusks,  a  big  gazelle  with  unusually 
long  and  graceful  horns,  or  a  fine  old  wildebeest  bull, 
its  horns  thick  and  battered,  its  knees  bare  and  callous 
from  its  habit  of  going  down  on  them  when  fighting  or 
threatening  fight. 

On  our  march  northward  we  first  made  a  long  day's 
journey  to  what  was  called  a  salt  marsh.  An  hour  or 
two  after  starting  we  had  a  characteristic  experience 
with  a  rhino.  It  was  a  bull,  with  poor  horns,  standing 
in  a  plain  which  was  dotted  by  a  few  straggling  thorn- 
trees  and  wild  olives.  The  safari's  course  would  have 
taken  it  to  windward  of  the  rhino,  which  then  might 
have  charged  in  sheer  irritable  bewilderment,  so  we 
turned  off'  at  right  angles.  The  long  line  of  porters 
passed  him  two  hundred  yards  away,  while  we  gun 
men  stood  between  with  our  rifles  ready,  except  Kermit, 
who  was  busy  taking  photos.  The  rhino  saw  us,  but 
apparently  indistinctly.  He  made  little  dashes  to  and 
fro,  and  finally  stood  looking  at  us,  with  his  big  ears 


200  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

cocked  forward,  but  he  did  nothing  more,  and  we  left 
him  standing,  plunged  in  meditation — probably  it  would 
be  more  accurate  to  say,  thinking  of  absolutely  nothing, 
as  if  he  had  been  a  huge  turtle.  After  leaving  him  we 
also  passed  by  files  of  zebra  and  topi,  who  gazed  at  us, 
intent  and  curious,  within  two  hundred  yards,  until  we 
had  gone  by  and  the  danger  was  over,  whereupon  they 
fled  in  fright. 

The  so-called  salt  marsh  consisted  of  a  dry  water- 
course, with  here  and  there  a  deep  muddy  pool.  The 
ground  was  impregnated  with  some  saline  substance, 
and  the  game  licked  it,  as  well  as  coming  to  water. 
Our  camp  was  near  two  reedy  pools,  in  which  there 
were  big  yellow-billed  ducks,  while  queer  brown  herons, 
the  hammerhead,  had  built  big  nests  of  sticks  in  the 
tall  acacias.  Bush  cuckoos  gurgled  in  the  underbrush 
by  night  and  day.  Brilliant  rollers  flitted  through  the 
trees.  There  was  much  sweet  bird  music  in  the  morn- 
ing. Funny  little  elephant  shrews  with  long  snouts, 
and  pretty  zebra  mice,  evidently  of  diurnal  habit, 
scampered  among  the  bushes  or  scuttled  into  their 
burrows.  Tiny  dikdiks,  antelopes  no  bigger  than  hares, 
with  swollen  muzzles,  and  their  little  horns  half  hidden 
by  tufts  of  hair,  ran  like  rabbits  through  the  grass  ;  the 
females  were  at  least  as  large  as  the  males.  Another 
seven-foot  cobra  was  killed.  There  were  brilliant 
masses  of  the  red  aloe  flowers,  and  of  yellow-blossomed 
vines.  Around  the  pools  the  ground  was  bare,  and  the 
game  trails  leading  to  the  water  were  deeply  rutted  by 
the  hoofs  of  the  wild  creatures  that  had  travelled  them 
for  countless  generations. 

The  day  after  reaching  this  camp,  Cuninghame  and 
I  hunted  on  the  plains.  Before  noon  we  made  out  with 
our  glasses  two  rhinos  lying  down,  a  mile  off.     As  usual 


CH.  IX]  RHINOCEROS  201 

with  these  sluggish  creatures,  we  made  our  preparations 
in  leisurely  style,  and  with  scant  regard  to  the  animal 
itself.  Moreover  we  did  not  intend  to  kill  any  rhino 
unless  its  horns  were  out  of  the  common.  I  first 
stalked  and  shot  a  buck  Roberts'  gazelle  with  a  good 
head.  Then  we  ofF-saddled  the  horses  and  sat  down  to 
lunch  under  a  huge  thorn-tree,  which  stood  by  itself, 
lonely  and  beautiful,  and  offered  a  shelter  from  the 
blazing  sun.  The  game  was  grazing  on  every  side, 
and  I  kept  thinking  of  all  the  life  of  the  wilderness, 
and  of  its  many  tragedies,  which  the  great  tree  must 
have  witnessed  during  the  centuries  since  it  was  a 
seedling. 

Lunch  over,  I  looked  to  the  loading  of  the  heavy 
rifle,  and  we  started  toward  the  rhinos,  well  to  leeward. 
But  the  wind  shifted  every  way ;  and  suddenly  my 
gun- bearers  called  my  attention  to  the  rhinos,  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  off,  saying,  "  He  charging,  he  charging." 
Sure  enough,  they  had  caught  our  wind,  and  were 
rushing  toward  us.  I  jumped  off  the  horse  and  studied 
the  oncoming  beasts  through  my  field-glass  ;  but  head 
on  it  was  hard  to  tell  about  the  horns.  However,  the 
wind  shifted  again,  and  when  two  hundred  yards  off 
they  lost  our  scent,  and  turned  to  one  side,  tails  in  the 
air,  heads  tossing,  evidently  much  excited.  They  were 
a  large  cow  and  a  young  heifer,  nearly  two-thirds  grown. 
As  they  trotted  sideways  I  could  see  the  cow's  horns, 
and  her  doom  was  sealed  ;  for  they  were  of  good  length, 
and  the  hind  one  (it  proved  to  be  two  feet  long)  was 
slightly  longer  than  the  stouter  front  one ;  it  was  a 
specimen  which  the  Museum  needed. 

So  after  them  we  trudged  over  the  brown  plain.  But 
they  were  uneasy,  and  kept  trotting  and  walking.  They 
never  saw  us  with  their  dull  eyes  ;  but  a  herd  of  wilde- 


202  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

beest  galloping  by  renewed  their  alarm.  It  was  curious 
to  see  them  sweeping  the  ground  with  their  long,  ugly 
heads,  endeavouring  to  catch  the  scent.  A  mile's  rapid 
walk  brought  us  within  two  hundred  yards,  and  we 
dared  not  risk  the  effort  for  a  closer  approach  lest  they 
should  break  and  run.  The  cow  turned  broadside  on, 
and  I  hit  her  behind  the  shoulder ;  but  I  was  not 
familiar  with  the  heavy  Holland  rifle  at  that  range,  and 
my  bullet  went  rather  too  low.  I  think  the  wound 
would  eventually  have  proved  fatal ;  but  both  beasts 
went  off  at  a  gallop,  the  cow  now  and  then  turning  from 
side  to  side  in  high  dudgeon,  trying  to  catch  the  wind 
of  her  foe.  We  mounted  our  horses,  and  after  a  two- 
mile  canter  overhauled  our  quarry.  Cuninghame  took 
me  well  to  leeward,  and  ahead,  of  the  rhinos,  which 
never  saw  us  ;  and  then  we  walked  to  within  a  hundred 
yards,  and  I  killed  the  cow.  But  we  were  now  much 
puzzled  by  the  young  one,  which  refused  to  leave.  We 
did  not  wish  to  kill  it,  for  it  was  big  enough  to  shift  for 
itself;  but  it  was  also  big  enough  to  kill  either  of  us. 
We  drew  back,  hoping  it  would  go  away ;  but  it  did 
not.  So  when  the  gun-bearers  arrived  we  advanced 
and  tried  to  frighten  it ;  but  this  plan  also  failed.  It 
threatened  to  charge,  but  could  not  quite  make  up  its 
mind.  Watching  my  chance,  I  then  creased  its  stern 
with  a  bullet  from  the  little  Springfield,  and  after  some 
wild  circular  galloping  it  finally  decided  to  leave. 

Kermit,  about  this  time,  killed  a  heavy  boar  from 
horseback  after  a  three-mile  run.  The  boar  charged 
twice,  causing  the  horse  to  buck  and  shy.  Finally,  just 
as  he  was  going  into  his  burrow  backward,  Kermit  raced 
by  and  shot  him,  firing  his  rifle  from  the  saddle  after 
the  manner  of  the  old-time  Western  buffalo  runners. 

We  now  rejoined  Mearns  and  Loring  on  the  banks  of 


CH.  IX]  MEARNS  AND  THE  WOUNDED   203 

the  Guaso  Nyero.  They  had  collected  hundreds  of  birds 
and  small  mammals,  among  them  several  new  species. 
We  had  already  heard  that  a  Mr.  Williams,  whom  we 
had  met  at  McMillan's  ranch,  had  been  rather  badly 
mauled  by  a  lion,  which  he  had  mortally  wounded,  but 
which  managed  to  charge  home.  Now  we  found  that 
Dr.  Mearns  had  been  quite  busily  engaged  in  attending 
to  cases  of  men  who  were  hurt  by  lions.  Loring  nearly 
got  into  the  category.  He  killed  his  lioness  with  a  light 
automatic  rifle,  utterly  unfit  for  use  against  African 
game.  Though  he  actually  put  a  bullet  right  through 
the  beast's  heart,  the  shock  from  the  blow  was  so  slight 
that  she  was  not  stopped  even  for  a  second  ;  he  hit  her 
four  times  in  all,  each  shot  being  mortal — for  he  was  an 
excellent  marksman — and  she  died  nearly  at  his  feet, 
her  charge  carrying  her  several  yards  past  him.  Mearns 
had  galloped  into  a  herd  of  wildebeest  and  killed  the 
big  bull  of  the  herd,  after  first  running  clean  through 
a  mob  of  zebras,  which,  as  he  passed,  skinned  their  long 
yellow  teeth  threateningly  at  him,  but  made  no  attempt 
actually  to  attack  him. 

A  settler  had  come  down  to  trade  with  the  Masai 
during  our  absence.  He  ran  into  a  large  party  of  lions, 
killed  two,  and  wounded  a  lioness,  which  escaped  after 
mauling  one  of  his  gun-bearers.  The  gun-bearer  rode 
into  camp,  and  the  Doctor  treated  his  wounds.  Next 
day  Mearns  was  summoned  to  a  Masai  kraal  sixteen 
miles  off  to  treat  the  wounds  of  two  of  the  Masai.  It 
appeared  that  a  body  of  them  had  followed  and  killed 
the  wounded  lioness,  but  that  two  of  their  number  had 
been  much  maltreated  in  the  fight.  One  especially  had 
been  fearfully  bitten,  the  lioness  having  pulled  the  flesh 
loose  from  the  bones  with  her  fixed  teeth.  The  Doctor 
attended  to  all  three  cases.     The  gun-bearer  recovered  ; 


204  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

both  the  Masai  died,  although  the  Doctor  did  all  in  his 
power  for  the  two  gallant  fellows.  Their  deaths  did  not 
hinder  the  Masai  from  sending  to  him  all  kinds  of  cases 
in  which  men  or  boys  had  met  with  accidents.  He 
attended  to  them  all,  and  gained  a  high  reputation  with 
the  tribe.  When  the  case  was  serious,  the  patient's  kins- 
folk would  usually  present  him  with  a  sheep  or  war- 
spear,  or  something  else  of  value.  He  took  a  great 
fancy  to  the  Masai,  as  indeed  all  of  us  did.  They  are  a 
fine,  manly  set  of  savages,  bold  and  independent  in  their 
bearing.  They  never  eat  vegetables,  subsisting  exclu- 
sively on  milk,  blood,  and  flesh,  and  are  remarkably 
hardy  and  enduring. 

Kermit  found  a  cave  which  had  recently  been  the 
abode  of  a  party  of  'Ndorobo,  the  wild  hunter-savages 
of  the  wilderness,  who  are  more  primitive  in  their  ways 
of  life  than  any  other  tribes  of  this  region.  They  live 
on  honey  and  the  flesh  of  the  wild  beasts  they  kill ; 
they  are  naked,  with  few  and  rude  arms  and  utensils  ; 
and,  in  short,  carry  on  existence  as  our  own  ancestors 
did  at  a  very  early  period  of  Palaeolithic  time.  Around 
this  cave  were  many  bones.  Within  it  were  beds  of 
grass,  and  a  small  roofed  enclosure  of  thorn  bushes  for 
the  dogs.  Fire-sticks  had  been  left  on  the  walls,  to  be 
ready  when  the  owners'  wanderings  again  brought  them 
back  to  the  cave  ;  and  also  very  curious  soup  sticks, 
each  a  rod  with  one  of  the  vertebrae  of  some  animal 
stuck  on  the  end,  designed  for  use  in  stirring  their  boiled 
meat. 

From  our  camp  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  we  trekked 
in  a  little  over  four  days  to  a  point  on  Lake  Naivasha, 
where  we  intended  to  spend  some  time.  The  first  two 
days  were  easy  travelling,  the  porters  not  being  pressed 
and  there  being  plenty  of  time  in  the  afternoons  to 


CH.  IX]         THE  MAU  ESCARPMENT  205 

pitch  camp  comfortably  ;  then  the  waggons  left  us,  with 
their  loads  of  hides  and  skeletons  and  spare  baggage. 
The  third  day  we  rose  long  before  dawn,  breakfasted, 
broke  camp,  and  were  off  just  at  sunrise.  There  was 
no  path ;  at  one  time  we  followed  game  trails,  at 
another  the  trails  made  by  the  Masai  sheep  and  cattle, 
and  again  we  might  make  our  own  trail.  We  had  two 
Masai  guides,  tireless  runners,  as  graceful  and  sinewy  as 
panthers  ;  they  helped  us,  but  Cuninghame  had  to  do 
most  of  the  pathfinding  himself  It  was  a  difficult 
country,  passable  only  at  certain  points,  which  it  was 
hard  to  place  with  exactness.  We  had  seen  that  each 
porter  had  his  water-bottle  full  before  starting ;  but, 
though  willing,  good-humoured  fellows,  strong  as  bulls, 
in  forethought  they  are  of  the  grasshopper  type ;  and 
all  but  a  few  exhausted  their  supply  by  mid-afternoon. 
At  this  time  we  were  among  bold  mountain  ridges,  and 
here  we  struck  the  kraal  of  some  Masai,  who  watered 
their  cattle  at  some  spring  pools,  three  miles  to  one 
side,  up  a  valley.  It  was  too  far  for  the  heavily  laden 
porters ;  but  we  cantered  our  horses  thither  and  let 
them  drink  their  fill ;  and  then  cantered  along  the  trail 
left  by  the  safari  until  we  overtook  the  rear  men  just  as 
they  were  going  over  the  brink  of  the  Mau  escarpment. 
The  scenery  was  wild  and  beautiful :  in  the  open  places 
the  ground  was  starred  with  flowers  of  many  colours ; 
we  rode  under  vine-tangled  archways  through  forests  of 
strange  trees. 

Down  the  steep  mountain  side  went  the  safari,  and 
at  its  foot  struck  off  nearly  parallel  to  the  high  ridge. 
On  our  left  the  tree-clad  mountain  side  hung  above  us  ; 
ravines,  with  mimosas  clustering  in  them,  sundered  the 
foothills,  and  wound  until  they  joined  into  what  looked 
like  rivers  ;  the  thick  grass  grew  waist-high.     It  looked 


206  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

like  a  well-watered  country  ;  but  it  was  of  porous, 
volcanic  nature,  and  the  soil  was  a  sieve.  After  night- 
fall we  came  to  where  we  hoped  to  find  water ;  but 
there  was  not  a  drop  in  the  dried  pools,  and  we  had  to 
make  a  waterless  camp.  A  drizzling  rain  had  set  in, 
enough  to  wet  everything,  but  not  enough  to  give  any 
water  for  drinking.  It  was  eight  o'clock  before  the  last 
of  the  weary,  thirsty  burden-carriers  stumbled  through 
the  black,  boulder-strewn  ravine  on  whose  farther  side 
we  were  camped,  and  threw  down  his  load  among  his 
fellows,  who  were  already  clustered  around  the  little 
fires  they  had  started  in  the  tall  grass.  We  slept  as 
we  were,  and  comfortably  enough  ;  indeed,  there  was 
no  hardship  for  us  white  men,  with  our  heavy  overcoats, 
and  our  food  and  water — which  we  shared  with  our 
personal  attendants  ;  but  I  was  uneasy  for  the  porters, 
as  there  was  another  long  and  exhausting  day's  march 
ahead.  Before  sunrise  we  started ;  and  four  hours 
later,  in  the  bottom  of  a  deep  ravine,  Cuninghame 
found  a  pool  of  green  water  in  a  scooped-out  cavity  in 
the  rock.  It  was  a  pleasant  sight  to  see  the  thirsty 
porters  drink.  Then  they  sat  down,  built  fires  and 
boiled  their  food,  and  went  on  in  good  heart. 

Two  or  three  times  we  crossed  singularly  beautiful 
ravines,  the  trail  winding  through  narrow  clefts  that 
were  almost  tunnels,  and  along  the  brinks  of  sheer  cliffs, 
while  the  green  mat  of  trees  and  vines  was  spangled 
with  many- coloured  flowers.  Then  we  came  to  barren 
ridges  and  bare,  dusty  plains  ;  and  at  nightfall  pitched 
camp  near  the  shores  of  Lake  Naivasha.  It  is  a  lovely 
sheet  of  water,  surrounded  by  hills  and  mountains,  the 
shores  broken  by  rocky  promontories,  and  indented  by 
papyrus-fringed  bays.  Next  morning  we  shifted  camp 
four  miles  to  a  place  on  the  farm,  and  near  the  house. 


CH.  IX]  A  PAPYRUS  SWAMP  207 

of  the  Messrs.  Attenborough,  settlers  on  the  shores  of 
the  lake,  who  treated  us  with  the  most  generous 
courtesy  and  hospitality — as,  indeed,  did  all  the  settlers 
we  met.  They  were  two  brothers  :  one  had  lived 
twenty  years  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  mining  in  the 
Sierras,  and  the  other  had  just  retired  from  the  British 
Navy,  with  the  rank  of  Commander.  They  were  able  to 
turn  their  hands  to  anything,  and  were  just  the  men  for 
work  in  a  new  country  ;  for  a  new  country  is  a  poor 
place  for  the  weak  and  incompetent,  whether  of  body 
or  mind.  They  had  a  steam-launch  and  a  big,  heavy 
row-boat,  and  they  most  kindly  and  generously  put 
both  at  our  disposal  for  hippo-hunting. 

At  this  camp  I  presented  the  porters  with  twenty-five 
sheep,  as  a  recognition  of  their  good  conduct  and  hard 
work  ;  whereupon  they  improvised  long  chants  in  my 
honour,  and  feasted  royally. 

We  spent  one  entire  day  with  the  row-boat  in  a  series 
of  lagoons  near  camp,  which  marked  an  inlet  of  the  lake. 
We  did  not  get  any  hippo,  but  it  was  a  most  interesting 
day.  A  broad  belt  of  papyrus  fringed  the  lagoons  and 
jutted  out  between  them.  The  straight  green  stalks, 
with  their  feathery  heads,  rose  high  and  close,  forming 
a  mass  so  dense  that  it  was  practically  impenetrable  save 
where  the  huge  bulk  of  the  hippos  had  made  tunnels. 
Indeed,  even  for  the  hippos  it  was  not  readily  penetrable. 
The  green  monotony  of  a  papyrus  swamp  becomes 
wearisome  after  a  while  ;  yet  it  is  very  beautiful,  for 
each  reed  is  tall,  slender,  graceful,  with  its  pale  flowering 
crown ;  and  they  are  typical  of  the  tropics,  and  their 
mere  sight  suggests  a  vertical  sun  and  hot,  steaming 
swamps,  where  great  marsh  beasts  feed  and  wallow  and 
bellow,  amidst  a  teeming  reptilian  life.  A  fringe  of 
papyrus  here  and  there  adds  much  to  the  beauty  of  a 


208  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

lake,  and  also  to  the  beauty  of  the  river  pools,  where 
clumps  of  them  grow  under  the  shade  of  the  vine- 
tangled  tropical  trees. 

The  open  waters  of  the  lagoons  were  covered  with 
water-lilies,  bearing  purple  or  sometimes  pink  flowers. 
Across  the  broad  lily-pads  ran  the  curious  "  lily  trotters," 
or  jacanas — richly-coloured  birds,  with  toes  so  long  and 
slender  that  the  lily-pads  support  them  without  sinking. 
They  were  not  shy,  and  their  varied  colouring — a  bright 
chestnut  being  the  most  conspicuous  hue — and  singular 
habits  made  them  very  conspicuous.  There  was  a 
wealth  of  bird  life  in  the  lagoons.  Small  gulls,  some- 
what like  our  black-headed  gull,  but  with  their  hoods 
grey,  flew  screaming  around  us.  Black  and  white  king- 
fishers, tiny  red-billed  kingfishers,  with  colours  so 
brilliant  that  they  flashed  like  jewels  in  the  sun,  and 
brilliant  green  bee-eaters,  with  chestnut  breasts,  perched 
among  the  reeds.  Spur-winged  plover  clamoured  as  they 
circled  overhead,  near  the  edges  of  the  water.  Little 
rails  and  red-legged  water-hens  threaded  the  edges  of 
the  papyrus,  and  grebes  dived  in  the  open  water.  A 
giant  heron,  the  Goliath,  flew  up  at  our  approach ;  and 
there  were  many  smaller  herons  and  egrets,  white  or 
parti-coloured.  There  were  small,  dark  cormorants,  and 
larger  ones  with  white  throats  ;  and  African  ruddy 
ducks,  and  teal  and  big  yellow-billed  ducks,  somewhat 
like  mallards.  Among  the  many  kinds  of  ducks  was 
one  which  made  a  whistling  noise  with  its  wings  as  it 
flew.  Most  plentiful  of  all  were  the  coots,  much 
resembling  our  common  bald-pate  coot,  but  with  a  pair 
of  horns  or  papillse  at  the  hinder  end  of  the  bare  frontal 
space. 

There  were  a  number  of  hippo  in  these  lagoons.  One 
afternoon,  after  four  o'clock,  I  saw  two  standing  half  out 


What  one  has  to  shoot  at  when  after  hippo  on  water 


Mr.  Roosevelt's  hippo  charging  open-mouthed 
From  photographs  by  Kcrwit  Roosevelt 


CH.  IX]  HIPPOPOTAMUS  209 

of  the  water  in  a  shallow  eating  the  water-lilies.  They 
seemed  to  spend  the  earlier  part  of  the  day  sleeping  or 
resting  in  the  papyrus  or  near  its  edge  ;  toward  evening 
tliey  splashed  and  waded  among  the  water-lilies,  tearing 
them  up  with  their  huge  jaws ;  and  during  the  night 
they  came  ashore  to  feed  on  the  grass  and  land  plants. 
In  consequence  those  killed  during  the  day,  until  the 
late  afternoon,  had  their  stomachs  filled,  not  with  water 
plants,  but  with  grasses  which  they  must  have  obtained 
in  their  night  journeys  on  dry  land.  At  night  I  heard 
the  bulls  bellowing  and  roaring.  They  fight  savagely 
among  themselves,  and  where  they  are  not  molested,  and 
the  natives  are  timid,  they  not  only  do  great  damage  to 
the  gardens  and  crops,  trampling  them  down  and  shovel- 
ling basketfuls  into  their  huge  mouths,  but  also  become 
dangerous  to  human  beings,  attacking  boats  or  canoes  in 
a  spirit  of  wanton  and  ferocious  mischief  At  this  place, 
a  few  weeks  before  our  arrival,  a  young  bull,  badly 
scarred,  and  evidently  having  been  roughly  handled  by 
a  bigger  bull,  came  ashore  in  the  daytime  and  actually 
attacked  the  cattle,  and  was  promptly  shot  in  conse- 
quence. They  are  astonishingly  quick  in  their  move- 
ments for  such  shapeless-looking,  short-legged  things. 
Of  course,  they  cannot  swim  in  deep  water  with  any- 
thing like  the  speed  of  the  real  swimming  mammals,  nor 
move  on  shore  with  the  agility  and  speed  of  the  true 
denizens  of  the  land ;  nevertheless,  by  sheer  muscular 
power,  and  in  spite  of  their  shape,  they  move  at  an  un- 
expected rate  of  speed  both  on  dry  land  and  in  deep 
water  ;  and  in  shallow  water,  their  true  home,  they 
gallop  very  fast  on  the  bottom,  under  water.  Ordinarily 
only  their  heads  can  be  seen,  and  they  must  be  shot  in 
the  brain.  If  they  are  found  in  a  pool  with  little  cover, 
and  if  the  shots  can  be  taken  close  by,  from  firm  gromid, 

14 


210  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

there  is  no  sport  whatever  in  kiUing  them.  But  the 
brain  is  small  and  the  skull  huge,  and  if  they  are  any 
distance  off,  and  especially  if  the  shot  has  to  be  taken 
from  an  unsteady  boat,  there  is  ample  opportunity  to 
miss. 

On  the  day  we  spent  with  the  big  row-boat  in  the 
lagoons  both  Kermit  and  I  had  shots ;  each  of  us  hit, 
but  neither  of  us  got  his  game.  My  shot  was  at  the 
head  of  a  hippo  facing  me  in  a  bay  about  a  hundred 
yards  off,  so  that  I  had  to  try  to  shoot  very  low  between 
the  eyes  ;  the  water  was  smooth,  and  I  braced  my  legs 
well  and  fired  offhand.  I  hit  him,  but  was  confident 
that  T  had  missed  the  brain,  for  he  lifted  slightly,  and 
then  went  under,  nose  last ;  and  when  a  hippo  is  shot  in 
the  brain  the  head  usually  goes  under  nose  first.  An 
exasperating  feature  of  hippo-shooting  is  that,  save  in 
exceptional  circumstances,  where  the  water  is  very 
shallow,  the  animal  sinks  at  once  when  killed  outright, 
and  does  not  float  for  one  or  two  or  three  hours,  so  that 
one  has  to  wait  that  length  of  time  before  finding  out 
whether  the  game  has  or  has  not  been  bagged.  On  this 
occasion  we  never  saw  a  sign  of  the  animal  after  I  fired, 
and  as  it  seemed  impossible  that  in  that  situation  the 
hippo  could  get  off  unobserved,  my  companions  thought 
I  had  killed  him.  I  thought  not,  and,  unfortunately, 
my  judgment  proved  to  be  correct. 

Another  day,  in  the  launch,  I  did  much  the  same 
thing.  Again  the  hippo  was  a  long  distance  off,  only 
his  head  appearing,  but  unfortunately  not  in  profile, 
much  the  best  position  for  a  shot ;  again  I  hit  him, 
again  he  sank,  and,  look  as  hard  as  we  could,  not  a  sign 
of  him  appeared,  so  that  everyone  was  sure  he  was  dead  ; 
and  again  no  body  ever  floated.  But  on  this  day  Kermit 
got  his  hippo.    He  hit  it  first  in  the  head,  merely  a  flesh 


CH.  rx]  OTTERS  211 

wound ;  but  the  startled  creature  then  rose  high  in  the 
water,  and  he  shot  it  in  the  lungs.  It  now  found  difficulty 
in  staying  under,  and  continually  rose  to  the  surface 
with  a  plunge  like  a  porpoise,  going  as  fast  as  it  could 
toward  the  papyrus.  After  it  we  went,  full  speed,  for 
once  in  the  papyrus  we  could  not  have  followed  it ;  and 
Kermit  finally  killed  it,  just  before  it  reached  the  edge 
of  the  swamp,  and,  luckily,  where  the  water  was  so 
shallow  that  we  did  not  have  to  wait  for  it  to  float,  but 
fastened  a  rope  to  two  of  its  turtle-hke  legs,  and  towed 
it  back  forthwith. 

There  were  otters  in  the  lake.  One  day  we  saw  two 
playing  together  near  the  shore,  and  at  first  we  were  all 
of  us  certain  that  it  was  some  big  water-snake.  It  was 
not  until  we  were  very  close  that  we  made  out  the 
supposed  one  big  snake  to  be  two  otters ;  it  was  rather 
interesting,  as  giving  one  of  the  explanations  of  the 
stories  that  always  appear  about  large  water- snakes,  or 
similar  monsters,  existing  in  almost  every  lake  of  any 
size  in  a  wild  country.  On  another  day  I  shot  another 
near  shore ;  he  turned  over  and  over,  splashing  and 
tumbling;  but  just  as  we  were  about  to  grasp  him,  he 
partially  recovered  and  dived  to  safety  in  the  reeds. 

On  the  second  day  we  went  out  in  the  launch  I  got 
my  hippo.  We  steamed  down  the  lake,  not  far  from 
the  shore,  for  over  ten  miles,  dragging  the  big,  clumsy 
row-boat,  in  which  Cuninghame  had  put  three  of  our 
porters  who  knew  how  to  row.  Then  we  spied  a  big 
hippo  walking  entirely  out  of  water  on  the  edge  of  the 
papyrus,  at  the  farther  end  of  a  little  bay  which  was 
filled  with  water-lilies.  Thither  we  steamed,  and  when 
a  few  rods  from  the  bay,  Cuninghame,  Kermit,  and  1 
got  into  the  row-boat.  Cuninghame  steered,  Kermit 
carried  his  camera,  and  I  steadied  myself  in  the  bow 


212  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

with  the  httle  Springfield  rifle.  The  hippo  was  a  self- 
confident,  truculent  beast ;  it  went  under  water  once  or 
twice,  but  again  came  out  to  the  papyrus  and  waded 
along  the  edge,  its  body  out  of  water.  We  headed 
toward  it,  and  thrust  the  boat  in  among  the  water-lilies, 
finding  that  the  bay  was  shallow,  from  three  to  six  feet 
deep.  While  still  over  a  hundred  yards  from  the  hippo, 
I  saw  it  turn  as  if  to  break  into  the  papyrus,  and  at 
once  fired  into  its  shoulder,  the  tiny  pointed  bullet 
smashing  the  big  bones.  Round  spun  the  great  beast, 
plunged  into  the  water,  and  with  its  huge  jaws  open 
came  straight  for  the  boat,  floundering  and  splashing 
through  the  thick-growing  water-lilies.  I  think  that  its 
chief  object  was  to  get  to  deep  water ;  but  we  were 
between  it  and  the  deep  water,  and  instead  of  trying  to 
pass  to  one  side  it  charged  straight  for  the  boat,  with 
open  jaws,  bent  on  mischief.  But  I  hit  it  again  and 
again  with  the  little  sharp-pointed  bullet.  Once  I  struck 
it  between  neck  and  shoulder ;  once,  as  it  rushed  forward 
with  its  huge  jaws  stretched  to  their  threatening  utmost, 
I  fired  right  between  them,  whereat  it  closed  them  with 
the  clash  of  a  sprung  bear-trap ;  and  then,  when  under 
the  punishment  it  swerved  for  a  moment,  I  hit  it  at  the 
base  of  the  ear,  a  brain  shot  which  dropped  it  in  its 
tracks.  Meanwhile  Kermit  was  busily  taking  photos 
of  it  as  it  charged ;  and,  as  he  mentioned  afterward, 
until  it  was  dead  he  never  saw  it  except  in  the  *'  finder" 
of  his  camera.  The  water  was  so  shallow  where  I  had 
killed  the  hippo  that  its  body  projected  shghtly  above 
the  surface.  It  was  the  hardest  kind  of  work  getting 
it  out  from  among  the  water-lilies  ;  then  we  towed  it  to 
camp  behind  the  launch. 

The  engineer  of  the  launch  was  an  Indian  Moslem. 
The  fireman  and  the  steersman  were  two  half-naked 


^ 


til  J 

I- 

rt  - 

o  : 


CH.  IX]  MICE  AND  RATS  213 

and  much-ornamented  Kikuyus.  The  fireman  wore  a 
blue  bead  chain  on  one  ankle,  a  brass  armlet  on  the 
opposite  arm,  a  belt  of  short  steel  chains,  a  dingy 
blanket  (no  loin-cloth),  and  a  skull-cap  surmounted  by 
a  plume  of  ostrich  feathers.  The  two  Kikuyus  were 
unconsciously  entertaining  companions.  Without  any 
warning,  they  would  suddenly  start  a  song  or  chant, 
usually  an  impromptu  recitative  of  whatever  at  the 
moment  interested  them.  They  chanted  for  half  an 
hour  over  the  feat  of  the  "  Bwana  Makuba "  (great 
master  or  chief — my  name)  in  killing  the  hippo,  laying 
especial  stress  upon  the  quantity  of  excellent  meat  it 
would  furnish  and  how  very  good  the  eating  would  be. 
Usually  one  would  improvise  the  chant  and  the  other 
join  in  the  chorus.  Sometimes  they  would  solemnly 
sing  complimentary  songs  to  one  another,  each  in  turn 
chanting  the  manifold  good  qualities  of  his  companion. 

Around  this  camp  were  many  birds.  The  most  note- 
worthy was  a  handsome  grey  eagle  owl,  bigger  than 
our  great  horned  owl,  to  which  it  is  closely  akin.  It 
did  not  hoot  or  scream,  its  voice  being  a  kind  of  grunt, 
followed  in  a  second  or  two  by  a  succession  of  similar 
sounds,  uttered  more  quickly  and  in  a  lower  tone. 
These  big  owls  frequently  came  round  camp  after  dark, 
and  at  first  their  notes  completely  puzzled  me,  as  1 
thought  they  must  be  made  by  some  beast.  The  bul- 
buls  sang  well.  Most  of  the  birds  were  in  no  way  like 
our  home  birds. 

Loring  trapped  quantities  of  mice  and  rats,  and  it 
was  curious  to  see  how  many  of  them  had  acquired 
characters  which  caused  them  superficially  to  resemble 
American  animals  with  which  they  had  no  real  kinship. 
The  sand  rats  that  burrowed  in  the  dry  plains  were  in 
shape,  in  colour,  eyes,  tail,  and  paws  strikingly  like  our 


214  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

pocket  gophers,  which  have  similar  habits.  So  the 
long-tailed  gerbils,  or  gerbil-like  rats,  resembled  our 
kangaroo  rats ;  and  there  was  a  blunt -nosed,  stubby- 
tailed  little  rat  superficially  hardly  to  be  told  from  our 
rice  rat.  But  the  most  characteristic  rodent — the  big 
long-tailed,  jumping  springhaas,  resembled  nothing  of 
ours  ;  and  there  were  tree  rats  and  spiny  mice.  There 
were  grey  monkeys  in  the  trees  around  camp,  which  the 
naturalists  shot. 

Heller   trapped    various   beasts — beautifully  marked 
genets  and  a  big  white- tailed  mongoose  which  was  very 
savage.     But  his  most  remarkable  catch  was  a  leopard. 
He   had   set  a   steel   trap,  fastened   to  a   loose  thorn 
branch,   for   mongoose,    civets,  or  jackals.      It  was   a 
number  two   Blake,  such   as   in  America  we   use   for 
coons,  skunks,  foxes,  and  perhaps  bobcats  and  coyotes. 
In  the  morning  he  found  it  gone,  and  followed  the  trail 
of  the  thorn  branch  until  it  led  into  a  dense  thicket, 
from  which  issued  an  ominous  growl.     His  native  boy 
shouted  "  Simba !"   but  it  was  a  leopard,  not  a  lion. 
He  could  not  see  into  the  thicket ;  so  he  sent  back  to 
camp  for  his  rifle,  and  when  it  came  he  climbed  a  tree 
and  endeavoured  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  animal.     He 
could  see  nothing,  however,  and  finally  fired  into  the 
thicket  rather  at  random.     The  answer  was  a  furious 
growl,  and  the  leopard  charged  out  to  the  foot  of  the 
tree,  much  hampered  by  the  big  thorn  branch.     He  put 
a  bullet  into  it,  and  back  it  went,  only  to  come  out  and 
to  receive  another  bullet ;  and  he  killed  it.     It  was  an 
old  male,  in  good  condition,  weighing  one  hundred  and 
twenty-six  pounds.     The  trap  was  not  big  enough  to 
contain  his  whole  paw,  and  he  had  been  caught  firmly 
by  one  toe.     The  thorn  bush  acted  as  a  drag,  which 
prevented  him  from  going  far,  and  yet  always  yielded 


CH.  IX]  PORCUPINES  215 

somewhat  when  he  pulled.  A  bear  thus  caught  would 
have  chewed  up  the  trap  or  else  pulled  his  foot  loose, 
even  at  the  cost  of  sacrificing  the  toe  ;  but  the  cats  are 
more  sensitive  to  pain.  This  leopard  was  smaller  than 
any  full-grown  male  cougar  I  have  ever  killed,  and  yet 
cougars  often  kill  game  rather  heavier  than  leopards 
usually  venture  upon  ;  yet  very  few  cougars  indeed 
would  show  anything  like  the  pluck  and  ferocity  shown 
by  this  leopard,  and  characteristic  of  its  kind. 

Kermit  killed  a  waterbuck  of  a  kind  new  to  us — the 
sing-sing.  He  also  killed  two  porcupines  and  two 
baboons.  The  porcupines  are  terrestrial  animals,  living 
in  burrows,  to  which  they  keep  during  the  daytime. 
They  are  much  heavier  than,  and  in  all  their  ways 
totally  different  from,  our  sluggish  tree  porcupines. 
The  baboons  were  numerous  around  this  camp,  living 
both  among  the  rocks  and  in  the  tree-tops.  They  are 
hideous  creatures.  They  ravage  the  crops  and  tear 
open  new-born  lambs  to  get  at  the  milk  inside  them  ; 
and  where  the  natives  are  timid  and  unable  to  harm 
them,  they  become  wantonly  savage  and  aggressive, 
and  attack  and  even  kill  women  and  children.  In 
Uganda,  Cuninghame  had  once  been  asked  by  a  native 
chief  to  come  to  his  village  and  shoot  the  baboons,  as 
they  had  just  killed  two  women,  badly  bitten  several 
children,  and  caused  such  a  reign  of  terror  that  the 
village  would  be  abandoned  if  they  were  not  killed 
or  intimidated.  He  himself  saw  the  torn  and  mutilated 
bodies  of  the  dead  women  ;  and  he  stayed  in  the  village 
a  week,  shooting  so  many  baboons  that  the  remainder 
were  thoroughly  cowed.  Baboons  and  boars  are  the 
most  formidable  of  all  foes  to  the  dogs  that  hunt  them 
— just  as  leopards  are  of  all  wild  animals  those  most  apt 
to  prey  on  dogs.     A  baboon's  teeth  and  hands  are  far 


216  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

more  formidable  weapons  than  those  of  any  dog,  and 
only  a  very  few  wholly  exceptional  dogs  of  huge  size, 
and  great  courage  and  intelligence,  can  single-handed 
contend  with  an  old  male.  But  we  saw  a  settler  whose 
three  big  terriers  could  themselves  kill  a  full-grown 
wart-hog  boar  —  an  almost  unheard  -  of  feat.  They 
backed  up  one  another  with  equal  courage  and  adroit- 
ness, their  aim  being  for  two  to  seize  the  hind-legs  ; 
then  the  third,  watching  his  chance,  would  get  one 
fore-leg,  when  the  boar  was  speedily  thrown,  and  when 
weakened,  killed  by  bites  in  his  stomach. 

Hitherto  we  had  not  obtained  a  bull  hippo,  and  I 
made  up  my  mind  to  devote  myself  to  getting  one, 
as  otherwise  the  group  for  the  Museum  would  be 
incomplete.  Save  in  exceptional  cases  I  do  not  think 
hippo-hunting,  after  the  first  one  has  been  obtained,  a 
very  attractive  sport,  because  usually  one  has  to  wait 
an  hour  before  it  is  possible  to  tell  whether  or  not  a 
shot  has  been  successful,  and  also  because,  a  portion 
of  the  head  being  all  that  is  usually  visible,  it  is 
exceedingly  difficult  to  say  whether  the  animal  seen  is 
a  bull  or  a  cow.  As  the  time  allowed  for  a  shot  is  very 
short,  and  any  hesitation  probably  insures  the  animal's 
escape,  this  means  that  two  or  three  hippo  may  be 
killed,  quite  unavoidably,  before  the  right  specimen  is 
secured.  Still,  there  may  be  interesting  and  exciting 
incidents  in  a  hippo  hunt.  Cuninghame,  the  two 
Attenboroughs,  and  I  started  early  in  the  launch, 
towing  the  big,  clumsy  row-boat,  with  as  crew  three 
of  our  porters  who  could  row.  We  steamed  down  the 
lake  some  fifteen  miles  to  a  wide  bay,  indented  by 
smaller  bays,  lagoons,  and  inlets,  all  fringed  by  a  broad 
belt  of  impenetrable  papyrus,  while  the  beautiful  purple 
lilies,  with  their  leathery,  tough  stems  and  broad  surface- 


;»«««y*->   -rW 


A  black-backed  jackal 


A  spotted  genet 


A  tree  hyrax 


A  white-tailed  mongoose 


A  buck  of  the  big  gazelle,  with  un- 
usually fine  head,  shot  at  Saltmarsh 
camp 


A  porcupine 


A  pelican 


A  baboon 


259 


CH.  IX]  HIPPOPOTAMUS  217 

floating  leaves,  filled  the  shallows.  At  the  mouth  of 
the  main  bay  we  passed  a  floating  island,  a  mass  of 
papyrus  perhaps  a  hundred  and  fifty  acres  in  extent, 
which  had  been  broken  off*  from  the  shore  somewhere, 
and  was  floating  over  the  lake  as  the  winds  happened  to 
drive  it. 

In  an  opening  in  the  dense  papyrus  masses  we  left 
the  launch  moored,  and  Cuninghame  and  I  started  in 
the  row-boat  to  coast  the  green  wall  of  tall,  thick- 
growing,  feather-topped  reeds.  Under  the  bright  sun- 
shine the  shallow  flats  were  alive  with  bird  life.  Gulls, 
both  the  grey-hooded  and  the  black-backed,  screamed 
harshly  overhead.  The  chestnut-coloured  lily  trotters 
tripped  daintily  over  the  lily-pads,  and  when  they  flew, 
held  their  long  legs  straight  behind  them,  so  that  they 
looked  as  if  they  had  tails  like  pheasants.  Sacred  ibis, 
white,  with  naked  black  head  and  neck,  stalked  along 
the  edge  of  the  water,  and  on  the  bent  papyrus  small 
cormorants  and  herons  perched.  Everywhere  there 
were  coots  and  ducks,  and  crested  grebes,  big  and  little. 
Huge  white  pelicans  floated  on  the  water.  Once  we 
saw  a  string  of  flamingos  fly  by,  their  plumage  a 
wonderful  red. 

Immediately  after  leaving  the  launch  we  heard  a 
hippo,  hidden  in  the  green  fastness  on  our  right, 
uttering  a  meditative  soliloquy,  consisting  of  a  succes- 
sion of  squealing  grunts.  Then  we  turned  a  point, 
and  in  a  little  bay  saw  six  or  eight  hippo,  floating 
with  their  heads  above  water.  There  were  two  much 
bigger  than  the  others,  and  Cuninghame,  while  of 
course  unable  to  be  certain,  thought  these  were  probably 
males.  The  smaller  ones,  including  a  cow  and  her  calf, 
were  not  much  alarmed,  and  floated  quietly,  looking  at 
us,  as  we  cautiously  paddled  and  drifted  nearer ;  but  the 


218  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

bigger  ones  dived  and  began  to  work  their  way  past 
us  toward  deep  water.  We  could  trace  their  course  by 
the  twisting  of  the  Kly-pads.  Motionless  the  rowers  lay 
on  their  oars ;  the  line  of  moving  lily-pads  showed  that 
one  of  the  big  hippo  was  about  to  pass  the  boat. 
Suddenly  the  waters  opened  close  at  hand,  and  a 
monstrous  head  appeared.  "  Shoot,"  said  Cuninghame, 
and  I  fired  into  the  back  of  the  head  just  as  it  dis- 
appeared. It  sank  out  of  sight  without  a  splash, 
almost  without  a  ripple ;  the  lily-pads  ceased  twisting ; 
a  few  bubbles  of  air  rose  to  the  surface.  Evidently  the 
hippo  lay  dead  underneath.  Poling  to  the  spot,  we 
at  once  felt  the  huge  body  with  our  oar  blades.  But, 
alas !  when  the  launch  came  round,  and  we  raised  the 
body,  it  proved  to  be  that  of  a  big  cow. 

So  I  left  Cuninghame  to  cut  off  the  head  for  the 
Museum,  and  started  off  by  myself  in  the  boat  with 
two  rowers,  neither  of  whom  spoke  a  word  of  English. 
For  an  hour  we  saw  only  the  teeming  bird  life.  Then, 
in  a  broad,  shallow  lagoon,  we  made  out  a  dozen  hippo, 
two  or  three  very  big.  Cautiously  we  approached  them, 
and  when  seventy  yards  off^  I  fired  at  the  base  of  the  ear 
of  one  of  the  largest.  Down  went  every  head,  and  utter 
calm  succeeded.  I  had  marked  the  spot  where  the  one 
at  which  I  shot  had  disappeared,  and  thither  we  rowed. 
When  we  reached  the  place,  I  told  one  of  the  rowers  to 
thrust  a  pole  down  and  see  if  he  could  touch  the  dead 
body.  He  thrust  according,  and  at  once  shouted  that 
he  had  found  the  hippo  ;  in  another  moment  his  face 
altered,  and  he  shouted  much  more  loudly  that  the 
hippo  was  alive.  Sure  enough,  bump  went  the  hippo 
against  the  bottom  of  the  boat,  the  jar  causing  us  all  to 
sit  suddenly  down — for  we  were  standing.  Another 
bump  showed  that  we  had  again  been  struck,  and  the 


CH.  IX]       ADVENTURE  WITH  HIPPOS         219 

shallow,  muddy  water  boiled  as  the  huge  beasts,  above 
and  below  the  surface,  scattered  in  every  direction. 
Their  eyes  starting,  the  two  rowers  began  to  back  water 
out  of  the  dangerous  neighbourhood,  while  I  shot  at  an 
animal  whose  head  appeared  to  my  left,  as  it  made  off 
with  frantic  haste  ;  for  I  took  it  for  granted  that  the 
hippo  at  which  I  had  first  fired  (and  which  was  really 
dead)  had  escaped.  This  one  disappeared  as  usual,  and 
I  had  not  the  slightest  idea  whether  or  not  I  had  killed 
it.  I  had  small  opportunity  to  ponder  the  subject,  for 
twenty  feet  away  the  water  bubbled  and  a  huge  head 
shot  out  facing  me,  the  jaws  wide  open.  There  was  no 
time  to  guess  at  its  intentions,  and  I  fired  on  the  instant. 
Down  went  the  head,  and  I  felt  the  boat  quiver  as  the 
hippo  passed  underneath.  Just  here  the  lily-pads  were 
thick ;  so  I  marked  its  course,  fired  as  it  rose,  and  down 
it  went.  But  on  the  other  quarter  of  the  boat  a  beast, 
evidently  of  great  size — it  proved  to  be  a  big  bull — now 
appeared,  well  above  water,  and  I  put  a  bullet  into  its 
brain. 

I  did  not  wish  to  shoot  again  unless  I  had  to,  and 
stood  motionless,  with  the  little  Springfield  at  the  ready. 
A  head  burst  up  twenty  yards  off,  with  a  lily-pad 
plastered  over  one  eye,  giving  the  hippo  an  absurd 
resemblance  to  a  discomfited  prize-fighter,  and  then  dis- 
appeared with  great  agitation.  Two  half-grown  beasts 
stupid  from  fright  appeared,  and  stayed  up  for  a  minute 
or  two  at  a  time,  not  knowing  what  to  do.  Other  heads 
popped  up,  getting  farther  and  farther  away.  By  degrees 
everything  vanished,  the  water  grew  calm,  and  we  rowed 
over  to  the  papyrus,  moored  ourselves  by  catching  hold 
of  a  couple  of  stems,  and  awaited  events.  Within  an 
hour  four  dead  hippos  appeared — a  very  big  bull  and 
three  big  cows.     Of  course,  I  would  not  have  shot  the 


220  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  ,[ch.  ix 

latter  if  it  could  have  been  avoided  ;  but  in  the  circum- 
stances I  do  not  see  how  it  was  possible  to  help  it.  The 
meat  was  not  wasted  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  a  godsend, 
not  only  to  our  own  porters,  but  to  the  natives  round 
about,  many  of  whom  were  on  short  commons  on  account 
of  the  drought. 

Bringing  over  the  launch,  we  worked  until  after  dark 
to  get  the  bull  out  of  the  difficult  position  in  which  he 
lay.  It  was  nearly  seven  o'clock  before  we  had  him 
fixed  for  towing  on  one  quarter,  the  row-boat  towing  on 
the  other,  by  which  time  two  hippos  were  snorting  and 
blowing  within  a  few  yards  of  us,  their  curiosity  much 
excited  as  to  what  was  going  on.  The  night  was  over- 
cast ;  there  were  drenching  rain  squalls,  and  a  rather 
heavy  sea  was  running,  and  I  did  not  get  back  to  camp 
until  after  three.  Next  day  the  launch  fetched  in  the 
rest  of  the  hippo  meat. 

From  this  camp  we  went  into  Naivasha,  on  the  line 
of  the  railway.  In  many  places  the  road  was  beautiful, 
leading  among  the  huge  yellow  trunks  of  giant  thorn- 
trees,  the  ground  rising  sheer  on  our  left  as  we  cantered 
along  the  edge  of  the  lake.  We  passed  impalla, 
tommies,  zebra,  and  wart-hog ;  and  in  one  place  saw 
three  waterbuck  cows  feeding  just  outside  the  papyrus 
at  high  noon.  They  belonged  to  a  herd  that  lived  in 
the  papyrus  and  fed  on  the  grassy  flats  outside ;  and 
their  feeding  in  the  open  exactly  at  noon  was  another 
proof  of  the  fact  that  the  custom  of  feeding  in  the  early 
morning  and  late  evening  is  with  most  game  entirely 
artificial  and  the  result  of  fear  of  man.  Birds  abounded. 
Parties  of  the  dark-coloured  ant-eating  wheatear  sang 
sweetly  from  trees  and  bushes,  and  even  from  the  roofs 
of  the  settlers'  houses.  The  tri-coloured  starlings — 
black,  white,  and  chestnut — sang  in  the  air,  as  well  as 


--         tic 

"5    a 


CH.  IX]  SPRINGHAAS  221 

when  perched  on  twigs.  Stopping  at  the  Government 
farm  (which  is  most  interesting  ;  the  results  obtained  ui 
improving  the  native  sheep,  goats,  and  cattle  by  the  use 
of  imported  thoroughbred  bulls  and  rams  have  been 
astonishingly  successful),  we  saw  the  little  long-tailed, 
red-billed,  black  and  white  whydahs  flitting  around  the 
outbuildings  as  familiarly  as  sparrows.  Water  birds  of 
all  kinds  thronged  the  meadows  bordering  the  papyrus, 
and  swam  and  waded  among  the  water-lilies ;  sacred 
ibis,  herons,  beautiful  white  spoonbills,  darters,  cor- 
morants, Egyptian  geese,  ducks,  coots,  and  water-hens. 
I  got  up  within  rifle-range  of  a  flock  of  the  queer  ibis 
stork,  black  and  white  birds  with  curved  yellow  bills, 
naked  red  faces,  and  wonderful  purple  tints  on  the 
edges  and  the  insides  of  the  wings.  With  the  httle 
Springfield  I  shot  one  on  the  ground  and  another  on  the 
wing,  after  the  flock  had  risen. 

That  night  Kermit  and  Dr.  Mearns  went  out  with 
lanterns  and  shot-guns,  and  each  killed  one  of  the 
springhaas,  the  jumping  hares,  which  abounded  in  the 
neighbourhood.  These  big,  burrowing  animals,  which 
progress  by  jumping  like  kangaroos,  are  strictly  noc- 
turnal, and  their  eyes  shine  in  the  glare  of  the  lanterns. 

Next  day  I  took  the  Fox  gun,  which  had  already  on 
ducks,  guinea-fowl,  and  francolin,  shown  itself  an 
exceptionally  hard-hitting  and  close-shooting  weapon, 
and  collected  various  water  birds  for  the  naturahsts; 
among  others,  a  couple  of  Egyptian  geese.  I  also  shot 
a  white  pelican  with  the  Springfield  rifle ;  there  was  a 
beautiful  rosy  flush  on  the  breast. 

Here  we  again  got  news  of  the  outside  world.  While 
on  safari  the  only  newspaper  which  any  of  us  ever  saw 
was  the  O-wego  Gazette,  which  Loring,  in  a  fine  spirit 
of  neighbourhood  loyalty,  always  had  sent  to  him  in  his 


222  TO  LAKE  NAIVASHA  [ch.  ix 

mail.  To  the  Doctor,  by  the  way,  I  had  become  knit 
in  a  bond  of  close  intellectual  sympathy  ever  since  a 
chance  allusion  to  "  William  Henry's  Letters  to  his 
Grandmother  "  had  disclosed  the  fact  that  each  of  us, 
ever  since  the  days  of  his  youth,  had  preserved  the 
bound  volumes  of  Our  Young  Folks,  and  moreover 
firmly  believed  that  there  never  had  been  its  equal  as  a 
magazine,  whether  for  old  or  young ;  even  though  the 
Plancus  of  our  golden  consulship  was  the  not  wholly 
happy  Andrew  Johnson. 


CHAPTER  X 

ELEPHANT-HUNTING  ON  MOUNT  KENIA 

On  July  24,  in  order  to  ship  our  fresh  accumulations  of 
specimens  and  trophies,  we  once  more  went  into  Nairobi. 
It  was  a  pleasure  again  to  see  its  tree-bordered  streets 
and  charming  houses,  bowered  in  vines  and  bushes,  and 
to  meet  once  more  the  men  and  women  who  dwelt  in 
the  houses.  T  wish  it  were  in  my  power  to  thank 
individually  the  members  of  the  many  East  African 
households,  of  which  I  shall  always  cherish  warm 
memories  of  friendship  and  regard. 

At  Nairobi  I  saw  Selous,  who  had  just  returned  from 
a  two  months'  safari  with  McMillan,  Williams,  and 
Judd.  Their  experience  shows  how  large  the  element 
of  luck  is  in  lion-hunting.  Selous  was  particularly 
anxious  to  kill  a  good  lion  ;  there  is  nowhere  to  be 
found  a  more  skilful  or  more  hard-working  hunter,  yet 
he  never  even  got  a  shot.  Williams,  on  the  other  hand, 
came  across  three.  Two  he  killed  easily.  The  third 
charged  him.  He  was  carrying  a  double-barrelled  -450, 
but  failed  to  stop  the  beast ;  it  seized  him  by  the  leg, 
and  his  life  was  saved  by  his  Swahili  gun-bearer,  who 
gave  the  lion  a  fatal  shot  as  it  stood  over  him.  He 
came  within  an  ace  of  dying ;  but  when  1  saw  him  at 
the  hospital,  he  was  well  on  the  road  to  recovery.  One 
day  Selous,  while  on  horseback,  saw  a  couple  of  Uonesses, 

223 


224  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

and  galloped  after  them,  followed  by  Judd,  seventy  or 
eighty  yards  behind.  One  lioness  stopped  and  crouched 
under  a  bush,  let  Selous  pass,  and  then  charged  Judd. 
She  was  right  alongside  him,  and  he  fired  from  the  hip  ; 
the  bullet  went  into  her  eye.  His  horse  jumped  and 
sw^erved  at  the  shot,  throwing  him  off,  and  he  found 
himself  sitting  on  the  ground,  not  three  yards  from  the 
dead  Honess.     Nothing  more  was  seen  of  the  other. 

Continually  I  met  men  with  experiences  in  their  past 
lives  which  showed  how  close  the  country  was  to  those 
primitive  conditions  in  which  warfare  with  wild  beasts 
was  one  of  the  main  features  of  man's  existence.  At 
one  dinner  my  host  and  two  of  my  fellow-guests  had 
been  within  a  year  or  eighteen  months  severely  mauled 
by  lions.  All  three,  by  the  way,  informed  me  that  the 
actual  biting  caused  them  at  the  moment  no  pain  what- 
ever ;  the  pain  came  later.  On  meeting  Harold  Hill, 
my  companion  on  one  of  my  Kapiti  Plains  lion  hunts, 
I  found  that  since  I  had  seen  him  he  had  been  roughly 
handled  by  a  dying  leopard.  The  Government  had  just 
been  obliged  to  close  one  of  the  trade  routes  to  native 
caravans  because  of  the  ravages  of  a  man-eating  lion 
which  carried  men  away  from  the  camps.  A  safari 
which  had  come  in  from  the  north  had  been  charged  by 
a  rhino,  and  one  of  the  porters  tossed  and  killed,  the 
horn  being  driven  clean  through  his  loins.  At  Heatley's 
Farm  three  buffaloes  (belonging  to  the  same  herd  from 
which  we  had  shot  five)  rushed  out  of  the  papyrus  one 
afternoon  at  a  passing  buggy,  which  just  managed  to 
escape  by  a  breakneck  run  across  the  level  plain,  the 
beasts  chasing  it  for  a  mile.  One  afternoon,  at  Govern- 
ment House,  I  met  a  Government  official  who  had 
once  succeeded  in  driving  into  a  corral  seventy  zebras, 
including  more  stallions  than  mares.     Their  misfortune 


cH.  x]  NAIROBI  RACES  225 

in  no  way  abated  their  savagery  toward  one  another, 
and  as  the  limited  space  forbade  the  escape  of  the 
weaker,  the  stallions  fought  to  the  death  with  teeth 
and  hoofs  during  the  first  night,  and  no  less  than 
twenty  were  killed  outright  or  died  of  their  wounds. 

Most  of  the  time  in  Nairobi  we  were  the  guests 
of  ever-hospitable  McMillan,  in  his  low,  cool  house, 
with  its  broad  vine-shaded  veranda  running  around  all 
four  sides,  and  its  garden,  fragrant  and  brilliant  with 
innumerable  flowers.  Birds  abounded,  singing  beauti- 
fully. The  bulbuls  were  the  most  noticeable  singers, 
but  there  were  many  others.  The  dark  ant-eating  chats 
haunted  the  dusky  roads  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town, 
and  were  interesting  birds.  They  were  usually  found 
in  parties,  flirted  their  tails  up  and  down  as  they  sat  on 
bushes  or  roofs  or  wires,  sang  freely  in  chorus  until 
after  dusk,  and  then  retired  to  holes  in  the  ground  for 
the  night.  A  tiny  owl,  with  a  queer  little  voice,  called 
continually,  not  only  after  nightfall,  but  in  the  bright 
afternoons.  Shrikes  spitted  insects  on  the  spines  of  the 
imported  cactus  in  the  gardens. 

It  was  race  week,  and  the  races,  in  some  of  which 
Kermit  rode,  were  capital  fun.  The  white  people — 
army  officers.  Government  officials,  farmers  from  the 
country  round  about,  and  their  wives  —  rode  to  the 
races  on  ponies  or  even  on  camels,  or  drove  up  in  rick- 
shaws, in  gharries,  in  bullock  tongas,  occasionally  in 
automobiles,  most  often  in  two-wheel  carts  or  rickety 
hacks,  drawn  by  mules  and  driven  by  a  turbaned  Indian 
or  a  native  in  a  cotton  shirt.  There  were  Parsees  and 
Goanese  dressed  just  like  the  Europeans.  There  were 
many  other  Indians,  their  picturesque  womenkind 
gaudy  in  crimson,  blue,  and  saffron.  The  constabulary, 
Indian  and  native,  were  in  neat  uniforms  and  well  set 

15 


226  ELEPHANT-HUNTIIVG  [ch.  x 

up,  though  often  barefooted.  Straight,  slender  SomaHs, 
with  clear-cut  features,  were  in  attendance  on  the 
horses.  Native  negroes,  of  many  different  tribes,  flocked 
to  the  racecourse  and  its  neighbourhood.  The  Swahilis, 
and  those  among  the  others  who  aspired  toward  civili- 
zation, were  well  clad,  the  men  in  half  European 
costume,  the  women  in  flowing,  parti-coloured  robes. 
But  most  of  them  were  clad,  or  unclad,  just  as  they 
always  had  been.  Wakambas,  with  filed  teeth,  crouched 
in  circles  on  the  ground.  Kikuyus  passed,  the  men  each 
with  a  blanket  hung  round  the  shoulders  and  girdles 
of  chains,  and  armlets  and  anklets  of  solid  metal ;  the 
older  women  bent  under  burdens  they  carried  on  the 
back,  half  of  them,  in  addition,  with  babies  slung  some- 
where round  them,  while  now  and  then  an  unmarried 
girl  would  have  her  face  painted  with  ochre  and  ver- 
milion. A  small  party  of  Masai  warriors  kept  close 
together,  each  clutching  his  shining,  long-bladed,  war- 
spear,  their  hair  daubed  red  and  twisted  into  strings. 
A  large  band  of  Kavirondos,  stark  naked,  with  shield 
and  spear  and  head-dress  of  nodding  plumes,  held  a 
dance  near  the  race-track.  As  for  the  races  themselves, 
they  were  carried  on  in  the  most  sporting  spirit,  and 
only  the  AustraHan  poet  Patterson  could  adequately 
write  of  them. 

On  August  4  I  returned  to  Lake  Naivasha,  stopping 
on  the  way  at  Kijabe  to  lay  the  corner-stone  of  the  new 
mission  building.  Mearns  and  Loring  had  stayed  at 
Naivasha,  and  had  collected  many  birds  and  small 
mammals.  That  night  they  took  me  out  on  a  spring- 
haas  hunt.  Thanks  to  Kermit,  we  had  discovered  that 
the  way  to  get  this  curious  and  purely  nocturnal  animal 
was  by  "  shining  "  it  with  a  lantern  at  night,  just  as  in 
our  own  country  deer,  coons,  owls,  and  other  creatures 


CH.  x]  SPRINGHAAS  227 

can  be  killed.  Springhaas  live  in  big  burrows,  a  number 
of  them  dwelling  together  in  one  community,  the  holes 
close  to  one  another,  and  making  what  in  the  West  we 
would  call  a  "  town  "  in  speaking  of  prairie  dogs.  At 
night  they  come  out  to  feed  on  the  grass.  They  are  as 
heavy  as  a  big  jack-rabbit,  with  short  forelegs,  and  long 
hind-legs  and  tail,  so  that  they  look,  and  on  occasion 
move,  like  miniature  kangaroos,  although,  in  addition  to 
making  long  hops  or  jumps,  they  often  run  almost  like 
an  ordinary  rat  or  rabbit.  They  are  pretty  creatures, 
fawn-coloured  above  and  white  beneath,  with  the 
terminal  half  of  the  tail  very  dark.  In  hunting  them 
we  simply  walked  over  the  flats  for  a  couple  of  hours, 
flashing  the  bull's-eye  lantern  on  all  sides,  until  we  saw 
the  light  reflected  back  by  a  springhaas's  eyes.  Then  I 
would  approach  to  within  range,  and  hold  the  lantern  in 
my  left  hand,  so  as  to  shine  both  on  the  sight  and  on  the 
eyes  in  front,  resting  my  gun  on  my  left  wrist.  The 
No.  3  shot  in  the  Fox  double-barrel  would  always 
do  the  business,  if  I  held  straight  enough.  There  was 
nothing  but  the  gleam  of  the  eyes  to  shoot  at,  and  this 
might  suddenly  be  raised  or  lowered  as  the  intently 
watching  animal  crouched  on  all-fours  or  raised  itself  on 
its  hind-legs.  I  shot  half  a  dozen,  all  that  the  naturalists 
wanted.  Then  I  tried  to  shoot  a  fox,  but  the  moon  had 
risen  from  behind  a  cloud  bank.  I  had  to  take  a  long 
shot,  and  missed,  but  my  companions  killed  several,  and 
found  that  they  were  a  new  species  of  the  peculiar 
African  long-eared  fox. 

While  waiting  for  the  safari  to  get  ready,  Kermit 
went  off"  on  a  camping  trip  and  shot  two  bushbuck, 
while  I  spent  a  couple  of  days  trying  for  sing-sing  water- 
buck  on  the  edge  of  the  papyrus.  I  missed  a  bull,  and 
wounded  another  which  I  did  not  get.     This  was  all  the 


228  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

more  exasperating  because  interspersed  with  the  misses 
were  some  good  shots :  I  killed  a  fine  waterbuck  cow  at 
a  hundred  yards,  and  a  buck  tommy  for  the  table  at  two 
hundred  and  fifty ;  and,  after  missing  a  handsome  black 
and  white,  red-billed  and  red-legged  jabiru,  or  saddle- 
billed  stork,  at  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  as  he  stalked 
through  the  meadow  after  frogs,  I  cut  him  down  on  the 
wing  at  a  hundred  and  eighty  with  the  Uttle  Springfield 
rifle. 

The  waterbuck  spent  the  daytime  outside,  but  near 
the  edge  of,  the  papyrus.  I  found  them  grazing  or  rest- 
ing, in  the  open,  at  all  times  between  early  mornmg 
and  late  afternoon.  Some  of  them  spent  most  of 
the  day  in  the  papyrus,  keeping  to  the  watery  trails 
made  by  the  hippos  and  by  themselves ;  but  this  w^as 
not  the  general  habit,  unless  they  had  been  persecuted. 
When  frightened  they  often  ran  into  the  papyrus,  smash- 
ing the  dead  reeds  and  splashing  the  water  in  their  rush. 
They  are  noble-looking  antelope,  with  long,  shaggy 
hair,  and  their  chosen  haunts  beside  the  lake  were  very 
attractive.  Clumps  of  thorn-trees  and  flowering  bushes 
grew  at  the  edge  of  the  tall  papyrus  here  and  there,  and 
often  formed  a  matted  jungle,  the  trees  laced  together 
by  creepers,  many  of  them  brilliant  in  their  bloom. 
The  chmbing  morning-glories  sometimes  completely 
covered  a  tree  with  their  pale  purple  flowers,  and  other 
blossoming  vines  spangled  the  green  over  which  their 
sprays  were  flung  with  masses  of  bright  yellow. 

Four  days'  march  from  Naivasha,  where  we  again  left 
Meams  and  Loring,  took  us  to  Neri.  Our  line  of  march 
lay  across  the  high  plateaux  and  mountain  chains  of  the 
Aberdare  range.  The  steep,  twisting  trail  was  sHppery 
with  mud.  Our  last  camp,  at  an  altitude  of  about  ten 
thousand   feet,  was  so  cold  that  the  water  fi*oze  in  the 


CH.  x]  NERI  229 

basins,  and  the  shivering  porters  slept  in  numbed  dis- 
comfort. There  was  constant  fog  and  rain,  and  on  the 
highest  plateau  the  bleak  landscape,  shrouded  in  driving 
mist,  was  northern  to  all  the  senses.  The  ground  was 
rolling,  and  through  the  deep  valleys  ran  brawling 
brooks  of  clear  water ;  one  little  foaming  stream, 
suddenly  tearing  down  a  hillside,  might  have  been  that 
which  Childe  Roland  crossed  before  he  came  to  the  dark 
tower. 

There  was  not  much  game,  and  it  generally  moved 
abroad  by  night.  One  frosty  evening  we  killed  a  duiker 
by  shining  its  eyes.  We  saw  old  elephant-tracks.  The 
high,  wet  levels  swarmed  with  mice  and  shrews,  just  as 
our  arctic  and  alpine  meadows  swarm  with  them.  The 
species  were  really  widely  different  from  ours,  but  many 
of  them  showed  curious  analogies  in  form  and  habits  ; 
there  was  a  short-tailed  shrew  much  like  our  mole 
shrew,  and  a  long-haired,  short-tailed  rat  like  a  very  big 
meadow  mouse.  They  were  so  plentiful  that  we 
frequently  saw  them,  and  the  grass  was  cut  up  by  their 
runways.  They  were  abroad  during  the  day,  probably 
finding  the  nights  too  cold,  and  in  an  hour  Heller 
trapped  a  dozen  or  two  individuals  belonging  to  seven 
species  and  five  different  genera.  There  were  not  many 
birds  so  high  up.  There  were  deer-ferns ;  and  Spanish 
moss  hung  from  the  trees  and  even  from  the  bamboos. 
The  flowers  included  utterly  strange  forms,  as,  for 
instance,  giant  lobelias  ten  feet  high.  Others  we  know 
in  our  gardens — geraniums  and  red-hot-pokers,  which 
in  places  turned  the  glades  to  a  fire  colour.  Yet  others 
either  were  like,  or  looked  like,  our  own  wild  flowers : 
orange  lady-slippers,  red  gladiolus  on  stalks  six  feet 
high,  pansy-like  violets,  and  blackberries  and  yellow 
raspberries.      There  were  stretches  of  bushes  bearing 


230  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

masses  of  small  red  or  large  white  flowers  shaped  some- 
what like  columbines,  or  like  the  garden  balsam  ;  the 
red  flower  bushes  were  under  the  bamboos,  the  white  at 
a  lower  level.  The  crests  and  upper  slopes  of  the 
mountains  were  clothed  in  the  green  uniformity  of  the 
bamboo  forest,  the  trail  winding  dim  under  its  dark 
archway  of  tall,  close-growing  stems.  Lower  down 
were  junipers  and  yews,  and  then  many  other  trees, 
with  among  them  tree-ferns  and  strange  dragon-trees 
with  hly-like  frondage.  Zone  succeeded  zone  from  top 
to  bottom,  each  marked  by  a  different  plant  life. 

In  this  part  of  Africa,  where  flowers  bloom  and  birds 
sing  all  the  year  round,  there  is  no  such  burst  of  bloom 
and  song  as  in  the  northern  spring  and  early  summer. 
There  is  nothing  like  the  mass  of  blossoms  which  carpet 
the  meadows  of  the  high  mountain  valleys  and  far 
northern  meadows,  during  their  brief  high  tide  of  life, 
when  one  short  joyous  burst  of  teeming  and  vital  beauty 
atones  for  the  long  death  of  the  iron  fall  and  winter. 
So  it  is  with  the  bird  songs.  Many  of  them  are 
beautiful,  though  to  my  ears  none  quite  as  beautiful  as 
the  best  of  our  own  bird  songs.  At  any  rate  there  is 
nothing  that  quite  corresponds  to  the  chorus  that 
during  May  and  June  moves  northward  from  the 
Gulf  States  and  Southern  California  to  Maine,  Min- 
nesota, and  Oregon,  to  Ontario  and  Saskatchewan  ; 
when  there  comes  the  great  vernal  burst  of  bloom  and 
song ;  when  the  may-flower,  bloodroot,  wake-robin, 
anemone,  adder's-tongue,  liverwort,  shadblow,  dogwood, 
redbud,  gladden  the  woods  ;  when  mocking-birds  and 
cardinals  sing  in  the  magnolia  groves  of  the  South,  and 
hermit  thrushes,  winter  ^^Tens,  and  sweetheart  sparrows 
in  the  spruce  and  hemlock  forests  of  the  North  ;  when 
bobolinks  in  the  East  and  meadow-larks  East  and  West 


CH.  x]        THE  KIKUYU  COUNTRY  231 

sing  in  the  fields  ;  and  water-ousels  by  the  cold  streams 
of  the  Rockies,  and  canon  wrens  in  their  sheer  gorges  ; 
when  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard  to  the  Pacific  wood- 
thrushes,  veeries,  rufous-backed  thrushes,  robins,  blue- 
birds, orioles,  thrashers,  cat-birds,  house-finches,  song- 
sparrows — some  in  the  East,  some  in  the  West,  some 
both  East  and  West — and  many,  many  other  singers 
thrill  the  gardens  at  sunrise ;  until  the  long  days  begin 
to  shorten,  and  tawny  lilies  burn  by  the  roadside,  and 
the  indigo  buntings  trill  from  the  tops  of  little  trees 
throughout  the  hot  afternoons. 

We  were  in  the  Kikuyu  country.  On  our  march  we 
met  several  parties  of  natives.  1  had  been  much  in- 
cUned  to  pity  the  porters,  who  had  but  one  blanket 
apiece ;  but  when  I  saw  the  Kikuyus,  each  with  nothing 
but  a  smaller  blanket,  and  without  the  other  clothing 
and  the  tents  of  the  porters,  I  realized  how  much  better 
off  the  latter  were,  simply  because  they  were  on  a  white 
man's  safari.  At  Neri  Boma  we  were  greeted  with  the 
warmest  hospitality  by  the  District  Commissioner,  Mr. 
Browne.  Among  other  things,  he  arranged  a  great 
Kikuyu  dance  in  our  honour.  Two  thousand  warriors 
and  many  women  came  in,  as  well  as  a  small  party  of 
Masai  moran.  The  warriors  were  naked,  or  half-naked  ; 
some  carried  gaudy  blankets,  others  girdles  of  leopard 
skin ;  their  ox-hide  shields  were  coloured  in  bold 
patterns,  their  long-bladed  spears  quivered  and  gleamed. 
Their  faces  and  legs  were  painted  red  and  yellow ;  the 
faces  of  the  young  men  who  were  about  to  undergo  the 
rite  of  circumcision  were  stained  a  ghastly  white  and 
their  bodies  fantastically  painted.  The  warriors  wore 
bead  necklaces  and  waist-belts  and  armlets  of  brass  and 
steel,  and  spurred  anklets  of  monkey  skin.  Some  wore 
head-dresses  made  out  of  a  lion's  mane  or  from  the  long 


232  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

black-and-white  fur  of  the  Colobus  monkey  ;  others  had 
plumes  stuck  in  their  red-daubed  hair.  They  chanted 
in  unison  a  deep-toned  chorus  and  danced  rhythmically 
in  rings,  while  the  drums  throbbed  and  the  horns 
blared  ;  and  they  danced  by  us  in  column,  springing 
and  chanting.  The  women  shrilled  applause  and  danced 
in  groups  by  themselves.  The  Masai  circled  and  swung 
in  a  panther-like  dance  of  their  own,  and  the  measure 
and  their  own  fierce  singing  and  calling  maddened  them 
until  two  of  their  number,  their  eyes  staring,  their  faces 
working,  went  mto  fits  of  berserker  frenzy,  and  were 
disarmed  at  once  to  prevent  mischief.  Some  of  the 
tribesmen  held  wilder  dances  still  in  the  evening  by  the 
fight  of  fires  that  blazed  in  a  grove  where  their  thatched 
huts  stood. 

The  second  day  after  we  reached  Neri  the  clouds 
Ufted,  and  we  dried  our  damp  clothes  and  blankets. 
Through  the  bright  sunlight  we  saw  in  front  of  us  the 
high  rock  peaks  of  Kenia,  and  shining  among  them  the 
fields  of  everlasting  snow  which  feed  her  glaciers ;  for 
beautifiil,  lofty  Kenia  is  one  of  the  glacier-bearing 
mountains  of  the  equator.  Here  Kermit  and  Tarlton 
went  northward  on  a  safari  of  their  own,  while  Cuning- 
hame,  Heller,  and  I  headed  for  Kenia  itself.  For  two 
days  we  travelled  through  a  well-peopled  country.  The 
fields  of  corn — always  called  mealies  in  Africa — of 
beans,  and  sweet  potatoes,  with  occasional  plantations 
of  bananas,  touched  one  another  in  almost  uninterrupted 
succession.  In  most  of  them  we  saw  the  Kikuyu 
women  at  work  with  their  native  hoes  ;  for  among  the 
Kikuyus,  as  among  other  savages,  the  woman  is  the 
drudge  and  beast  of  burden.  Our  trail  led  by  clear, 
rushing  streams,  which  formed  the  head-waters  of  the 
Tana.     Among  the   trees  fringing   their  banks   were 


CH.  x]  MOUNT  KENIA  288 

graceful  palms,  and  there  were  groves  of  tree-ferns  here 
and  there  on  the  sides  of  the  gorges. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  second  day  we  struck  upward 
among  the  steep  foot-hills  of  the  mountain,  riven  by 
deep  ravines.  We  pitched  camp  in  an  open  glade, 
surrounded  by  the  green  wall  of  tangled  forest,  the 
forest  of  the  tropical  mountain-sides. 

The  trees,  strange  of  kind  and  endless  in  variety, 
grew  tall  and  close,  laced  together  by  vine  and  creeper, 
while  underbrush  crowded  the  space  between  their 
mossy  trunks,  and  covered  the  leafy  mould  beneath. 
Towards  dusk  crested  ibis  flew  overhead  with  harsh 
clamour,  to  seek  their  night  roosts ;  parrots  chattered, 
and  a  curiously  home-like  touch  was  given  by  the 
presence  of  a  thrush  in  colour  and  shape  almost  exactly 
like  our  robin.  Monkeys  called  in  the  depths  of  the 
forest,  and  after  dark  tree-frogs  piped  and  croaked,  and 
the  tree-hyraxes  uttered  their  wailing  cries. 

Elephants  dwelt  permanently  in  this  mountainous 
region  of  heavy  woodland.  On  our  march  thither  we 
had  already  seen  their  traces  in  the  "  shambas,"  as  the 
cultivated  fields  of  the  natives  are  termed  ;  for  the  great 
beasts  are  fond  of  raiding  the  crops  at  night,  and  their 
inroads  often  do  serious  damage.  In  this  neighbourhood 
their  habit  is  to  live  high  up  in  the  mountains,  in  the 
bamboos,  while  the  weather  is  dry :  the  cows  and  calves 
keeping  closer  to  the  bamboos  than  the  bulls.  A  spell 
of  wet  weather,  such  as  we  had  fortunately  been  having, 
drives  them  down  in  the  dense  forest  which  covers  the 
lower  slopes.  Here  they  may  either  pass  all  their  time, 
or  at  night  they  may  go  still  further  down,  into  the  open 
valley  where  the  shambas  lie  ;  or  they  may  occasionally 
still  do  what  they  habitually  did  in  the  days  before  the 
white   hunters   came,    and   wander   far   away,   making 


234  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

migrations  that  are  sometimes  seasonal,  and  sometimes 
irregular  and  unaccountable. 

No  other  animal,  not  the  lion  himself,  is  so  constant 
a  theme  of  talk,  and  a  subject  of  such  unflagging  interest 
round  the  camp-fires  of  African  hunters  and  in  the 
native  villages  of  the  African  wilderness,  as  the  elephant. 
Indeed,  the  elephant  has  always  profoundly  impressed 
the  imagination  of  mankind.  It  is,  not  only  to  hunters, 
but  to  naturalists,  and  to  all  people  who  possess  any 
curiosity  about  wild  creatures  and  the  wild  life  of 
nature,  the  most  interesting  of  all  animals.  Its  huge 
bulk,  its  singular  form,  the  value  of  its  ivory,  its  great 
intelligence— in  which  it  is  only  matched,  if  at  all,  by 
the  highest  apes,  and  possibly  by  one  or  two  of  the 
highest  carnivores — and  its  varied  habits,  all  combine  to 
give  it  an  interest  such  as  attaches  to  no  other  living 
creature  below  the  rank  of  man.  In  line  of  descent  and 
in  physical  formation  it  stands  by  itself,  wholly  apart 
from  all  the  other  great  land  beasts,  and  differing  from 
them  even  more  widely  than  they  differ  from  one 
another.  The  two  existing  species — the  African,  which 
is  the  larger  and  finer  animal,  and  the  Asiatic — differ 
from  one  another  as  much  as  they  do  from  the  mam- 
moth and  similar  extinct  forms  which  were  the  contem- 
poraries of  early  man  in  Europe  and  North  America. 
The  carvings  of  our  palaeolithic  forefathers,  etched  on 
bone  by  cavern-dwellers,  from  whom  we  are  sundered 
by  ages  which  stretch  into  an  immemorial  past,  show 
that  in  their  lives  the  hairy  elephant  of  the  North  played 
the  same  part  that  his  remote  collateral  descendant  now 
plays  in  the  lives  of  the  savages  who  dwell  under  a 
vertical  sun  beside  the  tepid  waters  of  the  Nile  and  the 
Congo. 

In  the  first  dawn  of  history,  the  sculptured  records  of 


CH.  x]    ELEPHANT  AND  RHINOCEROS       235 

the  kings  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Nineveh  show  the 
immense  importance  which  attached,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
mightiest  monarchs  of  the  then  world,  to  the  chase  and 
the  trophies  of  this  great  strange  beast.  The  ancient 
civilization  of  India  boasts  as  one  of  its  achievements 
the  taming  of  the  elephant ;  and  in  the  ancient  lore  of 
that  civilization  it  plays  a  distinguished  part. 

The  elephant  is  unique  among  the  beasts  of  great 
bulk  in  the  fact  that  his  growth  in  size  has  been  accom- 
panied by  growth  in  brain  power.  With  other  beasts 
growth  in  bulk  of  body  has  not  been  accompanied  by 
similar  growth  of  mind.  Indeed,  sometimes  there 
seems  to  have  been  mental  retrogression.  The  rhino- 
ceros, in  several  different  forms,  is  found  in  the  same 
regions  as  the  elephant,  and  in  one  of  its  forms  it  is  in 
point  of  size  second  only  to  the  elephant  among  terres- 
trial animals.  Seemingly  the  ancestors  of  the  two 
creatures,  in  that  period,  separated  from  us  by  uncounted 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  years,  which  we  may  con- 
veniently designate  as  late  miocene  or  early  pliocene, 
were  substantially  equal  in  brain  development.  But  in 
one  case  increase  in  bulk  seems  to  have  induced  lethargy 
and  atrophy  of  brain  power,  while  in  the  other  case 
brain  and  body  have  both  grown.  At  any  rate  the 
elephant  is  now  one  of  the  wisest  and  the  rhinoceros 
one  of  the  stupidest  of  big  mammals.  In  consequence 
the  elephant  outlasts  the  rhino,  although  he  is  the 
largest,  carries  infinitely  more  valuable  spoils,  and  is  far 
more  eagerly  and  persistently  hunted.  Both  animals 
wandered  freely  over  the  open  country  of  East  Africa 
thirty  years  ago.  But  the  elephant  learns  by  experience 
infinitely  more  readily  than  the  rhinoceros.  As  a  rule, 
the  former  no  longer  lives  in  the  open  plains,  and  in 
many  places  now  even  crosses  them  if  possible  only  at 


236  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

night.  But  those  rhinoceroses  which  formerly  dwelt  in 
the  plains  for  the  most  part  continued  to  dwell  there 
until  killed  out.  So  it  is  at  the  present  day.  Not  the 
most  foolish  elephant  would  under  similar  conditions 
behave  as  the  rhinos  that  we  studied  and  hunted  by 
Kilimakiu  and  in  the  Sotik  behaved.  No  elephant,  in 
regions  where  they  have  been  much  persecuted  by 
hunters,  would  habitually  spend  its  days  lying  or  stand- 
ing in  the  open  plain  ;  nor  would  it,  in  such  places, 
repeatedly,  and  in  fact  uniformly,  permit  men  to  walk 
boldly  up  to  it  without  heeding  them  until  in  its 
immediate  neighbourhood.  The  elephant's  sight  is  bad, 
as  is  that  of  the  rhinoceros ;  but  a  comparatively  brief 
experience  with  rifle-bearing  man  usually  makes  the 
former  take  refuge  in  regions  where  scent  and  hearing 
count  for  more  than  sight ;  while  no  experience  has 
any  such  effect  on  the  rhino.  The  rhinos  that  now  live 
in  the  bush  are  the  descendants  of  those  which  always 
lived  in  the  bush,  and  it  is  in  the  bush  that  the  species 
will  linger  long  after  it  has  vanished  from  the  open ; 
and  it  is  in  the  bush  that  it  is  most  formidable. 

Elephant  and  rhino  differ  as  much  in  their  habits  as 
in  their  intelligence.  The  former  is  very  gregarious, 
herds  of  several  hundred  being  sometimes  found,  and  is 
of  a  restless,  wandering  temper,  often  shifting  his  abode 
and  sometimes  making  long  migrations.  The  rhinoceros 
is  a  lover  of  solitude  ;  it  is  usually  found  alone,  or  a  bull 
and  cow,  or  cow  and  calf  may  be  in  company ;  very 
rarely  are  as  many  as  half  a  dozen  found  together. 
Moreover,  it  is  comparatively  stationary  in  its  habits, 
and  as  a  general  thing  stays  permanently  in  one 
neighbourhood,  not  shifting  its  position  for  very  many 
miles  unless  for  grave  reasons. 

The  African  elephant  has  recently  been  divided  into 


CH.  x]     HABITS  OF  THE  ELEPHANT  237 

a  number  of  sub-species ;  but  as  within  a  century  its 
range  was  continuous  over  nearly  the  whole  continent 
south  of  the  Sahara,  and  as  it  was  given  to  such  exten- 
sive occasional  wanderings,  it  is  probable  that  the 
examination  of  a  sufficient  series  of  specimens  would 
show  that  on  their  confines  these  races  grade  into  one 
another.  In  its  essentials  the  beast  is  almost  every- 
where the  same,  although,  of  course,  there  must  be 
variation  of  habits  with  any  animal  which  exists  through- 
out so  wide  and  diversifier^  a  range  of  territory ;  for  in 
one  place  it  is  found  in  high  mountains,  in  another  in 
a  dry  desert,  in  another  in  low-lying  marshes  or  wet 
and  dense  forests. 

In  East  Africa  the  old  bulls  are  usually  found  singly 
or  in  small  parties  by  themselves.  These  have  the 
biggest  tusks ;  the  bulls  in  the  prime  of  life,  the  herd 
bulls  or  breeding  bulls,  which  keep  in  herds  with  the 
cows  and  calves,  usually  have  smaller  ivory.  Some- 
times, however,  very  old  but  vigorous  bulls  are  found 
with  the  cows ;  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the 
ordinary  herd  bulls  at  times  also  keep  by  themselves, 
or  at  least  in  company  with  only  a  few  cows,  for  at 
certain  seasons,  generally  immediately  after  the  rains, 
cows,  most  of  them  with  calves,  appear  in  great  numbers 
at  certain  places,  where  only  a  few  bulls  are  ever  found. 
Where  undisturbed,  elephants  rest  and  wander  about 
at  all  times  of  the  day  and  night,  and  feed  without  much 
regard  to  fixed  hours.  Morning  or  evening,  noon  or 
midnight,  the  herd  may  be  on  the  move,  or  its  members 
may  be  resting ;  yet  during  the  hottest  hours  of  noon 
they  seldom  feed,  and  ordinarily  stand  almost  still, 
resting — for  elephants  very  rarely  lie  down  unless  sick. 
Where  they  are  afraid  of  man,  their  only  enemy,  they 
come  out  to  feed  in  thinly  forested  plains,  or  cultivated 


238  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

fields,  when  they  do  so  at  all,  only  at  night,  and  before 
daybreak  move  back  into  the  forest  to  rest.  Elsewhere 
they  sometimes  spend  the  day  in  the  open,  in  grass  or 
low  bush.  Where  we  were,  at  this  time,  on  Kenia,  the 
elephants  sometimes  moved  down  at  night  to  feed  in 
the  shambas,  at  the  expense  of  the  crops  of  the  natives, 
and  sometimes  stayed  in  the  forest,  feeding,  by  day  or 
night,  on  the  branches  they  tore  off  the  trees,  or,  occa- 
sionally, on  the  roots  they  grubbed  up  with  their  tusks. 
They  work  vast  havoc  among  the  young  or  small  growth 
of  a  forest,  and  the  readiness  with  which  they  uproot, 
overturn,  or  break  off  medium-sized  trees  conveys  a 
striking  impression  of  their  enormous  strength.  I  have 
seen  a  tree  a  foot  in  diameter  thus  uprooted  and  over- 
turned. 

The  African  elephant  has  never,  like  his  Indian  kins- 
man, been  trained  to  man's  use.  There  is  still  hope  that 
the  feat  may  be  performed ;  but  hitherto  its  probable 
economic  usefulness  has  for  various  reasons  seemed  so 
questionable  that  there  has  been  scant  encouragement 
to  undergo  the  necessary  expense  and  labour.  Up  to 
the  present  time  the  African  elephant  has  yielded  only 
his  ivory  as  an  asset  of  value.  This,  however,  has  been  of 
such  great  value  as  wellnigh  to  bring  about  the  mighty 
beast's  utter  extermination.  Ivory  hunters  and  ivory 
traders  have  penetrated  Africa  to  the  haunts  of  the 
elephant  since  centuries  before  our  era,  and  the  elephant's 
boundaries  have  been  slowly  receding  throughout  historic 
time ;  but  during  the  century  just  past  the  narrowing 
process  has  been  immensely  accelerated,  until  now 
there  are  but  one  or  two  out-of-the-way  nooks  of  the 
Dark  Continent  to  which  hunter  and  trader  have  not 
penetrated.  Fortunately  the  civilized  powers  which 
now  divide  dominion  over  Africa  have  waked  up  in 


CH.  x]      PROTECTION  OF  BIG  GAME  239 

time,  and  there  is  at  present  no  danger  of  the  extermina- 
tion of  the  lord  of  all  four-footed  creatures.  Large 
reserves  have  been  established  on  which  various  herds 
of  elephants  now  live  what  is,  at  least  for  the  time 
being,  an  entirely  safe  life.  Furthermore,  over  great 
tracts  of  territory  outside  the  reserves  regulations  have 
been  promulgated  which,  if  enforced  as  they  are  now 
enforced,  will  prevent  any  excessive  diminution  of  the 
herds.  In  British  East  Africa,  for  instance,  no  cows 
are  allowed  to  be  shot  save  for  special  purposes,  as  for 
preservation  in  a  museum,  or  to  safeguard  life  and 
property,  and  no  bulls  wdth  tusks  weighing  less  than 
thirty  pounds  apiece.  This  renders  safe  almost  all  the 
females  and  an  ample  supply  of  breeding  males.  Too 
much  praise  cannot  be  given  to  the  governments  and  the 
individuals  who  have  brought  about  this  happy  result ; 
the  credit  belongs  especially  to  England,  and  to  various 
Englishmen.  It  would  be  a  veritable  and  most  tragic 
calamity  if  the  lordly  elephant,  the  giant  among  existing 
four-footed  creatures,  should  be  permitted  to  vanish 
from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

But  of  course  protection  is  not  permanently  possible 
over  the  greater  part  of  that  country  which  is  well  fitted 
for  settlement ;  nor  anywhere,  if  the  herds  grow  too 
numerous.  It  would  be  not  merely  silly,  but  worse 
than  silly,  to  try  to  stop  all  killing  of  elephants.  The 
unchecked  increase  of  any  big  and  formidable  wild 
beast,  even  though  not  a  flesh-eater,  is  incompatible 
with  the  existence  of  man  when  he  has  emerged  from 
the  stage  of  lowest  savagery.  This  is  not  a  matter  of 
theory,  but  of  proved  fact.  In  place  after  place  in 
Africa  where  protection  has  been  extended  to  hippo- 
potamus or  buffalo,  rhinoceros  or  elephant,  it  has  been 
found  necessary  to  withdraw  it  because  the  protected 


240  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

animals  did  such  damage  to  property,  or  became  such 
menaces  to  human  Ufe.  Among  all  four  species,  cows 
with  calves  often  attack  men  without  provocation,  and 
old  bulls  are  at  any  time  likely  to  become  infected  by  a 
spirit  of  wanton  and  ferocious  mischief,  and  are  apt  to 
become  man-killers.  I  know  settlers  who  tried  to  pre- 
serve the  rhinoceroses  which  they  found  living  on  their 
big  farms,  and  who  were  obliged  to  abandon  the 
attempt,  and  themselves  to  kill  the  rhinos  because  of 
repeated  and  wanton  attacks  on  human  beings  by  the 
latter.  Where  we  were,  by  Neri,  a  year  or  two  before 
our  visit  the  rhinos  had  become  so  dangerous,  killing 
one  white  man  and  several  natives,  that  the  District 
Commissioner  who  preceded  Mr.  Browne  was  forced 
to  undertake  a  crusade  against  them,  killing  fifteen. 
Both  in  South  Africa  and  on  the  Nile  protection 
extended  to  hippopotami  has  in  places  been  wholly 
withdrawn  because  of  the  damage  done  by  the  beasts 
to  the  crops  of  the  natives,  or  because  of  their 
unprovoked  assaults  on  canoes  and  boats.  In  one 
instance  a  last  surviving  hippo  was  protected  for  years, 
but  finally  grew  bold  because  of  immunity,  killed  a 
boy  in  sheer  wantonness,  and  had  to  be  himself  slain. 
In  Uganda  the  buffalo  were  for  years  protected,  and 
grew  so  bold,  killed  so  many  natives,  and  ruined  so 
many  villages,  that  they  are  now  classed  as  vermin, 
and  their  destruction  in  every  way  encouraged.  In 
the  very  neighbourhood  where  I  was  hunting,  at  Kenia, 
but  six  weeks  before  my  coming,  a  cow  buffalo  had 
wandered  down  into  the  plains  and  run  amuck,  had 
attacked  two  villages,  had  killed  a  man  and  a  boy,  and 
had  then  been  mobbed  to  death  by  the  spearmen. 
Elephants,  when  in  numbers,  and  when  not  possessed 
of  the  fear  of  man,  are  more  impossible  neighbours  than 


Camping  after  death  of  the  first  bull 


The  porters  exult  over  the  death  of  the  bull 
From  photographs  by  Edmund  Heller 


CH.  x]  BIG  GAME  HUNTING  241 

hippos,  rhinos,  or  buffaloes ;  but  they  are  so  eagerly- 
sought  after  by  ivory  hunters  that  it  is  only  rarely  that 
they  get  the  chance  to  become  really  dangerous  to  life, 
although  in  many  places  their  ravages  among  the  crops 
are  severely  felt  by  the  unfortunate  natives  who  live 
near  them. 

The  chase  of  the  elephant,  if  persistently  followed, 
entails  more  fatigue  and  hardship  than  any  other  kind 
of  African  hunting.  As  regards  risk,  it  is  hard  to  say 
whether  it  is  more  or  less  dangerous  than  the  chase  of 
the  lion  and  the  buffalo.  Both  Cuninghame  and 
Tarlton,  men  of  wide  experience,  ranked  elephant- 
hunting,  in  point  of  danger,  as  nearly  on  the  level  with 
lion-hunting,  and  as  more  dangerous  than  buffalo- 
hunting  ;  and  all  three  kinds  as  far  more  dangerous 
than  the  chase  of  the  rhino.  Personally,  I  believe  the 
actual  conflict  with  a  lion,  where  the  conditions  are  the 
same,  to  be  normally  the  more  dangerous  sport,  though 
far  greater  demands  are  made  by  elephant-hunting  on 
the  qualities  of  personal  endurance  and  hardihood  and 
resolute  perseverance  in  the  face  of  disappointment  and 
difficulty.  Buffalo,  seemingly,  do  not  charge  as  freely 
as  elephant,  but  are  more  dangerous  when  they  do 
charge.  Rhino  when  hunted,  though  at  times  ugly 
customers,  seem  to  me  certainly  less  dangerous  than 
the  other  three  ;  but  from  sheer  stupid  truculence 
they  are  themselves  apt  to  take  the  offensive  in  un- 
expected fashion,  being  far  more  prone  to  such  aggres- 
sion than  are  any  of  the  others — man-eating  lions  always 
excepted. 

Very  few  of  the  native  tribes  in  Africa  hunt  the 
elephant  systematically.  But  the  'Ndorobo,  the  wild 
bush  people  of  East  Africa,  sometimes  catch  young 
elephants  in  the  pits  they  dig  with  slow  labour,  and 

16 


242  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

very  rarely  they  kill  one  with  a  kind  of  harpoon.     The 
'Ndorobo  are  doubtless  in  part  descended  from  some 
primitive  bush  people,  but  in  part  also  derive  their  blood 
from  the  more  advanced  tribes  near  which  their  wander- 
ing families  happen  to  live  ;   and  they  grade  into  the 
latter,  by   speech   and   through   individuals  who  seem 
to   stand   halfway   between.      Thus   we    had   with   us 
two  Masai  'Ndorobo,  true  wild  people,  who    spoke   a 
bastard  Masai ;  who  had  formerly  hunted  with  Cuning- 
hame,  and  who  came  to  us  because  of  their   ancient 
friendship  with  him.     These  shy  woods  creatures  were 
afraid   to   come   to    Neri   by  daylight,  when  we  were 
camped  there,  but   after  dark  crept  to  Cuninghame's 
tent.     Cuninghame  gave  them  two  fine  red  blankets, 
and  put  them  to  sleep  in  a  little  tent,  keeping  their 
spears  in  his  own  tent,  as  a  measure  of  precaution  to 
prevent  their  running  away.      The  elder   of  the  two, 
he  informed  me,  would  certainly  have  a  fit  of  hysterics 
when  we  killed  our  elephant  I     Cuninghame  was  also 
joined  by  other  old  friends  of  former  hunts,  Kikuyu 
'Ndorobo  these,  who  spoke  Kikuyu  like  the  people  who 
cultivated  the  fields  that  covered  the  river  bottoms  and 
hillsides  of  the  adjoining  open  country,  and  who  were, 
indeed,  merely  outlying,  forest-dwelling  members  of  the 
lowland  tribes.     In  the  deep  woods  we  met  one  old 
Dorobo,  who   had   no  connection  with  any  more  ad- 
vanced tribe,  whose  sole  belongings  were  his  spear,  skin 
cloak,  and  fire-stick,  and  who  lived  purely  on  honey  and 
game  ;  unlike  the  bastard  'Ndorobo,  he  was  ornamented 
with  neither  paint  nor  grease.     But  the  'Ndorobo  who 
were  our  guides  stood  farther  up  in  the  social  scale. 
The  men  passed  most  of  their  time  in  the  forest,  but  up 
the   mountain    sides   they   had    squalid   huts   on   little 
clearings,  with  shambas,  where  their  wives  raised  scanty 


CH.  x]   TOWARDS  THE  GREAT  FOREST     243 

crops.  To  the  'Ndorobo,  and  to  them  alone,  the  vast, 
thick  forest  was  an  open  book ;  without  their  aid  as 
guides  both  Cuninghame  and  our  own  gun-bearers  were 
at  fault,  and  found  their  way  around  with  great 
difficulty  and  slowness.  The  bush  people  had  nothing 
in  the  way  of  clothing  save  a  blanket  over  the  shoulders, 
but  wore  the  usual  paint  and  grease  and  ornaments  ; 
each  carried  a  spear  which  might  have  a  long  and 
narrow,  or  short  and  broad  blade  ;  two  of  them  wore 
headdresses  of  tripe — skull-caps  made  from  the  inside  of 
a  sheep's  stomach. 

For  two  days  after  reaching  our  camp  in  the  open 
glade  on  the  mountain  side  it  rained.  We  were  glad  of 
this,  because  it  meant  that  the  elephants  would  not  be 
in  the  bamboos,  and  Cuninghame  and  the  'Ndorobo 
went  off  to  hunt  for  fresh  signs.  Cuninghame  is  as 
skilful  an  elephant -hunter  as  can  be  found  in  Africa,  and 
is  one  of  the  very  few  white  men  able  to  help  even  the 
wild  bushmen  at  their  work.  By  the  afternoon  of  the 
second  day  they  were  fairly  well  satisfied  as  to  the 
whereabouts  of  the  quarry. 

The  following  morning  a  fine  rain  was  still  falling 
when  Cuninghame,  Heller,  and  I  started  on  our  hunt, 
but  by  noon  it  had  stopped.  Of  course,  we  went  in 
single  file  and  on  foot ;  not  even  a  bear-hunter  from  the 
cane-brakes  of  the  lower  Mississippi  could  ride  through 
that  forest.  We  left  our  home  camp  standing,  taking 
blankets  and  a  coat  and  change  of  underclothing  for 
each  of  us,  and  two  small  Whymper  tents,  with  enough 
food  for  three  days  ;  I  also  took  my  wash  kit  and  a  book 
from  the  pigskin  library.  First  marched  the  'Ndorobo 
guides,  each  vv^ith  his  spear,  his  blanket  round  his 
shoulders,  and  a  little  bundle  of  corn  and  sweet  potato. 
Then  came  Cuninghame,  followed  by  his  gun-bearer. 


244  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

Then  I  came,  clad  in  khaki- coloured  flannel  shirt  and 
khaki  trousers  buttoning  down  the  legs,  with  hobnailed 
shoes,  and  a  thick  slouch  hat.  1  had  intended  to  wear 
rubber-soled  shoes,  but  the  soaked  ground  was  too 
slippery.  My  two  gun-bearers  followed,  carrying  the 
Holland  and  the  Springfield.  Then  came  Heller,  at 
the  head  of  a  dozen  porters  and  skinners ;  he  and  they 
were  to  fall  behind  when  we  actually  struck  fresh 
elephant  spoor,  but  to  follow  our  trail  by  the  help  of  a 
Dorobo  who  was  left  with  them. 

For  three  hours  our  route  lay  along  the  edge  of  the 
woods.  We  climbed  into  and  out  of  deep  ravines  in 
which  groves  of  tree-ferns  clustered.  We  waded  through 
streams  of  swift  water,  whose  course  was  broken  by 
cataract  and  rapid.  We  passed  through  shambas  and 
by  the  doors  of  little  hamlets  of  thatched  beehive  huts. 
We  met  flocks  of  goats  and  hairy,  fat-tailed  sheep 
guarded  by  boys ;  strings  of  burden-bearing  women 
stood  meekly  to  one  side  to  let  us  pass  ;  parties  of 
young  men  sauntered  by,  spear  in  hand. 

Then  we  struck  into  the  great  forest,  and  in  an 
instant  the  sun  was  shut  from  sight  by  the  thick  screen 
of  wet  foliage.  It  was  a  riot  of  twisted  vines,  inter- 
lacing the  trees  and  bushes.  Only  the  elephant  paths, 
which,  of  every  age,  crossed  and  recrossed  it  hither  and 
thither,  made  it  passable.  One  of  the  chief  difficulties 
in  hunting  elephants  in  the  forest  is  that  it  is  impossible 
to  travel,  except  very  slowly  and  with  much  noise,  off* 
these  trails,  so  that  it  is  sometimes  very  difficult  to 
take  advantage  of  the  wind ;  and  although  the  sight  of 
the  elephant  is  dull,  both  its  sense  of  hearing  and  its 
sense  of  smell  are  exceedingly  acute. 

Hour  after  hour  we  worked  our  way  onward  through 
tangled  forest  and  matted  jungle.     There  was  little  sign 


Falls  on  slope  of  Kenia  near  first  elephant  camp 
From  a  pliolograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


CH.  x]  THE  GREAT  FOREST  245 

of  bird  or  animal  life.  A  troop  of  long-haired  black  and 
white  monkeys  bounded  away  among  the  tree-tops. 
Here  and  there  brilliant  flowers  lightened  the  gloom. 
We  ducked  under  vines  and  climbed  over  fallen  timber. 
Poisonous  nettles  stung  our  hands.  We  were  drenched 
by  the  wet  boughs  which  we  brushed  aside.  Mosses 
and  ferns  grew  rank  and  close.  The  trees  were  of 
strange  kinds.  There  were  huge  trees  with  little  leaves, 
and  small  trees  with  big  leaves.  There  were  trees  with 
bare,  fleshy  limbs,  that  writhed  out  through  the 
neighbouring  branches,  bearing  sparse  clusters  of  large 
frondage.  In  places  the  forest  was  low,  the  trees  thirty 
or  forty  feet  high,  the  bushes  that  choked  the  ground 
between,  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  high.  In  other  places 
mighty  monarchs  of  the  wood,  straight  and  tall,  towered 
aloft  to  an  immense  height ;  among  them  were  trees 
whose  smooth,  round  boles  were  spotted  like  sycamores, 
while  far  above  our  heads  their  gracefully  spreading 
branches  were  hung  with  vines  like  mistletoe  and 
draped  with  Spanish  moss  ;  trees  whose  surfaces  were 
corrugated  and  knotted  as  if  they  were  made  of  bundles 
of  great  creepers ;  and  giants  whose  buttressed  trunks 
were  four  times  a  man's  length  across. 

Twice  we  got  on  elephant  spoor,  once  of  a  single 
bull,  once  of  a  party  of  three.  Then  Cuninghame  and 
the  'Ndorobo  redoubled  their  caution.  They  would 
minutely  examine  the  fresh  dung  ;  and  above  all  they 
continually  tested  the  wind,  scanning  the  tree-tops,  and 
lighting  matches  to  see  from  the  smoke  what  the  eddies 
were  near  the  ground.  Each  time,  after  an  hour's 
stealthy  stepping  and  crawling  along  the  twisted  trail  a 
slight  shift  of  the  wind  in  the  alm.ost  still  air  gave  our 
scent  to  the  game,  and  away  it  went  before  we  could 
catch  a  glimpse  of  it ;  and  we  resumed  our  walk.     The 


246  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

elephant  paths  led  up  hill  and  down — for  the  beasts  are 
wonderful  climbers — and  wound  in  and  out  in  every 
direction.  They  were  marked  by  broken  branches  and 
the  splintered  and  shattered  trunks  of  the  smaller  trees, 
especially  where  the  elephant  had  stood  and  fed, 
trampling  down  the  bushes  for  many  yards  around. 
Where  they  had  crossed  the  marshy  valleys  they  had 
punched  big  round  holes,  three  feet  deep,  in  the 
sticky  mud. 

As  evening  fell  we  pitched  camp  by  the  side  of  a 
little  brook  at  the  bottom  of  a  ravine,  and  dined 
ravenously  on  bread,  mutton,  and  tea.  The  air  was 
keen,  and  under  our  blankets  we  slept  in  comfort  until 
dawn.  Breakfast  was  soon  over  and  camp  struck  ;  and 
once  more  we  began  our  cautious  progress  through  the 
dim,  cool  archways  of  the  mountain  forest. 

Two  hours  after  leaving  camp  we  came  across  the 
fresh  trail  of  a  small  herd  of  perhaps  ten  or  fifteen 
elephant  cows  and  calves,  but  including  two  big  herd 
bulls.  At  once  we  took  up  the  trail.  Cuninghame 
and  his  bush  people  consulted  again  and  again,  scan- 
ning every  track  and  mark  with  minute  attention. 
The  sign  showed  that  the  elephants  had  fed  in  the 
shambas  early  in  the  night,  had  then  returned  to  the 
mountain,  and  stood  in  one  place  resting  for  several 
hours,  and  had  left  this  sleeping  ground  some  time 
before  we  reached  it.  After  we  had  followed  the  trail 
a  short  while  we  made  the  experiment  of  trying  to 
force  our  own  way  through  the  jimgje,  so  as  to  get  the 
wind  more  favourable ;  but  our  progress  was  too  slow 
and  noisy,  and  we  returned  to  the  path  the  elephants 
had  t)eaten.  Then  the  'Ndorobo  went  ahead,  travelling 
noiselessly  and  at  speed.  One  of  them  was  clad  in  a 
white  blanket  and  another  in  a  red  one,  which  were 


CH.  x]  STALKING  A  HERD  247 

conspicuous ;  but  they  were  too  silent  and  cautious  to 
let  the  beasts  see  them,  and  could  tell  exactly  where 
they  were  and  what  they  were  doing  by  the  sounds. 
When  these  trackers  waited  for  us  they  would  appear 
before  us  like  ghosts.  Once  one  of  them  dropped  down 
from  the  branches  above,  having  climbed  a  tree  with 
monkey-like  agility  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  great  game. 

At  last  we  could  hear  the  elephants,  and  under 
Cuninghame's  lead  we  walked  more  cautiously  than 
ever.  The  wind  was  right,  and  the  trail  of  one  elephant 
led  close  alongside  that  of  the  rest  of  the  herd,  and 
parallel  thereto.  It  was  about  noon.  The  elephants 
moved  slowly,  and  we  Hstened  to  the  boughs  crack  and 
now  and  then  to  the  curious  internal  rumblings  of  the 
great  beasts.  Carefully,  every  sense  on  the  alert,  we 
kept  pace  with  them.  My  double-barrel  was  in  my 
hands,  and  wherever  possible,  as  I  followed  the  trail,  I 
stepped  in  the  huge  footprints  of  the  elephant,  for 
where  such  a  weight  had  pressed  there  were  no  sticks 
left  to  crack  under  my  feet.  It  made  our  veins  thrill 
thus  for  half  an  hour  to  creep  stealthily  along,  but  a 
few  rods  from  the  herd,  never  able  to  see  it,  because  of 
the  extreme  denseness  of  the  cover,  but  always  hearing 
first  one  and  then  another  of  its  members,  and  always 
trying  to  guess  what  each  one  might  do  and  keeping 
ceaselessly  ready  for  whatever  might  befall.  A  flock  of 
hornbills  flew  up  with  noisy  clamour,  but  the  elephants 
did  not  heed  them. 

At  last  we  came  in  sight  of  the  mighty  game.  The 
trail  took  a  twist  to  one  side,  and  there,  thirty  yards  in 
front  of  us,  we  made  out  part  of  the  grey  and  massive 
head  of  an  elephant  resting  his  tusks  on  the  branches 
of  a  young  tree.  A  couple  of  minutes  passed  before, 
by  cautious  scrutiny,  we  were  able  to  tell  whether  the 


248  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

animal  was  a  cow  or  a  bull,  and  whether,  if  a  bull,  it 
carried  heavy  enough  tusks.  Then  we  saw  that  it  was 
a  big  bull  with  good  ivory.  It  turned  its  head  in  my 
direction  and  I  saw  its  eye,  and  I  fired  a  little  to  one 
side  of  the  eye,  at  a  spot  which  I  thought  would  lead 
to  the  brain.  I  struck  exactly  where  1  aimed,  but  the 
head  of  an  elephant  is  enormous  and  the  brain  small, 
and  the  bullet  missed  it.  However,  the  shock  momen- 
tarily stunned  the  beast.  He  stumbled  forward,  half 
falling,  and  as  he  recovered  I  fired  with  the  second 
barrel,  again  aiming  for  the  brain.  This  time  the  bullet 
sped  true,  and  as  I  lowered  the  rifle  from  my  shoulder, 
I  saw  the  great  lord  of  the  forest  come  crashing  to  the 
ground. 

But  at  that  very  instant,  before  there  was  a  moment's 
time  in  which  to  reload,  the  thick  bushes  parted  im- 
mediately on  my  left  front,  and  through  them  surged 
the  vast  bulk  of  a  charging  bull  elephant,  the  matted 
mass  of  tough  creepers  snapping  like  packthread  before 
his  rush.  He  was  so  close  that  he  could  have  touched 
me  with  his  trunk.  1  leaped  to  one  side  and  dodged 
behind  a  tree  trunk,  opening  the  rifle,  throwing  out  the 
empty  shells,  and  slipping  in  two  cartridges.  Meanwhile 
Cuninghame  fired  right  and  left,  at  the  same  time  throw- 
ing himself  into  the  bushes  on  the  other  side.  Both  his 
bullets  went  home,  and  the  bull  stopped  short  in  his 
charge,  wheeled,  and  immediately  disappeared  in  the 
thick  cover.  We  ran  forward,  but  the  forest  had  closed 
over  his  wake.  We  heard  him  trumpet  shrilly,  and 
then  aU  sounds  ceased. 

The  'Ndorobo,  who  had  quite  properly  disappeared 
when  this  second  bull  charged,  now  went  forward  and 
soon  returned  with  the  report  that  he  had  fled  at  speed, 
but  was  evidently  hard  hit,  as  there  was  much  blood  on 


The  charging  bull  elephant 

"  He  could  have  touched  me  with  his  trunk  " 

Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodwin  from  6/iotosya/>/ts,  and  from  descriptions  furnished  hy  Mr.  Roosevelt 


1 


CH.  x]  A  MONSTER  TUSKER  249 

the  spoor.  If  we  had  been  only  after  ivory  we  should 
have  followed  him  at  once ;  but  there  was  no  telling 
how  long  a  chase  he  might  lead  us ;  and  as  we  desired 
to  save  the  skin  of  the  dead  elephant  entire,  there  was 
no  time  whatever  to  spare.  It  is  a  formidable  task, 
occupying  many  days,  to  preserve  an  elephant  for 
mounting  in  a  museum,  and  if  the  skin  is  to  be  properly 
saved,  it  must  be  taken  off  without  an  hour's  unneces- 
sary delay. 

So  back  we  turned  to  where  the  dead  tusker  lay,  and 
I  felt  proud  indeed  as  I  stood  by  the  immense  bulk  of 
the  slain  monster  and  put  my  hand  on  the  ivory.  The 
tusks  weighed  a  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  the  pair. 
There  was  the  usual  scene  of  joyful  excitement  among 
the  gun-bearers — who  had  behaved  excellently — and 
among  the  wild  bush-people  who  had  done  the  tracking 
for  us ;  and,  as  Cuninghame  had  predicted,  the  old 
Masai  Dorobo,  from  pure  delight,  proceeded  to  have 
hysterics  on  the  body  of  the  dead  elephant.  The  scene 
was  repeated  when  Heller  and  the  porters  appeared  half 
an  hour  later.  Then,  chattering  like  monkeys,  and  as 
happy  as  possible,  all — porters,  gun-bearers,  and  'Ndorobo 
alike — began  the  work  of  skinning  and  cutting  up  the 
quarry,  under  the  leadership  and  supervision  of  Heller 
and  Cuninghame,  and  soon  they  were  all  splashed  with 
blood  from  head  to  foot.  One  of  the  trackers  took  off 
his  blanket  and  squatted  stark  naked  inside  the  carcass 
the  better  to  use  his  knife.  Each  labourer  rewarded 
himself  by  cutting  off  strips  of  meat  for  his  private 
store,  and  hung  them  in  red  festoons  from  the  branches 
round  about.  There  was  no  let  up  in  the  work  until  it 
was  stopped  by  darkness. 

Our   tents  were   pitched   in   a   small   open   glade   a 
hundred   yards   from    the  dead   elephant.      The  night 


250  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

was  clear,  the  stars  shone  brightly,  and  in  the  west  the 
young  moon  hung  just  above  the  line  of  tall  tree-tops. 
Fires  were  speedily  kindled  and  the  men  sat  around 
them,  feasting  and  singing  in  a  strange  minor  tone  until 
late  in  the  night.  The  flickering  light  left  them  at  one 
moment  in  black  obscurity,  and  the  next  brought  into 
bold  relief  their  sinewy,  crouching  figures,  their  dark 
faces,  gleaming  eyes,  and  flashing  teeth.  When  they 
did  sleep,  two  of  the  'Ndorobo  slept  so  close  to  the  fire 
as  to  burn  themselves — an  accident  to  which  they  are 
prone,  judging  from  the  many  scars  of  old  burns  on 
their  legs.  I  toasted  slices  of  elephant's  heart  on  a 
pronged  stick  before  the  fire,  and  found  it  delicious  ; 
for  I  was  hungry,  and  the  night  was  cold.  We  talked 
of  our  success  and  exulted  over  it,  and  made  our  plans 
for  the  morrow ;  and  then  we  turned  in  under  our 
blankets  for  another  night's  sleep. 

Next  morning  some  of  the  'Ndorobo  went  ofl*  on  the 
trail  of  Cuninghame's  elephant  to  see  if  it  had  fallen, 
but  found  that  it  had  travelled  steadily,  though  its 
wounds  were  probably  mortal.  There  was  no  object  in 
my  staying,  for  Heller  and  Cuninghame  would  be  busy 
for  the  next  ten  days,  and  would  ultimately  have  to  use 
all  the  porters  in  taking  off"  and  curing  the  skin,  and 
transporting  it  to  Neri ;  so  I  made  up  my  mind  to  go 
down  to  the  plains  for  a  hunt  by  myself.  Taking  one 
porter  to  carry  my  bedding,  and  with  my  gun-bearers, 
and  a  Dorobo  as  guide,  I  struck  off*  through  the  forest 
for  the  main  camp,  reaching  it  early  in  the  afternoon. 
Thence  I  bundled  off"  a  safari  to  Cuninghame  and  Heller 
with  food  for  a  week,  and  tents  and  clothing,  and  then 
enjoyed  the  luxury  of  a  shave  and  a  warm  bath.  Next 
day  was  spent  in  writing  and  making  preparations  for 
my  own  trip.     A  Kikuyu  chief,  clad  in  a  cloak  of  hyrax 


CH.  x]  AT  MERIT  BOMA  251 

skins,  and  carrying  his  war  spear,  came  to  congratulate 
me  on  killing  the  elephant  and  to  present  me  with  a 
sheep.  Early  the  following  morning  everything  was  in 
readiness  ;  the  bull-necked  porters  lifted  their  loads,  I 
stepped  out  in  front,  followed  by  my  led  horse,  and  in 
ten  hours'  march  we  reached  Neri  boma,  with  its  neat 
buildings,  its  trees,  and  its  well-kept  flower  beds. 

My  hunting  and  travelling  during  the  following  fort- 
night will  be  told  in  the  next  chapter.  On  the  evening 
of  September  6th  we  were  all  together  again  at  Meru 
Boma,  on  the  north-eastern  slopes  of  Kenia — Kermit, 
Tarlton,  Cuninghame,  Heller,  and  I.  Thanks  to  the 
unfailing  kindness  of  the  Commissioner,  Mr.  Home,  we 
were  given  full  information  of  the  elephant  in  the 
neighbourhood.  He  had  no  'Ndorobo,  but  among  the 
Wa-Meru,  a  wild  martial  tribe,  who  lived  close  around 
him,  there  were  a  number  of  hunters,  or  at  least  of  men 
who  knew  the  forest  and  the  game,  and  these  had  been 
instructed  to  bring  in  any  news. 

We  had,  of  course,  no  idea  that  elephant  would  be 
found  close  at  hand.  But  next  morning,  about  eleven. 
Home  came  to  our  camp  with  four  of  his  black  scouts, 
who  reported  that  three  elephants  were  in  a  patch  of 
thick  jungle  beside  the  shambas,  not  three  miles  away. 
Home  said  that  the  elephants  were  cows,  that  they  had 
been  in  the  neighbourhood  some  days,  devastating  the 
shambas,  and  were  bold  and  fierce,  having  charged  some 
men  who  sought  to  drive  them  away  from  the  cultivated 
fields  ;  it  is  curious  to  see  how  little  heed  these  elephants 
pay  to  the  natives.  I  wanted  a  cow  for  the  Museum, 
and  also  another  bull.  So  off  we  started  at  once, 
Kermit  carrying  his  camera.  I  slipped  on  my  rubber- 
soled  shoes,  and  had  my  gun-bearers  accompany  me 
barefooted,  with  the  Holland  and  the  Springfield  rifles. 


252  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

We  followed  footpaths  among  the  fields  until  we 
reached  the  edge  of  the  jungle  in  which  the  elephants 
stood. 

This  jungle  lay  beside  the  forest,  and  at  this  point 
separated  it  from  the  fields.  It  consisted  of  a  mass  of 
rank-growing  bushes,  allied  to  the  cotton  plant,  ten  or 
twelve  feet  high,  with  only  here  and  there  a  tree.  It 
was  not  good  ground  in  which  to  hunt  elephant,  for  the 
tangle  was  practically  impenetrable  to  a  hunter  save 
along  the  elephant  trails  ;  whereas  the  elephants  them- 
selves could  move  in  any  direction  at  will,  with  no  more 
difficulty  than  a  man  would  have  in  a  hay  field.  The 
bushes  in  most  places  rose  just  above  their  backs,  so 
that  they  were  completely  hid  from  the  hunter  even  a 
few  feet  away.  Yet  the  cover  afforded  no  shade  to  the 
mighty  beasts,  and  it  seemed  strange  that  elephants 
should  stand  in  it  at  mid-day  with  the  sun  out.  There 
they  were,  however,  for,  looking  cautiously  into  the 
cover  fi-om  behind  the  bushes  on  a  slight  hill-crest  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  off",  we  could  just  make  out  a  huge 
ear  now  and  then  as  it  lazily  flapped. 

On  account  of  the  wind  we  had  to  go  well  to  one  side 
before  entering  the  jungle.  Then  in  we  went  in  single 
file,  Cuninghame  and  Tarlton  leading,  with  a  couple  of 
our  naked  guides.  The  latter  showed  no  great  desire 
to  get  too  close,  explaining  that  the  elephants  were 
"very  fierce."  Once  in  the  jungle,  we  trod  as  quietly 
as  possible,  threading  our  way  along  the  elephant  trails, 
which  crossed  and  recrossed  one  another.  Evidently  it 
was  a  favourite  haunt,  for  the  sign  was  abundant,  both 
old  and  new.  In  the  impenetrable  cover  it  was  quite 
impossible  to  tell  just  where  the  elephants  were,  and 
twice  we  sent  one  of  the  savages  up  a  tree  to  locate  the 
game.     The  last  time  the  watcher,  who  stayed  in  the 


•5; 

^      So 


CH.  x]    "THE  EARTH-SHAKING  BEAST "    253 

tree,  indicated  by  signs  that  the  elephant  were  not  far 
off;  and  his  companions  wished  to  lead  us  round  to 
where  the  cover  was  a  little  lower  and  thinner.  But  to 
do  so  would  have  given  them  our  wind,  and  Cuning- 
hame  refused,  taking  into  his  own  hands  the  manage- 
ment of  the  stalk.  I  kept  my  heavy  rifle  at  the  ready, 
and  on  we  went,  in  watchful  silence,  prepared  at  any 
moment  for  a  charge.  We  could  not  tell  at  what 
second  we  might  catch  our  first  glimpse  at  very  close 
quarters  of  "  the  beast  that  hath  between  his  eyes  the 
serpent  for  a  hand,"  and  when  thus  surprised  the  temper 
of  "  the  huge  earth-shaking  beast "  is  sometimes  of  the 
shortest. 

Cuninghame  and  Tarlton  stopped  for  a  moment  to 
consult ;  Cuninghame  stooped,  and  Tarlton  mounted  his 
shoulders  and  stood  upright,  steadying  himself  by  my 
hand.  Down  he  came  and  told  us  that  he  had  seen  a 
small  tree  shake  seventy  yards  distant ;  although  upright 
on  Cuninghame's  shoulders,  he  could  not  see  the 
elephant  itself.  Forward  we  stole  for  a  few  yards,  and 
then  a  piece  of  good  luck  befell  us,  for  we  came  on  the 
trunk  of  a  great  fallen  tree,  and,  scrambling  up,  we 
found  ourselves  perched  in  a  row  six  feet  above  the 
ground.  The  highest  part  of  the  trunk  was  near  the 
root,  farthest  from  where  the  elephants  were  ;  and, 
though  it  offered  precarious  footing,  it  also  offered  the 
best  lookout.  There  I  balanced,  and,  looking  over  the 
heads  of  my  companions,  I  at  once  made  out  the 
elephant.  At  first  I  could  see  nothing  but  the  shaking 
branches,  and  one  huge  ear  occasionally  flapping.  Then 
I  made  out  the  ear  of  another  beast,  and  then  the  trunk 
of  a  third  was  uncurled,  lifted,  and  curled  again  ;  it 
showered  its  back  with  earth.  The  watcher  we  had  left 
behind  in  the  tree-top  coughed  ;  the  elephants  stood 


254  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

motionless,  and  up  went  the  biggest  elephant's  trunk, 
feeling  for  the  wind.  The  watcher  coughed  again,  and 
then  the  bushes  and  saplings  swayed  and  parted  as  three 
black  bulks  came  toward  us.  The  cover  was  so  high 
that  we  could  not  see  their  tusks,  only  the  tops  of  their 
heads  and  their  backs  being  visible.  The  leader  was 
the  biggest,  and  at  it  I  fired  when  it  was  sixty  yards 
away,"  and  nearly  broadside  on,  but  heading  slightly 
toward  me.  I  had  previously  warned  everyone  to 
kneel.  The  recoil  of  the  heavy  rifle  made  me  rock,  as 
I  stood  unsteadily  on  my  perch,  and  I  failed  to  hit  the 
brain.  But  the  bullet,  only  missing  the  brain  by  an 
inch  or  two,  brought  the  elephant  to  its  knees  ;  as  it 
rose  I  floored  it  with  the  second  barrel.  The  blast  of 
the  big  rifle,  by  the  way,  was  none  too  pleasant  for  the 
other  men  on  the  log,  and  made  Cuninghame's  nose 
bleed.  Reloading,  I  fired  twice  at  the  next  animal, 
which  was  now  turning.  It  stumbled  and  nearly  fell, 
but  at  the  same  moment  the  first  one  rose  again,  and  I 
fired  both  barrels  into  its  head,  bringing  it  once  more 
to  the  ground.  Once  again  it  rose — an  elephant's  brain 
is  not  an  easy  mark  to  hit  under  such  conditions — but 
as  it  moved  slowly  off*,  half-stunned,  I  snatched  the 
little  Springfield  rifle,  and  this  time  shot  true,  sending 
the  bullet  into  its  brain.  As  it  fell  I  took  another  shot 
at  the  wounded  elephant,  now  disappearing  in  the 
forest,  but  without  efl^ect. 

On  walking  up  to  our  prize  it  proved  to  be  not  a 
cow,  but  a  good-sized  adult  (but  not  old)  herd  bull, 
with  thick,  short  tusks,  weighing  about  forty  pounds 
apiece.  Ordinarily,  of  course,  a  bull,  and  not  a  cow,  is 
what  one  desires,  although  on  this  occasion  I  needed  a 
cow  to  complete  the  group  for  the  National  Museum. 
However,  Heller  and  Cuninghame  spent  the  next  few 


CH.  x]  KERMIT'S  ELEPHANT  255 

days  in  preserving  the  skin,  which  I  afterward  gave  to 
the  University  of  Cahfornia ;  and  I  was  too  much 
pleased  with  our  luck  to  feel  inchned  to  grumble.  We 
were  back  in  camp  five  hours  after  leaving  it.  Our 
gun-bearers  usually  felt  it  incumbent  on  them  to  keep 
a  dignified  bearing  while  in  our  company.  But  the 
death  of  an  elephant  is  always  a  great  event ;  and  one 
of  the  gun-bearers  as  they  walked  ahead  of  us  camp- 
ward  soon  began  to  improvise  a  song,  reciting  the 
success  of  the  hunt,  the  death  of  the  elephant,  and  the 
power  of  the  rifles  ;  and  gradually,  as  they  got  farther 
ahead,  the  more  light-hearted  among  them  began  to 
give  way  to  their  spirits,  and  they  came  into  camp 
frolicking,  gambolling,  and  dancing  as  if  they  were  still 
the  naked  savages  that  they  had  been  before  they 
became  the  white  man's  followers. 

Two  days  later  Kermit  got  his  bull.  He  and  Tarlton 
had  camped  about  ten  miles  off  in  a  magnificent  forest, 
and  late  the  first  afternoon  received  news  that  a  herd  of 
elephants  was  in  the  neighbourhood.  They  were  off  by 
dawn,  and  in  a  few  hours  came  on  the  herd.  It  con- 
sisted chiefly  of  cows  and  calves,  but  there  was  one  big 
master  bull,  with  fair  tusks.  It  was  open  forest  with 
long  grass.  By  careful  stalking  they  got  within  thirty 
yards  of  the  bull,  behind  whom  was  a  line  of  cows. 
Kermit  put  both  barrels  of  his  heavy  double  '405  into 
the  tusker's  head,  but  without  even  staggering  him ; 
and  as  he  walked  off  Tarlton  also  fired  both  barrels  into 
him,  with  no  more  effect ;  then,  as  he  slowly  turned, 
Kermit  killed  him  with  a  shot  in  the  brain  from  the 
•405  Winchester.  Immediately  the  cows  lifted  their 
ears,  and  began  trumpeting  and  threatening.  If  they 
had  come  on  in  a  body  at  that  distance,  there  was  not 
much  chance  of  turning  them  or  of  escaping  from  them  ; 


256  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

and  after  standing  stock  still  for  a  minute  or  two, 
Kermit  and  Tarlton  stole  quietly  off  for  a  hundred 
yards,  and  waited  until  the  anger  of  the  cows  cooled 
and  they  had  moved  away,  before  going  up  to  the  dead 
bull.  Then  they  followed  the  herd  again,  and  Kermit 
got  some  photos  which,  as  far  as  I  know,  are  better 
than  any  that  have  ever  before  been  taken  of  wild 
elephant.  He  took  them  close  up,  at  imminent  risk  of 
a  charge. 

The  following  day  the  two  hunters  rode  back  to  Meru, 
making  a  long  circle.  The  elephants  they  saw  were  not 
worth  shooting,  but  they  killed  the  finest  rhinoceros  we 
had  yet  seen.  They  saw  it  in  an  open  space  of  tall 
grass,  surrounded  by  lantana  brush,  a  flowering  shrub 
with  close-growing  stems,  perhaps  twenty  feet  high  and 
no  thicker  than  a  man's  thumb  ;  it  forms  a  favourite 
cover  for  elephants  and  rhinoceros,  and  is  wellnigh 
impenetrable  to  hunters.  Fortunately  this  particular 
rhino  was  outside  it,  and  Kermit  and  Tarlton  got  up  to 
about  twenty-five  yards  from  him.  Kermit  then  put 
one  bullet  behind  his  shoulder,  and  as  he  whipped  round 
to  charge,  another  bullet  on  the  point  of  his  shoulder. 
Although  mortally  wounded,  he  showed  no  signs  what- 
ever of  being  hurt,  and  came  at  the  hunters  with  gi'eat 
speed  and  savage  desire  to  do  harm.  Then  an  extra- 
ordinary thing  happened.  Tarlton  fired,  inflicting 
merely  a  flesh-wound  in  one  shoulder,  and  the  big, 
fearsome  brute,  which  had  utterly  disregarded  the  two 
fatal  shots,  on  receiving  this  flesh  wound  wheeled  and 
ran.  Both  firing,  they  killed  him  before  he  had  gone 
many  yards.     He  was  a  bull,  with  a  thirty-inch  horn. 

By  this  time  Cuninghame  and  Heller  had  finished  the 
skin  and  skeleton  of  the  bull  they  were  preserving. 
Near  the  carcass  Heller  trapped  an  old  male  leopard — a 


<    *> 


CH.  x]  THE  MERU  COUNTRY  257 

savage  beast ;  its  skin  was  in  fine  shape,  but  it  was  not 
fat,  and  weighed  just  one  hundred  pounds.  Now  we  all 
joined  and  shifted  camp  to  a  point  eight  or  nine  miles 
distant  from  Meru  Boma,  and  fifteen  hundred  feet  lower 
among  the  foothills.  It  was  much  hotter  at  this  lower 
level ;  palms  were  among  the  trees  that  bordered  the 
streams.  On  the  day  we  shifted  camp,  Tarlton  and  I 
rode  in  advance  to  look  for  elephants,  followed  by  our 
gun-bearers  and  half  a  dozen  wild  Meru  hunters,  each 
carrying  a  spear  or  a  bow  and  arrows.  When  we 
reached  the  hunting-grounds — open  country  with  groves 
of  trees  and  patches  of  jungle — the  Meru  went  off  in 
every  direction  to  find  elephants.  We  waited  their 
return  under  a  tree,  by  a  big  stretch  of  cultivated 
ground.  The  region  was  well  peopled,  and  all  the  way 
down  the  path  had  led  between  fields,  which  the  Meru 
women  were  tilling  with  their  adze-like  hoes,  and 
banana  plantations,  where  among  the  bananas  other 
trees  had  been  planted,  and  the  yam  vines  trained  up 
their  trunks.  These  cool,  shady  banana  plantations, 
fenced  in  with  tall  hedges  and  bordered  by  rapid  brooks, 
were  really  very  attractive.  Among  them  were  scattered 
villages  of  conical  thatched  huts,  and  level  places 
plastered  with  cow-dung,  on  which  the  grain  was 
threshed ;  it  was  then  stored  in  huts  raised  on  posts. 
There  were  herds  of  cattle  and  flocks  of  sheep  and  goats, 
and  among  the  burdens  the  women  bore  we  often  saw 
huge  bottles  of  milk.  In  the  shambas  there  were  plat- 
forms, and  sometimes  regular  thatched  huts,  placed  in 
the  trees ;  these  were  for  the  watchers,  who  were  to 
keep  the  elephants  out  of  the  shambas  at  night.  Some 
of  the  natives  wore  girdles  of  banana  leaves,  looking,  as 
Kermit  said,  much  like  the  pictures  of  savages  in 
Sunday-school  books. 

17 


258  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

Early  in  the  afternoon  some  of  the  scouts  returned 
with  news  that  three  bull  elephants  were  in  a  piece  of 
forest  a  couple  of  miles  distant,  and  thither  we  went. 
It  was  an  open  grove  of  heavy  thorn  timber  beside  a 
strip  of  swamp  ;  among  the  trees  the  grass  grew  tall,  and 
there  were  many  thickets  of  abutilon,  a  flowering  shrub 
a  dozen  feet  high.  On  this  the  elephants  were  feeding. 
Tarlton's  favourite  sport  was  lion-hunting,  but  he  was 
also  a  first-class  elephant-hunter,  and  he  brought  me 
up  to  these  bulls  in  fine  style.  Although  only  three 
hundred  yards  away,  it  took  us  two  hours  to  get  close 
to  them.  Tarlton  and  the  "  shenzis " — wild  natives, 
called  in  Swahili  (a  kind  of  African  chinook)  ''wa- 
shenzi" — who  were  with  us  climbed  tree  after  tree, 
first  to  place  the  elephants,  and  then  to  see  if  they 
carried  ivory  heavy  enough  to  warrant  my  shooting 
them.  At  last  Tarlton  brought  me  to  within  fifty 
yards  of  them.  Two  were  feeding  in  bush  which  hid 
them  from  view,  and  the  third  stood  between,  facing 
us.  We  could  only  see  the  top  of  his  head  and  back, 
and  not  his  tusks,  and  could  not  tell  whether  he  was 
worth  shooting.  Much  puzzled,  we  stood  where  we 
were,  peering  anxiously  at  the  huge  half-hidden  game. 
Suddenly  there  was  a  slight  eddy  in  the  wind,  up  went 
the  elephant's  trunk,  twisting  to  and  fro  in  the  air; 
evidently  he  could  not  catch  a  clear  scent,  but  in 
another  moment  we  saw  the  three  great  dark  forms 
moving  gently  off  through  the  bush.  As  rapidly  as 
possible,  following  the  trails  already  tramped  by  the 
elephants,  we  walked  forward,  and  after  a  hundred 
yards  Tarlton  pointed  to  a  big  bull  with  good  tusks 
standing  motionless  behind  some  small  trees  seventy 
yards  distant.  As  I  aimed  at  his  head  he  started  to 
move   off.     The    first   bullet  from  the  heavy  Holland 


CH.  x]  ANOTHER  TROPHY  259 

brought  him  to  his  knees,  and  as  he  rose  I  knocked 
him  flat  with  the  second.  He  struggled  to  rise,  but, 
both  firing,  we  kept  him  down,  and  I  finished  him 
with  a  bullet  in  the  brain  from  the  little  Springfield. 
Although  rather  younger  than  either  of  the  bulls  I 
had  already  shot,  he  was  even  larger.  In  its  stomach 
were  beans  from  the  shambas,  abutilon  tips,  and  bark, 
and  especially  the  twigs,  leaves,  and  white  blossoms  of 
a  smaller  shrub.  The  tusks  weighed  a  little  over  a 
hundred  pounds  the  pair. 

We  still  needed  a  cow  for  the  Museum,  and  a  couple 
of  days  later,  at  noon,  a  party  of  natives  brought  in 
word  that  they  had  seen  two  cows  in  a  spot  five  miles 
away.  Piloted  by  a  naked  spearman,  whose  hair  was 
done  into  a  cue,  we  rode  toward  the  place.  For  most 
of  the  distance  we  followed  old  elephant  trails,  in  some 
places  mere  tracks  beaten  down  through  stiff  grass 
which  stood  above  the  head  of  a  man  on  horseback, 
in  other  places  paths  rutted  deep  into  the  earth.  We 
crossed  a  river,  where  monkeys  chattered  among  the 
tree-tops.  On  an  open  plain  we  saw  a  rhinoceros  cow 
trotting  off  with  her  calf.  At  last  we  came  to  a  hill- 
top with,  on  the  summit,  a  noble  fig-tree,  whose  giant 
limbs  were  stretched  over  the  palms  that  clustered 
beneath.  Here  we  left  our  horses  and  went  forward 
on  foot,  crossing  a  palm-fringed  stream  in  a  little  valley. 
From  the  next  rise  we  saw  the  backs  of  the  elephants 
as  they  stood  in  a  slight  valley,  where  the  rank  grass 
grew  ten  or  twelve  feet  high.  It  was  some  time  before 
we  could  see  the  ivory  so  as  to  be  sure  of  exactly  what 
we  were  shooting.  Then  the  biggest  cow  began  to 
move  slowly  forward,  and  we  walked  nearly  parallel  to 
her,  along  an  elephant  trail,  until  from  a  slight  knoll  I 
got  a  clear  view  of  her  at  a  distance  of  eighty  yards. 


260  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

As  she  walked  leisurely  along,  almost  broadside  to  me, 
T  fired  the  right  barrel  of  the  Holland  into  her  head, 
knocking  her  flat  down  with  the  shock,  and  when  she 
rose  I  put  a  bullet  from  the  left  barrel  through  her 
heart,  again  knocking  her  completely  off  her  feet,  and 
this  time  she  fell  permanently.  She  was  a  very  old 
cow,  and  her  ivory  was  rather  better  than  in  the  average 
of  her  sex  in  this  neighbourhood,  the  tusks  weighing 
about  eighteen  pounds  apiece.  She  had  been  ravaging 
the  shambas  overnight — which  accounted  in  part  for 
the  natives  being  so  eager  to  show  her  to  me — and  in 
addition  to  leaves  and  grass,  her  stomach  contained 
quantities  of  beans.  There  was  a  young  one — ^just  out 
of  calfhood,  and  quite  able  to  take  care  of  itself — with 
her ;  it  ran  off  as  soon  as  the  mother  fell. 

Early  next  morning  Cuninghame  and  Heller  shifted 
part  of  the  safari  to  the  stream  near  where  the  dead 
elephant  lay,  intending  to  spend  the  following  three 
days  in  taking  off"  and  preparing  the  skin.  Meanwhile 
Tarlton,  Kermit,  and  I  were  to  try  our  luck  in  a  short 
hunt  on  the  other  side  of  Meru  Boma,  at  a  little  crater 
lake  called  Lake  Ingouga.  We  could  not  get  an  early 
start,  and  reached  Meru  too  late  to  push  on  to  the  lake 
the  same  day. 

The  following  morning  we  marched  to  the  lake  in 
two  hours  and  a  half.  We  spent  an  hour  in  crossing  a 
broad  tongue  of  woodland  that  stretched  down  from  the 
wonderful  mountain  forest  lying  higher  on  the  slopes. 
The  trail  was  blind  in  many  places  because  elephant 
paths  of  every  age  continually  led  along  and  across  it, 
some  of  them  being  much  better  marked  than  the  trail 
itself  as  it  twisted  through  the  sun-flecked  shadows 
underneath  the  great  trees.  Then  we  came  out  on  high 
downs,  covered  with  tall  grass  and  littered  with  volcanic 


The  herd  getting  uneasy 
From  a  photograph,  copyright,  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 


The  same  herd  on  the  eve  of  charging 

Immediately  after  taking  this  picture,  Kermit  had  to  make  his  escape,  quietly  slipping  off  among  the  trees  to 
avoid  the  charge;  he  did  not  wish  to  shoot  any  of  the  herd  if  it  could  be  avoided 

From  a  photograph,  copyright,  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


CH.  x]  ILLNESS  OF  MR.  HELLER  261 

stones,  and  broken  by  ravines  which  were  choked  with 
dense  underbrush.  There  were  high  hills,  and  to  the 
left  of  the  downs,  toward  Kenia,  these  were  clad  in 
forest.  We  pitched  our  tents  on  a  steep  cliff  over- 
looking the  crater  lake  —  or  pond,  as  it  might  more 
properly  be  called.  It  was  bordered  with  sedge,  and 
through  the  water-lilies  on  its  surface  we  saw  the 
reflection  of  the  new  moon  after  nightfall.  Here  and 
there  thick  forest  came  down  to  the  brink,  and  through 
this,  on  opposite  sides  of  the  pond,  deeply- worn  elephant 
paths,  evidently  travelled  for  ages,  wound  down  to  the 
water. 

That  evening  we  hunted  for  bushbuck,  but  saw  none. 
While  we  were  sitting  on  a  hillock  at  dusk,  watching 
for  game,  a  rhino  trotted  up  to  inspect  us,  with  ears 
cocked  forward  and  tail  erect.  A  rhino  always  has 
something  comic  about  it,  like  a  pig,  formidable  though 
it  at  times  is.  This  one  carried  a  poor  horn,  and  there- 
fore we  were  pleased  when  at  last  it  trotted  oiF  without 
obliging  us  to  shoot  it.  We  saw  new  kinds  of  whydah 
birds,  one  with  a  yellow  breast,  one  with  white  in  its 
tail ;  at  this  altitude  the  cocks  were  still  in  full  plumage, 
although  it  was  just  past  the  middle  of  September  ; 
whereas  at  Naivasha  they  had  begun  to  lose  their  long 
tail  feathers  nearly  two  months  previously. 

On  returning  to  camp  we  received  a  note  from 
Cuninghame  saying  that  Heller  had  been  taken  seriously 
ill,  and  Tarlton  had  to  go  to  them.  This  left  Kermit 
and  me  to  take  our  two  days'  hunt  together. 

One  day  we  got  nothing.  We  saw  game  on  the 
open  downs,  but  it  was  too  wary,  and  though  we  got 
within  twenty-five  yards  of  eland  in  thick  cover,  we 
could  only  make  out  a  cow,  and  she  took  fright  and  ran 
without  our  ever  getting  a  glimpse  of  the  bull  that  was 


262  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

with  her.  Late  in  the  afternoon  we  saw  an  elephant  a 
mile  and  a  half  away,  crossing  a  corner  of  the  open 
downs.  We  followed  its  trail  until  the  light  grew  too 
dim  for  shooting,  but  never  overtook  it,  although  at  the 
last  we  could  hear  it  ahead  of  us  breaking  the  branches  ; 
and  we  made  our  way  back  to  camp  through  the  dark- 
ness. 

The  other  day  made  amends.  It  was  Kermit's  turn 
to  shoot  an  elephant  and  mine  to  shoot  a  rhinoceros, 
and  each  of  us  was  to  act  as  the  backing  gun  for  the 
other.  In  the  forenoon  we  saw  a  bull  rhino  with  a  good 
horn  walking  over  the  open  downs.  A  convenient  hill 
enabled  us  to  cut  him  off  without  difficulty,  and  from 
its  summit  we  killed  him  at  the  base,  fifty  or  sixty  yards 
off.  His  front  horn  was  nearly  twenty-nine  inches  long  ; 
but  though  he  was  an  old  bull,  his  total  length,  from 
tip  of  nose  to  tip  of  tail,  was  only  twelve  feet,  and  he 
was,  I  should  guess,  not  more  than  two-thirds  the  bulk 
of  the  big  bull  I  killed  in  the  Sotik. 

We  rested  for  an  hour  or  two  at  noon,  under  the 
shade  of  a  very  old  tree  with  glossy  leaves  and  orchids 
growing  on  its  gnarled,  hoary  limbs,  while  the  unsaddled 
horses  grazed  and  the  gun-bearers  slept  near  by,  the 
cool  mountain  air,  although  this  was  midday,  under  the 
Equator,  making  them  prefer  the  sunlight  to  the  shade. 
When  we  moved  on  it  was  through  a  sea  of  bush  ten 
or  fifteen  feet  high,  dotted  here  and  there  with  trees, 
and  riddled  in  every  direction  by  the  trails  of  elephant, 
rhinoceros,  and  buffalo.  Each  of  these  animals  fre- 
quents certain  kinds  of  country  to  which  the  other  two 
rarely  or  never  penetrate  ;  but  here  they  all  three  found 
ground  to  their  liking.  Except  along  their  winding 
trails,  which  were  tunnels  where  the  jungle  was  tall, 


Mr.  Roosevelt's  and  Kermit's  camp  near  which  they  got  the  rhino  and  elephant 
From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


CH.  x]  EFFICIENCY  OF  RIFLES  263 

it  would  have  been  practically  impossible  to  traverse 
the  thick  and  matted  cover  in  which  they  had  made 
their  abode. 

We  could  not  tell  at  what  moment  we  might  find 
ourselves  face  to  face  with  some  big  beast  at  such  close 
quarters  as  to  insure  a  charge,  and  we  moved  in  cautious 
silence,  our  rifles  in  our  hands.  Rhinoceros  were 
especially  plentiful,  and  we  continually  came  across  not 
only  their  tracks,  but  the  dusty  wallows  in  which  they 
rolled,  and  where  they  came  to  deposit  their  dung. 
The  fresh  sign  of  elephant,  however,  distracted  our 
attention  from  the  lesser  game,  and  we  followed  the 
big  footprints  eagerly,  now  losing  the  trail,  now  finding 
it  again.  At  last,  near  a  clump  of  big  trees,  we  caught 
sight  of  three  huge,  dark  bodies  ahead  of  us.  The  wind 
was  right,  and  we  stole  toward  them,  Kermit  leading 
and  I  immediately  behind.  Through  the  tangled 
branches  their  shapes  loomed  in  vague  outline ;  but 
we  saw  that  one  had  a  pair  of  long  tusks,  and  our 
gun-bearers  unanimously  pronounced  it  a  big  bull,  with 
good  ivory.  A  few  more  steps  gave  Kermit  a  chance 
at  its  head,  at  about  sixty  yards,  and  with  a  bullet  from 
his  '405  Winchester  he  floored  the  mighty  beast.  It 
rose,  and  we  both  fired  in  unison,  bringing  it  down 
again  ;  but  as  we  came  up  it  struggled  to  get  on  its 
feet,  roaring  savagely,  and  once  more  we  both  fired 
together.  This  finished  it.  We  were  disappointed  at 
finding  that  it  was  not  a  bull ;  but  it  was  a  large  cow, 
with  tusks  over  five  feet  long — a  very  unusual  length 
for  a  cow — one  weighing  twenty-five  and  the  other 
twenty-two  pounds. 

Our  experience  had  convinced  us  that  both  the 
Winchester  "405   and   the   Springfield  -300  would   do 


264  ELEPHANT-HUNTING  [ch.  x 

good  work  with  elephants,  although  I  kept  to  my  belief 
that,  for  such  very  heavy  game,  raiy  Holland  *500  to  "450 
was  an  even  better  weapon. 

Not  far  from  where  this  elephant  fell  Tarlton  had, 
the  year  before,  witnessed  an  interesting  incident.  He 
was  watching  a  small  herd  of  elephants,  cows  and 
calves,  which  were  in  the  open,  when  he  saw  them 
begin  to  grow  uneasy.  Then,  with  a  shrill  trumpet,  a 
cow  approached  a  bush,  out  of  which  bounded  a  big 
lion.  Instantly  all  the  cows  charged  him,  and  he  fled 
as  fast  as  his  legs  would  carry  him  for  the  forest,  two 
hundred  yards  distant.  He  just  managed  to  reach  the 
cover  in  safety,  and  then  the  infuriated  cows,  in  their 
anger  at  his  escape,  demolished  the  forest  for  several 
rods  in  every  direction. 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  GUASO  NYERO :   A  RIVER  OF  THE 
EQUATORIAL   DESERT 

When  I  reached  Neri,  after  coming  down  from  killing 
my  first  elephant  on  Kenia,  I  was  kept  waiting  two  or 
three  days  before  I  could  gather  enough  Kikuyu  porters. 
As  I  could  not  speak  a  word  of  their  language,  I  got  a 
couple  of  young  Scottish  settlers,  very  good  fellows,  to 
take  charge  of  the  safari  out  to  where  I  intended  to 
hunt.  There  was  a  party  of  the  King's  African  Rifles 
camped  at  Neri ;  the  powerful-looking  enlisted  men 
were  from  the  South,  chiefly  from  one  of  the  northern- 
most tribes  of  Zulu  blood,  and  their  two  officers  were  of 
the  best  Kipling-soldier  type.  Then  there  was  another 
safari,  that  of  Messrs.  Kearton  and  Clark,  who  were 
taking  some  really  extraordinary  photographs  of  birds 
and  game.  Finally,  Governor  and  Mrs.  Jackson  arrived 
from  a  trip  they  had  been  making  round  Kenia,  and  I 
was  much  pleased  to  be  able  to  tell  the  Governor,  who 
had  helped  me  in  every  way,  about  my  bull  elephant, 
and  to  discuss  with  him  some  of  the  birds  we  had  seen 
and  the  mammals  we  had  trapped.  A  great  ingowa,  a 
war-dance  of  the  natives,  was  held  in  his  honour,  and 
the  sight  was,  as  always,  one  of  interest  and  of  a  certain 
fascination.  There  was  an  Indian  trader  at  Neri,  from 
whom  we  had  obtained  donkeys  to  carry  to  our  elephant 

265 


266  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

camp  "  posho,"  or  food  for  the  porters.  He  announced 
that  they  were  all  in  readiness  in  a  letter  to  Cuning- 
hame,  which  was  meant  to  be  entirely  respectful,  but 
which  sounded  odd,  as  it  was  couched  in  characteristic 
Baboo  English.  The  opening  lines  ran :  "  Dear  K-ham, 
the  donkeys  are  altogether  deadly." 

At  last  fifty  Kikuyus  assembled — they  are  not  able  to 
carry  the  loads  of  regular  Swahili  porters — and  I  started 
that  moment,  though  it  was  too  late  in  the  afternoon  to 
travel  more  than  three  or  four  miles.  The  Kikuyus 
were  real  savages,  naked  save  for  a  dingy  blanket, 
usually  carried  round  the  neck.  They  formed  a 
picturesque  safari ;  but  it  was  difficult  to  make  the 
grasshopper-like  creatures  take  even  as  much  thought 
for  the  future  as  the  ordinary  happy-go-lucky  porters 
take.  At  night  if  it  rained  they  cowered  under  the 
bushes  in  drenched  and  shivering  discomfort ;  and  yet 
they  had  to  be  driven  to  make  bough  shelters  for  them- 
selves. Once  these  shelters  were  up,  and  a  little  fire 
kindled  at  the  entrance  of  each,  the  moping,  spiritless 
wretches  would  speedily  become  transformed  into  beings 
who  had  lost  all  remembrance  of  ever  having  been  wet 
or  cold.  After  their  posho  had  been  distributed  and 
eaten  they  would  sit,  huddled  and  cheerful,  in  their 
shelters,  and  sing  steadily  for  a  couple  of  hours.  Their 
songs  were  much  wilder  than  those  of  the  regular 
porters,  and  were  often  warlike.  Occasionally,  some 
*'  chanty  man,"  as  he  would  be  called  on  shipboard, 
improvised  or  repeated  a  kind  of  story  in  short  sentences 
or  strophes  ;  but  the  main  feature  of  each  song  was  the 
endless  repetition  of  some  refrain,  musically  chanted  in 
chorus  by  the  whole  party.  This  repetition  of  a  short 
sentence  or  refrain  is  a  characteristic  of  many  kinds  of 
savage  music.     I  have  seen  the  Pawnees  grow  almost 


From  a  photograph  by  Theodore  Roosevelt 


/^f""^^ 


1./^ 


/ 


CH.  XI]  SAFARI  ANTS  267 

maddened  by  their  triumph  song,  or  victory  song,  which 
consisted  of  nothing  whatever  but  the  fierce,  barking, 
wolf-Hke  repetition  of  the  words,  "  In  the  morning  the 
wolves  feasted." 

Our  first  afternoon's  march  was  uneventful ;  but  I 
was  amused  at  one  of  our  porters  and  the  "  safari "  ants. 
These  safari  ants  are  so  called  by  the  natives  because 
they  go  on  foraging  expeditions  in  immense  numbers. 
The  big-headed  warriors  are  able  to  inflict  a  really  pain- 
ful bite.  In  open  spaces,  as  where  crossing  a  path,  the 
column  makes  a  little  sunken  way,  through  which  it 
streams  uninterruptedly.  Whenever  we  came  to  such 
a  safari  ant  column,  in  its  sunken  way,  crossing  our 
path,  the  porter  in  question  laid  two  twigs  on  the 
ground  as  a  peace-ofFering  to  the  ants.  He  said  that 
they  were  on  safari,  just  as  we  were,  and  that  it  was 
wise  to  propitiate  them. 

That  evening  we  camped  in  a  glade  in  the  forest.  At 
nightfall  dozens  of  the  big  black-and-white  hornbill, 
croaking  harshly,  flew  overhead,  their  bills  giving  them 
a  curiously  top-heavy  look.  They  roosted  in  the  trees 
near  by. 

Next  day  we  came  out  on  the  plains,  where  there  was 
no  cultivation,  and,  instead  of  the  straggling  thatch  and 
wattle,  unfenced  villages  of  the  soil-tilling  Kikuyus,  we 
found  ourselves  again  among  the  purely  pastoral  Masai, 
whose  temporary  villages  are  arranged  in  a  ring  or  oval, 
the  cattle  being  each  night  herded  in  the  middle,  and 
the  mud- daubed,  cow-dung-plastered  houses  so  placed 
that  their  backs  form  a  nearly  continuous  circular  wall, 
the  spaces  between  being  choked  with  thorn  bushes. 
I  killed  a  steinbuck,  missed  a  tommy,  and  at  three 
hundred  yards  hit  a  Jackson's  hartebeest  too  far  back, 
and  failed  in  an  effort  to  ride  it  down. 


268  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

The  day  after  we  were  out  on  plains  untenanted  by 
human  beings,  and  early  in  the  afternoon  struck  water 
by  which  to  pitch  our  tents.  There  was  not  much 
game,  and  it  was  shy  ;  but  I  thought  that  I  could  kill 
enough  to  keep  the  camp  in  meat,  so  I  sent  back  the 
two  Scotsmen  and  their  Kikuyus,  after  having  them 
build  a  thorn  boma,  or  fence,  round  the  camp.  One  of 
the  reasons  why  the  Masai  had  driven  their  herds  and 
flocks  off  this  plain  was  because  a  couple  of  lions  had 
turned  man-eaters,  and  had  killed  a  number  of  men  and 
women.  We  saw  no  sign  of  lions,  and  believed  they 
had  followed  the  Masai ;  but  there  was  no  use  in  taking 
needless  chances. 

The  camp  was  beside  a  cold,  rapid  stream,  one  of  the 
head-waters  of  the  Guaso  Nyero.  It  was  heavily  fringed 
with  thorn  timber.  To  the  east  the  crags  and  snow- 
fields  of  Kenia  rose  from  the  slow  swell  of  the  mountain's 
base.  It  should  have  been  the  dry  season,  but  there 
were  continual  heavy  rains,  which  often  turned  into 
torrential  downpours.  In  the  overcast  mornings,  as  I 
rode  away  from  camp,  it  was  as  cool  as  if  I  were  riding 
through  the  fall  weather  at  home  ;  at  noon,  if  the  sun 
came  out,  straight  overhead,  the  heat  was  blazing ;  and 
we  generally  returned  to  camp,  at  nightfall,  drenched 
with  the  cold  rain.  The  first  heavy  storm,  the  evening 
we  pitched  camp,  much  excited  all  my  followers.  Ali 
came  rushing  into  the  tent  to  tell  me  that  there  was 
"  a  big  snake  up  high."  This  certainly  seemed  worth 
investigating,  and  I  followed  him  outside,  where  every- 
body was  looking  at  the  "  snake,"  which  proved  to  be  a 
huge  funnel-shaped,  whirling  cloud,  careering  across  the 
darkened  sky.  It  was  a  kind  of  waterspout  or  cyclone  ; 
fortunately  it  passed  to  one  side  of  camp. 

The  first  day  I  hunted  I  shot  only  a  steinbuck  for  the 


CH.  XI]  ELANDS  269 

table.  The  country  alternated  between  bare  plains  and 
gi'eat  stretches  of  sparse,  stunted  thorns.  We  saw 
zebra  and  two  or  three  bands  of  oryx ;  big,  handsome 
antelope  strongly  built  and  boldly  coloured,  with  long 
black,  rapier-like  horns.  They  were  very  wary,  much 
more  so  than  the  zebra  with  which  they  associated,  and 
we  could  not  get  anywhere  near  them. 

Next  day  I  hunted  along  the  edges  of  a  big  swamp. 
We  saw  waterbuck,  but  were  unable  to  get  within  shot. 
However,  near  the  farther  end  of  the  swamp,  in  an  open 
swale,  we  found  four  eland  feeding.  The  eland  is  the 
king  of  antelope ;  and  not  only  did  I  desire  meat  for 
camp,  but  I  wished  the  head  of  a  good  bull  as  a  trophy 
for  myself,  the  eland  I  had  hitherto  shot  being  for  the 
National  Museum.  The  little  band  included  a  big  bull, 
a  small  bull,  and  two  cows.  At  a  distance  the  big  bull 
looked  slaty  blue.  The  great  sleek  handsome  creatures 
were  feeding  in  the  long  grass  just  like  cattle,  switching 
their  long  tails  at  the  flies.  The  country  looked  Uke  a 
park,  with  clumps  of  thorn-trees  scattered  over  the 
grassy  sward.  Carefully  I  crept  on  all-fours  from  tree- 
clump  to  tree-clump,  trying  always  to  move  when  the 
elands'  heads  were  down  grazing:  At  last  I  was  within 
three  hundred  yards,  when  one  of  the  cows  caught  a 
glimpse  of  me  and  alarmed  the  others.  They  were 
startled,  but  puzzled,  and,  after  trotting  a  few  rods, 
turned  to  stare  at  the  half-seen  object  of  their  alarm. 
Rising  to  my  knee,  I  shot  the  big  bull  in  the  throat  as, 
with  head  erect,  he  gazed  in  my  direction.  Off  he  went 
with  a  rush,  the  others  bounding  and  leaping  as  they 
accompanied  him,  and  we  followed  on  the  blood  spoor. 
Bakhari  and  Gouvimali  trotted  fast  on  the  trail,  and  in 
order  to  be  fresh  for  the  shot  I  mounted  Tranquillity. 
Suddenly  out  bounced  the  wounded  bull  from  some 


270  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

bushes  close  by,  and  the  horse  nearly  had  a  fit.  I  could 
hardly  get  off  in  time  to  empty  my  magazine  at  long 
range — fortunately  with  effect.  It  was  a  magnificent 
bull  of  the  variety  called  Patterson's  eland,  with  a  fine 
head.  Few  prize  oxen  would  be  as  heavy,  and,  in  spite 
of  its  great  size,  its  finely  moulded  Hmbs  and  beautiful 
coat  gave  it  a  thoroughly  game  look. 

Oryx  were  now  what  I  especially  wished,  and  we 
devoted  all  the  following  day  to  their  pursuit.  We  saw 
three  bands,  two  of  them  accompanying  herds  of  zebra, 
after  the  manner  of  kongoni.  Both  species  were  found 
indifferently  on  the  bare,  short-grass  flats  and  among  the 
thin,  stunted  thorn-trees  which  covered  much  of  the 
plains.  After  a  careful  stalk — the  latter  part  on  all- 
fours — I  got  to  within  about  three  hundred  yards  of  a 
mixed  herd,  and  put  a  bullet  into  one  oryx  as  it  faced 
me,  and  hit  another  as  it  ran.  The  first,  from  its  posi- 
tion, I  thought  I  would  surely  kill  if  1  hit  it  at  all,  and 
both  the  wounded  beasts  were  well  behind  the  herd 
when  it  halted  a  mile  away  on  the  other  side  of  the 
plain  ;  but  as  we  approached  they  all  went  off  together, 
and  I  can  only  hope  the  two  I  hit  recovered  ;  at  any 
rate,  after  we  had  followed  them  for  miles,  the  tough 
beasts  were  still  running  as  strongly  as  ever. 

All  the  morning  I  manoeuvred  and  tramped  hard,  in 
vain.  At  noon  I  tried  a  stalk  on  a  little  band  of  six, 
who  were  standing  still,  idly  switching  their  tails,  out  in 
a  big  flat.  They  saw  me,  and  at  four  hundred  yards  I 
missed  the  shot.  By  this  time  I  felt  rather  desperate, 
and  decided  for  once  to  abandon  legitimate  proceedings 
and  act  on  the  Ciceronian  theory,  that  he  who  throws 
the  javelin  all  day  must  hit  the  mark  some  time. 
Accordingly  I  emptied  the  magazines  of  both  my  rifles 
at  the  oryx,  as  they  ran  across  my  front,  and  broke  the 


CH.  XI]  ORYX,  ELAND,  ETC.  271 

neck  of  a  fine  cow,  at  four  hundred  and  fifty  yards. 
Six  or  seven  hundred  yards  off  the  survivors  stopped, 
and  the  biggest  bull,  evidently  much  put  out,  uttered 
loud  bawling  grunts  and  drove  the  others  round  with 
his  horns.  Meanwhile  I  was  admiring  the  handsome 
dun  gray  coat  of  my  prize,  its  long  tail  and  long,  sharp, 
slender  horns,  and  the  bold  black-and-white  markings 
on  its  face.  Hardly  had  we  skinned  the  carcass  before 
the  vultures  lit  on  it ;  with  them  were  two  marabou 
storks,  one  of  which  I  shot  with  a  hard  bullet  from  the 
Springfield. 

The  oryx,  like  the  roan  and  sable,  and  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  eland,  is  a  bold  and  hard  fighter,  and 
when  cornered  will  charge  a  man  or  endeavour  to  stab 
a  lion.  If  wounded  it  must  be  approached  with  a 
certain  amount  of  caution.  The  eland,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  spite  of  its  huge  size,  is  singularly  mild  and 
inoffensive,  an  old  bull  being  as  inferior  to  an  oryx  in 
the  will  and  power  to  fight  as  it  is  in  speed  and 
endurance.  "  Antelope,"  as  I  have  said,  is  a  very  loose 
term,  meaning  simply  any  hollow-horned  ruminant  that 
isn't  an  ox,  a  sheep,  or  a  goat.  The  eland  is  one  of  the 
group  of  tragelaphs,  which  are  as  different  from  the 
true  antelopes,  such  as  the  gazelles,  as  they  are  from 
the  oxen.  One  of  its  kinsfolk  is  the  handsome  little 
bushbuck,  about  as  big  as  a  white-tail  deer — a  buck  of 
which  Kermit  had  killed  two  specimens.  The  bush- 
buck  is  a  wicked  fighter,  no  other  buck  of  its  size  being 
as  dangerous,  which  makes  the  helplessness  and  timidity 
of  its  huge  relative  all  the  more  striking. 

I  had  kept  four  Kikuyus  with  me  to  accompany  me 
on  my  hunts  and  carry  in  the  skins  and  meat.  They 
were  with  me  on  this  occasion  ;  and  it  was  amusing  to 
see    how   my   four    regular    attendants,    Bakhari    and 


272  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

Gouvimali  the  gun-bearers,  Simba  the  sais,  and  Kiboko 
the  skinner,  looked  down  on  their  wild  and  totally 
uncivilized  brethren.  They  would  not  associate  with 
the  "  shenzis,"  as  they  called  them — that  is,  savages  or 
bush  people.  But  the  "  shenzis "  always  amused  and 
interested  me,  and  this  was  especially  true  on  the  after- 
noon in  question.  Soon  after  we  had  started  camp  wards 
with  the  skin  and  meat  of  the  oryx,  we  encountered  a 
succession  of  thunderstorms.  The  rain  came  down  in 
a  deluge,  so  that  the  water  stood  ankle-deep  on  the 
flats,  the  lightning  flashed  continuously  on  every  side, 
and  the  terrific  peals  of  thunder  made  one  continuous 
roll.  At  first  it  maddened  my  horse  ;  but  the  un- 
interrupted blaze  and  roar,  just  because  uninterrupted, 
ended  by  making  him  feel  that  there  was  nothing  to 
be  done,  and  he  plodded  stolidly  forward  through  the 
driving  storm.  My  regular  attendants  accepted  it  with 
an  entire  philosophy,  which  was  finally  copied  by  the 
Kikuyus,  who  at  first  felt  frightened.  One  of  them 
had  an  old  umbrella  which  he  shared  with  a  crony. 
He  himself  was  carrying  the  marabou  stork  ;  his  crony 
had  long  strips  of  raw  oryx  meat  wound  in  a  swollen 
girdle  about  his  waist ;  neither  had  a  stitch  on  save  the 
blankets  which  were  wrapped  round  their  throats,  and 
they  clasped  each  other  in  a  tight  embrace  as  they 
walked  along  under  the  battered  old  umbrella. 

In  this  desolate  and  lonely  land  the  majesty  of  the 
storms  impressed  on  the  beholder  a  sense  of  awe  and 
solemn  exaltation.  Tossing  their  crests,  and  riven  by 
lightning,  they  gathered  in  their  wrath  from  every 
quarter  of  the  heavens,  and  darkness  was  before  and 
under  them  ;  then,  in  the  lull  of  a  moment,  they  might 
break  apart,  while  the  sun  turned  the  rain  to  silver,  and 
the  rainbows  were  set  in   the  sky ;  but   always   they 


CH.  XI]  ALONE  IN  THE  WILDERNESS         273 

gathered  again,  menacing  and  mighty — for  the  promise 
of  the  bow  was  never  kept,  and  ever  the  clouds  returned 
after  the  rain.  Once  as  I  rode  facing  Kenia  the  clouds 
tore  asunder,  to  right  and  left,  and  the  mountain  towered 
between  while  across  its  base  was  flung  a  radiant  arch. 
But  almost  at  once  the  many-coloured  glory  was 
dimmed  ;  for  in  splendour  and  terror  the  storm  strode 
in  front,  and  shrouded  all  things  from  sight  in  thunder- 
shattered  sheets  of  rain. 

These  days  alone  in  the  wilderness  went  by  very 
pleasantly,  and,  as  it  was  for  not  too  long,  I  thoroughly 
enjoyed  being  entirely  by  myself,  so  far  as  white  men 
were  concerned.  By  this  time  I  had  become  really 
attached  to  my  native  followers,  who  looked  after  my 
interest  and  comfort  in  every  way ;  and  in  return  I  kept 
them  supplied  with  plenty  of  food,  saw  that  they  were 
well  clothed,  and  forced  them  to  gather  enough  firewood 
to  keep  their  tents  dry  and  warm  at  night — for  cold, 
rainy  weather  is  always  hard  upon  them. 

Ali,  my  faithful  head  tent-boy,  and  Shemlani,  his 
assistant — poor  Bill  the  Kikuyu  had  left  because  of  an 
intricate  row  with  his  fellows — were  both,  as  they 
proudly  informed  me,  Arabs.  On  the  East  African 
coast  the  so-called  Arabs  almost  all  have  native  blood 
in  them  and  speak  Swahili — the  curious,  newly-created 
language  of  the  descendants  of  the  natives  whom  the 
Arabs  originally  enslaved,  and  who  themselves  may 
have  in  their  veins  a  little  Arab  blood  ;  in  fact,  the 
dividing  line  between  Swahili  and  Arab  becomes 
impracticable  for  an  outsider  to  draw  where,  as  is 
generally  the  case,  it  is  patent  that  the  blood  of  both 
races  is  mixed  to  a  degree  at  which  it  is  only  possible 
to  guess.  Ali  spoke  some  English  ;  and  he  and  Shem- 
lani were  devoted  and  efficient  servitors.     Bakhari,  the 

18 


274  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

gun-bearer,  was  a  Swahili,  quite  fearless  with  dangerous 
game,  rather  sullen,  and  unmoved  by  any  emotion  that 
I  could  ever  discover.  He  spoke  a  little  English,  but 
it  could  not  be  called  idiomatic.  One  day  we  saw  two 
ostriches,  a  cock  and  a  hen,  with  their  chicks,  and 
Bakhari,  with  some  excitement,  said,  "  Look,  sah ! 
ostrich  !  bull,  cow,  and  pups  !"  The  other  gun-bearer, 
Gouvimali,  in  some  ways  an  even  better  hunter,  and 
always  good-tempered,  knew  but  one  English  phrase ; 
regularly  every  afternoon  or  evening,  after  cleaning  the 
rifle  he  had  carried,  he  would  say,  as  he  left  the  tent, 
his  face  wreathed  in  smiles,  "  G-o-o-d-e-bye  !"  Gouvi- 
mali was  a  Wakamba,  as  were  Simba  and  my  other  sais, 
M'nyassa,  who  had  taken  the  place  of  Hamisi  (Hamisi 
had  broken  down  in  health,  his  legs,  as  he  assured  me, 
becoming  "  very  sick ").  The  cook,  Roberti,  was  a 
mission  boy,  a  Christian.  We  had  several  Christians 
with  the  safari,  one  being  a  headman,  and  all  did 
excellently.  I  mention  this  because  one  so  often  hears 
it  said  that  mission  boys  turn  out  worthless.  Most  of 
our  men  were  heathens ;  and  of  course  many,  both  of  the 
Christians  and  the  Mohammedans,  were  rather  thinly 
veneered  with  the  religions  they  respectively  professed. 
When  in  the  morning  we  started  on  our  hunt,  my 
gun-bearers  and  sais,  and  the  skinners,  if  any  were 
along,  walked  silently  behind  me,  on  the  lookout  for 
game.  Returning,  they  were  apt  to  get  in  front,  to 
pilot  me  back  to  camp.  If,  as  at  this  time  was  gene- 
rally the  case,  we  returned  with  our  heads  bent  to  the 
rushing  rain,  they  trudged  sturdily  ahead  in  dripping 
silence.  If  the  weather  was  clear  the  spirits  of  the 
stalwart  fellows  were  sure  to  rise  until  they  found  some 
expression.  The  Wakamba  might  break  into  song  ;  or 
X^iey  might  all  talk  together  in  Swahili,  recounting  the 


CH.  XI]  CAMP  LIFE  275 

adventures  of  the  day,  and  chaffing  one  another  with 
uproarious  laughter  about  any  small  misadventure ;  a 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  direction  of  camp  being 
always  a  subject,  first  for  earnest  discussion,  and  then 
for  much  mirth  at  the  expense  of  whosoever  had  been 
proved  to  be  mistaken. 

My  two  horses,  when  I  did  not  use  them,  grazed 
contentedly  throughout  the  day  near  the  little  thorn 
boma  which  surrounded  our  tents  ;  and  at  nightfall  the 
friendly  things  came  within  it  of  their  own  accord  to  be 
given  their  feed  of  com  and  be  put  in  their  own  tent. 
When  the  sun  was  hot  they  were  tormented  by  biting 
flies ;  but  their  work  was  easy,  and  they  were  well 
treated  and  throve.  In  the  daytime  vultures,  kites, 
and  white-necked  ravens  came  round  camp,  and  after 
nightfall  jackals  wailed  and  hyenas  uttered  their  weird 
cries  as  they  prowled  outside  the  thorn  walls.  Twice,  at 
midnight,  we  heard  the  ominous  sighing  or  moaning  of 
a  hungry  lion,  and  I  looked  to  my  rifle,  which  always 
stood,  loaded,  at  the  head  of  my  bed.  But  on  neither 
occasion  did  he  come  near  us.  Every  night  a  fire  was 
kept  burning  in  the  entrance  to  the  boma,  and  the  three 
askaris  watched  in  turn,  with  instructions  to  call  me  if 
there  was  any  need. 

I  easily  kept  the  camp  supplied  with  meat,  as  I  had 
anticipated  that  I  could  do.  My  men  feasted  on  oryx 
and  eland,  while  I  reserved  the  tongues  and  tenderloins 
for  myself.  Each  day  I  hunted  for  eight  or  ten  hours, 
something  of  interest  always  happening.  I  would  not 
shoot  at  the  gazelles ;  and  the  game  I  did  want  was  so 
shy  that  almost  all  my  shots  were  at  long  range,  and 
consequently  a  number  of  them  did  not  hit.  However, 
I  came  on  my  best  oryx  in  rather  thick  bush,  and  killed 
it  at  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  yards,  as  it  turned  with. 


276  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

a  kind  of  sneeze  of  alarm  or  curiosity,  and  stood  broad- 
side to  me,  the  sun  glinting  on  its  handsome  coat  and 
polished  black  horns.  One  of  my  Kikuyu  followers 
packed  the  skin  entire  to  camp.  I  had  more  trouble 
with  another  oryx,  wounding  it  one  evening  at  three 
hundred  and  fifty  yards,  and  next  morning  following  the 
trail  and,  after  much  hard  work  and  a  couple  of  misses, 
killing  it  with  a  shot  at  three  hundred  yards.  On 
September  2,  I  found  two  newly -born  oryx  calves. 
The  colour  of  the  oryx  made  them  less  visible  than 
hartebeest  when  a  long  way  off  on  the  dry  plains.  I 
noticed  that  whenever  we  saw  them  mixed  in  a  herd 
with  zebra,  it  was  the  zebra  that  first  struck  our  eyes. 
But  in  bright  sunlight,  in  bush,  I  also  noticed  that  the 
zebra  themselves  were  hard  to  see. 

One  afternoon,  while  skirting  the  edge  of  a  marsh 
teeming  with  waders  and  water-fowl,  I  came  across  four 
stately  Kavirondo  cranes,  specimens  of  which  bird  the 
naturalists  had  been  particularly  anxious  to  secure. 
They  were  not  very  shy  for  cranes,  but  they  would  not 
keep  still,  and  I  missed  a  shot  with  the  Springfield  as 
they  walked  along  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
ahead  of  me.  However,  they  were  unwise  enough  to 
circle  round  me  when  they  rose,  still  keeping  the  same 
distance,  and  all  the  time  uttering  their  musical  call, 
while  their  great  wings  flapped  in  measured  beats.  To 
shoot  flying  with  the  rifle,  even  at  such  large  birds  of 
such  slow  and  regular  flight,  is  never  easy,  and  they 
were  rather  far  off*;  but  with  the  last  cartridge  in  my 
magazine — the  fifth — I  brought  one  whirling  down 
through  the  air,  the  bullet  having  pierced  his  body.  It 
was  a  most  beautifiil  bird,  black,  white,  and  chestnut, 
with  an  erect  golden  crest,  and  long,  lanceolate  grey 
feathers  on  the  throat  and  breast. 


^  s 


CH.  XI]  TO  MERU  AND  KENIA  277 

There  were  waterbuck  and  impalla  in  this  swamp.  I 
tried  to  get  a  bull  of  the  former,  but  failed.  Several 
times  I  was  within  fifty  yards  of  doe  impalla  and  cow 
waterbuck,  wdth  their  young,  and  watched  them  as  they 
fed  and  rested,  quite  unconscious  of  my  presence. 
Twice  1  saw  steinbuck,  on  catching  sight  of  me,  lie 
down,  hoping  to  escape  observation.  The  red  coat  of 
the  steinbuck  is  rather  conspicuous,  much  more  so  than 
the  coat  of  the  duiker,  yet  it  often  tries  to  hide  from 
possible  foes. 

Late  in  the  afternoon  of  September  3,  Cuninghame 
and  Heller,  with  the  main  safari,  joined  me,  and  T 
greeted  them  joyfully,  while  my  men  were  equally 
pleased  to  see  their  fellows,  each  shaking  hands  with  his 
especial  friends.  Next  morning  we  started  toward 
Meru,  heading  north-east,  toward  the  foothills  of 
Kenia.  The  vegetation  changed  its  character  as  we 
rose.  By  the  stream  where  we  had  camped  grew  the 
great  thorn-trees  with  yellow-green  trunks  which  we 
had  become  accustomed  to  associate  with  the  presence 
of  herds  of  game.  Out  on  the  dry  flats  were  other 
thorns,  weazened  little  trees,  or  mere  scrawny  bushes, 
with  swellings  like  bulbs  on  the  branches  and  twigs,  and 
the  long  thorns  far  more  conspicuous  than  the  scanty 
foliage  ;  though  what  there  was  of  this  foliage,  now 
brilliant  green,  was  exquisite  in  hue  and  form,  the 
sprays  of  delicate  little  leaves  being  as  fine  as  the 
daintiest  lace.  On  the  foothills  all  these  thorn-trees 
vanished.  We  did  not  go  as  high  as  the  forest  belt 
proper  (here  naiTow,  while  above  it  the  bamboos 
covered  the  mountain  side),  but  tongues  of  juniper  forest 
stretched  down  along  the  valleys  which  we  crossed,  and 
there  were  large  patches  of  coarse  deer-fern,  while 
among   many   unknown   flowers    we    saw  blue  lupins, 


278  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

oxeye  daisies,  and  clover.  That  night  we  camped  so 
high  that  it  was  really  cold,  and  we  welcomed  the 
roaring  fires  of  juniper  logs. 

We  rose  at  sunrise.  It  was  a  glorious  morning,  clear 
and  cool,  and  as  we  sat  at  breakfast,  the  table  spread  in 
the  open  on  the  dew-drenched  grass,  we  saw  in  the 
south-east  the  peak  of  Kenia,  and  through  the  high, 
transparent  air  the  snow-fields  seemed  so  close  as  almost 
to  dazzle  our  eyes.  To  the  north  and  west  we  looked 
far  out  over  the  wide,  rolling  plains  to  a  wilderness  of 
mountain  ranges,  barren  and  jagged.  All  that  day  and 
the  next  we  journeyed  eastward,  almost  on  the  Equator. 
At  noon  the  overhead  sun  burned  with  torrid  heat ;  but 
with  the  twilight — short  compared  to  the  long  northern 
twiUghts,  but  not  nearly  as  short  as  tropical  twilights 
are  often  depicted — came  the  cold,  and  each  night  the 
frost  was  heavy.  The  country  was  untenanted  by  man. 
In  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  we  began  to  go  down- 
hill, and  hour  by  hour  the  flora  changed.  At  last  we 
came  to  a  broad  belt  of  woodland,  where  the  strange 
trees  of  many  kinds  grew  tall  and  thick.  Among  them 
were  camphor-trees,  and  trees  with  gouty  branch  tips, 
bearing  leaves  like  those  of  the  black  walnut,  and 
panicles  of  lilac  flowers,  changing  into  brown  seed 
vessels  ;  and  other  trees,  with  clusters  of  purple  flowers, 
and  the  seeds  or  nuts  enclosed  in  hard  pods  or  seed 
vessels  like  huge  sausages. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  forest  we  came  suddenly  out 
on  the  cultivated  fields  of  the  Wa-Meru,  who,  like  the 
Kikuyu,  till  the  soil ;  and  among  them,  farther  down, 
was  Meru  Boma,  its  neat,  picturesque  buildings  beauti- 
fully placed  among  green  groves  and  irrigated  fields, 
and  looking  out  from  its  cool  elevation  over  the  hot 
valleys  beneath.     It  is  one  of  the  prettiest  spots  in  East 


CH.  XI]  A  BORANI  CARAVAN  279 

Africa.  We  were  more  than  hospitably  received  by  the 
Commissioner,  Mr.  Home,  who  had  been  a  cow-puncher 
in  Wyoming  for  seven  years,  so  that  naturally  we  had 
much  in  common.  He  had  built  the  station  himself, 
and  had  tamed  the  wild  tribes  around  by  mingled  firm- 
ness and  good  treatment ;  and  he  was  a  mighty  hunter, 
and  helped  us  in  every  way. 

Here  we  met  Kermit  and  Tarlton,  and  heard  all 
about  their  hunt.  They  had  been  away  from  us  for 
three  weeks  and  a  half,  along  the  Guaso  Nyero,  and 
had  enjoyed  first-rate  luck.  Kermit  had  been  particu- 
larly interested  in  a  caravan  they  had  met,  consisting 
of  wild  spear-bearing  Borani — people  hke  Somalis — 
who  were  bringing  down  scores  of  camels  and  hundreds 
of  small  horses  to  sell  at  Nairobi.  They  had  come  from 
the  North,  near  the  outlying  Abyssinian  lands,  and  the 
caravan  was  commanded  by  an  Arab  of  stately  and 
courteous  manners.  Such  an  extensive  caravan  journey 
was  rare  in  the  old  days  before  EngUsh  rule ;  but  one 
of  the  results  of  the  "  Pax  Europaica,"  wherever  it 
obtains  in  German,  French,  or  English  Africa,  is  a  great 
increase  of  intercourse,  commercial  and  social,  among 
the  different  tribes,  even  where  widely  separated.  This 
caravan  had  been  followed  by  lions ;  and  a  day  or  two 
afterward  Kermit  and  Tarlton  ran  into  what  were  prob- 
ably these  very  lions.  There  were  eleven  of  them — a 
male  with  a  heavy  mane,  three  lionesses,  and  seven  cubs, 
some  of  them  about  half-grown.  As  Kermit  and  Tarl- 
ton galloped  after  them,  the  lion  took  the  lead,  the  cubs 
coming  in  the  middle,  while  the  three  lionesses  loped 
along  in  the  rear,  guarding  their  young.  The  lion  cared 
little  for  his  wives  and  offspring,  and  gradually  drew 
ahead  of  them,  while  the  two  horsemen,  riding  at  full 
speed,  made  a  wide  detour  round  the  others,  in  order  to 


280  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

reach  him  ;  so  that  at  last  they  got  between  him  and 
the  ten  Honesses  and  cubs,  the  big  Hon  coming  first,  the 
horsemen  next,  and  then  the  lesser  lions,  all  headed  the 
same  way.  As  the  horse-hoofs  thundered  closer,  the 
lion  turned  to  bay.  Kermit — whose  horse  had  once 
fallen  with  him  in  the  chase — and  Tarlton  leaped  off 
their  horses,  and  Kermit  hit  the  lion  with  his  first  shot, 
and,  as  it  started  to  charge,  mortally  wounded  it  with  a 
second  bullet.  It  turned  and  tried  to  reach  cover,  and 
Tarlton  stopped  it  with  a  third  shot,  for  there  was  no 
time  to  lose,  as  they  wished  to  tackle  the  other  lions. 
After  a  sharp  gallop,  they  rounded  up  the  lionesses  and 
cubs.  Kermit  killed  one  large  cub,  which  they  mistook 
for  a  lioness;  wounded  a  lioness,  which  for  the  time 
being  escaped ;  killed  another  with  a  single  bullet 
from  his  '30  to  '40  Winchester — for  the  others  he  used 
his  '405  Winchester — and  hit  the  third  as  she  crouched 
facing  him  at  two  hundred  yards.  She  at  once  came 
in  at  full  speed,  making  a  most  determined  charge. 
Kermit  and  Tarlton  were  standing  near  their  horses. 
The  lioness  came  on  with  great  bounds,  so  that 
Kermit  missed  her  twice,  but  broke  her  shoulder  high 
up  when  she  was  but  thirty  yards  off.  She  fell  on  her 
head,  and,  on  rising,  galloped,  not  at  the  men,  but  at 
the  horses,  who,  curiously  enough,  paid  no  heed  to  her. 
Tarlton  stopped  her  with  a  bullet  in  the  nick  of  time, 
just  before  she  reached  them,  and  with  another  bullet 
Kermit  killed  her.  Two  days  later  they  came  on  the 
remaining  cubs  and  the  wounded  lioness,  and  Kermit 
killed  the  latter ;  but  they  let  the  cubs  go,  feeling  it 
unsportsmanlike  to  kill  them — a  feeling  which  I  am 
by  no  means  certain  I  share,  for  lions  are  scourges  not 
only  to  both  wild  and  tame  animals,  but  to  man 
himself. 


CH.  XI]         CHEETAH  AND  SERVAL  281 

Kermit  also  rode  down  and  killed  two  cheetahs  and  a 
serval,  and  got  a  bad  tumble  while  chasing  a  jackal,  his 
horse  turning  a  complete  somersault  through  a  thorny 
bush.  This  made  seven  cheetahs  that  he  had  killed — a 
record  unequalled  for  any  other  East  African  trip  of  the 
same  length ;  and  the  finding  and  galloping  down  of 
these  cheetahs — going  at  breakneck  speed  over  any  and 
every  kind  of  ground,  and  then  shooting  them  either 
from  foot  or  horseback — made  one  of  the  noteworthy 
features  of  our  trip.  One  of  these  two  cheetahs  had 
just  killed  a  steinbuck.  The  serval  was  with  its  mate, 
and  Kermit  watched  them  for  some  time  through  his 
glasses  before  following  them.  There  was  one  curious 
feature  of  their  conduct.  One  of  them  was  playing 
about,  now  near  the  other,  now  leaving  it ;  and  near  by 
was  a  bustard,  which  it  several  times  pretended  to  stalk, 
crawling  toward  it  a  few  yards,  and  then  standing  up 
and  walking  away.  The  bustard  paid  no  heed  to  it ; 
and,  more  singular  still,  two  white-necked  ravens  lit 
close  to  it,  within  a  few  yards  on  either  side  ;  the  serval 
sitting  erect  between  them,  seemingly  quite  unconcerned 
for  a  couple  of  minutes,  and  then  strolling  off  without 
making  any  effort  to  molest  them.  I  can  give  no 
explanation  of  the  incident ;  it  illustrates  afresh  the 
need  of  ample  and  well-recorded  observations  by  trust- 
worthy field  naturalists,  who  shall  go  into  the  wilderness 
before  the  big  game,  the  big  birds,  and  the  beasts  of 
prey  vanish.  Those  pages  of  the  book  of  nature  which 
are  best  worth  reading  can  best  be  read  far  from  the 
dwellings  of  civilized  man  ;  and  for  their  full  interpreta- 
tion we  need  the  services,  not  of  one  man,  but  of  many 
men,  who,  in  addition  to  the  gift  of  accurate  observation, 
shall  if  possible  possess  the  power  fully,  accurately,  and 
with  vividness  to  write  about  what  they  have  observed. 


282  THE  GUASO  NYERO  •  [ch.  xt 

Kermit  shot  many  other  animals,  among  them  three 
fine  oryx,  one  of  which  he  rode  down  on  horseback, 
manoeuvring  so  that  at  last  it  galloped  fairly  closely 
across  his  front,  whereupon  he  leaped  off  his  horse  for 
the  shot ;  an  ardwolf  (a  miniature  hyena  with  very  weak 
teeth),  which  bolted  from  its  hole  at  his  approach  ; 
gerunuk,  small  antelope  with  necks  relatively  as  long 
as  giraffes',  which  are  exceedingly  shy  and  difficult  to 
obtain  ;  and  the  Grevy's  zebra,  as  big  as  a  small  horse. 
Most  of  his  hunting  was  done  alone,  either  on  foot  or 
on  horseback  ;  on  a  long  run  or  all-day  tramp  no  other 
member  of  our  outfit,  black  or  white,  could  quite  keep 
up  with  him.  He  and  Tarlton  found  where  a  leopard 
had  killed  and  partly  eaten  a  nearly  full-grown  individual 
of  this  big  zebra.  He  also  shot  a  twelve-foot  crocodile. 
The  ugly,  formidable  brute  had  in  its  belly  sticks, 
stones,  the  claws  of  a  cheetah,  the  hoofs  of  an  impalla, 
and  the  big  bones  of  an  eland,  together  with  the  shell- 
plates  of  one  of  the  large  river-turtles  ;  evidently  it  took 
toll  indifferently  from  among  its  fellow-denizens  of  the 
river,  and  from  among  the  creatures  that  came  to  drink, 
whether  beasts  of  pasture  or  the  flesh-eaters  that  preyed 
upon  them. 

He  also  shot  three  buffalo  bulls,  Tarlton  helping  him 
to  finish  them  off,  for  they  are  tough  animals,  tenacious 
of  life  and  among  the  most  dangerous  of  African  game. 
One  turned  to  charge,  but  was  disabled  by  the  bullets 
of  both  of  them  before  he  could  come  on.  Tarlton, 
whose  experience  in  the  hunting  field  against  dangerous 
game  had  been  large,  always  maintained  that,  although 
lion-hunting  was  the  most  dangerous  sport,  because  a 
hunted  lion  was  far  more  apt  to  charge  than  any  other 
animal,  yet  when  a  buffalo  bull  did  charge  he  was  more 
dangerous  than  a  lion,  because  harder  to  kill  or  turn. 


CH.  xij         THE  BUFFALO  PLAGUE  283 

Where  zebra  and  other  game  are  abundant,  as  on  the 
Athi  plains,  hons  do  not  meddle  with  such  formidable 
quarry  as  buffalo ;  on  Heatley's  farm  lions  sometimes 
made  their  lairs  in  the  same  papyrus  swamp  with  the 
buffalo,  but  hardly  ever  molested  them.  In  many 
places,  however,  the  lion  preys  largely,  and  in  some 
places  chiefly,  on  the  buffalo.  The  hunters  of  wide 
experience  with  whom  I  conversed,  men  like  Tarlton, 
Cuninghame,  and  Home,  were  unanimous  in  stating 
that  where  a  single  lion  killed  a  buffalo  they  had  always 
found  that  the  buffalo  was  a  cow  or  immature  bull,  and 
that  whenever  they  had  found  a  full-grown  bull  thus 
killed,  several  lions  had  been  engaged  in  the  job. 
Home  had  once  found  the  carcass  of  a  big  bull  which 
had  been  killed  and  eaten  by  lions,  and  near  by  lay  a 
dead  honess  with  a  great  rip  in  her  side,  made  by  the 
buffalo's  horn  in  the  fight  in  which  he  succumbed. 
Even  a  buffalo  cow,  if  fairly  pitted  against. a  single  lion, 
would  probably  stand  an  even  chance,  but  of  course 
the  fight  never  is  fair,  the  lion's  aim  being  to  take  his 
prey  unawares  and  get  a  death  grip  at  the  outset,  and 
then,  unless  his  hold  is  broken,  he  cannot  be  seriously 
injured. 

Twenty  years  ago  the  African  buffalo  were  smitten 
with  one  of  those  overwhelming  disasters  which  are  ever 
occurring  and  recurring  in  the  animal  world.  Africa  is 
not  only  the  land,  beyond  all  others,  subject  to  odious 
and  terrible  insect  plagues  of  every  conceivable  kind, 
but  is  also  peculiarly  liable  to  cattle  murrains.  About 
the  year  1889,  or  shortly  before,  a  virulent  form  of 
rinderpest  started  among  the  domestic  cattle  and  wild 
buffalo  almost  at  the  northern  border  of  the  buffalo's 
range,  and  within  the  next  few  years  worked  gradually 
southward  to  beyond  the  Zambesi.     It  wrought  dreadful 


284  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

havoc  among  the  cattle,  and  in  consequence  decimated 
by  starvation  many  of  the  cattle-owning  tribes  ;  it  killed 
many  of  the  large  bovine  antelopes,  and  it  wellnigh 
exterminated  the  buffalo.  In  many  places  the  buffalo 
herds  were  absolutely  wiped  out,  the  species  being 
utterly  destroyed  throughout  great  tracts  of  territory, 
notably  in  East  Africa ;  in  other  places  the  few 
survivors  did  not  represent  the  hundredth  part  of  those 
that  had  died.  For  years  the  East  African  buffalo 
ceased  to  exist  as  a  beast  of  the  chase.  But  all  the 
time  it  was  slowly  regaining  the  lost  ground,  and  during 
the  last  decade  its  increase  has  been  rapid.  Unlike  the 
slow-breeding  elephant  and  rhinoceros,  buffalo  multiply 
apace,  like  domestic  cattle,  and  in  many  places  the 
herds  have  now  become  too  numerous.  Their  rapid 
recovery  from  a  calamity  so  terrific  is  interesting  and 
instructive.^  Doubtless  for  many  years  after  man,  in 
recognizably  human  form,  appeared  on  this  planet,  he 
played  but  a  small  part  in  the  destruction  of  big 
animals,  compared  to  plague,  to  insect  pests,  and 
microbes,  to  drought,  flood,  earth  upheaval,  and  change 
of  temperature.  But  during  the  geological  moment 
covering  the  few  thousand  years  of  recorded  history 
man  has  been  not  merely  the  chief,  but  practically  the 
sole,  factor  in  the  extermination  of  big  mammals  and 
birds. 

At  and  near  Meru  Boma  we  spent  a  fortnight  hunt- 
ing elephant  and  rhinoceros,  as  described  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter.  While  camped  by  the  boma,  white- 
necked  vulturine  ravens  and  black-and-white  crows 
came  familiarly  around  the  tents.     A  young  eland  bull, 

1  On  our  trip  along  the  Guaso  Nyero  we  heard  that  there  had 
been  a  fresh  outbreak  of  rinderpest  among  the  bufTalo,  I  hope  it 
will  not  prove  such  a  hideous  disaster. 


CH.  XI]         MAN-EATING  LEOPARDS  285 

quite  as  tame  as  a  domestic  cow,  was  picketed,  now 
here,  now  there,  about  us.  Home  was  breaking  it  to 
drive  in  a  cart. 

During  our  stay  another  District  Commissioner, 
Mr.  Piggott,  came  over  on  a  short  visit.  It  was  he  who, 
the  preceding  year,  while  at  Neri,  had  been  obhged  to 
undertake  the  crusade  against  the  rhinos,  because,  quite 
unprovoked,  they  had  killed  various  natives.  He  told 
us  that  at  the  same  time  a  man-eating  leopard  made  its 
appearance,  and  killed  seven  children.  It  did  not  attack 
at  night,  but  in  the  daytime,  its  victims  being  the  little 
boys  who  were  watching  the  flocks  of  goats  ;  sometimes 
it  took  a  boy  and  sometimes  a  goat.  Two  old  men 
killed  it  with  spears  on  the  occasion  of  its  taking  the  last 
victim.  It  was  a  big  male,  very  old,  much  emaciated, 
and  the  teeth  worn  to  stumps.  Home  told  us  that  a 
month  or  two  before  our  arrival  at  Meru  a  leopard  had 
begun  a  career  of  woman-killing.  It  killed  one  woman 
by  a  bite  in  the  throat,  and  ate  the  body.  It  sprang  on 
and  badly  wounded  another,  but  was  driven  off  in  time 
to  save  her  life.  This  was  probably  the  leopard  Heller 
trapped  and  shot,  in  the  very  locality  where  it  had  com- 
mitted its  ravages.  It  was  an  old  male,  but  very  thin, 
with  worn  teeth.  In  these  cases  the  reason  for  the 
beast's  action  was  plain  :  in  each  instance  a  big,  savage 
male  had  found  his  powers  failing,  and  had  been  driven 
to  prey  on  the  females  and  young  of  the  most  helpless  of 
animals,  man.  But  another  attack  of  which  Piggott 
told  us  was  apparently  due  to  the  queer  individual 
freakishness  always  to  be  taken  into  account  in  dealing 
with  wild  beasts.  A  Masai  chief,  with  two  or  three 
followers,  was  sitting  eating  under  a  bush,  when,  abso- 
lutely without  warning,  a  leopard  sprang  on  him,  clawed 
him  on  the  head  and  hand  without  biting  him,  and  as 


286  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

instantly  disappeared.    Piggott  attended  to  the  wounded 
man. 

In  riding  in  the  neighbourhood,  through  the  tall  dry 
grass,  which  would  often  rattle  in  the  wind,  I  was 
amused  to  find  that,  if  I  suddenly  heard  the  sound,  I 
was  apt  to  stand  alertly  on  guard,  quite  unconsciously 
and  instinctively,  because  it  suggested  the  presence  of  a 
rattlesnake.  During  the  years  I  lived  on  a  ranch  in  the 
West  I  was  always  hearing  and  killing  rattlesnakes,  and 
although  I  knew  well  that  no  African  snake  carries  a 
rattle,  my  subconscious  senses  always  threw  me  to  atten- 
tion if  there  was  a  sou/id  resembling  that  made  by  a 
rattler.  Tarlton,  by  the  way,  told  me  an  interesting 
anecdote  of  a  white-tailed  mongoose  and  a  snake.  The 
mongoose  was  an  inmate  of  the  house  where  he  dwelt 
with  his  brother,  and  was  quite  tame.  One  day  they 
brought  in  a  rather  small  pufF-adder,  less  than  two  feet 
long,  put  it  on  the  floor,  and  showed  it  to  the  mongoose. 
Instantly  the  latter  sprang  toward  the  snake,  every  hair 
in  its  body  and  tail  on  end,  and  halted  five  feet  away, 
while  the  snake  lay  in  curves,  like  the  thong  of  a  whip, 
its  head  turned  toward  the  mongoose.  Both  were 
motionless  for  a  moment.  Then  suddenly  the  mon- 
goose seemed  to  lose  all  its  excitement ;  its  hair 
smoothed  down ;  and  it  trotted  quietly  up  to  the 
snake,  seized  it  by  the  middle  of  the  back — it  always 
devoured  its  food  with  savage  voracity — and  settled 
comfortably  down  to  its  meal.  Like  lightning  the 
snake's  head  whipped  round ;  it  drove  its  fangs  deep 
into  the  snout  or  lip  of  the  mongoose,  hung  on  for  a 
moment,  and  then  repeated  the  blow.  The  mongoose 
paid  not  the  least  attention,  but  went  on  munching  the 
snake's  body,  severed  its  backbone  at  once,  and  then  ate 
it  all  up,  head,  fangs,  poison,  and  everything,  and  it 


CH.  XI]  THE  GAIT  OF  ELANDS  287 

never  showed  a  sign  of  having  received  any  damage  in 
the  encounter.  I  had  always  understood  that  the  mon- 
goose owed  its  safety  to  its  agiHty  in  avoiding  the 
snake's  stroke,  and  I  can  offer  no  explanation  of  this 
particular  incident. 

There  were  eland  on  (he  high  downs  not  far  from 
Meru,  apparently  as  much  at  home  in  the  wet,  cold 
climate  as  on  the  hot  plains.  Their  favourite  gait  is  the 
trot.  An  elephant  moves  at  a  walk,  or  rather  rack  ;  a 
giraffe  has  a  very  peculiar  leisurely-looking  gallop,  both 
hind-legs  coming  forward  nearly  at  the  same  time  out- 
side the  fore-legs  ;  rhino  and .  buffalo  trot  and  run. 
Eland,  when  alarmed,  bound  with  astonishing  agility 
for  such  large  beasts — a  trait  not  shown  by  other 
large  antelope,  like  oryx — and  then  gallop  for  a  short 
distance ;  but  the  big  bulls  speedily  begin  to  trot,  and 
the  cows  and  younger  bulls  gradually  also  drop  back 
into  the  trot.  In  fact,  their  gaits  are  in  essence  those 
of  the  wapiti,  which  also  prefer  the  trot,  although 
wapiti  never  make  the  bounds  that  eland  do  at  the 
start.  The  moose,  however,  is  more  essentially  a  trotter 
than  either  eland  or  wapiti.  A  very  old  and  heavy 
moose  never,  when  at  speed,  goes  at  any  other  gait  than 
a  trot,  except  that  under  the  pressure  of  great  and 
sudden  danger  it  may,  perhaps,  make  a  few  bounds.^ 

While  at  Meru  Boma  I  received  a  cable,  forwarded 

^  A  perfectly  trustworthy  Maine  hunter  informed  me  that  in  the 
spring  he  had  once  seen  in  the  snow  the  marks  where  a  bear  had 
sprung  at  two  big  moose,  and  they  had  bounded  for  several  rods 
before  settling  into  the  tremendous  trot  which  is  their  normal  gait 
when  startled.  I  have  myself  seen  signs  that  showed  where  a  young 
moose  had  galloped  for  some  rods  under  similar  circumstances; 
and  I  have  seen  big  moose  calves  or  half-grown  moose  in  captivity 
gallop  a  few  yards  in  play,  although  rarely.  But  the  normal,  and 
under  ordiqftry  circumstances  the  only,  gait  of  the  moose  is  the 
trot. 


288  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

by  native  runners,  telling  me  of  Peary's  wonderful  feat 
in  reaching  the  North  Pole.  Of  course,  we  were  all 
overjoyed  ;  and,  in  particular,  we  Americans  could  not 
but  feel  a  special  pride  in  the  fact  that  it  was  a  fellow- 
countryman  who  had  performed  the  great  and  note- 
worthy achievement.  A  little  more  than  a  year  had 
passed  since  I  said  good-bye  to  Peary  as  he  started  on 
his  Arctic  quest.  After  leaving  New  York  in  the 
Roosevelt,  he  had  put  into  Oyster  Bay  to  see  us,  and 
we  had  gone  aboard  the  Roosevelt,  had  examined  with 
keen  interest  how  she  was  fitted  for  the  boreal  seas  and 
the  boreal  winter,  and  had  then  waved  farewell  to  the 
tall,  gaunt  explorer  as  he  stood  looking  toward  us  over 
the  side  of  the  stout  little  ship.^ 

On  September  21  Kermit  and  Tarlton  started  south- 
west toward  Lake  Hannington,  and  Cuninghame  and  I 
north  toward  the  Guaso  Nyero.  Heller  was  under  the 
weather,  and  we  left  him  to  spend  a  few  days  at  Meru 
Boma,  and  then  to  take  in  the  elephant  skins  and  other 
museum  specimens  to  Nairobi. 

As  Cuninghame  and  I  were  to  be  nearly  four  weeks 
in  a  country  with  no  food  supphes,  we  took  a  small 
donkey  safari  to  carry  the  extra  food  for  our  porters, 
for  in  these  remote  places  the  difficulty  of  taking  in 
many  hundred  pounds  of  salt,  as  well  as  skin  tents,  and 
the  difficulty  of  bringing  out  the  skeletons  and  skins  of 
the  big  animals  collected,  make  such  an  expedition  as 
ours,  undertaken  for  scientific  purposes,  far  more  cum- 
bersome and  unwieldy  than  a  mere  hunting  trip,  or 
even  than  a  voyage  of  exploration,  and  treble  the 
labour. 

^  When  I  reached  Neri  I  received  from  Peary  the  following 
cable :  "  Your  farewell  was  a  royal  mascot.  The  Pole  is  ours, — • 
Peary." 


CH.  XI]     IN  THE  HOT  COUNTRY  AGAIN     289 

A  long  day's  march  brought  us  down  to  the  hot 
country.  That  evening  we  pitched  our  tents  by  a 
rapid  brook  bordered  by  palms,  whose  long,  stiff  fronds 
rustled  ceaselessly  in  the  wind.  Monkeys  swung  in  the 
tree-tops.  On  the  march  I  shot  a  Kavirondo  crane  on 
the  wing  with  the  little  Springfield,  almost  exactly 
repeating  my  experience  with  the  other  crane  which  I 
had  shot  three  weeks  before,  except  that  on  this  occasion 
I  brought  down  the  bird  with  my  third  bullet,  and  then 
wasted  the  last  two  cartridges  in  the  magazine  at  his 
companions.  At  dusk  the  donkeys  were  driven  to  a 
fire  within  the  camp,  and  they  stood  patiently  round  it 
in  a  circle  throughout  the  night,  safe  from  lions  and 
hyenas. 

Next  day's  march  brought  us  to  another  small 
tributary  of  the  Guaso  Nyero,  a  little  stream  twisting 
rapidly  through  the  plain  between  sheer  banks.  Here 
and  there  it  was  edged  with  palms  and  beds  of  bul- 
rushes. We  pitched  the  tents  close  to  half  a  dozen 
flat- topped  thorn-trees.  We  spent  several  days  at  this 
camp.  Many  kites  came  around  the  tents,  but  neither 
vultures  nor  ravens.  The  country  was  a  vast  plain 
bounded  on  almost  every  hand  by  chains  of  far-off 
mountains.  In  the  south-west,  just  beyond  the  Equator, 
the  snows  of  Kenia  lifted  toward  the  sky.  To  the 
north  the  barren  ranges  were  grim  vnth  the  grimness  of 
the  desert.  The  flats  were  covered  with  pale,  bleached 
grass  which  waved  all  day  long  in  the  wind  ;  for  though 
there  were  sometimes  calms,  or  changes  in  the  wind,  on 
most  of  the  days  we  were  out  it  never  ceased  blowing 
from  some  point  in  the  south.  In  places  the  parched 
soil  was  crumbling  and  rotten ;  in  other  places  it  was 
thickly  strewn  with  volcanic  stones.  There  were  but 
few  tracts  over  which  a  horse  could  gallop  at  speed, 

19 


290  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

although  neither  the  rocks  nor  the  rotten  soil  seemed 
to  hamper  the  movements  of  the  game.  Here  and 
there  were  treeless  stretches.  Elsewhere  there  were 
occasional  palms,  and  trees  thirty  or  forty  feet  high, 
seemingly  cactus  or  aloes,  which  looked  even  more  like 
candelabra  than  the  euphorbia  which  is  thus  named ; 
and  a  scattered  growth  of  thorn-trees  and  bushes.  The 
thorn-trees  were  of  many  kinds.  One  bore  only  a  few 
leathery  leaves,  the  place  of  foliage  being  taken  by  the 
mass  of  poisonous-looking,  fleshy  spines  which,  together 
with  the  ends  of  the  branches,  were  bright  green.  The 
camel-thorn  was  completely  armed  with  little,  sharply 
hooked  thorns  which  tore  whatever  they  touched, 
whether  flesh  or  clothes.  Then  there  were  the  mimosas, 
with  long,  straight  thorn  spikes  ;  they  are  so  plentiful 
in  certain  places  along  the  Guaso  Nyero  that  almost  all 
the  lions  have  festering  sores  in  their  paws  because  of 
the  spikes  that  have  broken  off*  in  them.  In  these 
thorn-trees  the  weaver  birds  had  built  multitudes  of 
their  straw  nests,  each  with  its  bottle-shaped  mouth 
towards  the  north,  away  from  the  direction  of  the 
prevaihng  wind. 

Each  morning  we  were  up  at  dawn,  and  saw  the 
heavens  redden  and  the  sun  flame  over  the  rim  of  the 
world.  All  day  long  we  rode  and  walked  across  the 
endless  flats,  save  that  at  noon,  when  the  sky  was  like 
molten  brass,  we  might  rest  under  the  thin  half-shade 
of  some  thorn-tree.  As  the  shadows  lengthened  and 
the  harsh,  pitiless  glare  softened,  we  might  turn  camp- 
ward  ;  or  we  might  hunt  until  the  sun  went  down,  and 
the  mountains  in  the  far-off"  west,  and  the  sky  above 
them,  grew  faint  and  dim  with  the  hues  of  fairyland. 
Then  we  would  ride  back  through  the  soft,  warm 
beauty  of  the  tropic  night,  the  stars  blazing  overhead 


CH.  XI]  SPECIES  OF  GAZELLE  291 

and  the  silver  moonlight  flooding  the  reaches  of  dry 
grass  ;  it  was  so  bright  that  our  shadows  were  almost 
as  black  and  clear-cut  as  in  the  day.  On  reaching 
camp  I  would  take  a  cup  of  tea  with  crackers  or  ginger- 
snaps,  and  after  a  hot  bath  and  a  shave  I  was  always 
eager  for  dinner. 

Scattered  over  these  flats  were  herds  of  zebra,  oryx, 
and  gazelle.  The  gazelle,  the  most  plentiful  and  much 
the  tamest  of  the  game,  were  the  northern  form  of  the 
Grant's  gazelle,  with  straighter  horns  which  represented 
the  opposite  extreme  when  compared  with  the  horns  of 
the  Roberts'  type  which  we  got  on  the  Sotik.  They 
seemed  to  me  somewhat  less  in  size  than  the  big  gazelle 
of  the  Kapiti  plains.  One  of  the  bucks  I  shot,  an 
adult  of  average  size  (I  was  not  able  to  weigh  my 
biggest  one),  weighed  one  hundred  and  fifteen  pounds  ; 
a  very  big  true  Grant's  buck  which  I  shot  on  the  Kapiti 
plains  weighed  one  hundred  and  seventy-one  pounds. 
Doubtless  there  is  complete  intergradation,  but  the 
Guaso  Nyero  form  seemed  sUmmer  and  hghter,  and  in 
some  respects  seemed  to  tend  toward  the  Somaliland 
gazelles.  I  marked  no  difference  in  the  habits,  except 
that  these  northern  gazelle  switched  their  tails  more 
jerkily,  more  like  tommies,  than  was  customary  with 
the  ti-ue  Grant's  gazelles.  But  the  difference  may  have 
been  in  my  observation.  At  any  rate,  the  gazelles  in 
this  neighbourhood,  like  those  elsewhere,  went  in  small 
parties,  or  herds  of  thirty  or  forty  individuals,  on  the 
open  plains  or  where  there  were  a  few  scattered  bushes, 
and  behaved  like  those  in  the  Sotik,  or  on  the  Athi 
plains.  A  near  kinsman  of  the  gazelle,  the  gerunuk, 
a  curious  creature  with  a  very  long  neck,  which  the 
Swahilis  call  '*  little  giraffe,"  was  scattered  singly  or  in 
small  parties  through  the  brush,  and  was  as  wild  and 


292  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

wary  as  the  common  gazelle  was  tame.     It  seemed  to 
prefer  browsing,  while  the  common  gazelle  grazes. 

The  handsome  oryx,  with  their  long  horns  carried  by 
both  sexes,  and  their  colouring  of  black,  white,  and  dun 
grey,  came  next  to  the  gazelle  in  point  of  numbers. 
They  were  generally  found  in  herds  of  from  half  a  dozen 
to  fifty  individuals,  often  mixed  with  zebra  herds.  There 
were  also  solitary  bulls,  probably  turned  out  of  the  herds 
by  more  vigorous  rivals,  and  often  one  of  these  would 
be  found  with  a  herd  of  zebras,  more  merciful  to  it  than 
its  own  kinsfolk.  All  this  game  of  the  plains  is  highly 
gregarious  in  habit,  and  the  species  associate  freely  with 
one  another.  The  oryx  cows  were  now  generally  accom- 
panied by  very  young  calves,  for,  unlike  what  we  found 
to  be  the  case  with  the  hartebeest  on  the  Athi,  the  oryx 
on  the  Guaso  Nyero  seem  to  have  a  definite  calving- 
time — September.^  I  shot  only  bulls  (there  was  no 
meat,  either  for  the  porters  or  ourselves,  except  what 
I  got  with  the  rifle),  and  they  were  so  wary  that  almost 
all  those  I  killed  were  shot  at  ranges  between  three 
hundred  and  five  hundred  yards  ;  and  at  such  ranges 
I  need  hardly  say  that  I  did  a  good  deal  of  missing. 
One  wounded  bull  which,  the  ground  being  favourable, 
I  galloped  down,  turned  to  bay  and  threatened  to 
charge  the  horse.  We  weighed  one  bull ;  it  tipped  the 
scales  at  four  hundred  pounds.  The  lion  kills  we  found 
in  this  neighbourhood  were  all  oryx  and  zebra  ;  and 
evidently  the  attack  was  made  in  such  fashion  that  the 
oryx  had  no  more  chance  to  fight  than  the  zebra. 

^  Of  course  this  represents  only  one  man''s  experience.  I  wish 
there  were  many  such  observations.  On  the  Athi  in  May  I  found 
new-born  wildebeest  and  hartebeest  calves,  and  others  several 
months  old.  In  June  in  the  Sotik  I  saw  new-born  eland  calves, 
and  topi  calves  several  months  old.  In  September  on  the  Guaso 
Nyero  all  the  oryx  calves  were  new-born.  The  zebra  foals  were 
also  very  young. 


CH.  XI]        ZEBRAS,  KANGANIS,  ETC.  293 

The    zebra   were   of    both    species — the    smaller   or 
Burchell's,    and    the    Grevy's,    which   the   porters   call 
kangani.     Each   species  went   in   herds  by  itself,  and 
almost  as  frequently  we  found  them  in  mixed  herds 
containing   both  species.     But   they  never  interbreed, 
and  associate  merely  as  each  does  with  the  oryx.     The 
kangani  is  a  fine  beast,  much  bigger  than  its  kinsman ; 
it  is  as  large  as  a  polo  pony.     It  is  less  noisy  than  the 
common  zebra,  the  "  bonte  quagga  "  of  the  Boers,  and 
its  cry  is  totally  different.     Its  gaits  are  a  free,  slashing 
trot  and  gallop.     When  it  stands  facing  one,  the  huge 
fringed  ears  make  it  instantly  recognizable.    The  stripes 
are  much  narrower  and  more  numerous  than  those  on 
the  small  zebra,  and  in  consequence  cease  to  be  distin- 
guishable at  a  shorter  distance  ;  the  animal  then  looks 
grey,  like  a  wild  ass.    When  the  two  zebras  are  together 
the  colouring  of  the  smaller  kind  is  more  conspicuous. 
In  scanning  a  herd  with  the  glasses  we  often  failed  to 
make  out  the  species  until  we  could  catch  the  broad 
black-and-white  stripes  on  the  rump  of  the  common 
"  bonte  quagga."     There  were  many  young  foals  with 
the  kangani ;    I    happened   not   to   see   any   with   the 
Burchell's.     I  found  the  kangani  even  more  wary  and 
more  difficult  to  shoot  than  the  oryx.     The  first  one 
I  killed  was  shot  at  a  range  of  four  hundred  yards  ;  the 
next  I  wounded  at  that  distance,  and  had  to  ride  it 
down,  at  the  cost  of  a  hard  gallop  over  very  bad  country 
and  getting  torn  by  the  wait-a-bit  thorns. 

There  were  a  number  of  rhinos  on  the  plains,  dull  of 
wit  and  senses,  as  usual.  Three  times  we  saw  cows 
with  calves  trotting  at  their  heels.  Once,  while  my  men 
were  skinning  an  oryx,  I  spied  a  rhino  less  than  half  a 
mile  off.  Mounting  my  horse,  I  cantered  down,  and 
examined  it  within  a  hundred  yards.     It  was  an  old 


294  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

bull  with  worn  horns,  and  never  saw  me.  On  another 
occasion,  while  we  were  skinning  a  big  zebra,  there  were 
three  rhinoceroses,  all  in  different  places,  in  sight  at  the 
same  time. 

There  were  also  ostriches.  I  saw  a  party  of  cocks, 
with  wings  spread  and  necks  curved  backward,  strutting 
and  dancing.  Their  mincing,  springy  run  is  far  faster 
than  it  seems  when  the  bird  is  near  by.  The  neck  is 
held  back  in  running,  and  when  at  speed  the  stride  is 
twenty-one  feet.  No  game  is  more  wary  or  more  diffi- 
cult to  approach.  I  killed  both  a  cock  and  a  hen,  which 
I  found  the  naturalists  valued  even  more  than  a  cock. 
We  got  them  by  stumbling  on  the  nest,  which  con- 
tained eleven  huge  eggs,  and  was  merely  a  bare  spot  in 
the  sand,  surrounded  by  grass  two  feet  high.  The  bird 
lay  crouched,  with  the  neck  flat  on  the  ground.  When 
we  accidentally  came  across  the  nest,  the  cock  was  on 
it,  and  I  failed  to  get  him  as  he  ran.  The  next  day  we 
returned,  and  dismounted  before  we  reached  the  near 
neighbourhood  of  the  nest.  Then  I  advanced  cautiously, 
my  rifle  at  the  ready.  It  seemed  impossible  that  so 
huge  a  bird  could  lie  hidden  in  such  scanty  cover  ;  but 
not  a  sign  did  we  see  until,  when  we  were  sixty  yards 
off",  the  hen,  which  this  time  was  on  the  nest,  rose,  and 
1  killed  her  at  sixty  yards.  Even  this  did  not  make 
the  cock  desert  the  nest ;  and  on  a  subsequent  day  I 
returned,  and  after  missing  him  badly,  I  killed  him  at 
eighty-five  yards ;  and  glad  I  was  to  see  the  huge  black- 
and-white  bird  tumble  in  the  dust.  He  weighed  two 
hundred  and  sixty-three  pounds  and  was  in  fine  plumage. 
The  hen  weighed  two  hundred  and  forty  pounds.  Her 
stomach  and  gizzard,  in  addition  to  small,  white  quartz 
pebbles,  contained  a  mass  of  vegetable  substance  ;  the 
bright  green  leaves  and  twig  tips  of  a  shrub,  a  kind  of 


CH.  XI]  OSTRICHES  295 

rush  with  jointed  stem  and  tuberous  root,  bean-pods 
from  different  kinds  of  thorn-trees,  and  the  leaves  and 
especially  the  seed-vessels  of  a  bush,  the  seed-vessels 
being  enclosed  in  cases  or  pods  so  thorny  that  they 
pinched  our  fingers,  and  made  us  wonder  at  the  bird's 
palate.  Cock  and  hen  brood  the  eggs  alternately.  We 
found  the  heart  and  liver  of  the  ostrich  excellent  eating ; 
the  eggs  were  very  good  also.  As  the  cock  died,  it 
uttered  a  kind  of  loud,  long-drawn  grunting  boom  that 
was  almost  a  roar.  Its  beautiful  white  wing  plumes  were 
almost  unworn.  A  full-grown  wild  ostrich  is  too  wary 
to  fall  into  the  clutches  of  a  lion  or  leopard,  save  by 
accident,  and  it  will  master  any  of  the  lesser  carnivora  ; 
but  the  chicks  are  preyed  on  by  jackals  and  wild  cats, 
and  of  course  by  the  larger  beasts  of  prey  also  ;  and  the 
eggs  are  eagerly  sought  by  furred  and  feathered  foes 
ahke.  Seemingly  trustworthy  settlers  have  assured  me 
that  vultures  break  the  tough  shells  with  stones.  The 
cock  'and  hen  will  try  to  draw  their  more  formidable 
foes  away  from  the  nest  or  the  chicks  by  lingering  so 
near  as  to  lure  them  in  pursuit,  and  anything  up  to  the 
size  of  a  hyena  they  will  attack  and  drive  away,  or  even 
kill.  The  terrific  downward  stroke  of  an  ostrich's  leg  is 
as  dangerous  as  the  kick  of  a  horse.  The  thump  will 
break  a  rib  or  backbone  of  any  ordinary  animal,  and  in 
addition  to  the  force  of  the  blow  itself,  the  big  nails 
may  make  a  ghastly  rip.  Both  cock  and  hen  lead  about 
the  young  brood  and  care  for  it.  The  two  ostriches  I 
shot  were  swarming  with  active  parasitic  flies,  a  httle 
like  those  that  were  on  the  lions  I  shot  in  the  Sotik. 
Later  the  porters  brought  us  in  several  ostrich  chicks. 
They  also  brought  two  genet  kittens,  which  I  tried  to 
raise,  but  failed.  They  were  much  like  ordinary  kittens, 
with  larger  ears,  sharper  noses,  and  longer  tails,  and 


296  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

loved  to  perch  on  my  shoulder  or  sit  on  my  lap  while  I 
stroked  them.  They  made  dear  little  pets,  and  I  was 
very  sorry  when  they  died. 

On  the  day  that  I  shot  the  cock  ostrich  I  also  shot  a 
giraffe.  The  country  in  which  we  were  hunting  marks 
the  southern  limit  of  the  "  reticulated  "  giraffe,  a  form 
or  species  entirely  distinct  from  the  giraffe  w^e  had 
already  obtained  in  the  country  south  of  Kenia.  The 
southern  giraffe  is  blotched  with  dark  on  a  light  ground, 
whereas  this  northern  or  north-eastern  form  is  of  a 
uniform  dark  colour  on  the  back  and  sides,  with  a  net- 
work or  reticulation  of  white  lines  placed  in  a  large 
pattern  on  this  dark  background.  The  naturalists  were 
very  anxious  to  obtain  a  specimen  of  this  form  from  its 
southern  limit  of  distribution,  to  see  if  there  was  any 
intergradation  with  the  southern  form,  of  which  we  had 
already  shot  specimens  near  its  northern,  or  at  least 
north-eastern,  limit.     The  distinction  proved  sharp. 

On  the  day  in  question  we  breakfasted  at  six  in  the 
morning,  and  were  off  immediately  afterwards  ;  and  we 
did  not  eat  anything  again  until  supper  at  quarter  to 
ten  in  the  evening.  In  a  hot  climate  a  hunter  does  not 
need  lunch  ;  and  though  in  a  cold  climate  a  simple 
lunch  is  permissible,  anything  like  an  elaborate  or 
luxurious  lunch  is  utterly  out  of  place  if  the  man  is 
more  than  a  parlour  or  drawing-room  sportsman.  We 
saw  no  sign  of  giraffe  until  late  in  the  afternoon.  Hour 
after  hour  we  plodded  across  the  plain,  now  walking, 
now  riding,  in  the  burning  heat.  The  withered  grass 
was  as  dry  as  a  bone,  for  the  country  had  been  many 
months  without  rain  ;  yet  the  oryx,  zebra,  and  gazelle 
evidently  throve  on  the  harsh  pasturage.  There  were 
mnumerable  game  trails  leading  hither  and  thither,  and, 
after  the  fashion  of  game  trails,  usually  fading  out  after 


The  old  bull  Athi  giraffe 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


The  reticulated  giraffe 
From  a  photograph  by  Tluodore  Roosevelt 


CH.  XI]  GIRAFFES  297 

a  few  hundred  yards.  But  there  were  certain  trails 
which  did  not  fade  out.  These  were  the  ones  which 
led  to  water.  One  such  we  followed.  It  led  across 
stretches  of  grassland,  through  thin  bush,  thorny  and 
almost  leafless,  over  tracts  of  rotten  soil,  cracked  and 
crumbling,  and  over  other  tracts  where  the  unshod 
horses  picked  their  way  gingerly  among  the  masses  of 
sharp-edged  volcanic  stones.  Other  trails  joined  in, 
and  it  grew  more  deeply  marked.  At  last  it  led  to  a 
bend  in  a  little  river,  where  flat  shelves  of  limestone 
bordered  a  kind  of  pool  in  the  current  where  there  were 
beds  of  green  rushes  and  a  fringe  of  trees  and  thorn 
thickets.  This  was  evidently  a  favourite  drinking- 
place.  Many  trails  converged  toward  it,  and  for  a  long 
distance  round  the  ground  was  worn  completely  bare 
by  the  hoofs  of  the  countless  herds  of  thirsty  game  that 
had  travelled  thither  from  time  immemorial.  Sleek, 
handsome,  long-horned  oryx,  with  switching  tails,  were 
loitering  in  the  vicinity ;  and  at  the  water-hole  itself  we 
surprised  a  band  of  gazelles  not  fifty  yards  off.  They 
fled  panic-stricken  in  every  direction.  Men  and  horses 
drank  their  fill,  and  we  returned  to  the  sunny  plains 
and  the  endless  reaches  of  withered,  rustling  grass. 

At  last,  an  hour  or  two  before  sunset,  when  the  heat 
had  begun  to  abate  a  little,  we  spied  half  a  dozen 
giraffes  scattered  a  mile  and  a  half  ahead  of  us  feeding 
on  the  tops  of  the  few  widely-separated  thorn-trees. 
Cuninghame  and  I  started  toward  them  on  foot,  but 
they  saw  us  when  we  were  a  mile  away,  and,  after 
gazing  a  short  while,  turned  and  went  off*  at  their  usual 
rocking-horse  canter,  twisting  and  screwing  their  tails. 
We  mounted  and  rode  after  them.  I  was  on  my  zebra- 
shaped  brown  horse,  which  was  hardy  and  with  a  fair 
turn  of  speed,  and  which  by  this  time  I  had  trained  to 


298  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

be  a  good  hunting  horse.  On  the  right  were  two 
giraffe,  which  eventually  turned  out  to  be  a  big  cow, 
followed  by  a  nearly  full-grown  young  one ;  but 
Cuninghame,  scanning  them  through  his  glasses,  and 
misled  by  the  dark  coloration,  pronounced  them  a  bull 
and  cow,  and  after  the  big  one  I  went.  By  good  luck 
we  were  on  one  of  the  rare  pieces  of  the  country  which 
was  fitted  for  galloping.  I  rode  at  an  angle  to  the 
giraffe's  line  of  flight,  thus  gaining  considerably ;  and 
when  it  finally  turned  and  went  straight  away  T  followed 
it  at  a  fast  run,  and  before  it  was  fully  awake  to  the 
danger  I  was  but  a  hundred  yards  behind.  We  were 
now  getting  into  bad  country,  and,  jumping  off,  I 
opened  fire  and  crippled  the  great  beast.  Mounting,  I 
overtook  it  again  in  a  quarter  of  a  mile  and  killed  it. 

In  half  an  hour  the  skinners  and  porters  came  up. 
One  of  the  troubles  of  hunting  as  a  naturalist  is  that  it 
necessitates  the  presence  of  a  long  tail  of  men  to  take 
off  and  carry  in  the  big  skins,  in  order  that  they  may 
ultimately  appear  in  museums.  In  an  hour  and  a  half 
the  giraffe's  skin,  with  the  head  and  the  leg  bones,  was 
slung  on  two  poles  ;  eight  porters  bore  it,  while  the 
others  took  for  their  own  use  all  the  meat  they  could 
carry.  They  were  in  high  good-humour,  for  an  abundant 
supply  of  fresh  meat  always  means  a  season  of  rejoicing, 
and  they  started  campwards  singing  loudly  under  their 
heavy  burdens.  While  the  giraffe  was  being  skinned 
we  had  seen  a  rhinoceros  feeding  near  our  line  of  march 
campwards,  and  had  watched  it  until  the  light  grew 
dim.  By  the  time  the  skin  was  ready  night  had  fallen, 
and  we  started  under  the  brilliant  moon.  It  lit  up  the 
entire  landscape  ;  but  moonlight  is  not  sunlight,  and 
there  was  the  chance  of  our  stumbling  on  the  rhino 
unawares,  and  of  its  charging,  so  I  rode  at  the  head  of 


CH.  XI]  HORSE  FLIES  299 

the  column  with  full-jacketed  bullets  in  my  rifle.  How- 
ever, we  never  saw  the  rhino,  nor  had  we  any  other 
adventure  ;  and  the  ride  through  the  moonlight,  which 
softened  all  the  harshness,  and  gave  a  touch  of  magic 
and  mystery  to  the  landscape,  was  so  pleasant  that 
I  was  sorry  when  we  caught  the  gleam  of  the  camp- 
fires. 

Next  day  we  sent  our  porters  to  bring  in  the  rest  of 
the  giraffe  meat  and  the  ostrich  eggs.  The  giraffe's 
heart  was  good  eating.  There  were  many  ticks  on  the 
giraffe,  as  on  all  the  game  hereabouts,  and  they  annoyed 
us  a  little  also,  although  very  far  from  being  the  plague 
they  were  on  the  Athi  plain.  Among  the  flies  which 
at  times  tormented  the  horses  and  hung  around  the 
game  were  big  gadflies  with  long  wings  folded  longi- 
tudinally down  the  back,  not  in  the  ordinary  fly  fashion  ; 
they  were  akin  to  the  tsetse  flies,  one  species  of  which 
is  fatal  to  domestic  animals,  and  another,  the  sleeping- 
sickness  fly,  to  man  himself.  They  produce  death  by 
means  of  the  fatal  microbes  introduced  into  the  blood 
by  their  bite ;  whereas  another  African  fly,  the  seroot, 
found  more  to  the  north,  in  the  Nile  countries,  is  a 
scourge  to  man  and  beast  merely  because  of  its  vicious 
bite,  and,  where  it  swarms,  may  drive  the  tribes  that 
own  herds  entirely  out  of  certain  districts. 

One  afternoon,  while  leading  my  horse  because  the 
ground  was  a  litter  of  sharp-edged  stones,  I  came  out 
on  a  plain  which  was  crawling  with  zebra.  In  every 
direction  there  were  herds  of  scores  or  of  hundreds. 
They  were  all  of  the  common  or  small  kind,  except 
three  individuals  of  the  big  kangani,  and  were  tame, 
letting  me  walk  by  within  easy  shot.  Other  game  was 
mixed  in  with  them.  Soon,  walking  over  a  httle  ridge 
of  rocks,   we  saw  a  rhino  sixty  yards  off.     To  walk 


300  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

forward  would  give  it  our  wind.  I  did  not  wish  to  kill 
it,  and  I  was  beginning  to  feel  about  rhino  just  as 
Alice  did  in  Looking- Glass  country,  when  the  elephants 
"did  bother  so."  Having  spied  us,  the  beast  at  once 
cocked  its  ears  and  tail,  and  assumed  its  usual  absurd 
resemblance  to  a  huge  and  exceedingly  alert  and 
interested  pig.  But  with  a  rhino  tragedy  sometimes 
treads  on  the  heels  of  comedy,  and  I  watched  it 
sharply,  my  rifle  cocked,  while  I  had  all  the  men  shout 
in  unison  to  scare  it  away.  The  noise  puzzled  it  much  ; 
with  tail  erect,  and  head  tossing  and  twisting,  it  made 
little  rushes  hither  and  thither,  but  finally  drew  off. 
Next  day,  in  shifting  camp,  Cuninghame  and  I  were 
twice  obliged  to  dismount  and  keep  guard  over  the 
safari  while  it  marched  by  within  a  hundred  yards  of 
a  highly  puzzled  rhino,  which  trotted  to  and  fro  in  the 
bush,  evidently  uncertain  whether  or  not  to  let  its 
bewilderment  turn  into  indignation. 

The  camp  to  which  we  thus  shifted  was  on  the  banks 
of  the  Guaso  Nyero,  on  the  edge  of  an  open  glade  in 
a  shady  grove  of  giant  mimosas.  It  was  a  beautiful 
camp,  and  in  the  soft  tropic  nights  I  sat  outside  my 
tent  and  watched  the  full  moon  rising  through  and 
above  the  tree-tops.  There  was  absolutely  no  dew  at 
night,  by  the  way.  The  Guaso  Nyero  runs  across  and 
along  the  equator,  through  a  desert  country,  eastward 
into  the  dismal  Lorian  swamp,  where  it  disappears,  save 
in  very  wet  seasons,  when  it  continues  to  the  Tana.  At 
our  camp  it  was  a  broad,  rapid,  muddy  stream  infested 
with  crocodiles.  Along  its  banks  grew  groves  of  ivory- 
nut  palms,  their  fronds  fan-shaped,  their  tall  trunks 
forked  twenty  or  thirty  feet  from  the  ground,  each 
stem  again  forking — something  like  the  antlers  of  a 
black-tail  buck.     In  the  frond  of  a  small  palm  of  this 


CH.  XI]     GERUNUK  AND  WATER-BUCK      301 

kind  we  found  a  pale-coloured,  very  long-tailed  tree- 
mouse,  in  its  nest,  which  was  a  ball  of  chopped  straw. 
Spurfowl  and  francolin  abounded,  their  grating  cries 
being  heard  everywhere.  I  shot  a  few,  as  well  as 
one  or  two  sandgrouse  ;  and  with  the  rifle  I  knocked 
off  the  heads  of  two  guinea-fowls.  The  last  feat 
sounds  better  in  the  narration  than  it  was  in  the 
performance  ;  for  I  wasted  nearly  a  beltful  of  car- 
tridges in  achieving  it,  as  the  guineas  were  shy  and  ran 
rapidly  through  the  tall  grass.  I  also  expended  a  large 
number  of  cartridges  before  securing  a  couple  of 
gerunuk ;  the  queer,  long-legged,  long-necked  antelope 
were  wary,  and  as  soon  as  they  caught  a  glimpse  of  me 
off  they  would  go  at  a  stealthy  trot  or  canter  through 
the  bushes,  with  neck  outstretched.  They  had  a  curious 
habit  of  rising  on  their  hind-legs  to  browse  among  the 
bushes.  I  do  not  remember  seeing  any  other  antelope 
act  in  this  manner.  There  were  water- buck  along  the 
river  banks,  and  I  shot  a  couple  of  good  bulls ;  they 
belonged  to  the  southern  and  eastern  species,  which  has 
a  light-coloured  ring  around  the  rump,  whereas  the 
western  form,  which  1  saw  at  Naivasha,  has  the  whole 
rump  light-coloured.  They  like  the  neighbourhood  of 
lakes  and  rivers.  I  have  seen  parties  of  them  resting 
in  the  open  plains  during  the  day,  under  trees  which 
yielded  little  more  shade  than  telegraph-poles.  The 
handsome,  shaggy-coated  water-buck  has  not  the  high 
withers  which  mark  the  oryx,  wildebeest,  and  harte- 
beest,  and  he  carries  his  head  and  neck  more  like  a  stag 
or  a  wapiti  bull. 

One  day  we  went  back  from  the  river  after  giraffe. 
It  must  have  been  a  year  since  any  rain  had  fallen. 
The  surface  of  the  baked  soil  was  bare  and  cracked, 
the   sparse   tussocks  of  grass  were  brittle  straw,  and 


302  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

the  trees  and  bushes  were  leafless  ;  but  instead  of  leaves 
they  almost  all  carried  thorns,  the  worst  being  those  of 
the  wait-a-bit,  which  tore  our  clothes,  hands,  and  faces. 
We  found  the  giraffe  three  or  four  miles  away  from  the 
river,  in  an  absolutely  waterless  region,  densely  covered 
with  these  leafless  wait-a-bit  thorn  bushes.  Hanging 
among  the  bare  bushes,  by  the  way,  we  roused  two  or 
three  of  the  queer,  diurnal,  golden-winged,  slate-coloured 
bats  ;  they  flew  freely  in  the  glare  of  the  sunlight, 
minding  it  as  little  as  they  did  the  furnace-like  heat. 
We  found  the  really  dense  wait-a-bit  thorn  thickets 
quite  impenetrable,  whereas  the  giraffe  moved  through 
them  with  utter  unconcern.  But  the  giraffe's  in- 
difference to  thorns  is  commonplace  compared  to  its 
indifference  to  water.  These  particular  giraffes  were  not 
drinking  either  at  the  river  or  at  the  one  or  two  streams 
which  were  running  into  it ;  and  in  certain  places  giraffe 
will  subsist  for  months  without  drinking  at  all.  How 
the  waste  and  evaporation  of  moisture  from  their  huge 
bodies  is  supplied  is  one  of  the  riddles  of  biology. 

We  could  not  get  a  bull  giraffe,  and  it  was  only  a 
bull  that  I  wanted.  I  was  much  interested,  however, 
in  coming  up  to  a  cow  asleep.  She  stood  with  her  neck 
drooping  slightly  forward,  occasionally  stamping  or 
twitching  an  ear,  like  a  horse  when  asleep  standing. 
I  saw  her  legs  first,  through  the  bushes,  and  finally 
walked  directly  up  to  her  in  the  open,  until  I  stood 
facing  her  at  thirty  yards.  When  she  at  last  suddenly 
saw  me,  she  came  nearer  to  the  execution  of  a  gambol 
than  any  other  giraffe  I  have  ever  seen. 

Another  day  we  went  after  buffalo.  We  left  camp 
before  sunrise,  riding  along  parallel  to  the  river  to  find 
the  spoor  of  a  herd  which  had  drunk  and  was  returning 
to  the  haunts,  away  from  the  river,  in  which  they  here 


CH.  XI]  STALKING  BUFFALO  303 

habitually  spent  the  day.  Two  or  three  hours  passed 
before  we  found  what  we  sought ;  and  we  at  once  began 
to  follow  the  trail.  It  was  in  open  thorn  bush,  and  the 
animals  were  evidently  feeding.  Before  we  had  followed 
the  spoor  half  an  hour  we  ran  across  a  rhinoceros.  As 
the  spoor  led  above  wind,  and  as  we  did  not  wish  to 
leave  it  for  fear  of  losing  it,  Cuninghame  stayed  where 
he  was,  and  I  moved  round  to  within  fifty  yards  of  the 
rhino,  and,  with  my  rifle  ready,  began  shouting,  trying 
to  keep  the  just  mean  as  regards  noise,  so  as  to  scare 
him,  and  yet  not  yell  so  loudly  as  to  reach  the  buffalo  if 
they  happened  to  be  near  by.  At  last  I  succeeded,  and 
he  trotted  sullenly  off,  tacking  and  veering,  and  not 
going  far.  On  we  went,  anql  in  another  half-hour  came 
on  our  quarry.  I  was  the  first  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the 
line  of  bulky  black  forms,  picked  out  with  white  where 
the  sun  glinted  on  the  horn  bosses.  It  was  ten  o'clock, 
a  hot,  windless  morning  on  the  Equator,  with  the  sun 
shining  from  a  cloudless  sky  ;  yet  these  buffalo  were 
feeding  in  the  open,  miles  from  water  or  dense  cover. 
They  were  greedily  cropping  the  few  tufts  of  coarse 
herbage  that  grew  among  the  sparse  thorn  bushes,  which 
here  were  not  more  than  two  feet  high.  In  many 
places  buffalo  are  purely  nocturnal  feeders,  and  do  not 
come  into  the  hot,  bare  plains  in  the  scorching  glare  of 
daylight ;  and  our  experience  with  this  herd  illustrates 
afresh  the  need  of  caution  in  generalizing  about  the 
habits  of  game. 

We  crept  toward  them  on  all-fours,  having  left  the 
porters  hidden  from  sight.  At  last  we  were  within 
rather  long  range — a  buffalo's  eyesight  is  good,  and  can- 
not be  trifled  with  as  if  he  were  a  rhino  or  elephant — and 
cautiously  scrutinized  the  herd  through  our  glasses. 
There  were  only  cows  and  perhaps  one  or  two  young 


304         .  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

bulls  with  horns  no  bigger  than  those  of  cows.  I  would 
have  hked  another  good  bull's  head  for  myself ;  but  I 
also  wished  another  cow  for  the  Museum.  Before  I 
could  shoot,  however,  a  loud  yelling  was  heard  from 
among  the  porters  in  our  rear,  and  away  went  the 
buffalo.  Full  of  wrath,  we  walked  back  to  inquire. 
We  found  that  one  porter  had  lost  his  knife,  and  had 
started  back  to  look  for  it,  accompanied  by  two  of  his 
fellows,  which  was  absolutely  against  orders.  They  had 
come  across  a  rhino,  probably  the  one  I  had  frightened 
from  our  path,  and  had  endeavoured  to  avoid  him,  but 
he  had  charged  them,  whereupon  they  scattered.  He 
overtook  one  and  tossed  him,  goring  him  in  the  thigh  ; 
whereupon  they  came  back,  the  two  unwounded  ones 
supporting  the  other,  and  all  howling  like  lost  souls.  I 
had  some  crystals  of  permanganate,  an  antiseptic,  and 
some  cotton  in  my  saddle  pocket ;  Cuninghame  tore 
some  of  the  Uning  out  of  his  sleeve  for  a  bandage  ;  and 
we  fixed  the  man  up  and  left  him  with  one  companion, 
while  we  sent  another  into  camp  to  fetch  out  a  dozen 
men  with  a  ground- sheet  and  some  poles,  to  make  a 
litter  in  which  the  wounded  man  could  be  carried. 
While  we  were  engaged  in  this  field  surgery  another 
rhino  was  in  sight  half  a  mile  off. 

Then  on  we  went  on  the  trail  of  the  herd.  It  led 
straight  across  the  open,  under  the  blazing  sun,  and  the 
heat  was  now  terrific.  At  last,  almost  exactly  at  noon, 
Cuninghame,  who  was  leading,  stopped  short.  He  had 
seen  the  buffalo,  which  had  halted,  made  a  half-bend 
backward  on  their  tracks,  and  stood  for  their  noonday 
rest  among  some  scattered,  stunted  thorn-trees,  leafless, 
and  yielding  practically  no  shade  whatever.  A  cautious 
stalk  brought  me  to  within  a  hundred  and  fifty  yards. 
I  merely  wounded  the  one  I  first  shot  at,  but  killed 


CH.  XI]    COUNTRY  OF  THE  SAMBURU        305 

another  as  the  herd  started  to  run.  Leaving  the  skinners 
to  take  care  of  the  dead  animal — a  fine  cow — Cuning- 
hame  and  I  started  after  the  herd  to  see  if  the  wounded 
one  had  fallen  out.  After  a  mile  the  trail  led  into  some 
scant  cover.  Here  the  first  thing  we  did  was  to  run 
into  another  rhinoceros.  It  was  about  seventy  yards 
away,  behind  a  thorn-tree,  and  began  to  move  jerkily 
and  abruptly  to  and  fro,  gazing  towards  us.  "  Oh,  you 
malevolent  old  idiot !"  I  muttered,  facing  it  with  rifle 
cocked.  Then,  as  it  did  not  charge,  I  added  to  Cuning- 
hame :  "  Well,  1  guess  it  will  let  us  go  by  all  right."  And 
let  us  go  by  it  did.  We  were  anxious  not  to  shoot,  both 
because  in  a  country  with  no  settlers  a  rhino  rarely  does 
harm,  and  also  because  I  object  to  anything  Uke  needless 
butchery,  and  furthermore  because  we  desired  to  avoid 
alarming  the  buffalo.  Half  a  mile  farther  on  we  came  on 
the  latter,  apparently  past  their  fright.  We  looked  them 
carefully  over  with  our  glasses.  The  wounded  one  was 
evidently  not  much  hurt,  and  therefore  I  did  not  wish 
to  kill  her,  for  I  did  not  need  another  cow,  and  there 
was  no  adult  bull.  So  we  did  not  molest  them,  and 
after  a  while  they  got  our  wind,  and  went  off  at  a 
lumbering  gallop.  Returning  to  the  dead  cow,  we 
found  the  skin  ready,  and  marched  back  to  camp,  reach- 
ing it  just  as  the  moon  rose  at  seven.  We  had  been 
away  thirteen  hours,  with  nothing  to  eat  and  only  the 
tepid  water  in  our  canteens  to  drink. 

We  were  in  the  country  of  the  Samburu,  and  several 
of  their  old  men  and  warriors  visited  us  at  this  camp. 
They  are  cattle-owning  nomads  like  the  Masai ;  but  in 
addition  to  cattle,  sheep,  and  goats,  they  own  herds  of 
camels,  which  they  milk,  but  do  not  use  as  beasts  of 
burden.  In  features  they  are  more  like  Somalis  than 
negi'oes. 


306  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

Near  this  camp  were  the  remains  of  the  boma  or 
home  camp  of  Arthur  Neuman,  once  the  most  famous 
elephant-hunter  between  the  Tana  and  Lake  Rudolf. 
Neuman,  whose  native  name  was  Nyama  Yango,  was  a 
strange  moody  man,  who  died  by  his  own  hand.  He 
was  a  mighty  hunter,  of  bold  and  adventure-loving 
temper.  With  whites  he  was  unsocial,  living  in  this 
far-off  region  exactly  like  a  native,  and  all  alone  among 
the  natives,  living  in  some  respects  too  much  like  a 
native.  But,  from  the  native  standpoint,  and  without 
making  any  effort  to  turn  the  natives  into  anything 
except  what  they  were,  he  did  them  good,  and  left  a 
deep  impression  on  their  minds.  They  talked  to  us 
often  about  him  in  many  different  places ;  they  would 
not  believe  that  he  was  dead,  and  when  assured  it  was 
so,  they  showed  real  grief.  At  Meru  Boma,  when  we 
saw  the  Meru  tribesmen  dance,  one  of  the  songs  they 
sang  was  :  "  Since  Nyama  Yango  came,  our  sheep  graze 
untouched  by  the  Samburu  ;"  and,  rather  curiously,  the 
Samburu  sing  a  similar  song,  reciting  how  he  saved 
them  from  the  fear  of  having  their  herds  raided  by  the 
nomads  farther  north. 

After  leaving  this  camp  we  journeyed  up  the  Guaso 
Nyero  for  several  days.  The  current  was  rapid  and 
muddy,  and  there  were  beds  of  reeds  and  of  the  tall, 
gracefiil  papyrus.  The  country  round  about  was  a  mass 
of  stony,  broken  hills,  and  the  river  wound  down  among 
these,  occasionally  cutting  its  way  through  deep  gorges 
and  its  course  being  continually  broken  by  rapids. 
Whenever  on  our  hunts  we  had  to  cross  it,  we  shouted 
and  splashed,  and  even  fired  shots,  to  scare  the  croco- 
diles. I  shot  one  on  a  sandbar  in  the  river.  The  man 
the  rhino  had  wounded  was  carried  along  on  a  litter 
wdth  the  safari. 


CH.  xi]  RUBBER  VINES  307 

Sometimes  I  left  camp  with  my  sais  and  gun-bearer 
before  dawn,  starting  in  the  hght  of  the  waning  moon, 
and  riding  four  or  five  hours  before  halting  to  wait  for 
the  safari.  On  the  way  I  had  usually  shot  something 
for  the  table — a  waterbuck,  impalla,  or  gazelle.  On 
other  occasions  Cuninghame  and  I  would  spend  the 
day  hunting  in  the  waterless  country  back  of  the  river, 
where  the  heat  at  midday  was  terrific.  We  might  not 
reach  camp  until  after  nightfall.  Once,  as  we  came  to 
it  in  the  dark,  it  seemed  as  if  ghostly  arms  stretched 
above  it ;  for  on  this  evening  the  tents  had  been  pitched 
under  trees  up  which  huge  rubber  vines  had  climbed, 
and  their  massive  dead  white  trunks  and  branches 
glimmered  pale  and  ghostly  in  the  darkness. 

Twice  my  gun-bearers  tried  to  show  me  a  cheetah ; 
but  my  eyes  were  too  slow  to  catch  the  animal  before  it 
bounded  off  in  safety  among  the  bushes.  Another 
time,  after  an  excellent  bit  of  tracking,  the  gun- bearers 
brought  me  up  to  a  buffalo  bull,  standing  for  his  noon- 
day rest  in  the  leafless  thorns  a  mile  from  the  river.  I 
thought  I  held  the  heavy  Holland  straight  for  his 
shoulder,  but  I  must  have  fired  high,  for,  though  he 
fell  to  the  shot,  he  recovered  at  once.  We  followed 
the  blood-spoor  for  an  hour,  the  last  part  of  the  time 
when  the  trail  wandered  among  and  through  the  heavy 
thickets  under  the  trees  on  the  river  banks.  Here  I 
walked  beside  the  tracker  with  my  rifle  at  full  cock,  for 
we  could  not  tell  at  what  instant  we  might  be  charged. 
But  his  trail  finally  crossed  the  river,  and  as  he  was 
going  stronger  and  stronger,  we  had  to  abandon  the 
chase.  In  the  waterless  country,  away  from  the  river, 
we  found  little  except  herds  of  zebra,  of  both  kinds, 
occasional  oryx  and  eland,  and  a  few  giraffe.  A  stallion 
of  the  big  kangani  zebra  which  I  shot  stood  fourteen 


308  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

hands  high  at  the  withers  and  weighed  about  eight 
hundred  and  thirty  pounds,^  according  to  the  Seton 
beam.  I  shot  another  kangani  just  at  nightfall,  a  mile 
or  so  from  camp,  as  it  drank  in  a  wild,  tree-clad  gorge 
of  the  river.  I  was  alone,  strolHng  quietly  through  the 
dusk,  along  the  margin  of  the  high  banks  by  the  stream, 
and  saw  a  mixed  herd  of  zebras  coming  down  to  a  well- 
worn  drinking-place,  evidently  much  used  by  game,  on 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  They  were  alert  and 
nervous,  evidently  on  the  lookout  for  both  lions  and 
crocodiles.  I  singled  out  the  largest,  the  leader  of  the 
troop,  and  shot  it  across  the  stream.  1  have  rarely 
taken  a  shot  among  more  picturesque  surroundings. 

At  our  final  camp  on  the  river,  before  leaving  it  on 
our  week's  steady  trek  southward  to  Neri,  we  found  a 
spot  in  which  game  abounded.  It  was  about  ten  miles 
back  from  the  river,  a  stretch  of  plain  sparsely  covered 
with  thorn-trees,  broken  by  koppies,  and  bounded  by 
chains  of  low,  jagged  mountains,  with  an  occasional 
bold,  isolated  peak.  The  crags  and  cliff  walls  w^ere 
fantastically  carved  and  channelled  by  the  weathering 
of  ages  in  that  dry  climate.  It  was  a  harsh,  unlovely 
spot  in  the  glare  of  the  hot  daylight ;  but  at  sunset  it 
was  very  lovely,  with  a  wild  and  stern  beauty. 

Here  the  game  abounded,  and  was  not  wary.  Before 
starting  out  on  our  week's  steady  marching  I  wished  to 

^  The  aggregate  of  the  weights  of  the  different  pieces  was  778 
pounds  ;  the  loss  of  blood  and  the  drying  of  the  pieces  of  flesh  in 
the  intense  heat  of  the  sun  we  thought  certainly  accounted  for  50 
pounds  more.  The  stallion  was  not  fat.  At  any  rate,  it  weighed 
between  800  and  850  pounds.  Its  testicles,  though  fully  developed, 
had  not  come  down  out  of  the  belly  skin.  One  of  those  shot  by 
Kermit  showed  the  same  peculiarity.  Cuninghame  says  it  is  a 
common  occurrence  with  this  species.  Moreover,  the  stallions  did 
not  have  their  canine  teeth  developed. 


CH.  XI]  GIRAFFES  AND  LIONS  309 

give  the  safari  a  good  feed ;  and  one  day  I  shot  them 
five  zebra  and  an  oryx  bull,  together  with  a  couple  of 
gazelle  for  ourselves  and  our  immediate  attendants — 
enough  of  the  game  being  hal-lalled  to  provide  for  the 
Mohammedans  in  the  safari.  I  also  shot  an  old  bull 
giraffe  of  the  northern  form,  after  an  uneventful  stalk 
which  culminated  in  a  shot  with  the  Winchester  at  a 
hundred  and  seventy  yards.  In  most  places  this  parti- 
cular stretch  of  country  was  not  suitable  for  galloping, 
the  ground  being  rotten,  filled  with  holes,  and  covered 
with  tall,  coarse  grass.  One  evening  we  saw  two  lions 
half  a  mile  away.  I  tried  to  ride  them,  but  my  horse 
fell  twice  in  the  first  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  and  I 
could  not  even  keep  them  in  sight.  Another  day  we 
got  a  glimpse  of  two  lions,  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off,  gliding 
away  among  the  thorns.  They  went  straight  to  the 
river  and  swam  across  it.  More  surprising  was  the  fact 
that  a  monkey,  which  lost  its  head  when  we  surprised 
it  in  a  tree  by  the  river,  actually  sprang  plump  into  the 
stream,  and  swam,  easily  and  strongly,  across  it. 

One  day  we  had  a  most  interesting  experience  with 
a  cow  giraffe.  We  saw  her  a  long  way  off  and  stalked 
to  within  a  couple  of  hundred  yards  before  we  could 
make  out  her  sex.  She  was  standing  under  some  thorn- 
trees,  occasionally  shifting  her  position  for  a  few  yards, 
and  then  again  standing  motionless  with  her  head  thrust 
in  among  the  branches.  She  was  indulging  in  a  series 
of  noontide  naps.  At  last,  when  she  stood  and  went  to 
sleep  again,  I  walked  up  to  her,  Cuninghame  and  our 
two  gun-bearers,  Bakhari  and  Kongoni,  following  a 
hundred  yards  behind.  When  I  was  within  forty  yards, 
in  plain  sight,  away  from  cover,  she  opened  her  eyes 
and  looked  drowsily  at  me ;  but  I  stood  motionless  and 
she  dozed  off  again.     This  time  I  walked  up  to  within 


310  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

ten  feet  of  her.  Nearer  I  did  not  care  to  venture,  as 
giraffe  strike  and  kick  very  hard  with  their  hoofs,  and, 
moreover,  occasionally  strike  with  the  head,  the  blow 
seemingly  not  being  deUvered  with  the  knobby,  skin- 
covered  horns,  but  with  the  front  teeth  of  the  lower 
jaw.  She  waked,  looked  at  me,  and  then,  rearing 
slightly,  struck  at  me  with  her  left  fore-leg,  the  blow 
falling  short.  I  laughed  and  leaped  back,  and  the  other 
men  ran  up  shouting.  But  the  giraffe  would  not  run 
away.  She  stood  within  twenty  feet  of  us,  looking  at 
us  peevishly,  and  occasionally  pouting  her  lips  at  us,  as 
if  she  were  making  a  face.  We  kept  close  to  the  tree, 
so  as  to  dodge  round  it,  under  the  branches,  if  she  came 
at  us,  for  we  should  have  been  most  reluctant  to  shoot 
her.  I  threw  a  stick  at  her,  hitting  her  in  the  side,  but 
she  paid  no  attention  ;  and  when  Bakhari  came  behind 
her  with  a  stick  she  turned  sharply  on  him  and  he 
made  a  prompt  retreat.  We  were  laughing  and  talking 
all  the  time.  Then  we  pelted  her  with  sticks  and  clods 
of  earth,  and,  after  having  thus  stood  within  twenty  feet 
of  us  for  three  or  four  minutes,  she  cantered  slowly  oft 
for  fifty  yards,  and  then  walked  away  with  leisurely 
unconcern.  She  was  apparently  in  the  best  of  health 
and  in  perfect  condition.  She  did  not  get  our  wind, 
but  her  utter  indifference  to  the  close  presence  of  four 
men  is  inexplicable.^ 

On  each  of  the  two  days  we  hunted  this  little  district 
we  left  camp  at  sunrise,  and  did  not  return  until  eight 
or  nine  in  the  evening,  fairly  well  tired,  and  not  a  little 

^  After  writing  the  above  account  I  read  it  over  to  Mr.  Cuning- 
hame  so  as  to  be  sure  that  it  was  accurate  in  all  its  details.  All 
the  game  was  tame  in  this  locality,  even  the  giraffe,  but  no  other 
giraffe  allowed  us  to  get  within  two  hundred  yards,  and  most  of 
them  ran  long  before  that  distance  was  reached,  even  when  we  were 
stalking  carefully. 


CH.  XI]       ZEBRA  AND  WATERBUCK  311 

torn  by  the  thorns  into  which  we  blundered  during  the 
final  two  hours'  walk  in  the  darkness.  It  was  hot,  and 
we  neither  had  nor  wished  for  food,  and  the  tepid  water 
in  the  canteens  lasted  us  through.  The  day  I  shot  the 
giraffe  the  porters  carrying  the  skin  fell  behind,  and 
never  got  in  until  next  morning.  Coming  back  in  the 
late  twilight  a  party  of  the  big  zebra,  their  forms 
shadowy  and  dim,  trotted  up  to  us,  evidently  attracted 
by  the  horses,  and  accompanied  us  for  some  rods  ;  and 
a  hedgehog,  directly  in  our  path,  kept  bleating  loudly, 
like  an  antelope  kid. 

The  day  we  spent  in  taking  care  of  the  giraffe  skin 
we,  of  course,  made  no  hunt.  However,  in  the  after- 
noon I  sauntered  upstream  a  couple  of  miles  to  look  for 
crocodiles.  I  saw  none,  but  I  was  much  interested  in 
some  zebra  and  waterbuck.  The  zebra  were  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river,  standing  among  some  thorns, 
and  at  three,  mid-afternoon,  they  came  down  to  drink. 
Up  to  this  time  I  had  generally  found  zebra  drinking  in 
the  evening  or  at  night.  Then  I  saw  some  waterbuck, 
also  on  the  opposite  bank,  working  their  way  toward 
the  river,  and  seeing  a  well-marked  drinking-place  ahead 
I  hastened  toward  it,  and  sat  down  in  the  middle  of  the 
broad  game  trail  leading  down  to  the  water  on  my  side. 
I  sat  perfectly  still,  and  my  clothes  were  just  the  colour 
of  the  ground,  and  the  waterbuck  never  noticed  me, 
though  I  was  in  plain  view  when  they  drank,  just 
opposite  me,  and  only  about  fifty  yards  off.  There 
were  four  cows  and  a  bull.  It  was  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  The  cows  came  first,  one  by  one,  and  were 
very  alert  and  suspicious.  Each  continually  stopped 
and  stood  motionless,  or  looked  in  every  direction,  and 
gave  little  false  starts  of  alarm.  When  they  reached 
the  green  grass  by  the  water's  edge  each  cropped  a  few 


312  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

mouthfuls,  between  times  nervously  raising  its  head  and 
looking  in  every  direction,  nostrils  and  ears  twitching. 
They  were  not  looking  for  crocodiles,  but  for  land  foes, 
lions  or  leopards.  Each  in  turn  drank,  skipping  up  to 
the  top  of  the  bank  after  a  few  mouthfuls,  and  then 
returning  to  the  water.  The  bull  followed  with  rather 
less  caution,  and  before  he  had  finished  drinking  the 
cows  scurried  hurriedly  back  to  the  thorn-trees  and  the 
open  country.  We  had  plenty  of  meat  in  camp,  and  I 
had  completed  my  series  of  this  species  of  waterbuck 
for  the  Museum  ;  and  1  was  glad  there  was  no  need  to 
molest  them. 

The  porters  were  enjoying  the  rest  and  the  abundance 
of  meat.  They  were  lying  about  camp,  or  were  scattered 
up  and  down  stream  fishing.  When,  walking  back,  I 
came  to  the  outskirts  of  camp,  I  was  attracted  by  the 
buzzing  and  twanging  of  the  harp ;  there  was  the 
harper  and  two  friends,  all  three  singing  to  his  accom- 
paniment. I  called  "  Yambo  !"  (greeting),  and  they 
grinned  and  stood  up,  shouting  "  Yambo !"  in  return. 
In  camp  a  dozen  men  were  still  at  work  at  the  giraffe 
skin,  and  they  were  all  singing  loudly,  under  the  lead  of 
my  gun- bearer,  Gouvimali,  who  always  acted  as  chanty 
man,  or  improvisatore,  on  such  occasions. 

For  a  week  we  now  trekked  steadily  south  across  the 
Equator,  heel-and-toe  marching,  to  Neri.  Our  first 
day's  journey  took  us  to  a  gorge  riven  in  the  dry 
mountain.  Halfway  up  it,  in  a  side  pocket,  was  a 
deep  pool,  at  the  foot  of  a  sloping  sheet  of  rock,  down 
which  a  broad,  shallow  dent  showed  where  the  torrents 
swept  during  the  rains.  In  the  trees  around  the  pool 
black  drongo  shrikes  called  in  bell-like  tones,  and  pied 
hornbills  flirted  their  long  tails  as  they  bleated  and 
croaked.     The  water  was  foul ;  but  in  a  dry  country 


OCT^'.- 


Black-and-white  crow,  corvus  scapu- 
laius 


Rusty  rock -rat 


Sparrow  lark 


Sand-rat 


Ant  wheatear  (ant-eating  chat) 


African  hedgehog 


Ostrich  nest 


"Mole-rat" 


•itn-^ktlA  " 


i~^imy^z:-;\"-r^w  st* 


CH.  XI]  ON  SAFARI  313 

one  grows  gratefully  to  accept  as  water  anything  that 
is  wet.  Klipspringers  and  baboons  were  in  the  precipitous 
hills  around ;  and  among  the  rocks  were  hyraxes  (looking 
like  our  Rocky  Mountain  conies,  or  little  chief  hares), 
queer  diurnal  rats,  and  bright  blue-green  lizards  with 
orange  heads.  Rhinos  drank  at  this  pool.  We  fre- 
quently saw  them  on  our  journey,  but  always  managed 
to  avoid  wounding  their  susceptibilities,  and  so  escaped 
an  encounter.  Each  day  we  endeavoured  to  camp  a 
couple  of  hours  before  sundown,  so  as  to  give  the  men 
plenty  of  chance  to  get  firewood,  pitch  the  tents,  and 
put  everything  in  order.  Sometimes  we  would  make 
an  early  start,  in  which  case  we  would  breakfast  in  the 
open,  while  in  the  east  the  crescent  of  the  dying  moon 
hung  over  the  glow  that  heralded  the  sunrise. 

As  we  reached  the  high,  rolling  downs  the  weather 
grew  cooler,  and  many  flowers  appeared  ;  those  of  the 
aloes  were  bright  red,  standing  on  high  stalks  above 
the  clump  of  fleshy,  spined  leaves,  which  were  hand- 
somely mottled,  like  a  snake's  back.  As  I  rode  at  the 
head  of  the  safari  I  usually,  in  the  course  of  the  day, 
shot  a  buck  of  some  kind  for  the  table.  I  had  not  time 
to  stalk,  but  simply  took  the  shots  as  they  came,  generally 
at  long  range.  One  day  I  shot  an  eland,  an  old  blue 
buU.  We  needed  the  skin  for  the  Museum,  and  as 
there  was  water  near  by  we  camped  where  we  were.  I 
had  already  shot  a  waterbuck  that  morning,  and  this 
and  the  eland  together  gave  the  entire  safari  a  feast  of 
meat. 

On  another  occasion  an  eland  herd  afforded  me  fun, 
although  no  profit.  I  was  mounted  on  Brownie,  the 
zebra-shaped  pony.  Brownie  would  still  occasionally  run 
off  when  I  dismounted  to  shoot  (a  habit  that  had  cost 
me  an  eland  bull) ;  but  he  loved  to  gallop  after  game. 


314  THE  GUASO  NYERO  [ch.  xi 

We  came  on  a  herd  of  eland  in  an  open  plain ;  they 
were  directly  in  our  path.  We  were  in  the  country 
where  the  ordinary,  or  Livingstone's,  eland  grades  into 
the  Patterson's  ;  and  I  knew  that  the  naturalists  wished 
an  additional  bull's  head  for  the  Museum.  So  I  galloped 
toward  the  herd,  and  for  the  next  fifteen  or  twenty 
minutes  I  felt  as  if  I  had  renewed  my  youth,  and  was  in 
the  cow-camps  of  the  West  a  quarter  of  a  centuiy  ago. 
Eland  are  no  faster  than  range  cattle.  Twice  I  rounded 
up  the  herd — just  as  once  in  the  Yellowstone  Park  I 
rounded  up  a  herd  of  wapiti  for  John  Burroughs  to 
look  at — and  three  times  I  cut  out  of  the  herd  a  big 
animal,  which,  however,  in  each  case  proved  to  be  a 
cow.  There  were  no  big  bulls,  only  cows  and  young 
stock  ;  but  I  enjoyed  the  gallop. 

From  Neri  we  marched  through  mist  and  rain  across 
the  cold  Aberdare  tablelands,  and  in  the  forenoon  of 
October  20  we  saw  from  the  top  of  the  second  Aberdare 
escarpment  the  blue  waters  of  beautiful  Lake  Naivasha. 
On  the  next  day  we  reached  Nairobi. 


CHAPTER   Xll 

TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU 

At  Nairobi  Kermit  joined  me,  having  enjoyed  a  notably 
successful  hunt  during  the  month  since  we  had  parted, 
killing  both  Neuman's  hartebeest  and  koodoo.  The 
great  koodoo,  with  its  spiral  horns  and  striped  coat, 
is  the  stateliest  and  handsomest  antelope  in  the  world. 
It  is  a  shy  creature,  fond  of  bush  and  of  rocky  hills,  and 
is  hard  to  get. 

After  leaving  me  at  Meru,  Kermit  and  Tarlton  had 
travelled  hard  to  Rumeruti.  They  had  intended  to  go 
to  Lake  Hannington,  but,  finding  that  this  was  in  the 
reserve,  they  went  three  days  toward  the  north-west, 
stopping  a  score  of  miles  east  of  Barengo.  The  country, 
which  showed  many  traces  of  volcanic  action,  was  rough, 
rocky,  and  dry ;  the  hunting  was  exhausting,  and  Kermit 
was  out  from  morning  to  night.  Tarlton  had  been  very 
sick  on  the  Guaso  Nyero,  and,  although  he  was  better, 
he  was  in  no  shape  to  accompany  Kermit,  who  therefore 
hunted  only  with  his  gun-boys,  taking  them  out  alter- 
nately so  as  to  spare  them  as  much  as  possible.  It  took 
three  days'  steady  work  before  he  got  his  first  koodoo. 
On  the  third  day  he  hunted  fruitlessly  all  the  morning, 
came  back  to  camp,  picked  up  a  fresh  gun-bearer,  Juma 
Yohari,  and  started  out  again.  At  four  in  the  afternoon 
he  came  to  the  brink  of  a  great  hollow  a  mile  across, 

315 


316  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

perhaps  an  extinct  crater,  and,  looking  from  the  rimrock, 
spied  a  koodoo  bull  in  the  bottom.  Tlie  steep  sides  of 
the  hollow  were  covered  with  a  tangled  gi'owth  of  thorn 
scrub  and  cactus,  traversed  by  rhinoceros  paths.  The 
bottom  was  more  open,  strewn  with  bushy  mounds  or 
hillocks,  and  on  one  of  these  stood  a  noble  koodoo  bull. 
He  stood  with  his  massive  spiral  horns  thrown  back, 
and  they  shifted  slowly  as  he  turned  his  head  from  side 
to  side.  Kermit  stole  down  one  of  the  rhino  paths,  save 
for  which  the  scrub  would  have  been  practically  im- 
penetrable ;  it  was  alive  with  rhinos  ;  Kermit  heard 
several,  and  Juma,  who  followed  some  distance  behind, 
saw  three.  The  stalk  took  time,  and  the  sun  was  on 
the  horizon  and  the  light  fading  when,  at  over  two 
hundred  yards,  Kermit  took  his  shot.  The  first  bullet 
missed,  but  as  for  a  moment  the  bull  paused  and 
wheeled  Kermit  fired  again,  and  the  second  bullet  went 
home.  The  wounded  beast  ran,  Kermit,  with  Juma, 
hard  on  the  trail ;  and  he  overtook  and  killed  it  just  as 
darkness  fell.  Then  back  to  camp  they  stumbled  and 
plunged  through  the  darkness,  Kermit  tearing  the  sole 
completely  off  one  shoe.  They  reached  camp  at  ten, 
and  Juma,  who  had  only  been  working  half  the  day, 
took  out  some  porters  to  the  dead  bull,  which  they 
skinned,  and  then  slept  by  until  morning.  Later,  on 
his  birthday,  he  killed  a  cow,  which  completed  the 
group  ;  the  two  koodoo  cost  him  ten  days'  steady 
labour.  The  koodoo  were  always  found  on  steep,  rocky 
hills ;  their  stomachs  contained  only  grass,  for  both 
beasts  were  shot  when  grazing  (I  do  not  know  whether 
or  not  they  also  browse).  The  midday  hours,  when  the 
heat  was  most  intense,  they  usually  spent  resting ;  but 
once  Kermit  came  on  two  which  were  drinking  in  a 
stream  exactly  at  noon. 


CH.  XII]  LAKE  HANNINGTON  317 

From  the  koodoo  camp  the  two  hunters  went  to 
Lake  Hannington,  a  lovely  lake,  with  the  mountains 
rising  sheer  from  three  of  its  sides.  The  water  was 
saline,  abounding  with  crocodiles  and  hippos  ;  and  there 
were  myriads  of  flamingos.  They  were  to  be  seen 
swimming  by  thousands  on  the  lake,  and  wading  and 
standing  in  the  shallows ;  and  when  they  rose  they 
looked  Hke  an  enormous  pink  cloud.  It  was  a  glorious 
sight.  They  were  tame  ;  and  Kermit  had  no  difficulty 
in  killing  the  specimens  needed  for  the  Museum.  Here 
Kermit  also  killed  an  impalla  ram  which  had  met  with 
an  extraordinary  misadventure.  It  had  been  fighting 
with  another  ram,  which  had  stabbed  it  in  the  chest 
with  one  horn.  The  violent  strain  and  shock,  as  the 
two  vigorous  beasts  bounded  together,  broke  off"  the 
horn,  leaving  the  broken  part,  ten  inches  long,  imbedded 
in  the  other  buck's  chest,  about  three  inches  of  the 
point  being  fixed  firmly  in  the  body  of  the  buck,  while 
the  rest  stuck  out  like  a  picket  pin.  Yet  the  buck 
seemed  well  and  strong. 

Two  days  after  leaving  Lake  Hannington  they 
camped  near  the  ostrich  farm  of  Mr.  London,  an 
American  from  Baltimore.  He  had  been  waging  war 
on  the  lions  and  leopards,  because  they  attacked  his 
ostriches.  He  had  killed  at  least  a  score  of  each,  some 
with  the  rifle,  some  with  poison  or  steel  traps.  The 
day  following  their  arrival  London  went  out  hunting 
with  Kermit  and  Tarlton,  They  saw  nothing  until 
evening,  when  Kermit's  gun-bearer,  Kassitura,  spied  a 
leopard  coming  from  the  carcass  of  a  zebra  which 
London  had  shot  to  use  as  bait  for  his  traps.  The 
leopard  saw  them  a  long  away  off*  and  ran.  Kermit  ran 
after  it  and  wounded  it  badly,  twice  ;  then  Tarlton  got 
a  shot  and  hit  it ;  and  then  London  came  across  the 


318  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch  xii 

dying  beast  at  close  quarters,  and  killed  it  just  as  it  was 
gathering  itself  to  spring  at  him. 

Thence  they  went  to  Nakuru,  where  Kermit  killed 
two  Neuman's  hartebeest.  They  were  scarce  and  wild, 
and  Kermit  obtained  his  two  animals  by  long  shots, 
after  following  them  for  hours — following  them  until, 
as  he  expressed  it,  they  got  used  to  him,  became  a  little 
less  quick  to  leave,  and  gave  him  his  chance. 

While  on  this  trip  Kermit  passed  his  twentieth 
birthday.  While  still  nineteen  he  had  killed  all  the 
dangerous  kinds  of  African  game  —  lion,  leopard, 
elephant,  buffalo,  and  rhino. 

Heller  also  rejoined  us,  entirely  recovered.  He  had 
visited  Meams  and  Loring  at  their  camp  high  up  on 
Mount  Kenia,  where  they  had  made  a  thorough 
biological  survey  of  the  mountain.  He  had  gone  to 
the  Une  of  peipetual  snow,  where  the  rock  peak  rises 
abruptly  from  the  swelling  downs,  and  had  camped 
near  a  little  glacial  lake,  whose  waters  froze  every  night. 
The  zones  of  plant  and  animal  hfe  were  well  marked  ; 
but  there  are  some  curious  differences  between  the  zones 
on  these  equatorial  African  snow  mountains  and  those 
on  similar  mountains  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  espe- 
cially America.  In  the  high  mountains  of  North 
America  the  mammals  are  apt  to  be,  at  least  in  part, 
of  totally  different  kinds  from  those  found  in  the 
adjacent  warm  or  hot  plains,  because  they  represent  a 
fauna  which  was  once  spread  over  the  land,  but  which 
has  retreated  northward,  leaving  faunal  islands  on  the 
summits  of  the  taller  mountains.  In  this  part  of  Africa, 
however,  there  has  been  no  faunal  retreat  of  this  type, 
no  survivals  on  the  peaks  of  an  ancient  fauna,  which  in 
the  plains  and  valleys  has  been  replaced  by  another 
fauna.     Here  the  mammals  of  the  high  mountains  and 


Juma  Yohari  with  the  impalla  killed  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Lake  Hannington 

The  broken  horn  of  another  ram  imbedded  in  the  buck's  neck 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roose-Mt 


CH.  XII]       MOUNT  KENIA :  NAIROBI  319 

tablelands  are  merely  modified  forms  of  the  mammals 
of  the  adjacent  lowlands,  which  have  gradually  crept  up 
the  slopes,  changing  in  the  process.  High  on  Mount 
Kenia,  for  instance,  are  hyraxes,  living  among  the  snow- 
fields,  much  bigger  than  their  brethren  of  the  forests 
and  rocky  hills  below  ;  and  light-coloured  mole-rats, 
also  much  bigger  than  those  of  the  lower  country. 
Moreover,  the  lack  of  seasonal  change  is  probably 
accountable  for  differences  in  the  way  that  the  tree 
zones  are  delimited.  The  mountain  conifers  of  America 
are  huge  trees  on  the  middle  slopes,  but  higher  up 
gradually  dwindle  into  a  thick,  low  scrub,  composed  of 
sprawling,  dwarfed  individuals  of  the  same  species.  On 
Mount  Kenia  the  tree  zone  ceases  much  more  abruptly 
and  with  much  less  individual  change  among  the  dif- 
ferent kinds  of  trees.  Above  this  zone  are  the  wet, 
cold  downs  and  moors,  with  a  very  peculiar  vegetation, 
plants  which  we  know  only  as  small  flowering  things 
having  become  trees.  The  giant  groundsel,  for  instance, 
reaches  a  height  of  twenty  feet,  with  very  thick  trunk 
and  limbs,  which,  though  hollow,  make  good  firew^ood ; 
and  this  is  only  one  example  of  the  kind. 

At  Nairobi  we  learned,  as  usual,  of  incident  after 
incident  which  had  happened  among  our  friends  and 
acquaintances  of  exactly  the  type  which  would  occur 
were  it  possible  in  North  America  or  Europe  suddenly 
to  mix  among  existing  conditions  the  men  and  animals 
that  died  out  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  ago. 
In  a  previous  chapter  I  mentioned  on  one  occasion 
meeting  at  dinner  three  men,  all  of  whom  had  been 
mauled  by  lions  ;  one  being  our  host,  Mr.  F.  A.  Ward, 
who  had  served  as  a  Captain  in  the  South  African  War, 
and  was  now  one  of  the  heads  of  the  Boma  Trading 
Company.      Among   our  fellow-guests    at  this  dinner 


320  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

was  Captain  Douglas  Pennant,  of  the  British  Army. 
When  we  went  north  to  Kenia  he  went  south  to  the 
Sotik.  There  he  made  a  fine  bag  of  lions  ;  but,  having 
wounded  a  leopard  and  followed  it  into  cover,  it  sud- 
denly sprang  on  him,  apparently  from  a  tree.  His  life 
was  saved  by  his  Somali  gun-bearer,  who  blew  out  the 
leopard's  brains  as  it  bore  him  to  the  ground,  so  that  it 
had  time  to  make  only  one  bite  ;  but  this  bite  just 
missed  crushing  in  the  skull,  broke  the  jaw,  tore  off  one 
ear,  and  caused  ghastly  wreck.  He  spent  some  weeks 
in  the  hospital  at  Nairobi,  and  then  went  for  further 
treatment  to  England,  his  place  in  the  hospital  being 
taken  by  another  man  who  had  been  injured  by  a 
leopard. 

There  had  been  quite  a  plague  of  wild  beasts  in 
Nairobi  itself.  One  family  had  been  waked  at  midnight 
by  a  leopard  springing  on  the  roof  of  the  house,  and 
thence  to  an  adjacent  shed.  It  finally  spent  a  couple 
of  hours  on  the  veranda.  A  lion  had  repeatedly 
wandered  at  night  through  the  outlying  (the  residen- 
tial) portion  of  the  town.  Dr.  Milne,  the  head  of  the 
Government  Medical  Department,  had  nearly  run  into 
it  on  his  bicycle,  and,  as  a  measure  of  precaution,  guests 
going  out  to  dinner  usually  carried  spears  or  rifles.  One 
night  I  dined  with  the  Provincial  Commissioner,  Mr. 
Hobley,  and  the  next  with  the  town  clerk.  Captain 
Sanderson.  In  each  case  the  hostess,  the  host,  and  the 
house  were  all  delightful,  and  the  evening,  just  like  a 
very  pleasant  evening  spent  anywhere  in  civilization. 
The  houses  were  only  half  a  mile  apart ;  and  yet  on  the 
road  between  them  a  fortnight  previously  a  lady  on  a 
bicycle,  wheeling  down  to  a  rehearsal  of  "  Trial  by 
Jury,"  had  been  run  into  and  upset  by  a  herd  of 
frightened  zebras.     One  of  my  friends.  Captain  Smith, 


CH.  xii]  NAIROBI  321 

Director  of  Surveys  in  the  Protectorate,  had  figured  in 
another  zebra  incident  to  which  only  Mark  Twain  could 
do  justice.  Captain  Smith  lived  on  the  outskirts  of 
the  town,  and  was  much  annoyed  by  the  zebras  tearing 
through  his  ground  and  trampling  down  his  vegetables 
and  flowers.  So  one  night,  by  his  direction,  his  Masai 
servant  sallied  out  and  speared  a  zebra  which  was 
tangled  in  a  wire  fence.  But  the  magistrate,  a  rigid 
upholder  of  the  letter  of  the  law,  fined  the  Masai  for 
killing  game  without  a  licence  !  (A  touch  quite  worthy 
of  comparison  with  Mark  Twain's  account  of  how,  when 
he  called  for  assistance  while  drowning,  he  was  arrested 
for  disturbing  the  peace.)  Captain  Smith  decided  that 
next  time  there  should  be  no  taint  of  illegality  about 
his  behaviour,  so  he  got  ropes  ready,  and  when  the 
zebras  returned,  he  and  his  attendants  again  chased 
them  toward  the  wire  fences,  and  tied  up  one  which  got 
caught  therein  ;  and  then  with  much  difficulty  he  led  it 
down  town,  put  it  in  the  pound,  and  notified  Captain 
Sanderson,  the  town  clerk,  what  he  had  done.  This 
proceeding  was  entirely  regular,  and  so  was  all  that 
followed.  For  seven  days  the  zebra  was  kept  in  the 
pound,  while  the  authorities  solemnly  advertised  for  a 
highly  improbable  owner ;  then  it  was  sold  at  auction, 
being  brought  to  the  sale,  buckmg,  rolling,  and  fighting, 
securely  held  by  ropes  in  the  hands  of  various  stalwart 
natives,  and  disposed  of  to  the  only  bidder  for  five 
rupees.  The  Court  records  are  complete.  The  District 
Court  criminal  register,  under  date  of  February  1, 1909, 
contains  the  entry  of  the  prosecution  by  the  Crown 
through  "  Mutwa  Wa.  Najaka,  A.N."  of  the  Masai  for 
"  killing  zebra  without  a  licence  (under  section  4/35 
Game  Regulations  of  April  15,  1906,"  and  of  the  in- 
fliction of  a  fine  of  twenty  rupees.     The  sequel  appears 

£1 


322  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xii 

in  the  Nairobi  Municipality  Pound  Book  under  date  of 
August  6,  1909.  In  the  column  headed  "  Description 
of  Animal "  is  the  entry,  "  1  zebra  "  ;  under  the  heading 
"  By  whom  impounded "  is  the  entry,  "  Major  Smith, 
R.E." ;  under  the  heading  "  Remarks "  is  the  entry, 
"Sold  by  Public  Auctioneers,  Raphael  &  Coy.,  on 
24/1/09." 

We  had  with  us  several  recent  books  on  East  African 
big  game  :  Chapman's  "  On  Safari,"  dealing  alike  with 
the  hunting  and  the  natural  history  of  big  game  ; 
Powell  Cotton's  accounts  of  his  noteworthy  experiences 
both  in  hunting  and  in  bold  exploration ;  Stigand's 
capital  studies  of  the  spoor  and  habits  of  big  game  (it  is 
to  be  regretted  that  he  was  too  modest  to  narrate  some 
of  his  own  really  extraordinary  adventures  in  the  chase 
of  dangerous  beasts) ;  and  Buxton's  account  of  his  two 
African  trips.  Edward  North  Buxton's  books  ought 
to  be  in  the  hands  of  every  hunter  everywhere,  and 
especially  of  every  young  hunter,  because  they  teach 
just  the  right  way  in  which  to  look  at  the  sport.  With 
Buxton  big-game  hunting  is  not  a  business,  but  a  pas- 
time, not  allowed  to  become  a  mania  or  in  any  way  to 
interfere  with  the  serious  occupations  of  life,  whether 
public  or  private ;  and  yet  as  he  carried  it  on  it  is  much 
more  than  a  mere  pastime — it  is  a  craft,  a  pursuit  of 
value,  in  exercising  and  developing  hardihood  of  body 
and  the  virile  courage  and  resolution  which  necessarily 
lie  at  the  base  of  every  strong  and  manly  character. 
He  has  not  a  touch  of  the  game  butcher  in  him  ;  nor 
has  he  a  touch  of  that  craving  for  ease  and  luxury  the 
indulgence  in  which  turns  any  sport  into  a  sham  and 
a  laughing-stock.  Big-game  hunting,  pursued  as  he  has 
pursued  it,  stands  at  the  opposite  pole  from  those  so- 
called  sports  carried  on  primarily  either  as  money-making 


CH.  XII]  MY  BIRTHDAY  323 

exhibitions  or,  what  is  quite  as  bad — though  the  two 
evils  are  usually  found  in  different  social  strata— in  a 
spirit  of  such  luxurious  self-indulgence  as  to  render 
them  at  best  harmless  extravagances,  and  at  worst 
forces  which  positively  tend  to  the  weakening  of  moral 
and  physical  fibre. 

On  October  26  Tarlton,  Kermit,  Heller,  and  I  started 
from  the  railroad  station  of  Londiani  for  the  Uasin 
Gishu  Plateau  and  the  'Nzoi  River,  which  flows  not  far 
from  the  foot  of  Mount  Elgon.  This  stretch  of  country 
has  apparently  received  its  fauna  from  the  shores  of 
Lake  Victoria  Nyanza,  and  contains  several  kinds  of 
antelope,  and  a  race  or  variety  of  giraffe,  the  five-horned, 
which  are  not  found  to  the  eastward,  in  the  region  where 
we  had  ah-eady  hunted. 

On  the  27th  we  were  marching  hard,  and  I  had  no 
chance  of  sport.  I  would  have  enjoyed  a  hunt, 
because  it  was  my  birthday.  The  year  before  I  had 
celebrated  my  fiftieth  birthday  by  riding  my  jumping 
horse,  Roswell,  over  all  the  jumps  in  Rock  Creek  Park, 
at  Washington.  Roswell  is  a  safe  and  good  jumper, 
and  a  very  easy  horse  to  sit  at  a  jump ;  he  took  me, 
without  hesitation  or  error,  over  everything,  from  the 
water  jump  to  the  stone  wall,  the  rails,  and  the  bank, 
including  a  brush  hurdle  just  over  five  feet  and  a  half 
high. 

For  the  first  four  days  our  route  led  among  rolling 
hills  and  along  valleys  and  ravines,  the  country  being  so 
high  that  the  nights  were  actually  cold,  although  we 
crossed  and  recrossed  the  Equator.  The  landscape  in  its 
general  effect  called  to  mind  Southern  Oregon  and 
Northern  California  rather  than  any  tropical  country. 
Some  of  the  hills  were  bald,  others  wooded  to  the  top  ; 
there  were  wet  meadows,  and  hill-sides   covered  with 


324  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xii 

tussocks  of  rank,  thick-growing  grass,  alternating  with 
stretches  of  forest ;  and  the  chief  trees  of  the  forest 
were  stately  cedars,  yews,  and  tall  laurel-leaved  olives. 
All  this  was,  at  least  in  superficial  aspect,  northern 
enough  ;  but  now  and  then  we  came  to  patches  of  the 
thoroughly  tropical  bamboo,  which  in  East  Africa,  how- 
ever, one  soon  grows  to  associate  with  cold,  rainy 
weather,  for  it  only  grows  at  high  altitudes.  In  this 
country,  high,  cold,  rainy,  there  were  several  kinds  of 
buck,  but  none  in  any  numbers.  The  most  interesting 
were  the  roan  antelope,  which  w^ent  in  herds.  Their 
trails  led  everywhere,  across  the  high,  rolling  hill 
pastures  of  coarse  grass,  and  through  the  tangled  tree 
groves  and  the  still,  lifeless  bamboo  jungle.  They  were 
found  in  herds  and  lived  in  the  open,  feeding  on  the 
bare  hill-sides  and  in  the  wet  valleys  at  all  hours ;  but 
they  took  cover  freely,  and  when  the  merciless  gales 
blew  they  sought  shelter  in  woodland  and  jungle. 
Usually  they  grazed,  but  once  I  saw  one  browsing. 
Both  on  our  way  in  and  on  our  way  back,  through  this 
hill  country,  we  shot  several  roan,  for,  though  their 
horns  are  poor,  they  form  a  distinct  sub-species,  peculiar 
to  the  region.  The  roan  is  a  big  antelope,  nearly  as  tall, 
although  by  no  means  as  bulky,  as  an  eland,  with 
curved  scimitar-like  horns,  huge  ears,  and  face  markings 
as  sharply  defined  as  those  of  an  oryx.  It  is  found  here 
and  there,  in  isolated  localities  throughout  Africa  south 
of  the  Sahara,  and  is  of  bold,  fierce  temper.  One  of 
those  which  Kermit  shot  was  only  crippled  by  the  first 
bullet,  and  charged  the  gun-bearers,  squealing  savagely, 
in  addition  to  using  its  horns  ;  an  angry  roan,  like  a 
sable,  is  said  sometimes  to  bite  with  its  teeth.  Kermit 
also  killed  a  ratel,  or  honey  badger,  in  a  bamboo  thicket ; 


CH.  XII]  NATIVE  PORTERS  325 

it  is  an  interesting  beast,  its  back  snow  white  and  the  rest 
of  its  body  jet  black. 

As  on  the  Aberdares  and  the  slopes  of  Kenia,  the 
nights  among  these  mountains  were  cold ;  sometimes 
so  cold  that  I  was  glad  to  wear  a  mackinaw,  a  lumber- 
man's jacket,  which  had  been  given  me  by  Jack 
Greenway,  and  which  I  certainly  never  expected  to 
wear  in  Africa. 

The  porters  always  minded  cold,  especially  if  there 
was  rain,  and  I  was  glad  to  get  them  to  the  Uasin 
Gishu,  where  the  nights  were  merely  cool  enough  to 
make  one  appreciate  blankets,  while  the  days  were 
never  oppressively  hot.  Although  the  Swahilis  have 
furnished  the  model  for  all  East  African  safari  work, 
and  supply  the  lingua  franca  for  the  country,  they  no 
longer  compose  the  bulk  of  the  porters.  Of  our  porters 
at  this  time  about  two-fifths  were  stalwart  M'nuwezi 
from  German  East  Africa,  two-fifths  were  Wakamba, 
and  the  remainder  Swahilis,  with  half  a  dozen  Kavirondos 
and  Kikuyus.  The  M'nuwezi  are  the  strongest  of  all, 
and  make  excellent  porters.  They  will  often  be  as 
much  as  two  or  three  years  away  from  their  homes  ;  for 
safari  work  is  very  attractive  to  the  best  type  of  natives, 
as  they  live  much  better  than  if  travelling  on  their 
own  account,  and  it  offers  almost  the  only  way  in  which 
they  can  earn  money.  The  most  severe  punishment 
that  can  be  inflicted  on  a  gun-bearer,  tent-boy,  sais,  or 
porter  is  to  dismiss  him  on  such  terms  as  to  make  it 
impossible  for  him  again  to  be  employed  on  a  safari. 
In  camp  the  men  of  each  tribe  group  themselves  to- 
gether in  parties,  each  man  sharing  any  unwonted 
delicacy  with  his  cronies. 

Very  rarely  did  we  have  to  take  such  long  marches 
as  to  exhaust  our  strapping  burden-bearers.     Usually 


826  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xii 

they  came  into  camp  in  high  good  humour,  singing  and 
blowing  antelope  horns  ;  and  in  the  evening,  after  the 
posho  had  been  distributed,  cooked,  and  eaten,  the 
different  groups  would  gather  each  around  its  camp- 
fire,  and  the  men  would  chant  in  unison  while  the 
flutes  wailed  and  the  buzzing  harps  twanged.  Of  course, 
individuals  were  all  the  time  meeting  with  accidents  or 
falling  sick,  especially  when  they  had  the  chance  to 
gorge  themselves  on  game  that  we  had  killed  ;  and  then 
Cuninghame  or  Tarlton — than  whom  two  stancher  and 
pleasanter  friends,  keener  hunters,  or  better  safari 
managers,  are  not  to  be  found  in  all  Africa — would 
have  to  add  the  functions  of  a  doctor  to  an  already 
multifarious  round  of  duties.  Some  of  the  men  had  to 
be  watched  lest  they  should  malinger  ;  others  were 
always  complaining  of  trifles  ;  others  never  complained 
at  all.  Gosho,  our  excellent  headman,  came  in  the  last 
category.  On  this  Uasin  Gishu  trip  we  noticed  him 
limping  one  evening,  and  inquiry  developed  the  fact 
that  the  previous  night,  while  in  his  tent,  he  had  been 
bitten  by  a  small  poisonous  snake.  The  leg  was  much 
swollen,  and  looked  angry  and  inflamed  ;  but  Gosho 
never  so  much  as  mentioned  the  incident  until  we 
questioned  him,  and  in  a  few  days  was  as  well  as  ever. 
Heller's  chief  feeling,  by  the  way,  when  informed  what 
had  happened,  was  one  of  indignation,  because  the 
offending  snake,  after  paying  the  death  penalty,  had 
been  thrown  away,  instead  of  being  given  to  him  as  a 
specimen. 

The  roans  were  calving  in  early  November,  whereas, 
when  we  went  thirty  miles  on,  at  an  elevation  a 
thousand  feet  less,  we  at  first  saw  no  very  young  fawns 
accompanying  the  hartebeests,  and  no  very  young  foals 
with  the  zebras.     These  hartebeests,  which  are  named 


CH.  XII]     HARTEBEESTS,  REEDBUCKS        327 

after  their  discoverer,  Governor  Jackson,  are  totally 
different  from  the  hartebeests  of  the  Athi  and  the  Sotik 
countries,  and  are  larger  and  finer  in  every  way.  One 
bull  1  shot  weighed,  in  pieces,  four  hundred  and  seventy 
pounds.  No  allowance  was  made  for  the  spilt  blood, 
and,  inasmuch  as  he  had  been  hal-lalled,  I  think  his  live 
weight  would  have  been  nearly  four  hundred  and  ninety 
pounds.  He  was  a  big,  full-grown  bull,  but  not  of 
extraordinary  size.  Later  I  killed  much  bigger  ones — 
unusually  fine  specimens,  which  must  have  weighed 
well  over  five  hundred  pounds.  The  horns,  which  are 
sometimes  two  feet  long,  are  set  on  great  bony  pedicels, 
so  that  the  face  seems  long  and  homely  even  for  a 
hartebeest.  The  first  two  or  three  of  these  hartebeests 
which  I  killed  were  shot  at  long  range,  for,  like  all 
game,  they  are  sometimes  exceedingly  wary ;  but  we 
soon  found  that  normally  they  were  as  tame  as  they 
were  plentiful.  We  frequently  saw  them  close  by  the 
herds  of  the  Boer  settlers.  They  were  the  common 
game  of  the  plains.  At  times,  of  course,  they  were 
difficult  to  approach  ;  but  again  and  again,  usually 
when  we  were  riding,  we  came  upon,  not  only  in- 
dividuals, but  herds  down  wind  and  in  plain  view, 
which  permitted  us  to  approach  to  within  a  hundred 
yards  before  they  definitely  took  flight.  Their  motions 
look  ungainly  until  they  get  into  their  full-speed  stride. 
They  utter  no  sound  save  the  usual  hartebeest  sneeze. 

There  were  bohor  reedbuck  also — pretty  creatures, 
about  the  size  of  a  whitetail  deer,  which  lay  close  in 
the  reed  beds,  or  in  hollows  among  the  tall  grass,  and 
usually  offered  rather  difficult  running  shots  or  very 
long  standing  shots.  Still  prettier  were  the  little  oribi. 
These  are  grass  antelopes,  frequenting  much  the  same 
places   as   the   duiker  and    steinbuck,   and   not   much 


328  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xii 

larger.  Where  the  grass  was  long  they  would  lie  close, 
with  neck  flat  along  the  ground,  and  dart  off  when 
nearly  stepped  on,  with  a  pig-like  rush  like  that  of  a 
reedbuck  or  duiker  in  similar  thick  cover.  But  where 
the  grass  was  short,  and  especially  where  it  was  burned, 
they  did  not  trust  to  lying  down  and  hiding ;  on  the 
contrary,  in  such  places  they  were  conspicuous  little 
creatures,  and  trusted  to  their  speed  and  alert  vigilance 
for  their  safety.  They  run  very  fast,  with  great  bounds, 
and  when  they  stand — usually  at  a  hundred  and  fifty  or 
two  hundred  yards — they  face  the  hunter,  the  forward- 
thrown  ears  being  the  most  noticeable  thing  about 
them.  We  found  that  each  oribi  bagged  cost  us  an 
unpleasantly  large  number  of  cartridges. 

One  day  we  found  the  spot  where  a  large  party  of 
hyenas  had  established  their  day  lairs  in  the  wet  seclusion 
of  some  reed  beds.  We  beat  through  these  reed  beds, 
and,  in  the  words  once  used  by  an  old  plains  friend  in 
describing  the  behaviour  of  a  family  of  black  bears 
under  similar  circumstances,  the  hyenas  "  came  bilin' 
out."  As  they  bolted  Kermit  shot  one  and  I  another ; 
his  bit  savagely  at  a  stick  with  which  one  of  the  gun- 
bearers  poked  it.  It  is  difficult  at  first  glance  to  tell 
the  sex  of  a  hyena,  and  our  followers  stoutly  upheld 
the  widespread  African  belief  that  they  are  bisexual, 
being  male  or  female  as  they  choose.  A  wounded  or 
trapped  hyena  will  of  course  bite  if  seized,  but  shows 
no  sign  of  the  ferocious  courage  which  marks  the  leopard 
under  such  circumstances  ;  for  the  hyena  is  as  cowardly 
as  it  is  savage,  although  its  size  and  the  tremendous 
power  of  its  jaws  ought  to  make  it  as  formidable  as  the 
fierce  spotted  cat.   ' 

The  day  after  this  incident  we  came  on  a  herd  of 
giraffe.     It  was  Kermit's  turn  for  a  giraffe  ;  and  just  as 


CH.  XII]  A  GIRAFFE  CHASE  329 

the  herd  got  under  way  he  wounded  the  big  bull. 
Away  went  the  tall  creatures,  their  tails  twisting  and 
curling,  as  they  cantered  along  over  the  rough  veldt 
and  among  the  thorn  bushes,  at  that  gait  of  theirs 
which  looks  so  leisurely  and  which  yet  enables  them  to 
cover  so  much  ground.  After  them  we  tore,  Kermit 
and  Tarlton  in  the  lead  ;  and  a  fine  chase  we  had.  It 
was  not  until  we  had  gone  two  or  three  miles  that  the 
bull  lagged  behind  the  herd.  I  was  riding  the  tranquil 
sorrel,  not  a  speedy  horse,  and  by  this  time  my  weight 
was  telling  on  him.  Kermit  and  his  horse  had  already 
turned  a  somersault,  having  gone  into  an  ant-bear  hole, 
which  the  tall  grass  concealed ;  but  they  were  up  and 
off  in  an  instant.  All  Tranquillity's  enthusiasm  had 
vanished,  and  only  by  constant  thumping  with  heels 
and  gun  butt  could  I  keep  him  at  a  slow  hand  gallop, 
and  in  sight  of  the  leaders.  We  came  to  a  slight  rise, 
where  the  rank  grass  grew  high  and  thick  ;  and  Tran- 
quillity put  both  his  fore-legs  into  an  ant-bear  hole,  and 
with  obvious  relief  rolled  gently  over  on  his  side.  It 
was  not  really  a  tumble  ;  he  hailed  the  ant-bear  burrow 
as  offering  a  way  out  of  a  chase  in  which  he  had  grown 
to  take  less  than  no  interest.  Besides,  he  really  was 
winded,  and  when  we  got  up  I  could  barely  get  him 
into  a  canter ;  and  I  saw  no  more  of  the  run.  Mean- 
while Kermit  and  Tarlton  raced  alongside  the  wounded 
bull,  one  on  each  flank,  and  started  him  toward  camp, 
which  was  about  five  miles  from  where  the  hunt  began. 
Two  or  three  times  he  came  to  a  standstill,  and  turned 
first  toward  one  and  then  toward  the  other  of  his 
pursuers,  almost  as  if  he  meditated  a  charge ;  but  they 
shouted  at  him  and  he  resumed  his  flight.  They 
brought  him  within  three  hundred  yards  of  camp,  and 
then  Kermit  leaped  off  and  finished  him. 


330  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xti 

This  bull  was  a  fine  specimen,  coloured  almost  exactly 
like  the  giraffes  of  the  Athi  and  Sotik,  but  with  much 
more  horn  development.  I  doubt  whether  this  five- 
horned  kind  is  more  than  a  local  race.  The  bulls  have 
been  described  as  very  dark ;  but  the  one  thus  shot,  a 
big  and  old  master  bull,  was  unusually  light,  and  in  the 
herd  there  were  individuals  of  every  shade,  much  the 
darkest  being  a  rather  small  cow.  Indeed,  in  none  of 
the  varieties  of  giraffe  did  we  find  that  the  old  bulls 
were  markedly  darker  than  the  others  ;  many  of  them 
were  dark,  but  some  of  the  biggest  were  light- coloured, 
and  the  darkest  individuals  in  a  herd  were  often  cows. 
Giraffes,  by  the  way,  do  sometimes  lie  down  to  sleep, 
but  not  often.  ^ 

In  order  that  Heller  might  take  care  of  the  giraffe 
skin  we  had  to  spend  a  couple  of  days  where  we  were 
then  camped.  The  tents  were  pitched  near  a  spring  of 
good  water,  beside  a  slight  valley  in  which  there  were 
marshy  spots  and  reed  beds.  The  country  was  rolling, 
and  covered  with  fine  grass,  unfortunately  so  tall  as  to 
afford  secure  cover  for  lions.  There  were  stretches  bare 
of  trees,  and  other  stretches  with  a  sparse,  scattered 
growth  of  low  thorns  or  of  the  big  glossy-leaved  bush 
which  I  have  spoken  of  as  the  African  jessamine  because 
of  the  singularly  sweet  and  jessamine-like  fragrance  of 

^  This  is  just  one  of  the  points  as  to  which  no  one  observer 
should  dogmatize  or  try  to  lay  down  general  laws  with  no  excep- 
tions. Moreover,  the  personal  equation  of  even  the  most  honest 
observer  must  always  be  taken  into  account  in  considering  not 
merely  matters  like  this,  but  even  such  things  as  measurements. 
For  example,  Neuman,  in  his  "  Elephant  Hunting,"  gives  measure- 
ments of  the  height  of  both  elephants  and  Grevy's  zebra.  Our 
measurements  made  the  elephants  taller  and  the  big  zebras  less  tall 
than  he  found  them.  Measurements  of  the  lengths  of  lions  made 
by  different  observers  are  for  this  reason  rarely  of  much  value  for 
purposes  of  comparison. 


CH.  XII]  FLOWERS  OF  AFRICA  331 

its  flowers.  Most  of  these  bushes  were  in  full  bloom, 
as  they  had  been  six  months  before  on  the  Athi  and 
three  months  before  near  Kenia  ;  some  bore  berries,  of 
which  it  is  said  that  the  wild  elephant  herds  are  fond. 

It  is  hard  to  lay  down  general  rules  as  to  the  blossom- 
ing times  of  plants  or  breeding  times  of  animals  in 
equatorial  Africa.  Before  we  left  the  Uasin  Gishu 
tableland  some  of  the  hartebeest  cows  appeared  with 
new-born  calves.  Some  of  the  acacias  had  put  forth 
their  small,  globular,  yellow  blossoms,  just  as  the 
acacias  on  the  Athi  plains  were  doing  in  the  previous 
May.  The  blue  lupins  were  flowering,  for  it  is  a  cool, 
pleasant  country. 

Our  camp  here  was  attractive,  and  Kermit  and  I  took 
advantage  of  our  leisure  to  fill  out  the  series  of  speci- 
mens of  the  big  hartebeest  and  the  oribi  which  Heller 
needed  for  the  National  Museum.  The  flesh  of  the 
oribis  was  reserved  for  our  own  table ;  that  of  the 
kanganis— which  had  been  dulyhal-lalled  by  the  Moslems 
among  our  gun-bearers — was  turned  over  to  what  might 
be  called  the  officers'  mess  of  the  safari  proper,  the  head- 
men, cooks,  tent-boys,  gun-bearers,  and  saises  ;  while,  of 
course,  the  skinners  and  porters  who  happened  to  be  out 
with  us  when  any  animal  was  slain  got  their  share  of  the 
meat.  We  also  killed  two  more  hyenas  ;  one,  a  dog, 
weighed  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds,  being  smaller 
than  those  Heller  had  trapped  while  skinning  the  first 
bull  elephant  I  shot  in  the  Kenia  forest. 

Good  Ali,  my  tent-boy,  kept  bowls  of  the  sweet- 
scented  jessamine  on  our  dining-table.  Now  that  there 
were  four  of  us  together  again  we  used  the  dining-tent, 
which  I  had  discarded  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  trip.  Bak- 
hari  had  been  rather  worn  down  by  the  work  on  the 
Guaso  Nyero,  and  m  his  place  I  had  taken  Kongoni,  a 


332  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xti 

Wakamba  with  filed  teeth,  like  my  second  gun-bearer, 
Gouvimali,  but  a  Moslem,  although  his  Moslemism  did 
not  go  very  deep.     Kongoni  was  the  best  gun -bearer  I 
had  yet  had,  very  willing,  and  excellent  both  at  seeing 
and  tracking  game.     Kermit's   two   gun-bearers   were 
Juma  Yohari,  a  coal-black  Swahili  Moslem,  and  Kassi- 
tura,  a  Christian  negro  from  Uganda.     Both  of  them 
were  as  eager  to  do  everything  for  Kermit  as  mine  were 
to  render  me  any  service,  great  or  small,  and  in  addition 
they  were  capital  men  for  their  special  work.     Juma  was 
always  smiling  and  happy,  and  was  a  high  favourite 
among  his  fellows.     At  lunch,  when  we  had  any,  if  I 
gave  my  own  followers  some  of  the  chocolate,  or  what- 
ever else  it  was  that  I  had  put  in  my  saddle  pocket,  I 
always  noticed  that  they  called  up  Yohari  to  share  it. 
He  it  was  who  would  receive  the  coloured  cards  from 
my  companions'  tobacco-pouches  or  from  the  packages 
of  chocolate,  and,  after  puzzling  over  them  until  he 
could  himself  identify  the  brilliantly  coloured   ladies, 
gentlemen,  little  girls,  and  wild  beasts,  would  volubly 
explain  them  to  the  others.     Kassitura,  quite  as  efficient 
and  hard-working,  was  a  huge,  solemn  black  man,  as 
faithful    and   uncomplaining    a    soul   as   I   ever   met. 
Kermit  had  picked  him  out  from  among  the  porters  to 
carry  his  camera,  and  had  then  promoted  him  to  be 
gun-bearer.     In  his  place  he  had  taken  as  camera-bearer 
an  equally  powerful  porter,  a  heathen  'Mnuwezi  named 
Mali.     His  tent-boy  had  gone  crooked,  and  one  evening, 
some  months  later,  after  a  long  and  trying  march,  he 
found  Mali,  whose  performance  of  his  new  duties  he  had 
been  closely  watching,  the  only  man  up  ;  and   Mali, 
always  willing,  turned  in  of  his  own  accord  to  help  get 
Kermit's  tent  in  shape,  so  Kermit  suddenly  told  him  he 
would  promote  him  to  be  tent-boy.     At  first  Mali  did 


CH.  xii]       THE  NILE  WATERSHED  888 

not  quite  understand ;  then  he  pondered  a  moment  or 
two,  and  suddenly  leaped  into  the  air,  exclaiming  in 
Swahili :  "  Now  I  am  a  big  man."  And  he  faithfully 
strove  to  justify  his  promotion.  In  similar  fashion 
Kermit  picked  out  on  the  Nairobi  race- track  a  Kikuyu 
sais  named  Magi,  and  brought  him  out  with  us.  Magi 
turned  out  the  best  sais  in  the  safari,  and  besides  doing 
his  own  duty  so  well,  he  was  always  exceedingly  inter- 
ested in  everything  that  concerned  his  own  Bwana, 
Kermit,  or  me,  from  the  proper  arrangement  of  our  sun- . 
pads  to  the  success  of  our  shooting. 

From  the  giraffe  camp  we  went  two  days'  journey  to 
the  'Nzoi  River.  Until  this  Uasin  Gishu  trip  we  had 
been  on  waters  which  either  vanished  in  the  desert  or 
else  flowed  into  the  Indian  Ocean.  Now  we  had  crossed 
the  divide,  and  were  on  the  Nile  side  of  the  watershed. 
The  'Nzoi,  a  rapid,  muddy  river  passing  south  of  Mount 
Elgon,  empties  into  the  Victoria  Nyanza.  Our  route 
to  its  bank  led  across  a  rolling  country,  covered  by  a 
dense  growth  of  tall  grass,  and  in  most  places  by  open 
thorn  scrub,  while  here  and  there,  in  the  shallow  valleys 
or  depressions,  were  swamps.  There  were  lions,  and 
at  night  we  heard  them  ;  but  in  such  long  grass  it  was 
wellnigh  hopeless  to  look  for  them.  Evidently  troops 
of  elephants  occasionally  visited  these  plains,  for  the 
tops  of  the  little  thorn-trees  were  torn  off  and  browsed 
down  by  the  mighty  brutes.  How  they  can  tear  off 
and  swallow  such  prickly  dainties  as  these  thorn 
branches,  armoured  with  needle -pointed  spikes,  is  a 
mystery.  Tarlton  told  me  that  he  had  seen  an  elephant, 
while  feeding  greedily  on  the  young  top  of  a  thorn-tree, 
prick  its  trunk  until  it  uttered  a  little  scream  or  whine 
of  pain ;  and  it  then,  in  a  fit  of  pettishness,  revenged 
itself  by  wrecking  the  thorn-tree. 


334  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xii 

Game  abounded  on  the  plains.  We  saw  a  couple  of 
herds  of  giraffes.  The  hartebeests  were  the  most 
plentiful  and  the  least  shy ;  time  after  time  a  small 
herd  loitered  until  we  were  within  a  hundred  yards 
before  cantering  away.  Once  or  twice  we  saw  topi 
among  them ;  and  often  there  were  mixed  herds  of 
zebras  and  hartebeests.  Oribi  were  common,  and  some- 
times uttered  a  peculiar  squealing  whistle  when  they 
first  saw  us.  The  reedbuck  also  whistled,  but  their 
whistle  was  entirely  distinct.  It  was  astonishing  how 
close  the  reedbuck  lay.  Again  and  again  we  put  them 
up  within  a  few  feet  of  us  from  patches  of  reeds  or 
hollows  in  the  long  grass.  A  much  more  singular 
habit  is  the  way  in  which  they  share  these  retreats  with 
dangerous  wild  beasts — a  trait  common  also  to  the 
cover-loving  bushbuck.  From  one  of  the  patches  of 
reeds  in  which  Kermit  and  1  shot  two  hyenas  a  reed- 
buck doe  immediately  afterward  took  flight.  She  had 
been  reposing  peacefully  during  the  day  within  fifty 
yards  of  several  hyenas !  Tarlton  had  more  than  once 
found  both  reedbuck  and  bushbuck  in  comparatively 
small  patches  of  cover  which  also  held  lions. 

It  is,  by  the  way,  a  little  difficult  to  know  what 
names  to  use  in  distinguishing  between  the  sexes  of 
African  game.  The  trouble  is  one  which  obtains  in 
all  new  countries,  where  the  settlers  have  to  name  new 
beasts,  and  is,  of  course,  primarily  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  terms  already  found  in  the  language  originally 
applied  only  to  domestic  animals  and  to  European 
beasts  of  the  chase.  Africanders,  whether  Dutch  or 
English,  speak  of  all  antelope,  of  either  sex,  as  "buck." 
Then  they  call  the  males  and  females  of  the  larger  kinds 
bulls  and  cows,  just  as  Americans  do  when  they  speak 
of  moose,  wapiti,  and  caribou  ,  and  the  males  and  females 


CH.  xii]  THE  'NOZI  335 

of  the  smaller  kinds  they  usually  speak  of  as  rams  and 
ewes. 

While  on  safari  to  the  'Nzoi  I  was  even  more  in- 
terested in  honey-birds  which  led  us  to  honey  than  I 
was  in  the  game.  John  Burroughs  had  especially 
charged  me  before  starting  for  Africa  to  look  personally 
into  this  extraordinary  habit  of  the  honey-bird — a  habit 
so  extraordinary  that  he  was  inclined  to  disbelieve  the 
reality  of  its  existence.  But  it  unquestionably  does 
exist.  Every  experienced  hunter  and  every  native  who 
lives  in  the  wilderness  has  again  and  again  been  an  eye- 
witness of  it.  Kermit,  in  addition  to  his  experience  in 
the  Sotik,  had  been  led  by  a  honey-bird  to  honey  in  a 
rock  near  Lake  Hannington.  Once  while  I  was  track- 
ing game  a  honey-bird  made  his  appearance,  chattering 
loudly  and  flying  beside  us.  I  let  two  of  the  porters 
follow  it,  and  it  led  them  to  honey.  On  the  morning 
of  the  day  we  reached  the  'Nzoi  a  honey-bird  appeared 
beside  the  safari,  behaving  in  the  same  manner.  Some 
of  the  men  begged  to  be  allowed  to  follow  it.  While 
they  were  talking  to  me,  the  honey-bird  flew  to  a  big 
tree  fifty  yards  off,  and  called  loudly  as  it  flitted  to  and 
fro  in  the  branches  ;  and  sure  enough  there  was  honey 
in  the  tree.  I  let  some  of  the  men  stay  to  get  the 
honey ;  but  they  found  little  except  comb  filled  with 
grubs.  Some  of  this  was  put  aside  for  the  bird,  which 
ate  the  grubs.  The  natives  believe  that  misfortune  will 
follow  any  failure  on  their  part  to  leave  the  honey-bird 
its  share  of  the  booty.  They  also  insist  that  sometimes 
the  honey-bird  will  lead  a  man  to  a  serpent  or  wild 
beast ;  and  sure  enough  Dr.  Mearns  was  once  thus  led 
up  to  a  rhinoceros.  While  camped  on  the  'Nzoi,  the 
honey-birds  were  almost  a  nuisance.  They  were  very 
common,  and  were  continually  accompanying  us  as  we 


336  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xii 

hunted,  flying  from  tree  to  tree,  and  never  ceasing  their 
harsh  chatter.  Several  times  we  followed  birds,  which 
in  each  case  led  us  to  bee-trees,  and  then  perched 
quietly  by  until  the  gun-bearers  and  porters  (Gouvimali 
shone  on  such  occasions)  got  out  the  honey,  which  we 
found  excellent  eating,  by  the  way. 

Our  camp  here  was  in  a  beautiful  country,  and  game 
— for  the  most  part  Uganda  kob  and  singsing  water- 
buck — often  fed  in  sight  of  the  tents.  The  kob  is  a 
small  short-haired  waterbuck,  with  slightly  different 
horns.  It  is  a  chunky  antelope,  with  a  golden  red  coat. 
I  weighed  one  old  buck  which  I  shot,  and  it  tipped 
the  beam  at  two  hundred  and  twenty  pounds.  Kermit 
killed  a  bigger  one,  weighing  two  hundred  and  forty 
pounds,  but  its  horns  were  poorer.  In  their  habits  the 
kob  somewhat  resemble  impalla,  the  does  being  found 
in  bands  of  twenty  or  thirty  with  a  single  master  buck  ; 
and  they  sometimes  make  great  impal la-like  bounds. 
They  fed,  at  all  hours  of  the  day,  in  the  flats  near  the 
river  and  along  the  edges  of  the  swamps,  and  were  not 
very  wary.  They  never  tried  to  hide,  and  were  always 
easily  seen — in  utter  contrast  to  the  close-lying,  skulk- 
ing, bohor  reedbuck,  which  lay  like  a  rabbit  in  the  long 
grass  or  reeds.  The  kob,  on  the  contrary,  were  always 
anxious  themselves  to  see  round  about,  and,  like  water- 
buck  and  hartebeest,  frequently  used  the  ant-heaps  as 
lookout  stations.  It  was  a  pretty  sight  to  see  a  herd 
of  the  bright  red  creatures  clustered  on  a  big  ant-hill, 
all  the  necks  outstretched  and  all  the  ears  thrown  for- 
ward. The  females  are  hornless.  By  the  middle  of 
November  we  noticed  an  occasional  new-born  calf. 

The  handsome,  shaggy-coated,  singsing  waterbuck 
had  much  the  same  habits  as  the  kob.  Like  the  kob, 
they  fed  at  all  hours  of  the  day ;  but  they  were  more 


CH.  XII]  CAUTIOUS  STALKING  337 

wary,  and  more  apt  to  be  found  in  country  where  there 
were  a  good  many  bushes  or  small  trees.  Waterbuck 
and  kob  sometimes  associated  together. 

The  best  singsing  bull  I  got  I  owed  to  Tarlton's 
good  eyesight  and  skill  in  tracking  and  stalking.  The 
herd  of  which  it  was  master  bull  were  shy,  and  took 
the  alarm  just  as  we  first  saw  them.  Tarlton  followed 
their  trail  for  a  couple  of  miles,  and  then  stalked  them 
to  an  inch  by  the  dexterous  use  of  a  couple  of  bushes 
and  an  ant-hill,  the  ant-hill  being  reached  after  a  two 
hundred  yards'  crawl,  first  on  all-fours  and  then  flat  on 
the  ground,  which  resulted  in  my  getting  a  good  off- 
hand shot  at  a  hundred  and  eighty  yards.  At  this 
time,  about  the  middle  of  November,  some  of  the  cows 
had  new-born  calves.  One  day  I  shot  a  hartebeest  bull, 
with  horns  twenty-four  inches  long,  as  it  stood  on  the 
top  of  an  ant-heap.  On  going  up  to  it  we  noticed 
something  behind  a  little  bush,  sixty  yards  off.  We 
were  puzzled  what  it  could  be,  but  finally  made  out 
a  waterbuck  cow,  and  a  minute  or  two  later  away  she 
bounded  to  safety,  followed  by  a  wee  calf.  The  porters 
much  appreciated  the  flesh  of  the  waterbuck.  We  did 
not.  It  is  the  poorest  eating  of  African  antelope  ;  and 
among  the  big  antelope  only  the  eland  is  good  as  a 
steady  diet. 

One  day  we  drove  a  big  swamp,  putting  a  hundred 
porters  across  it  in  line,  while  Kermit  and  I  walked 
a  little  ahead  of  them  along  the  edges,  he  on  one  side 
and  I  on  the  other.  I  shot  a  couple  of  bushbuck — an 
ewe  and  a  young  ram  ;  and  after  the  drive  was  over  he 
shot  a  female  leopard  as  she  stood  on  the  side  of  an 
ant-hill. 

There  were  a  number  of  both  reedbuck  and  bush- 
buck   in   the   swamp.     The   reedbuck   were   all   ewes, 


838  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU  [ch.  xii 

which  we  did  not  want.  There  were  one  or  two  big 
bushbuck  rams,  but  they  broke  back  through  the 
beaters ;  and  so  did  two  bushbuck  ewes  and  one  reed- 
buck  ewe,  one  of  the  bushbuck  ewes  actually  knocking 
down  a  beater.  They  usually  either  cleared  out  while 
the  beaters  were  still  half  a  mile  distant,  or  else  waited 
until  they  were  almost  trodden  on.  The  bushbuck 
rams  were  very  dark  coloured ;  the  hornless  ewes  and 
the  young  were  a  brilHant  red,  the  belly,  the  under  side 
and  edges  of  the  conspicuous  fluffy  tail,  and  a  few  dim 
spots  on  the  cheeks  and  flanks  being  white.  Although 
these  buck  frequent  thick  cover,  forest,  or  swamp,  and 
trust  for  their  safety  to  hiding,  and  to  eluding  observa- 
tion by  their  stealthy,  skulking  ways,  then  coloration 
has  not  the  smallest  protective  value,  being,  on  the 
contrary,  very  conspicuous  in  both  sexes,  but  especially 
in  the  females  and  young,  who  most  need  protection. 
Bushbuck  utter  a  loud  bark.  The  hoofs  of  those  we 
shot  were  very  long,  as  is  often  the  case  with  water- 
loving,  marsh-frequenting  species.  There  is  a  curious 
collar-like  space  around  the  neck,  on  which  there  is  no 
hair.  Although,  if  anything,  smaller  than  our  white- 
tail  deer,  the  bushbuck  is  a  vicious  and  redoubtable 
fighter,  and  will  charge  a  man  without  hesitation. 

The  last  day  we  were  at  the  'Nzoi  the  porters 
petitioned  for  one  ample  meal  of  meat,  and  we  shot 
a  dozen  buck  for  them — kangani,  kob,  and  singsing. 
One  of  the  latter,  a  very  fine  bull,  fairly  charged  Kermit 
and  his  gun-bearer  when  they  got  within  a  few  yards  of 
it,  as  it  lay  wounded.  This  bull  grunted  loudly  as  he 
charged  ;  the  grunt  of  an  oryx  under  similar  circum- 
stances is  almost  a  growl.  On  this  day  both  Kermit 
and  I  were  led  to  bee  trees  by  honey-birds,  and  took 
some  of  the  honey  for  lunch,     Kermit  stayed  after  his 


CH.  XII]  HONEY-BIRDS  339 

boys  had  left  the  tree,  so  as  to  see  exactly  what  the 
honey-bird  did.  The  boys  had  smoked  out  the  bees, 
and  when  they  left  the  tree  was  still  smoking.  Through- 
out the  process  the  honey-bird  had  stayed  quietly  in 
a  neighbouring  tree,  occasionally  uttering  a  single 
bubbling  cluck.  As  soon  as  the  boys  left,  it  flew 
straight  for  the  smoking  bee  tree,  uttering  a  long  trill, 
utterly  different  from  the  chattering  noise  made  while 
trying  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  men  and  lead 
them  to  the  tree  ;  and  not  only  did  it  eat  the  grubs, 
but  it  also  ate  the  bees  that  were  stupefied  by  the 
smoke. 

Next  day  we  moved  camp  to  the  edge  of  a  swamp 
about  five  miles  from  the  river.  Near  the  tents  was  one 
of  the  trees  which,  not  knowing  its  real  name,  we  called 
"  sausage  tree  ";  the  seeds  or  fruits  are  encased  in  a  kind 
of  hard  gourd,  the  size  of  a  giant  sausage,  which  swings 
loosely  at  the  end  of  a  long  tendril.  The  swamp  was 
half  or  three-quarters  of  a  mile  across,  with  one  or 
two  ponds  in  the  middle,  from  which  we  shot  ducks. 
FrancoHiis — delicious  eating,  as  the  ducks  were  also — 
uttered  their  gi'ating  calls  near  by  ;  while  oribi  and 
hartebeest  were  usually  to  be  seen  from  the  tents.  The 
hartebeest,  by  the  way,  in  its  three  forms,  is  much  the 
commonest  game  animal  of  East  Africa. 

A  few  miles  beyond  this  swamp  we  suddenly  came 
on  a  small  herd  of  elephants  in  the  open.  There  were 
eight  cows  and  two  calves,  and  they  were  moving 
slowly,  feeding  on  the  thorny  tops  of  the  scattered 
mimosas  and  of  other  bushes  which  were  thornless. 
The  eyesight  of  elephants  is  very  bad  ;  I  doubt  whether 
they  see  more  clearly  than  a  rather  near-sighted  man ; 
and  we  walked  up  to  within  seventy  yards  of  these, 
slight  though  the  cover  was,  so  that  Kermit  could  try 


840  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

to  photograph  them.  We  did  not  need  to  kill  another 
cow  for  the  National  Museum,  and  so,  after  we  had 
looked  at  the  huge,  interesting  creatures  as  long  as  we 
wished,  we  croaked  and  whistled,  and  they  moved  off 
with  leisurely  indifference.  There  is  always  a  fascina- 
tion about  watching  elephants  ;  they  are  such  giants, 
they  are  so  intelligent  —much  more  so  than  any  other 
game,  except  perhaps  the  lion,  whose  intelligence  has  a 
veiy  sinister  bent — and  they  look  so  odd  with  their 
great  ears  flapping  and  their  trunks  lifting  and  curling. 
Elephants  are  rarely  absolutely  still  for  any  length  of 
time  ;  now  and  then  they  flap  an  ear,  or  their  bodies 
sway  slightly,  while  at  intervals  they  utter  curious 
internal  rumblings,  or  trumpet  gently.  These  were 
feeding  on  saplings  of  the  mimosas  and  other  trees, 
apparently  caring  nothing  for  the  thorns  of  the  former ; 
they  would  tear  off  branches,  big  or  little,  or  snap  a 
trunk  short  off  if  the  whim  seized  them.  They  swal- 
lowed the  leaves  and  twigs  of  these  trees  ;  but  I  have 
known  them  merely  chew  and  spit  out  the  stems  of 
certain  bushes. 

After  leaving  the  elephants  we  were  on  our  way  back 
to  camp  when  we  saw  a  white  man  in  the  trail  ahead  ; 
and  on  coming  nearer  who  should  it  prove  to  be  but 
Carl  Akeley,  who  was  out  on  a  trip  for  the  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  in  New  York.  We  went 
with  him  to  his  camp,  where  we  found  Mrs.  Akeley, 
Clark,  who  was  assisting  him,  and  Messrs.  McCutcheon 
and  Stevenson,  who  were  on  a  similar  errand.  They 
were  old  friends,  and  I  was  very  glad  to  see  them. 
McCutcheon,  the  cartoonist,  had  been  at  a  farewell 
lunch  given  me  by  Robert  ColUer  just  before  I  left 
New  York,  and  at  the  lunch  we  had  been  talking  much 
of  George  Ade,  and  the  first  question  I  put  to  him  was 


CH.  XII]  CHASED  BY  A  HIPPO  341 

"  Where  is  George  Ade  ?"  for  if  one  unexpectedly  meets 
an  American  cartoonist  on  a  hunting  trip  in  mid- Africa 
there  seems  no  reason  why  one  should  not  also  see  his 
crony,  an  American  playright.  A  year  previously 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Akeley  had  lunched  with  me  at  the 
White  House,  and  we  had  talked  over  our  proposed 
African  trips.  Akeley,  an  old  African  wanderer,  was 
going  out  with  the  especial  purpose  of  getting  a  group 
of  elephants  for  the  American  Museum,  and  was 
anxious  that  I  should  shoot  one  or  two  of  them  for  him. 
I  had  told  him  that  I  certainly  would  if  it  were  a 
possibility  ;  and  on  learning  that  we  had  just  seen  a 
herd  of  cows  he  felt — as  I  did — that  the  chance  had 
come  for  me  to  fulfil  my  promise.  So  we  decided  that 
he  should  camp  with  us  that  night,  and  that  next 
morning  we  would  start  with  a  light  outfit  to  see 
whether  we  could  not  overtake  the  herd. 

An  amusing  incident  occurred  that  evening.     After 
dark  some  of  the  porters  went  through  the  reeds  to  get 
water  from  the  pond  in  the  middle  of  the  swamp.     I 
was  sitting  in  my  tent  when  a  loud  yelling  and  scream- 
ing rose  from  the  swamp,  and  in  rushed  Kongoni  to  say 
that  one  of  the  men,  while  drawing  water,  had  been 
seized  by  a  lion.     Snatching  up  a  rifle,  I  was  off  at  a 
run  for  the  swamp,  calling  for  lanterns  ;  Kermit  and 
Tarlton  joined  me,  the  lanterns  were  brought,  and  we 
reached  the  meadow  of  short  marsh  grass  which  sur- 
rounded the  high  reeds  in  the  middle.     No  sooner  were 
we  on  this  meadow  than  there  were  loud  snortings  in 
the  darkness  ahead   of  us,  and  then  the  sound  of  a 
heavy  animal  galloping  across  our  front.     It  turned  out 
that  there  was  no  lion  in  the  case  at  all,  but  that  the 
porters  had  been  chased  by  a  hippo.     I  should  not  have 
supposed  that   a   hippo   would   live  in  such  a   small, 


342  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xti 

isolated  swamp  ;  but  there  he  was  on  the  meadow  in 
front  of  me,  invisible,  but  snorting,  and  galloping  to 
and  fro.  Evidently  he  was  much  interested  in  the 
lights,  and  we  thought  he  might  charge  us  ;  but  he  did 
not,  retreating  slowly  as  we  advanced,  until  he  plunged 
into  the  little  pond.  Hippos  are  sometimes  dangerous 
at  night,  and  so  we  waded  through  the  swamp  until  we 
came  to  the  pool  at  which  the  porters  filled  their  buckets, 
and  stood  guard  over  them  until  they  were  through ; 
while  the  hippo,  unseen  in  the  darkness,  came  closer  to 
us,  snorting  and  plunging — possibly  from  wrath  and 
insolence,  but  more  probably  from  mere  curiosity. 

Next  morning  Akeley,  Tarlton,  Kermit,  and  I  started 
on  our  elephant  hunt.     We  were  travelling  light.     1 
took  nothing  but  my  bedding,  wash  kit,  spare  socks, 
and  slippers,  all  in  a  roll  of  waterproof  canvas.     We 
went  to  where  we  had  seen  the  herd,  and  then  took  up 
the  trail,  Kongoni  and  two  or  three  other  gun-bearers 
walking  ahead  as  trackers.     They  did  their  work  well. 
The   elephants   had   not   been   in    the   least    alarmed. 
Where  they  had  walked  in  single  file  it  was  easy  to 
follow   their   trail  ;   but   the  trackers   had   hard   work 
puzzling  it  out  where  the  animals  had  scattered  out  and 
loitered  along  feeding.     The  trail  led  up  and  down  hills 
and  through  open  thorn  scrub,  and  it  crossed  and  re- 
crossed  the  wooded  watercourses  in  the  bottoms  of  the 
valleys.     At  last,  after  going  some  ten  miles,  we  came 
on  signs  of  where  the  elephants  had  fed  that  morning, 
and  four  or  five  miles  farther  on  we  overtook  them. 
That  we  did  not  scare  them  into  flight   was   due  to 
Tarlton.       The   trail    went    nearly   across    wind  ;    the 
trackers  were  leading  us  swiftly  along  it,  when  suddenly 
Tarlton  heard  a  low  trumpet  ahead  and  to  the  right 
hand.     We  at  once  doubled  back,  left  the  horses,  and 


CH.  xii]       AN  ELEPHANT  CHARGE  848 

advanced  towards  where  the  noise  indicated  that  the 
herd  were  standing. 

In  a  couple  of  minutes  we  sighted  them.  It  was  just 
noon.  There  were  six  cows  and  two  well-grown  calves 
— these  last  being  quite  big  enough  to  shift  for  them- 
selves or  to  be  awkward  antagonists  for  any  man  of 
whom  they  could  get  hold.  They  stood  in  a  clump, 
each  occasionally  shifting  its  position  or  lazily  flapping 
an  ear  ;  and  now  and  then  one  would  break  off  a  branch 
with  its  trunk,  tuck  it  into  its  mouth,  and  withdraw  it 
stripped  of  its  leaves.  The  wind  blew  fair,  we  were 
careful  to  make  no  noise,  and  with  ordinary  caution  we 
had  nothing  to  fear  from  their  eyesight.  The  ground 
was  neither  forest  nor  bare  plain ;  it  was  covered  with 
long  grass  and  a  scattered  open  growth  of  small  scantily 
leaved  trees,  chiefly  mimosas,  but  including  some  trees 
covered  with  gorgeous  orange-red  flowers.  After 
careful  scrutiny  we  advanced  behind  an  ant-hill  to 
within  sixty  yards,  and  I  stepped  forward  for  the  shot. 

Akeley  wanted  two  cows  and  a  calf.  Of  the  two  best 
cows  one  had  rather  thick,  worn  tusks ;  those  of  the 
other  were  smaller,  but  better  shaped.  The  latter  stood 
half  facing  me,  and  I  put  the  bullet  from  the  right 
barrel  of  the  Holland  through  her  lungs,  and  fired  the 
left  barrel  for  the  heart  of  the  other.  Tarlton,  and  then 
Akeley  and  Kermit,  followed  suit.  At  once  the  herd 
started  diagonally  past  us,  but  half  halted  and  faced 
toward  us  when  only  twenty-five  yards  distant,  an  un- 
wounded  cow  beginning  to  advance  with  her  great  ears 
cocked  at  right  angles  to  her  head ;  and  Tarlton  called, 
"  Look  out ;  they  are  coming  for  us."  At  such  a 
distance  a  charge  from  half  a  dozen  elephants  is  a 
serious  thing.  I  put  a  bullet  into  the  forehead  of  the 
advancing  cow,  causing  her  to  lurch  heavily  forward  to 


344  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU        [ch.  xii 

her  knees  ;  and  then  we  all  fired.  The  heavy  rifles 
were  too  much  even  for  such  big  beasts,  and  round  they 
spun  and  rushed  off.  As  they  turned  I  dropped  the 
second  cow  I  had  wounded  with  a  shot  in  the  brain, 
and  the  cow  that  had  started  to  charge  also  fell,  though 
it  needed  two  or  three  more  shots  to  keep  it  down  as  it 
struggled  to  rise.  The  cow  at  which  I  had  first  fired 
kept  on  with  the  rest  of  the  herd,  but  fell  dead  before 
going  a  hundred  yards.  After  we  had  turned  the  herd 
Kermit  with  his  Winchester  killed  a  bull  calf,  necessary 
to  complete  the  Museum  group  ;  we  had  been  unable  to 
kill  it  before  because  we  were  too  busy  stopping  the 
charge  of  the  cows.  I  was  sorry  to  have  to  shoot  the 
third  cow,  but  with  elephant  starting  to  charge  at 
twenty-five  yards  the  risk  is  too  great,  and  the  need 
of  instant  action  too  imperative,  to  allow  of  any 
hesitation. 

We  pitched  camp  a  hundred  yards  from  the  elephants, 
and  Akeley,  working  Uke  a  demon,  and  assisted  by 
Tarlton,  had  the  skins  off  the  two  biggest  cows  and  the 
calf  by  the  time  night  fell.  I  walked  out  and  shot  an 
oribi  for  supper.  Soon  after  dark  the  hyenas  began  to 
gather  at  the  carcasses  and  to  quarrel  among  themselves 
as  they  gorged.  Toward  morning  a  lion  came  near  and 
uttered  a  kind  of  booming,  long-drawn  moan,  an  ominous 
and  menacing  sound.  The  hyenas  answered  with  an 
extraordinary  chorus  of  yelling,  howling,  laughing,  and 
chuckling,  as  weird  a  volume  of  noise  as  any  to  which 
1  ever  listened.  At  dawn  we  stole  down  to  the  carcasses 
in  the  faint  hope  of  a  shot  at  the  lion.  However,  he 
was  not  there ;  but  as  we  came  toward  one  carcass  a 
hyena  raised  its  head  seemingly  from  beside  the  elephant's 
belly,  and  I  brained  it  with  the  little  Springfield.  On 
walking  up  it  appeared  that  1  need  not  have  shot  at  all. 


CH.  XII]  LAKE  SERGOI  845 

The  hyena,  which  was  swollen  with  elephant  meat,  had 
got  inside  the  huge  body,  and  had  then  bitten  a  hole 
through  the  abdominal  wall  of  tough  muscle  and  thrust 
his  head  through.  The  wedge-shaped  head  had  slipped 
through  the  hole  all  right,  but  the  muscle  had  then 
contracted,  and  the  hyena  was  fairly  caught,  with  its 
body  inside  the  elephant's  belly  and  its  head  thrust  out 
through  the  hole.  We  took  several  photos  of  the  beast 
in  its  queer  trap. 

After  breakfast  we  rode  back  to  our  camp  by  the 
swamp.  Akeley  and  Clark  were  working  hard  at  the 
elephant  skins ;  but  Mrs.  Akeley,  Stevenson,  and 
McCutcheon  took  lunch  with  us  at  our  camp.  They 
had  been  having  a  very  successful  hunt.  Mrs.  Akeley 
had  to  her  credit  a  fine  maned  lion  and  a  bull  elephant 
with  enormous  tusks.  This  was  the  first  safari  we  had 
met  while  we  were  out  in  the  field ;  though  in  Nairobi, 
and  once  or  twice  at  outlying  bomas,  we  had  met  men 
about  to  start  on,  or  returning  from,  expeditions ;  and 
as  we  marched  into  Meru  we  encountered  the  safari  of 
an  old  friend,  William  Lord  Smith — "  Tiger  "  Smith — 
who,  with  Messrs.  Brooks  and  Allen,  was  on  a  trip 
which  was  partly  a  hunting  trip  and  partly  a  scientific 
trip  undertaken  on  behalf  of  the  Cambridge  Museum. 

From  the  'Nzoi  we  made  a  couple  of  days'  march  to 
Lake  Sergoi,  which  we  had  passed  on  our  way  out ;  a 
reed-fringed  pond,  surrounded  by  rocky  hills  which 
marked  about  the  limit  to  which  the  Boer  and  English 
settlers  who  were  taking  up  the  country  had  spread. 
All  along  our  route  we  encountered  herds  of  game. 
Sometimes  the  herd  would  be  of  only  one  species ;  at 
other  times  we  would  come  across  a  great  mixed  herd, 
the  red  hartebeest  always  predominating  ;  while  among 
them  might  be  zebras,  showing  silvery  white  or  dark 


346  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

grey  in  the  distance,  topis  with  beautifully  coloured 
coats,  and  even  waterbuck.  We  shot  what  hartebeests, 
topis,  and  oribis  were  needed  for  food.  All  over  the 
uplands  we  came  on  the  remains  of  a  race  of  which  even 
the  memory  has  long  since  vanished.  These  remains 
consist  of  large,  nearly  circular  walls  of  stone,  which 
are  sometimes  roughly  squared.  A  few  of  these  circular 
enclosures  contain  more  than  one  chamber.  Many  of 
them,  at  least,  are  not  cattle  kraals,  being  too  small, 
and  built  round  hollows ;  the  walls  are  so  low  that  by 
themselves  they  could  not  serve  for  shelter  or  defence, 
and  must  probably  have  been  used  as  supports  for  roofs 
of  timber  or  skins.  They  were  certainly  built  by  people 
who  were  in  some  respects  more  advanced  than  the 
savage  tribes  who  now  dwell  in  the  land  ;  but  the  grass 
grows  thick  on  the  earth  mounds  into  which  the  ancient 
stone  walls  are  slowly  crumbling,  and  not  a  trace  of  the 
builders  remains.  Barbarians  they  doubtless  were  ;  but 
they  have  been  engulfed  in  the  black  oblivion  of  a  lower 
barbarism,  and  not  the  smallest  tradition  lingers  to  tell 
of  their  craft  or  their  cruelty,  their  industry  or  prowess, 
or  to  give  us  the  least  hint  as  to  the  race  from  which 
they  sprang. 

We  had  with  us  an  ox-waggon,  with  the  regulation 
span  of  sixteen  oxen,  the  driver  being  a  young  Colonial 
Englishman  from  South  Africa,  for  the  Dutch  and 
EngHsh  Africanders  are  the  best  ox-waggon  drivers  in 
the  world.  On  the  way  back  to  Sergoi  he  lost  his  oxen, 
which  were  probably  driven  off  by  some  savages  from  the 
mountains ;  so  at  Sergoi  we  had  to  hire  another  ox- 
waggon,  the  South  African  who  drove  it  being  a  Dutch- 
man named  Botha.  Sergoi  was  as  yet  the  limit  of 
settlement,  but  it  was  evident  that  the  whole  Uasin 
Gishu  country  would  soon  be  occupied.     Already  many 


CH.  XII]         DIFFERENT  SETTLERS  347 

Boers  from  South  Africa  and  a  number  of  English 
Africanders  had  come  in,  and  no  better  pioneers  exist 
to-day  than  these  South  Africans,  both  Dutch  and 
English.  Both  are  so  good  that  I  earnestly  hope  they 
will  become  indissolubly  welded  into  one  people,  and 
the  Dutch  Boer  has  the  supreme  merit  of  preferring  the 
country  to  the  town  and  of  bringing  his  wife  and  children 
— plenty  of  children — with  him  to  settle  on  the  land. 
The  home-maker  is  the  only  type  of  settler  of  perma- 
nent value,  and  the  cool,  healthy,  fertile  Uasin  Gishu 
region  is  an  ideal  land  for  the  right  kind  of  pioneer 
home  maker,  whether  he  hopes  to  make  his  living  by 
raising  stock  or  by  growing  crops. 

At  Sergoi  Lake  there  is  a  store  kept  by  Mr.  Kirke,  a 
South  African  of  Scottish  blood.  With  a  kind  courtesy 
which  I  cannot  too  highly  appreciate,  he,  with  the 
equally  cordial  help  of  another  settler,  Mr.  Skally — also 
a  South  African,  but  of  Irish  birth — and  of  the  District 
Commissioner,  Mr.  Corbett,  had  arranged  for  a  party  of 
Nandi  warriors  to  come  over  and  show  me  how  they 
hunted  the  lion.  Two  Dutch  farmers  (Boers)  from  the 
neighbourhood  had  also  come ;  they  were  Messrs. 
Mouton  and  Jordaan,  fine  fellows  both,  the  former 
having  served  with  De  Wet  during  the  war.  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Corbett — who  were  hospitality  itself — had  also 
come  to  see  the  sport,  and  so  had  Captain  Chapman,  an 
English  army  officer  who  was  taking  a  rest  after  several 
years'  service  in  Northern  Nigeria. 

The  Nandi  are  a  warlike  pastoral  tribe,  close  kin  to 
the  Masai  in  blood  and  tongue,  in  weapons  and  in 
manner  of  life.  They  have  long  been  accustomed  to 
kill  with  the  spear  lions  which  become  man-eaters  or 
which  molest  their  cattle  overmuch  ;  and  the  peace 
which  British  rule  has  imposed  upon  them — a  peace  so 


348  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

welcome  to  the  weaker,  so  irksome  to  the  predatory, 
tribes — has  left  lion-killing  one  of  the  few  pursuits  in 
which  glory  can  be  won  by  a  young  warrior.  When  it 
was  told  them  that  if  they  wished  they  could  come  to 
hunt  lions  at  Sergoi,  eight  hundred  warriors  volunteered, 
and  much  heartburning  was  caused  in  choosing  the 
sixty  or  seventy  who  were  allowed  the  privilege.  They 
stipulated,  however,  that  they  should  not  be  used 
merely  as  beaters,  but  should  kill  the  lion  themselves, 
and  refused  to  come  unless  with  this  understanding. 

The  day  before  we  reached  Sergoi  they  had  gone  out 
and  had  killed  a  lion  and  lioness.  The  beasts  were  put 
up  from  a  small  covert  and  despatched  with  the  heavy 
throwing  spears  on  the  instant,  before  they  offered,  or, 
indeed,  had  the  chance  to  offer,  any  resistance.  The  day 
after  our  arrival  there  was  mist  and  cold  rain,  and  we 
found  no  lions.  Next  day,  November  20th,  we  were 
successful. 

We  started  immediately  after  breakfast.  Kirke, 
Skally,  Mouton,  Jordaan,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Corbett,  Cap- 
tain Chapman,  and  our  party  were  on  horseback.  Of 
course,  we  carried  our  rifles,  but  our  duty  was  merely  to 
round  up  the  lion  and  hold  him  if  he  went  off*  so  far  in 
advance  that  even  the  Nandi  runners  could  not  over- 
take him.  We  intended  to  beat  the  country  toward 
some  shallow,  swampy  valleys  twelve  miles  distant. 

In  an  hour  we  overtook  the  Nandi  warriors,  who 
were  advancing  across  the  rolling,  grassy  plains  in  a  long 
line,  with  intervals  of  six  or  eight  yards  between  the 
men.  They  were  splendid  savages,  stark  naked,  lithe 
as  panthers,  the  muscles  rippling  under  their  smooth 
dark  skins.  All  their  lives  they  had  lived  on  nothing 
but  animal  food — milk,  blood,  and  flesh — and  they  were 
fit  for  any  fatigue  or  danger.     Their  faces  were  proud, 


CH.  XII]         A  NATIVE  LION  HUNT  349 

cruel,  fearless ;  as  they  ran  they  moved  with  long 
springy  strides.  Their  head-dresses  were  fantastic  ;  they 
carried  ox-hide  shields  painted  with  strange  devices  ;  and 
each  bore  in  his  right  hand  the  formidable  war-spear, 
used  both  for  stabbing  and  for  throwing  at  close 
quarters.  The  narrow  spear-heads  of  soft  iron  were 
burnished  till  they  shone  like  silver ;  they  were  four 
feet  long,  and  the  point  and  edges  were  razor  sharp. 
The  wooden  haft  appeared  for  but  a  few  inches ;  the 
long  butt  was  also  of  iron,  ending  in  a  spike,  so  that  the 
spear  looked  almost  solid  metal.  Yet  each  sinewy 
warrior  carried  his  heavy  weapon  as  if  it  were  a  toy, 
twirling  it  till  it  glinted  in  the  sun-rays.  Herds  of 
game  —  red  hartebeests  and  striped  zebra  and  wild 
swine — fled  right  and  left  before  the  advance  of  the 
line. 

It  was  noon  before  we  reached  a  wide,  shallow  valley, 
with  beds  of  rushes  here  and  there  in  the  middle,  and  on 
either  side  high  grass  and  dwarfed  and  scattered  thorn- 
trees.  Down  this  we  beat  for  a  couple  of  miles.  Then, 
suddenly,  a  maned  lion  rose  a  quarter  of  a  mile  ahead  of 
the  line  and  galloped  off  through  the  high  grass  to  the 
right,  and  all  of  us  on  horseback  tore  after  him. 

He  was  a  magnificent  beast,  with  a  black  and  tawny 
mane ;  in  his  prime,  teeth  and  claws  perfect,  with 
mighty  thews,  and  savage  heart.  He  was  lying  near 
a  hartebeest  on  which  he  had  been  feasting  ;  his  life 
had  been  one  unbroken  career  of  rapine  and  violence  ; 
and  now  the  maned  master  of  the  wilderness,  the  terror 
that  stalked  by  night,  the  grim  lord  of  slaughter,  was  to 
meet  his  doom  at  the  hands  of  the  only  foes  who  dared 
molest  him. 

It  was  a  mile  before  we  brought  him  to  bay.  Then 
the  Dutch  farmer,  Mouton,  who  had  not  even  a  rifle, 


350  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

but  who  rode  foremost,  was  almost  on  him.  He  halted 
and  turned  under  a  low  thorn-tree,  and  we  galloped 
past  him  to  the  opposite  side,  to  hold  him  until  the 
spearmen  could  come.  It  was  a  sore  temptation  to 
shoot  him  ;  but  of  course  we  could  not  break  faith  with 
our  Nandi  friends.  We  were  only  some  sixty  yards 
from  him,  and  we  watched  him  with  our  rifles  ready, 
lest  he  should  charge  either  us  or  the  first  two  or  three 
spearmen,  before  their  companions  arrived. 

One  by  one  the  spearmen  came  up  at  a  run,  and 
gradually  began  to  form  a  ring  round  him.  Each,  when 
he  came  near  enough,  crouched  behind  his  shield,  his 
spear  in  his  right  hand,  his  fierce,  eager  face  peering 
over  the  shield  rim.  As  man  followed  man,  the  lion 
rose  to  his  feet.  His  mane  bristled,  his  tail  lashed,  he 
lield  his  head  low,  the  upper  lip  now  drooping  over 
the  jaws,  now  drawn  up  so  as  to  show  the  gleam  of  the 
long  fangs.  He  faced  first  one  way  and  then  another, 
and  never  ceased  to  utter  his  murderous  grunting  roars. 
It  was  a  wild  sight ;  the  ring  of  spearmen,  intent,  silent, 
bent  on  blood,  and  in  the  centre  the  great  man-killing 
beast,  his  thunderous  wrath  growing  ever  more 
dangerous. 

At  last  the  tense  ring  was  complete,  and  the  spearmen 
rose  and  closed  in.  The  lion  looked  quickly  from  side 
to  side,  saw  where  the  line  was  thinnest,  and  charged  at 
his  topmost  speed.  The  crowded  moment  began.  With 
shields  held  steady,  and  quivering  spears  poised,  the 
men  in  front  braced  themselves  for  the  rush  and  the 
shock  ;  and  from  either  hand  the  warriors  sprang  for- 
ward to  take  their  foe  in  flank.  Bounding  ahead  of 
his  fellows,  the  leader  reached  throwing  distance  ;  the 
long  spear  flickered  and  plunged  ;  as  the  lion  felt  the 
wound  he  half  turned,  and  then  flung  himself  on  the 


CH.  XII]         WOUNDED  WARRIORS  351 

man  in  front.  The  warrior  threw  his  spear ;  it  drove 
deep  into  the  hfe,  for,  entering  at  one  shoulder,  it  came 
out  of  the  opposite  flank,  near  the  thigh,  a  yard  of  steel 
through  the  great  body.  Rearing,  the  lion  struck  the 
man,  bearing  down  the  shield,  his  back  arched  ;  and  for 
a  moment  he  slaked  his  fury  with  fang  and  talon.  But 
on  the  instant  I  saw  another  spear  driven  clear  through 
his  body  from  side  to  side  ;  and  as  the  lion  turned  again 
the  bright  spear-blades  darting  toward  him  were  flashes 
of  white  flame.  The  end  had  come.  He  seized  another 
man,  who  stabbed  him  and  wrenched  loose.  As  he  fell 
he  gripped  a  spear-head  in  his  jaws  with  such  tremendous 
force  that  he  bent  it  double.  Then  the  warriors  were 
round  and  over  him,  stabbing  and  shouting,  wild  with 
furious  exultation. 

From  the  moment  when  he  charged  until  his  death 
I  doubt  whether  ten  seconds  had  elapsed — perhaps  less  ; 
but  what  a  ten  seconds  !  The  first  half-dozen  spears 
had  done  the  work.  Three  of  the  spear-blades  had  gone 
clean  through  the  body,  the  points  projecting  several 
inches  ;  and  these  and  one  or  two  others,  including  the 
one  he  had  seized  in  his  jaws,  had  been  twisted  out  of 
shape  in  the  terrible  death-struggle. 

We  at  once  attended  to  the  two  wounded  men. 
Treating  their  wounds  with  antiseptic  was  painful,  and 
so,  while  the  operation  was  in  progress,  I  told  them, 
through  Kirke,  that  I  would  give  each  a  heifer.  A 
Nandi  prizes  his  cattle  rather  more  than  his  wives,  and 
each  sufferer  smiled  broadly  at  the  news,  and  forgot  all 
about  the  pain  of  his  wounds. 

Then  the  warriors,  raising  their  shields  above  their 
heads,  and  chanting  the  deep-toned  victory  song, 
marched  with  a  slow,  dancing  step  around  the  dead 
body  of  the  lion,  and   this  savage  dance  of  triumph 


352  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

ended  a  scene  of  as  fierce  interest  and  excitement  as 
I  ever  hope  to  see. 

The  Nandi  marched  back  by  themselves,  carrying  the 
two  wounded  inen  on  their  shields.  We  rode  to  camp 
by  a  roundabout  way,  on  the  chance  that  we  might  see 
another  lion.  The  afternoon  waned,  and  we  cast  long 
shadows  before  us  as  we  rode  across  the  vast,  lonely 
plain.  The  game  stared  at  us  as  we  passed  ;  a  cold 
wind  blew  in  our  faces,  and  the  tall  grass  waved  cease- 
lessly ;  the  sun  set  behind  a  sullen  cloud-bank ;  and 
then,  just  at  nightfall,  the  tents  glimmered  white  through 
the  dusk. 

Tarlton's  partner,  Newland — also  an  Australian,  and 
as  fine  a  fellow  as  Tarlton  himself — once  had  a  rather 
eerie  adventure  with  a  man-eating  lion.  He  was  camped 
near  Kilimakiu,  and  after  nightfall  the  alarm  was  raised 
that  a  lion  was  near  by.  He  came  out  of  his  tent,  more 
wood  was  thrown  on  the  fire,  and  he  heard  footsteps 
retreating,  but  could  not  make  out  whether  they  were 
those  of  a  lion  or  a  hyena.  Going  back  to  his  tent,  he 
lay  down  on  his  bed  with  his  face  turned  toward  the 
tent  wall  Just  as  he  was  falling  to  sleep  the  canvas 
was  pushed  almost  into  his  face  by  the  head  of  some 
creature  outside  ;  immediately  afterward  he  heard  the 
sound  of  a  heavy  animal  galloping,  and  then  the  scream 
of  one  of  his  porters,  whom  the  lion  had  seized  and  was 
dragging  off  into  the  darkness.  Rushing  out  with  his 
rifle,  he  fired  toward  the  sounds,  shooting  high  ;  the  lion 
let  go  his  hold  and  made  off,  and  the  man  ultimately 
recovered. 

It  has  been  said  that  lions  are  monogamous  and  that 
they  mate  for  life.  If  this  were  so  they  would  almost 
always  be  found  in  pairs,  a  lion  and  a  lioness.  They 
are  sometimes  so  found,  but  it  is  much  more  common 


^^' 


^    ^ 


2  f*; 


'S  * 


CH.  XII]  VARIOUS  GAME  353 

to  come  across  a  lioness  and  her  cubs,  an  old  lion  with 
several  lionesses  and  their  young  (for  they  are  often 
polygamous),  a  single  lion  or  lioness,  or  a  couple  of 
lions  or  lionesses,  or  a  small  troup,  either  all  lions  or  all 
lionesses,  or  of  mixed  sexes.  These  facts  are  not  com- 
patible with  the  romantic  theory  in  question. 

We  tried  to  get  the  Nandi  to  stay  with  us  for  a  few 
days  and  beat  for  lions,  but  this  they  refused  to  do, 
unless  they  were  also  to  kill  them ;  and  I  did  not  care 
to  assist  as  a  mere  spectator  at  any  more  lion  hunts,  no 
matter  how  exciting — though  to  do  so  once  was  well 
worth  while.  So  we  moved  on  by  ourselves,  camping 
in  likely  places.  In  the  swamps,  living  among  the 
reeds,  were  big  handsome  cuckoos,  which  ate  mice. 
Our  first  camp  was  by  a  stream  bordered  by  trees  like 
clove-trees  ;  at  evening  multitudes  of  yellow- billed 
pigeons  flew  up  its  course.  They  were  feeding  on 
olives,  and  were  good  for  the  table ;  and  so  were  the 
yellow-billed  mallards,  which  were  found  in  the  occa- 
sional pools.  Everything  we  shot  at  this  time  went 
into  the  pot — except  a  hyena.  The  stomachs  of  the 
reedbuck  and  oribi  contained  nothing  but  grass,  but  the 
stomachs  of  the  duikers  were  filled  with  berries  from  a 
plant  which  looked  Uke  the  deadly  nightshade.  On  the 
burned  ground,  by  the  way,  the  oribi,  which  were  very 
plentiful,  behaved  precisely  like  tommies,  except  that 
they  did  not  go  in  as  large  troops ;  they  made  no  effort 
to  hide  as  they  do  in  thick  grass,  and  as  duikers,  stein- 
bucks,  and  reedbucks  always  do.  We  saw,  but  could 
not  get  a  shot  at,  one  topi  with  a  white  or  blazed  face, 
like  a  South  African  blesbok.  While  beating  one 
swamp  a  lion  appeared  for  an  instant  at  its  edge,  a 
hundred  and  fifty  yards  off.  I  got  a  snap  shot,  and 
ought  to  have  hit  him,  but  didn't.     We  tried  our  best 

23 


854  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

to  get  him  out  of  the  swamp,  finally  burning  all  of  it 
that  was  not  too  wet ;  but  we  never  saw  him  again. 

We  recrossed  the  high  hill  country,  through  mists 
and  driving  rains,  and  were  back  at  Londiani  on  the 
last  day  of  November.  Here,  with  genuine  regret,  we 
said  good-bye  to  our  safari ;  for  we  were  about  to  leave 
East  Africa,  and  could  only  take  a  few  of  our  personal 
attendants  with  us  into  Uganda  and  the  Nile  Valley. 
I  was  really  sorry  to  see  the  last  of  the  big,  strong, 
good-natured  porters.  They  had  been  with  us  over 
seven  months,  and  had  always  behaved  well — though 
this,  of  course,  was  mainly  owing  to  Cuninghame's  and 
Tarlton's  management.  We  had  not  lost  a  single  man 
by  death.  One  had  been  tossed  by  a  rhino,  one  clawed 
by  a  leopard,  and  several  had  been  sent  to  hospital  for 
dysentery,  small-pox,  or  fever ;  but  none  had  died. 
While  on  the  Guaso  Nyero  trip  we  had  run  into  a 
narrow  belt  of  the  dreaded  tsetse  fly,  whose  bite  is  fatal 
to  domestic  animals.  Five  of  our  horses  were  bitten, 
and  four  of  them  died,  two  not  until  we  were  on  the 
Uasin  Gishu  ;  the  fifth,  my  zebra -shaped  brown, 
although  very  sick,  ultimately  recovered,  to  the  astonish- 
ment of  the  experts.  Only  three  of  our  horses  lasted 
in  such  shape  that  we  could  ride  them  into  Londiani ; 
one  of  them  being  Tranquillity,  and  another  Kermit's 
white  pony,  Huan  Daw,  who  was  always  dancing  and 
curvetting,  and  whom  in  consequence  the  saises  had 
christened  "  merodadi,"  the  dandy. 

The  first  ten  days  of  December  1  spent  at  Njoro,  on 
the  edge  of  the  Mau  escarpment,  with  Lord  Delamere. 
It  is  a  beautiful  farming  country ;  and  Lord  Delamere 
is  a  practical  and  successful  farmer,  and  the  most  useful 
settler,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  all-round  interests  of 
the  country,  in  British  East  Africa.     Incidentally,  the 


CH.  XII]    LORD  DELAMERE'S  RANCH  355 

home  ranch  was  most  attractive — especially  the  library, 
the  room  containing  Lady  Delamere's  books.  Delamere 
had  been  himself  a  noted  big-game  hunter,  his  bag 
including  fifty-two  lions  ;  but  instead  of  continuing  to 
be  a  mere  sportsman,  he  turned  his  attention  to  stock- 
raising  and  wheat-growing,  and  became  a  leader  in  the 
work  of  taming  the  wilderness,  of  conquering  for 
civilization  the  world's  waste  spaces.  No  career  can  be 
better  worth  following. 

During  his  hunting  years  Delamere  had  met  with 
many  strange  adventures.  One  of  the  lions  he  shot 
mauled  him,  breaking  his  leg,  and  also  mauling  his  two 
Somali  gun -bearers.  The  lion  then  crawled  off  into 
some  bushes  fifty  yards  away,  and  camp  was  pitched 
where  the  wounded  men  were  lying.  Soon  after  night- 
fall the  hyenas  assembled  in  numbers,  and  attacked, 
killed,  and  ate  the  mortally  wounded  lion,  the  noise 
made  by  the  combatants  being  ear-rending.  On  another 
occasion  he  had  heard  a  leopard  attack  some  baboons  in 
the  rocks,  a  tremendous  row  following  as  the  big  dog 
baboons  hastened  to  the  assistance  of  the  one  who  had 
been  seized,  and  drove  off  the  leopard.  That  evening 
a  leopard,  evidently  the  same  one,  very  thin  and  hungry, 
came  into  camp  and  was  shot ;  it  was  frightfully  bitten, 
the  injuries  being  such  as  only  baboons  inflict,  and 
would  unquestionably  have  died  of  its  wounds.  The 
leopard,  wherever  possible,  takes  his  kill  up  a  tree, 
showing  extraordinary  strength  in  the  performance  of 
this  feat.  It  is  undoubtedly  due  to  fear  of  interference 
from  hyenas.  The  'Ndorobo  said  that  no  single  hyena 
would  meddle  with  a  leopard,  but  that  three  or  four 
would  without  hesitation  rob  it  of  its  prey.  Some 
years  before  this  time,  while  hunting  north  of  Kenia, 
Lord  Delamere  had  met  a  Dr.  Kolb,  who  was  killed  by 


856  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

a  rhino  immediately  afterward.  Dr.  Kolb  was  fond  of 
rhinoceros  liver,  and  killed  scores  of  the  animals  for 
food ;  but  finally  a  cow,  with  a  half-grown  calf,  which 
he  had  wounded,  charged  him  and  thrust  her  horn  right 
through  the  middle  of  his  body. 

We  spent  several  days  vainly  hunting  bongo  in  the 
dense  mountain  forests  with  half  a  dozen  'Ndorobo. 
These  were  true  'Ndorobo,  who  never  cultivate  the 
ground,  living  in  the  deep  forests  on  wild  honey  and 
game.  It  has  been  said  that  they  hunt  but  little,  and 
only  elephant  and  rhino ;  but  this  is  not  correct  as 
regards  the  'Ndorobo  in  question.  They  were  all  clad 
in  short  cloaks  of  the  skin  of  the  tree  hyrax  ;  hyrax, 
monkey,  bongo,  and  forest  hog,  the  only  game  of  the 
dense,  cool,  wet  forest,  were  all  habitually  killed  by 
them.  They  also  occasionally  killed  rhino  and  buffalo, 
finding  the  former,  because  it  must  occasionally  be 
attacked  in  the  open,  the  more  dangerous  of  the  two. 
Twice  Delamere  had  come  across  small  communities  of 
'Ndorobo  literally  starving  because  the  strong  man,  the 
chief  hunter,  the  breadwinner,  had  been  killed  by  a 
rhino  which  he  had  attacked.  The  headman  of  those 
with  us,  who  was  named  Mel-el-lek,  had  himself  been 
fearfully  injured  by  a  wounded  buffalo ;  and  the  father 
of  another  one  who  was  with  us  had  been  killed  by 
baboons  which  had  rallied  to  the  aid  of  one  which  he 
was  trying  to  kill  with  his  knobkerry.  Usually  they 
did  not  venture  to  meddle  with  the  lions  which  they 
found  on  the  edge  of  the  forest,  or  with  the  leopards 
which  occasionally  dwelt  in  the  deep  woods  ;  but  once 
Mel-el-lek  killed  a  leopard  with  a  poisoned  arrow  from 
a  tree,  and  once  a  whole  party  of  them  attacked  and 
killed  with  their  poisoned  arrows  a  lion  which  had  slain 
a  cow  buffalo  near  the  forest.     On  another  occasion  a 


The  lion  as  it  fell 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


As  he  fell  he  gripped  a  spear  head  in  his  jaws  with  such  tremendous  force  that 
he  bent  it  double 
*-  From  a  piwiograph  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


CH.  xii]  THE    NDOROBO  857 

lion  in  its  turn  killed  two  of  their  hunters.  In  fact, 
they  were  living  just  as  palaeolithic  man  lived  in  Europe 
ages  ago. 

Their  arms  were  bows  and  arrows,  the  arrows  being 
carried  in  skin  quivers,  and  the  bows,  which  were  strung 
with  zebra  gut,  being  swathed  in  strips  of  hide.  When 
resting  they  often  stood  on  one  leg,  like  storks.  Their 
eyesight  was  marvellous,  and  they  were  extremely  skilful 
alike  in  tracking  and  in  seeing  game.  They  threaded 
their  way  through  the  forest  noiselessly  and  at  speed, 
and  were  extraordinary  cUmbers.  They  were  continually 
climbing  trees  to  get  at  the  hyrax,  and  once  when  a  big 
black  and  white  colobus  monkey  which  I  had  shot 
lodged  in  the  top  of  a  giant  cedar  one  of  them  ascended 
and  brought  it  down  with  matter-of-course  indifference. 
He  cut  down  a  sapling,  twenty-five  feet  long,  with  the 
stub  of  a  stout  branch  left  on  as  a  hook,  and  for  a  rope 
used  a  section  of  vine  which  he  broke  and  twisted  into 
flexibility.  Then,  festooned  with  all  his  belongings,  he 
made  the  ascent.  There  was  a  tall  olive,  sixty  or  eighty 
feet  high,  close  to  the  cedar,  and  up  this  he  went. 
From  its  topmost  branches,  where  only  a  monkey  or  a 
'Ndorobo  could  have  felt  at  home,  he  reached  his  sapling 
over  to  the  lowest  limb  of  the  giant  cedar,  and  hooked 
it  on  ;  and  then  crawled  across  on  this  dizzy  bridge. 
Up  he  went,  got  the  monkey,  recrossed  the  bridge,  and 
climbed  down  again,  quite  unconcerned. 

The  big  black  and  white  monkeys  ate  nothing  but 
leaves,  and  usually  trusted  for  safety  to  ascending  into 
the  very  tops  of  the  tallest  cedars.  Occasionally  they 
would  come  in  a  flying  leap  down  to  the  ground,  or  to 
a  neighbouring  tree  ;  when  on  the  ground  they  merely 
dashed  toward  another  tree,  being  less  agile  than  the 
ordinary  monkeys,  whether  in  the  tree-tops  or  on  solid 


358  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

earth.  They  are  strikingly  handsome  and  conspicuous 
creatures.  Their  bold  coloration  has  been  spoken  of  as 
"protective";  but  it  is  protective  only  to  town-bred 
eyes.  A  non- expert  finds  any  object,  of  no  matter 
what  colour,  difficult  to  make  out  when  hidden  among 
the  branches  at  the  top  of  a  tall  tree  ;  but  the  black  and 
white  coloration  of  this  monkey  has  not  the  slightest 
protective  value  of  any  kind.  On  the  contrary,  it  is 
calculated  at  once  to  attract  the  eye.  The  'Ndorobo 
were  a  unit  in  saying  that  these  monkeys  were  much 
more  easy  to  see  than  their  less  brightly  coloured  kins- 
folk who  dwell  in  the  same  forests ;  and  this  was  my 
own  experience. 

When  camped  in  these  high  forests  the  woods  after 
nightfall  were  vocal  with  the  croaking  and  wailing  of 
the  tree  hyraxes.  They  are  squat,  woolly,  funny  things, 
and  to  my  great  amusement  I  found  that  most  of  the 
settlers  called  them  "  Teddy  bears."  They  are  purely 
arboreal  and  nocturnal  creatures,  living  in  hollows  high 
up  in  the  big  trees,  by  preference  in  the  cedars.  At 
night  they  are  very  noisy,  the  call  consisting  of  an 
opening  series  of  batrachian-like  croaks,  followed  by  a 
succession  of  quavering  wails — eerie  sounds  enough,  as 
they  come  out  of  the  black  stillness  of  the  midnight. 
They  are  preyed  on  now  and  then  by  big  owls  and  by 
leopards,  and  the  white-tailed  mongoose  is  their  especial 
foe,  following  them  everywhere  among  the  tree-tops. 
This  mongoose  is  both  terrestrial  and  arboreal  in  habits, 
and  is  hated  by  the  'Ndorobo  because  it  robs  their  honey 
buckets. 

The  bongo  and  the  giant  hog  were  the  big  game  of 
these  deep  forests,  where  a  tangle  of  undergrowth  filled 
the  spaces  between  the  trunks  of  the  cedar,  the  olive, 
and  the  yew  or  yellow- wood,  while  where  the  bamboos 


ca.  XII]  BONGO  359 

grew  they  usually  choked  out  all  other  plants.  Dela- 
mere  had  killed  several  giant  hogs  with  his  half-breed 
hounds ;  but  on  this  occasion  the  hounds  would  not 
follow  them.  On  three  days  we  came  across  bongo ; 
once  a  solitary  bull,  on  both  the  other  occasions  herds. 
We  never  saw  them,  although  we  heard  the  solitary 
bull  crash  off  through  the  bamboos ;  for  they  are  very 
wary  and  elusive,  being  incessantly  followed  by  the 
'Ndorobo.  They  are  as  large  as  native  bullocks,  with 
handsomely  striped  skins,  and  both  sexes  carry  horns. 
On  each  of  the  three  days  we  followed  them  all  day 
long,  and  it  was  interesting  to  trace  so  much  as  we 
could  of  their  habits.  Their  trails  are  deeply  beaten, 
and  converge  toward  the  watercourses,  which  run 
between  the  steep,  forest-clad  spurs  of  the  mountains. 
They  do  not  graze,  but  browse,  cropping  the  leaves, 
flowers,  and  twigs  of  various  shrubs,  and  eating  thistle^  ; 
they  are  said  to  eat  bark,  but  this  our  'Ndorobo  denied. 
They  are  also  said  to  be  nocturnal,  feeding  at  night,  and 
lying  up  in  the  daytime  ;  but  this  was  certainly  not  the 
case  with  those  we  came  across.  Both  of  the  herds, 
which  we  followed  patiently  and  cautiously  for  hours 
without  alarming  them,  were  feeding  as  they  moved 
slowly  along.  One  herd  lay  down  for  a  few  hours  at 
noon  ;  the  other  kept  feeding  until  mid-afternoon,  when 
we  alarmed  it ;  and  the  animals  then  went  straight  up  the 
mountain  over  the  rimrock.  It  was  cold  rainy  weather, 
and  the  dark  of  the  moon,  which  may  perhaps  have  had 
something  to  do  with  the  bongo  being  on  the  move  and 
feeding  during  the  day  ;  but  the  'Ndorobo  said  that  they 
never  fed  at  night — I  of  course  know  nothing  about  this 
personally.  Leopards  catch  the  young  bongo  and  giant 
hog,  but  dare  not  meddle  with  those  that  are  full-grown. 
The  forest  which  they  frequent  is  so  dense,  so  wellnigh 


360  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

impenetrable,  that  half  the  time  no  man  can  follow  their 
trails  save  by  bending  and  crawling,  and  one  cannot  make 
out  an  object  twenty  yards  ahead.  It  is  extraordinary 
to  see  the  places  through  which  the  bongo  pass,  and 
which  are  their  chosen  haunts. 

While  Lord  Delamere  and  I  were  hunting  in  vain, 
Kermit  was  more  fortunate.  He  was  the  guest  of 
Barclay  Cole,  Delamere's  brother-in-law.  They  took 
eight  porters,  and  went  into  the  forest,  accompanied  by 
four  'Ndorobo.  They  marched  straight  up  to  the 
bamboo  and  yellow-wood  forest  near  the  top  of  the 
Mau  escarpment.  They  spent  five  days  in  hunting. 
The  procedure  was  simply  to  find  the  trail  of  a  herd, 
to  follow  it  through  the  tangled  woods  as  rapidly  and 
noiselessly  as  possible  until  it  was  overtaken,  and  then 
to  try  to  get  a  shot  at  the  first  patch  of  reddish  hide  of 
which  they  got  a  glimpse — for  they  never  saw  more  than 
such  a  patch,  and  then  only  for  a  moment.  The  first 
day  Kermit,  firing  at  such  a  patch,  knocked  over  the 
animal ;  but  it  rose,  and  the  tracks  were  so  confused 
that  even  the  keen  eyes  of  the  wild  men  could  not  pick 
out  the  right  one.  Next  day  they  again  got  into  a 
herd.  This  time  Kermit  was  the  first  to  see  the  game, 
all  that  was  visible  being  a  reddish  patch  the  size  of  a 
man's  two  hands,  with  a  white  stripe  across  it.  Firing, 
he  killed  the  animal,  but  it  proved  to  be  only  half 
grown.  Even  the  'Ndorobo  now  thought  it  useless  to 
follow  the  herd,  but  Kermit  took  one  of  them  and 
started  in  pursuit.  After  a  couple  of  hours'  trailing  the 
herd  was  again  overtaken,  and  again  Kermit  got  a 
glimpse  of  the  animals.  He  hit  two,  and,  selecting  the 
trail  with  most  blood,  they  followed  it  for  three  or  four 
miles,  until  Kermit  overtook  and  finished  off  the 
wounded  bongo,  a  fine  cow. 

Kermit    always   found   them   lying  up   during    the 


Sailinye,  the  Dorobo,  who  was  with  Kermit  Roosevelt  when  he  shot  the  bongo, 

holding  up  the  bongo  head 

From  a  photograph  by  Kermit  Roosevdl 


CH.  XII]  A   FUNERAL  DANCE  361 

middle  of  the  day  and  feeding  in  the  morning  and 
afternoon ;  otherwise  his  observations  of  their  habits 
coincided  with  mine. 

The  next  ten  days  Kermit  spent  in  a  trip  to  the  coast, 
near  Mombasa,  for  sable — the  most  beautiful  antelope 
next  to  the  koodoo.  The  cows  and  bulls  are  red,  the 
very  old  bulls  (of  the  typical  form)  jet  black,  all  with 
white  bellies  ;  like  the  roan,  both  sexes  carry  scimitar- 
shaped  horns,  but  longer  than  the  roans.  He  was  alone 
with  his  two  gun-bearers  and  some  Swahili  porters ;  he 
acted  as  headman  himself.  They  marched  from  Mom- 
basa, being  ferried  across  the  harbour  of  Kilindini  in  a 
dhow,  and  then  going  some  fifteen  miles  south.  Next 
day  they  marched  about  ten  miles  to  a  Nyika  village, 
where  they  arrived  just  in  the  middle  of  a  funeral  dance 
which  was  being  held  in  honour  of  a  chief's  son  who  had 
died.  Kermit  was  much  amused  to  find  that  this  death 
dance  had  more  life  and  go  in  it  than  any  dance  he  had 
yet  seen,  and  the  music — the  dirge  music — had  such 
swing  and  vivacity  that  it  almost  reminded  him  of  a 
comic  opera.  The  dancers  wore  tied  round  their  legs 
queer  little  wickerwork  baskets,  with  beans  inside,  which 
rattled  in  the  rh}i;hm  of  their  dancing.  Camp  was 
pitched  under  a  huge  baobab-tree,  in  sight  of  the  Indian 
Ocean  ;  but  in  the  middle  of  the  night  the  ants  swarmed 
in  and  drove  everybody  out,  and  next  day,  while  Kermit 
was  hunting,  camp  was  shifted  on  about  an  hour's  march 
to  a  little  grove  of  trees  by  a  brook.  It  was  a  well- 
watered  country,  very  hilly,  with  palm-bordered  streams 
in  each  valley.  These  wild  palms  bore  ivory  nuts,  the 
fruit  tasting  something  hke  an  apple.  Each  village  had 
a  grove  of  cocoanut  palms,  and  Kermit  found  the  cool 
cocoanut  milk  delicious  after  the  return  from  a  long 
day's  hunting. 

Each  morning  he  was  off  before  daylight,  and  rarely 


362  TO  THE  UASIN  GISHU         [ch.  xii 

returned  until  after  nightfall ;  and,  tired  though  he  was, 
he  enjoyed  to  the  full  the  walks  campward  in  the  bright 
moonlight  among  the  palm  groves  beside  the  rushing 
streams,  while  the  cicadas  cried  like  katydids  at  home. 
The  grass  was  long.  The  weather  was  very  hot,  and 
almost  every  day  there  were  drenching  thunderstorms, 
and  the  dews  were  exceedingly  heavy,  so  that  Kermit 
was  wet  almost  all  the  time,  although  he  kept  in  first- 
rate  health.  There  were  not  many  sable,  and  they  were 
shy.  About  nine  or  ten  o'clock  they  would  stop  feed- 
ing, and  leave  their  pasture-grounds  of  long  grass,  taking 
refuge  in  some  grove  of  trees  and  thick  bushes,  not 
coming  out  again  until  nearly  five  o'clock. 

On  the  second  day's  hunting  Juma  spied  a  little  band 
of  sable  just  entering  a  grove.  A  long  and  careful  stalk 
brought  the  hunters  to  the  grove,  but  after  reaching  it 
they  at  first  saw  nothing  of  the  game.  Then  Kermit 
caught  a  glimpse  of  a  head,  fired,  and  brought  down  the 
beast  in  its  tracks.  It  proved  to  be  a  bull,  just  changing 
from  the  red  to  the  black  coat ;  the  horns  were  fair — in 
this  northern  form  they  never  reach  the  length  of  those 
borne  by  the  sable  bulls  of  South  Africa.  He  also  killed 
a  cow,  not  fully  grown.  He  therefore  still  needed  a 
full-grown  cow,  which  he  obtained  three  days  later. 
This  animal,  when  wounded,  was  very  savage,  and  tried 
to  charge. 

We  now  went  to  Nairobi,  where  Cuninghame,  Tarlton, 
and  the  three  naturalists  were  already  preparing  for  the 
Uganda  trip  and  shipping  the  stuff  hitherto  collected. 
Working  like  beavers,  we  got  everything  ready — in- 
cluding additions  to  the  pigskin  library,  which  included, 
among  others,  Cervantes,  Goethe's  "  Faust,"  Moliere, 
Pascal,  Montaigne,  St.  Simon,  Darwin's  "  Voyage  of  the 
Beagle  "sLTid  Huxley's  "Essays" — and  on  December  18th 
started  for  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza, 


CHAPTER  XIII 

UGANDA,  AND  THE  GREAT  NYANZA  LAKES 

When  we  left  Nairobi,  it  was  with  real  regret  that  we 
said  good-bye  to  the  many  friends  who  had  been  so  kind 
to  us — officials,  private  citizens,  almost  everyone  we  had 
met,  including  Sir  Percy  Girouard,  the  new  Governor. 
At  Kijabe  the  men  and  women  from  the  American 
Mission — and  the  children,  too — were  down  at  the 
station  to  wish  us  good  luck ;  and  at  Nakuru  the 
settlers  from  the  neighbourhood  gathered  on  the  plat- 
form to  give  us  a  farewell  cheer.  The  following  morning 
we  reached  Kisumu,  on  Lake  Victoria  Nyanza.  It  is  in 
the  Kavirondo  country,  where  the  natives,  both  men 
and  women,  as  a  rule  go  absolutely  naked,  although 
they  are  peaceable  and  industrious.  In  the  native 
market  they  had  brought  in  baskets,  iron  spade-heads, 
and  food,  to  sell  to  the  native  and  Indian  traders  who 
had  their  booths  round  about ;  the  meat  market,  under 
tlie  trees,  was  especially  interesting. 

At  noon  we  embarked  in  a  smart  little  steamer  to 
cross  the  lake.  Twenty-four  hours  later  we  landed  at 
Entebbe,  the  seat  of  the  English  Governor  of  Uganda. 
Throughout  our  passage  the  wind  hardly  ruffled  the 
smooth  surface  of  the  lake.  As  we  steamed  away  from 
the  eastern  shore  the  mountains  behind  us  and  on  our 
right  hand  rose  harsh  and  barren,  yet  with  a  kind  of 

363 


364  UGANDA  [ch.  xiri 

forbidding  beauty.  Dark  clouds  hung  over  the  land 
we  had  left,  and  a  rainbow  stretched  across  their  front. 
At  nightfall,  as  the  red  sunset  faded,  the  lonely  waters 
of  the  vast  inland  sea  stretched,  ocean-like,  west  and 
south  into  a  shoreless  gloom.  Then  the  darkness 
deepened,  the  tropic  stars  blazed  overhead,  and  the 
light  of  the  half-moon  drowned  in  silver  the  embers 
of  the  sunset. 

Next  morning  we  steamed  along  and  across  the 
Equator — the  last  time  we  were  to  cross  it,  for  thence- 
forth our  course  lay  northward.  We  passed  by  many 
islands,  green  with  meadow  and  forest,  beautiful  in  the 
bright  sunshine,  but  empty  with  the  empti  ness  of  death.  A 
decade  previously  these  islands  were  thronged  with  tribes 
of  fisher-folk  ;  their  villages  studded  the  shores,  and  their 
long  canoes,  planks  held  together  with  fibre,  furrowed 
the  surface  of  the  lake.  Then,  from  out  of  the  depths 
of  the  Congo  forest  came  the  dreadful  scourge  of  the 
sleeping  sickness,  and  smote  the  doomed  peoples  who 
dwelt  beside  the  Victorian  Nile,  and  on  the  coasts  of 
the  Nyanza  Lakes,  and  in  the  lands  between.  Its  agent 
was  a  biting  fly,  brother  to  the  tsetse,  whose  bite  is  fatal 
to  domestic  animals.  This  fly  dwells  in  forests,  beside 
lakes  and  rivers  ;  and  wherever  it  dwells,  after  the 
sleeping  sickness  came,  it  was  found  that  man  could  not 
live.  In  this  country,  between  and  along  the  shores  of 
the  great  lakes,  two  hundred  thousand  people  died  in 
slow  torment  before  the  hard-taxed  wisdom  and  skill 
of  medical  science  and  governmental  administration 
could  work  any  betterment  whatever  in  the  situation. 
Men  still  die  by  thousands,  and  the  disease  is  slowly 
spreading  into  fresh  districts.  But  it  has  proved  possible 
to  keep  it  within  limits  in  the  regions  already  affected  ; 
yet  only  by  absolutely  abandoning  certain  districts,  and 


CH.  xiii]  VICTORIA  NYANZA  365 

by  clearing  all  the  forest  and  brush  in  tracts,  which 
serve  as  barriers  to  the  fly,  and  which  permit  passage 
through  the  infected  belts.  On  the  western  shores  of 
Victoria  Nyanza,  and  in  the  islands  adjacent  thereto, 
the  ravages  of  the  pestilence  were  such,  the  mortality  it 
caused  was  so  appalling,  that  the  Government  was  finally 
forced  to  deport  all  the  survivors  inland,  to  forbid  all 
residence  beside  or  fishing  in  the  lake,  and  with  this  end 
in  view  to  destroy  the  villages  and  the  fishing  fleets  of 
the  people.  The  teeming  lake  fish  were  formerly  a 
main  source  of  food  supply  to  all  who  dwelt  near  by ; 
but  this  has  now  been  cut  off,  and  the  myriads  of  fish 
are  left  to  themselves,  to  the  hosts  of  water  birds,  and 
to  the  monstrous  man-eating  crocodiles  of  the  lake,  on 
whose  blood  the  fly  also  feeds,  and  whence  it  is  supposed 
by  some  that  it  draws  the  germs  so  deadly  to  human- 
kind. 

When  we  landed,  there  was  nothing  in  the  hot, 
laughing,  tropical  beauty  of  the  land  to  suggest  the 
grisly  horror  that  brooded  so  near.  In  green  luxuriance 
the  earth  lay  under  a  cloudless  sky,  yielding  her  increase 
to  the  sun's  burning  caresses,  and  men  and  women 
were  living  their  lives  and  doing  their  work  well  and 
gallantly. 

At  Entebbe  we  stayed  with  the  acting- Governor, 
Mr.  Boyle,  at  Kampalla  with  the  District  Commissioner, 
Mr.  Knowles,  both  of  them  veteran  administrators,  and 
the  latter  also  a  mighty  hunter  ;  and  both  of  them 
showed  us  every  courtesy,  and  treated  us  with  all 
possible  kindness.  Entebbe  is  a  pretty  little  town  of 
English  residents,  chiefly  officials,  with  well-kept  roads, 
a  golf  course,  lawn-tennis  courts,  and  an  attractive 
club-house.  The  whole  place  is  bowered  in  flowers,  on 
tree,  bush,   and   vine,   of  every  hue — masses  of  lilac, 


366  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

purple,  yellow,  blue,  and  fiery  crimson.  Kampalla  is 
the  native  town,  where  the  little  King  of  Uganda,  a 
boy,  lives,  and  his  chiefs  of  State,  and  where  the  native 
council  meets  ;  and  it  is  the  headquarters  of  the  missions, 
both  Church  of  England  and  Roman  Catholic. 

Kampalla  is  an  interesting  place ;  and  so  is  all 
Uganda.  The  first  explorers  who  penetrated  thither, 
half  a  century  ago,  found  in  this  heathen  State,  of 
almost  pure  negroes,  a  veritable  semi-civilization,  or 
advanced  barbarism,  comparable  to  that  of  the  little 
Arab-negro  or  Berber-negro  sultanates  strung  along  the 
southern  edge  of  the  Sahara,  and  contrasting  sharply 
with  the  weltering  savagery  which  surrounded  it,  and 
which  stretched  away  without  a  break  for  many  hundreds 
of  miles  in  every  direction.  The  people  were  industrious 
tillers  of  the  soil,  who  owned  sheep,  goats,  and  some 
cattle ;  they  wore  decent  clothing,  and  hence  were 
styled  "  womanish  "  by  the  savages  of  the  Upper  Nile 
region,  who  prided  themselves  on  the  nakedness  of  their 
men  as  a  proof  of  manliness ;  they  were  unusually 
intelligent  and  ceremoniously  courteous ;  and,  most 
singular  of  all,  although  the  monarch  was  a  cruel  despot, 
of  the  usual  African  (whether  Mohammedan  or  heathen) 
type,  there  were  certain  excellent  governmental  customs, 
of  binding  observance,  which  in  the  aggregate  might 
almost  be  called  an  unwritten  constitution.  Alone 
among  the  natives  of  tropical  Africa  the  people  of 
Uganda  have  proved  very  accessible  to  Christian  teach- 
ing, so  that  the  creed  of  Christianity  is  now  dominant 
among  them.  For  their  good  fortune,  England  has 
established  a  protectorate  over  them.  Most  wisely  the 
English  Government  officials,  and  as  a  rule  the  mis- 
sionaries, have  bent  their  energies  to  developing  them 
along  their  own  lines,  in  government,  dress,  and  ways 


CH.  XIII]     GOVERNMENT  PROBLEMS  367 

of  life,  constantly  striving  to  better  them  and  bring 
them  forward,  but  not  twisting  them  aside  from  their 
natural  line  of  development,  nor  wi-enching  them  loose 
from  what  was  good  in  their  past,  by  attempting  the 
impossible  task  of  turning  an  entire  native  population 
into  black  Englishmen  at  one  stroke. 

The  problem  set  to  the  governing  caste  in  Uganda  is 
totally  different  from  that  which  offers  itself  in  British 
East  Africa.  The  highlands  of  East  Africa  form  a 
white  man's  country,  and  the  prime  need  is  to  build  up 
a  large,  healthy  population  of  true  white  settlers,  white 
home  makers,  who  shall  take  the  land  as  an  inheritance 
for  their  children's  children.  Uganda  can  never  be  this 
kind  of  white  man's  country  ;  and  although  planters 
and  merchants  of  the  right  type  can  undoubtedly  do 
well  there — to  the  advantage  of  the  country  as  well  as 
of  themselves — it  must  remain  essentially  a  black  man's 
country,  and  the  chief  task  of  the  officials  of  the 
intrusive  and  masterful  race  must  be  to  bring  forward 
the  natives,  to  train  them,  and  above  all  to  help  them 
train  themselves,  so  that  they  may  advance  in  industry, 
in  learning,  in  morality,  in  capacity  for  self-government 
— for  it  is  idle  to  talk  of  "  giving "  a  people  self- 
government  ;  the  gift  of  the  forms,  when  the  inward 
spirit  is  lacking,  is  mere  folly  ;  all  that  can  be  done  is 
patiently  to  help  a  people  acquire  the  necessary  quali- 
ties— social,  moral,  intellectual,  industrial,  and,  lastly, 
political — and  meanwhile  to  exercise  for  their  benefit, 
with  justice,  sympathy,  and  firmness,  the  governing 
ability  which  as  yet  they  themselves  lack.  The  widely- 
spread  rule  of  a  strong  European  race  in  lands  like 
Africa  gives,  as  one  incident  thereof,  the  chance  for 
nascent  cultures,  nascent  semi-civilizations,  to  develop 
without  fear  of  being  overwhelmed  in  the  surrounding 


368  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

gulfs  of  savagery ;  and  this  apart  from  the  direct 
stimulus  to  development  conferred  by  the  consciously 
and  unconsciously  exercised  influence  of  the  white  man, 
wherein  there  is  much  of  evil,  but  much  more  of 
ultimate  good.  In  any  region  of  widespread  savagery, 
the  chances  for  the  growth  of  each  self-produced 
civilization  are  necessarily  small,  because  each  little 
centre  of  effort  toward  this  end  is  always  exposed  to 
destruction  from  the  neighbouring  masses  of  pure 
savagery ;  and  therefore  progress  is  often  immensely 
accelerated  by  outside  invasion  and  control.  In  Africa 
the  control  and  guidance  is  needed  as  much  in  the 
things  of  the  spirit  as  in  the  things  of  the  body.  Those 
who  complain  of  or  rail  at  missionary  work  in  Africa, 
and  who  confine  themselves  to  pointing  out  the  un- 
doubtedly too  numerous  errors  of  the  missionaries  and 
shortcomings  of  their  flocks,  would  do  well  to  consider 
that  even  if  the  light  which  has  been  let  in  is  but  feeble 
and  grey,  it  has  at  least  dispelled  a  worse  than  Stygian 
darkness.  As  soon  as  native  African  religions — prac- 
cally  none  of  which  have  hitherto  evolved  any  substantial 
ethical  basis — develop  beyond  the  most  primitive  stage 
they  tend,  notably  in  middle  and  western  Africa,  to 
grow  into  malign  creeds  of  unspeakable  cruelty  and 
immorality,  with  a  bestial  and  revolting  ritual  and 
ceremonial.  Even  a  poorly  taught  and  imperfectly 
understood  Christianity,  with  its  underlying  foundation 
of  justice  and  mercy,  represents  an  immeasurable 
advance  on  such  a  creed. 

Where,  as  in  Uganda,  the  people  are  intelligent  and 
the  missionaries  unite  disinterestedness  and  zeal  with 
common  sense,  the  result  is  astounding.  The  majority 
of  the  people  of  Uganda  are  now  Christian,  Protestant 
or  Roman  Catholic  ;  and  many  thousands  among  them 


CH.  XIII]  CHRISTIAN  MISSIONS  369 

are  sincerely  Christian,  and  show  their  Christianity  in 
practical  fashion  by  putting  conduct  above  ceremonial 
and  dogma.  Most  fortunately,  Protestant  and  Roman 
Catholic  seem  to  be  gradually  working  more  and  more 
in  charity  together,  and  to  show  rivalry  only  in  healthy 
effort  against  the  common  foe  ;  there  is  certainly  enough 
evil  in  the  world  to  offer  a  target  at  which  all  good  men 
can  direct  their  shafts,  without  expending  them  on  one 
another. 

We  visited  the  Church  of  England  Mission,  where 
we  were  received  by  Bishop  Tucker,  and  the  two  Roman 
CathoUc  Missions,  where  we  were  received  by  Bishops 
Hanlon  and  Streicher ;  we  went  through  the  churches 
and  saw  the  schools  with  the  pupils  actually  at  work. 
In  all  the  missions  we  were  received  with  American 
and  British  flags  and  listened  to  the  children  singing 
the  "  Star-spangled  Banner."  The  Church  of  England 
Mission  has  been  at  work  for  a  quarter  of  a  century ; 
what  has  been  accomplished  by  Bishop  Tucker  and 
those  associated  with  him  makes  one  of  the  most  in- 
teresting chapters  in  all  recent  missionary  history.  I 
saw  the  high-school,  where  the  sons  of  the  chiefs  are 
being  trained  in  large  numbers  for  their  future  duties, 
and  I  was  especially  struck  by  the  admirable  Medical 
Mission,  and  by  the  handsome  Cathedral,  built  by  the 
native  Christians  themselves  without  outside  assistance 
in  either  money  or  labour.  At  dinner  at  Mr.  Knowles' 
Bishop  Tucker  gave  us  exceedingly  interesting  details 
of  his  past  experiences  in  Uganda,  and  of  the  progress 
of  the  missionary  work.  He  had  been  much  amused 
by  an  American  missionary  who  had  urged  him  to  visit 
America,  saying  that  he  would  "find  the  latch-string 
outside  the  door."  To  an  American  who  knows  the 
country  districts  well  the  expression  seems  so  natural 

24 


370  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

that  I  had  never  even  realized  that  it  was  an  Ameri- 
canism. 

At  Bishop  H  anion's  mission,  where  I  lunched  with 
the  Bishop,  there  was  a  friend.  Mother  Paul,  an 
American ;  before  I  left  America  I  had  promised  that 
I  would  surely  see  her,  and  look  into  the  work  which 
she  and  the  Sisters  associated  with  her  were  doing.  It 
was  delightful  seeing  her ;  she  not  merely  spoke  my 
language,  but  my  neighbourhood  dialect.  She  informed 
me  that  she  had  just  received  a  message  of  goodwill  for 
me  in  a  letter  from  two  of  "  the  finest " — of  course  I 
felt  at  home  when  in  mid -Africa,  under  the  Equator,  1 
received  in  such  fashion  a  message  from  two  of  the 
men  who  had  served  under  me  in  the  New  York  police.^ 
She  had  been  teaching  her  pupils  to  sing  some  Hues  of 
the  "  Star-spangled  Banner  "  in  EngUsh,  in  my  especial 
honour ;  and  of  course  had  been  obhged,  in  writing  it 
out,  to  use  spelling  far  more  purely  phonetic  than  I  had 
ever  dreamed  of  using.  The  first  lines  ran  as  follows  : 
(Some  of  our  word  sounds  have  no  equivalent  in 
Uganda.) 

"  O   se    ka   nyu   si  bai  di      mo       nseli   laiti 
(O  say  can  you  see  by  the  morn''s2  early  light) 

Wati     so  pulauli  wi      eli   adi  twayi     laiti      silasi  giremi  *" 
(What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at     the  twilight's  last  gleaming.) 

After  having  taught  the  children  the  first  verse  in 
this  manner.  Mother  Paul  said  that  she  stopped  to  avoid 
brain  fever. 

^  For  the  benefit  of  those  who  do  not  live  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  New  York,  I  may  explain  that  all  good  or  typical  New  Yorkers 
invariably  speak  of  their  police  force  as  "  the  finest "  ;  and  if  any 
one  desires  to  know  what  a  "  good ""  or  "  typical  "  New  Yorker  is, 
I  shall  add,  on  the  authority  of  either  Brander  Matthews  or  the 
late  H.  C.  Bunner — I  forget  which — that  when  he  isn't  a 
Southerner  or  of  Irish  or  German  descent,  he  is  usually  a  man 
born  out  West  of  New  England  parentage. 

2  Sic. 


CH.  xiii]   THE  KING  AND  HIS  TUTORS        371 

In  addition  to  scliolastic  exercises,  Mother  Paul  and 
her  associates  were  training  their  school-children  in  all 
kinds  of  industrial  work,  taking  especial  pains  to  develop 
those  industries  that  were  natural  to  them  and  would  be 
of  use  when  they  returned  to  their  own  homes.  Both  at 
Bishop  Hanlon's  mission  and  at  Bishop  Streicher's,  the 
Mission  of  the  White  Fathers — originally  a  French 
organization,  which  has  established  churches  and  schools 
in  almost  all  parts  of  Africa — the  fathers  were  teaching 
the  native  men  to  cultivate  coffee,  and  various  fruits 
and  vegetables. 

1  called  on  the  little  king,  who  is  being  well  trained 
by  his  English  tutor — few  tutors  perform  more  exacting 
or  responsible  duties — and  whose  comfortable  house  was 
furnished  in  English  fashion.     I  met  his  native  advisers, 
shrewd,    powerful-looking    men,    and    went    into    the 
Council  Chamber,  where  I  was  gi'eeted  by  the  council, 
substantial-looking    men,   well   dressed   in   the    native 
fashion,  and  representing  all  the  districts  of  the  king- 
dom.    When  we  visited  the  king  it  was  after  dark,  and 
we   were   received  by  smart-looking  black  soldiers  in 
ordinary  khaki  uniform,  while  accompanying  them  were 
other  attendants  dressed  in  the  old-time  native  fashion  ; 
men  with  flaming   torches,  and    others   with    the   big 
Uganda  drums,  which  they  beat  to  an  accompaniment 
of    wild    cries.      These    drums    are    characteristic    of 
Uganda ;    each  chief  has  one,  and    beats    upon  it  his 
own  peculiar  tattoo.     The  king  and  all  other  people  of 
consequence,  white,  Indian,  or  native,  went  round  in 
rickshaws,  one  man  pulling   in   the    shafts    and    three 
others  pushing  behind.     The  rickshaw  men  ran  well, 
and  sang  all  the  time,  the  man  in  the  shafts  serving  as 
chanty-man,  while  the  three  behind  repeated  in  chorus 
every  second  or  two  a  kind  of  clanging  note  ;  and  this 


372  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

went  on  wdthout  a  break  hour  after  hour.  The  natives 
looked  well  and  were  dressed  well ;  the  men  in  long 
flowing  garments  of  white,  the  women  usually  in  brown 
cloth  made  in  the  old  native  style  out  of  the  bark  of  the 
bark  cloth  tree.  The  clothes  of  the  chiefs  were  taste- 
fully ornamented.  All  the  people,  gentle  and  simple, 
were  very  polite  and  ceremonious  both  to  one  another 
and  to  strangers.  Now  and  then  we  met  parties  of 
Sikh  soldiers,  tall,  bearded,  fine-looking  men  with 
turbans  ;  and  there  were  Indian  and  Swahili,  and  even 
Arab  and  Persian,  traders. 

The  houses  had  mud  walls  and  thatched  roofs.     The 
gardens  were  surrounded  by  braided   cane  fences.     In 
the  gardens  and  along   the   streets  were  many  trees  ; 
among  them  bark  cloth  trees,  from  which  the  bark  is 
stripped  every  year  for  cloth  ;  great  incense  trees,  the 
sweet-scented  gum  oozing  through  wounds  in  the  bark  ; 
the  date  palms,  in  the  fronds  of  which  hung  the  nests  of 
the  golden  weaver-birds,  now  breeding.      White  cow 
herons,  tamer   than   barnyard  fowls,  accompanied  the 
cattle,  perching  on  their  backs,  or  walking  beside  them. 
Beautiful  Kavirondo  cranes  came  familiarly  round  the 
houses.     It  was  all  strange  and  attractive.     Birds  sang 
everywhere.     The  air  was  heavy  with  the  fragrance  of 
flowers  of  many  colours ;  the  whole  place  was  a  riot  of 
lush   growing   plants.      Every  day  there  were  terrific 
thunderstorms.       At    Kampalla   three   men   had   been 
killed  by  lightning  within  six  weeks  ;  a  year  or  two 
before  our  host,  Knowles,  had  been  struck  by  lightning 
and  knocked  senseless,  a  hugh  zigzag  mark  being  left 
across  his  body,  and  the  links  of  his  gold  watchchain 
being  fused  ;  it  was  many  months  before  he  completely 
recovered. 

Knowles   arranged   a   situtunga   hunt    for   us.     The 


CH.  XIII]  A  SITUTUNGA  HUNT  878 

situtunga  is   closely  related   to   the   bushbuek,  but  is 
bigger,  with   very  long  hoofs,  and  shaggy  hair  like  a 
waterbuck.     It  is  exclusively  a  beast  of  the  marshes, 
making  its  home  in  the  thick  reed-beds,  where  the  water 
is  deep ;  and  it  is  exceedingly  shy,   so  that  very  few 
white  men  have  shot,  or  even  seen,  it.     Its  long  hoofs 
enable  it  to  go  over  the  most  treacherous  ground,  and 
it   swims  well ;  in   many  of  its   haunts,  in  the   thick 
papyrus,  the  water  is  waist-deep  on  a  man.     Through 
the  papyrus,  and  the  reeds  and  marsh  grass,  it  makes 
well-beaten    paths.      Where   it   is   in    any   danger   of 
molestation  it   is  never  seen  abroad   in   the  daytime, 
venturing  from  the  safe  cover  of  the  high  reeds  only  at 
night ;  but  fifty  miles  inland,  in  the  marsh  grass  on  the 
edge  of  a  big  papyrus  swamp,  Kermit  caught  a  glimpse 
of  half  a  dozen  feeding  in  the  open,  knee-deep  in  water, 
long  after  sunrise.     On  the  hunt  in  question  a  patch  of 
marsh  was  driven  by  a  hundred  natives,  while  the  guns 
were  strung  along  the  likely  passes  which  led  to  another 
patch   of    marsh.      A    fine   situtunga   buck    came    to 
Kermit's  post,  and  he  killed  it  as  it  bolted  away.     It 
had  stolen  up  so  quietly  through  the  long  marsh  grass 
that  he  only  saw  it  when  it  was  directly  on  him.     Its 
stomach  contained,  not  grass,  but  the  leaves  and  twig 
tips  of  a  shrub  which  grows  in  and  alongside  of  the 
marshes. 

The  day  after  this  hunt  our  safari  started  on  its 
march  north-westward  to  Lake  Albert  Nyanza.  We 
had  taken  with  us  from  East  Africa  our  gun-bearers 
tent-boys,  and  the  men  whom  the  naturalists  had  trained 
as  skinners.  The  porters  were  men  of  Uganda  ;  the 
askaris  were  from  the  constabulary,  and  widely  diliierent 
races  were  represented  among  them,  but  all  had  been 
drilled    into  soldierly   uniformity.       The   porters   were 


374  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

well-clad,  well-behaved,  fine-looking  men,  and  did  their 
work  better  than  the  "  shenzis,"  the  wild  Meru  of 
Kikuyu  tribesmen,  whom  we  had  occasionally  employed 
in  East  Africa ;  but  they  were  not  the  equals  of  the 
regular  East  African  porters.  I  think  this  was  largely 
because  of  their  inferior  food,  for  they  ate  chiefly  yams 
and  plantains  ;  in  other  words,  inferior  sweet  potatoes 
and  bananas.  They  were  quite  as  fond  of  singing  as  the 
East  African  porters,  and  in  addition  were  cheered  on 
the  march  by  drum  and  fife  ;  several  men  had  fifes,  and 
one  earned  nothing  but  one  of  the  big  Uganda  drums, 
which  he  usually  bore  at  the  head  of  the  safari,  marching 
in  company  with  the  flag-bearer.  Every  hour  or  two 
the  men  would  halt,  often  beside  one  of  the  queer  little 
wickerwork  booths  in  which  native  hucksters  disposed 
of  their  wares  by  the  roadside. 

Along  the  road  we  often  met  wayfarers  ;  once  or 
twice  bullock-carts ;  more  often  men  carrying  rolls  of 
hides  or  long  bales  of  cotton  on  their  heads  ;  or  a  set  of 
Bahima  herdsmen,  with  clear-cut  features,  guarding 
their  herds  of  huge-horned  Angola  cattle. 

All  greeted  us  most  courteously,  frequently  crouching 
or  kneeling,  as  is  their  custom  when  they  salute  a 
superior  ;  and  we  were  scrupulous  to  acknowledge  their 
salutes,  and  to  return  their  greetings  in  the  native 
fashion,  with  words  of  courtesy  and  long-drawn  e-h-h-s 
and  a-a-h-s.  Along  the  line  of  march  the  chiefs  had 
made  preparations  to  receive  us.  Each  afternoon,  as 
we  came  to  the  spot  where  we  were  to  camp  for  the 
night,  we  found  a  cleared  space  strewed  with  straw  and 
surrounded  by  a  plaited  reed  fence.  Within  this  space 
cane  houses,  with  thatched  roofs  of  coarse  grass,  had 
been  erected — some  for  our  stores,  one  for  a  kitchen,  one, 
which  was  always  decked  with  flowers,  as  a  rest-house 


The  situtunga  shot  by  Kermit  Roosevelt  at  Kampalla 
From  a  photograph  by  Edmund  Heller 


CH.  xiii]     KAMPALLA  :  MOSQUITOES  375 

for  ourselves  ;  the  latter  with  open  sides,  the  roof  upheld 
by  cane  pillars,  so  that  it  was  cool  and  comfortable,  and 
afforded  a  welcome  shelter,  either  from  the  burning  sun 
if  the  weather  was  clear,  or  from  the  pelting,  driving 
tropical  storms  if  there  was  rain.  The  moon  was 
almost  full  when  we  left  Kampalla,  and  night  after 
night  it  lent  a  half- unearthly  beauty  to  the  tropical 
landscape. 

Sometimes  in  the  evenings  the  mosquitoes  bothered 
us  ;  more  often  they  did  not ;  but  in  any  event  we  slept 
well  under  our  nettings.  Usually  at  each  camp  we 
found  either  the  head  chief  of  the  district  or  a  sub- 
chief  with  presents  —  eggs,  chickens,  sheep,  once  or 
twice  a  bullock,  always  pine-apples  and  bananas.  The 
chief  was  always  well  dressed  in  flowing  robes,  and 
usually  welcomed  us  with  dignity  and  courtesy  (some- 
times, however,  permitting  the  courtesy  to  assume  the 
form  of  servility) ;  and  we  would  have  him  in  to  tea, 
where  he  was  sure  to  enjoy  the  bread  and  jam.  Some- 
times he  came  in  a  rickshaw,  sometimes  in  a  kind  of 
wickerwork  palanquin,  sometimes  on  foot.  When  we 
left  his  territory  we  made  him  a  return  gift. 

We  avoided  all  old  oamping-grounds,  because  of  the 
spirillum  tick.  This  dangerous  fever  tick  is  one  of 
the  insect  scourges  of  Uganda,  for  its  bite  brings  on  a 
virulent  spirillum  fever,  which  lasts  intermittently  for 
months,  and  may  be  accompanied  by  partial  paralysis. 
It  is  common  on  old  camping  grounds  and  in  native 
villages.  The  malarial  mosquitoes  also  abound  in 
places ;  and  repeated  attacks  of  malaria  pave  the  way 
for  black-water  fever,  which  is  often  fatal. 

The  first  day's  march  from  Kampalla  led  us  through 
shambas,  the  fields  of  sweet  potatoes  and  plantations 
of  bananas  being  separated  by  hedges  or  by  cane  fences. 


376  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

Then  for  two  or  three  days  we  passed  over  low  hills 
and  through  swampy  valleys,  the  whole  landscape 
covered  by  a  sea  of  elephant-grass,  the  close-growing, 
coarse  blades  more  than  twice  the  height  of  a  man  on 
horseback.  Here  and  there  it  was  dotted  with  groves 
of  strange  trees ;  in  these  groves  monkeys  of  various 
kinds — some  black,  some  red -tailed,  some  auburn — 
chattered  as  they  raced  away  among  the  branches ; 
there  were  brilliant  rollers  and  bee-eaters ;  little  green 
and  yellow  parrots,  and  grey  parrots  with  red  tails ; 
and  many-coloured  butterflies.  Once  or  twice  we  saw 
the  handsome,  fierce,  short-tailed  eagle,  the  bateleur 
eagle,  and  scared  one  from  a  reedbuck  fawn  it  had 
killed.  Among  the  common  birds  there  were  black 
drongos  and  musical  bush  shrikes ;  small  black  magpies 
with  brown  tails  ;  white-headed  kites  and  slate-coloured 
sparrow-hawks ;  palm  swifts ;  big  hornbills ;  blue  and 
mottled  kingfishers,  which  never  went  near  the  water, 
and  had  their  upper  mandibles  red  and  their  under  ones 
black ;  barbets,  with  swollen,  saw-toothed  bills,  their 
plumage  iridescent  purple  above  and  red  below ;  bulbuls, 
also  dark  purple  above  and  red  below,  which  whistled 
and  bubbled  incessantly  as  they  hopped  among  the 
thick  bushes,  behaving  much  like  our  own  yellow- 
breasted  chats  ;  and  a  multitude  of  other  birds,  beautiful 
or  fantastic.  There  were  striped  squirrels  too,  reminding 
us  of  the  big  Rocky  Mountain  chipmunk  or  Say's  chip- 
munk, but  with  smaller  ears  and  a  longer  tail. 

Christmas  Day  we  passed  on  the  march.  There  is 
not  much  use  in  trying  to  celebrate  Christmas  unless 
there  are  small  folks  to  hang  up  their  stockings  on 
Christmas  Eve,  to  rush  gleefully  in  at  dawn  next  morn- 
ing to  open  the  stockings,  and  after  breakfast  to  wait  in 
hopping  expectancy  until  their  elders  throw  open  the 


CH.  xiTi]  CONGO  TRADERS  377 

doors  of  the  room  in  which  the  big  presents  are  arranged, 
those  for  each  child  on  a  separate  table. 

Forty  miles  from  the  coast  the  elephant-grass  began 
to  disappear.  The  hills  became  somewhat  higher  ;  there 
were  thorn -trees  and  stately  royal  palms  of  great  height, 
their  stems  swollen  and  bulging  at  the  top,  near  the 
fronds.  Parasitic  ferns,  with  leaves  as  large  as  cabbage 
leaves,  grew  on  the  branches  of  the  acacias.  One  kind 
of  tree  sent  down  from  its  branches  to  the  ground  roots 
which  grew  into  thick  trunks.  There  were  wide, 
shallow  marshes,  and  although  the  grass  was  tall,  it 
was  no  longer  above  a  man's  head.  Kermit  and  I 
usually  got  two  or  three  hours'  hunting  each  day.  We 
killed  singsing,  waterbuck,  bushbuck,  and  bohor  reed- 
buck.  The  reedbuck  differed  slightly  from  those  of 
East  Africa  ;  in  places  they  were  plentiful,  and  they 
were  not  wary.  We  also  killed  several  hartebeests  —  a 
variety  of  the  Jackson's  hartebeest,  being  more  highly 
coloured,  with  black  markings.  I  killed  a  very  hand- 
some harnessed  bushbuck  ram.  It  was  rather  bigger 
than  a  good-sized  white-tail  buck,  its  brilliant  red  coat 
beautifully  marked  with  rows  of  white  spots,  its  twisted 
black  horns  sharp  and  polished.  It  seemed  to  stand 
about  halfway  between  the  dark-coloured  bushbuck 
rams  of  East  and  South  Africa  and  the  beautifully 
marked  harnessed  antelope  rams  of  the  West  Coast 
forests.  The  ewes  and  young  rams  showed  the  harness 
markings  even  more  plainly,  and,  as  with  all  bushbuck, 
were  of  small  size  compared  to  the  old  rams.  These 
bushbuck  were  found  in  tall  grass,  where  the  ground 
was  wet,  instead  of  in  the  thick  bush  where  their  East 
African  kinsfolk  spend  the  daytime. 

At  the  bushbuck  camp  we  met  a  number  of  porters 
returning  from  the  Congo,  where  they  had  been  with  an 


378  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

elephant  poacher  named  Busherri — at  least,  that  was  as 
near  the  name  as  we  could  make  out.  He  had  gone 
into  the  Congo  to  get  ivory,  by  shooting  and  trading ; 
but  the  wild  forest  people  had  attacked  him,  and  had 
killed  him  and  seven  of  his  followers,  and  the  others  were 
straggling  homeward.  In  Kampalla  we  had  met  an 
elephant-hunter  named  Quin,  who  had  recently  lost  his 
right  arm  in  an  encounter  with  a  wounded  tusker.  Near 
one  camp  the  head  chief  pointed  out  two  places,  now 
overgrown  with  jungle,  where  little  villages  had  stood 
less  than  a  year  before.  In  each  case  elephants  had 
taken  to  feeding  at  night  in  the  shambas,  and  had 
steadily  grown  bolder  and  bolder,  until  the  natives,  their 
crops  ruined  by  the  depredations  and  their  lives  in 
danger,  had  abandoned  the  struggle,  and  shifted  to 
some  new  place  in  the  wilderness. 

We  were  soon  to  meet  elephants  ourselves.  The 
morning  of  the  28th  was  rainy.  We  struck  camp 
rather  late,  and  the  march  was  long,  so  that  it  was  mid- 
afternoon  when  Kermit  and  I  reached  our  new  camping- 
place.  Soon  afterwards  word  was  brought  us  that  some 
elephants  were  near  by.  We  were  told  that  the  beasts 
were  in  the  habit  of  devastating  the  shambas,  and  were 
bold  and  truculent,  having  killed  a  man  who  had  tried 
to  interfere  with  them.  Kermit  and  I  at  once  started 
after  them,  just  as  the  last  of  the  safari  came  in,  accom- 
panied by  Cuninghame,  who  could  not  go  with  us,  as 
he  was  recovering  from  a  bout  of  fever. 

In  half  an  hour  we  came  on  fresh  signs  of  game, 
and  began  to  work  cautiously  along  them.  Our  guide, 
a  wild-looking  savage  with  a  blunt  spear,  went  first, 
followed  by  Kongoni,  who  is  excellent  on  spoor  ;  then  I 
came,  followed  by  Kermit  and  by  the  other  gun-bearers. 
The  country  was  covered  with  tall  grass,  and  studded 


CH.  xiii]  ELEPHANTS  379 

with  numerous  patches  of  jungle  and  small  forest.  In 
a  few  minutes  we  heard  the  elephants,  four  or  five  of 
them,  feeding  in  thick  jungle,  where  the  vines  that  hung 
in  tangled  masses  from  the  trees,  and  that  draped  the 
bushes,  made  dark  caves  of  greenery.  It  was  difficult 
to  find  any  space  clear  enough  to  see  thirty  yards  ahead. 
Fortunately  there  was  no  wind  whatever.  We  picked 
out  the  spoor  of  a  big  bull,  and  for  an  hour  and  a  half 
we  followed  it,  Kongoni  usually  in  the  lead.  Two  or 
three  times,  as  we  threaded  our  way  among  the  bushes 
as  noiselessly  as  possible,  we  caught  glimpses  of  grey, 
shadowy  bulks,  but  only  for  a  second  at  a  time,  and 
never  with  sufficient  distinctness  to  shoot.  The  elephants 
were  feeding,  tearing  down  the  branches  of  a  rather 
large-leafed  tree  with  bark  like  that  of  a  scrub  oak  and 
big  pods  containing  beans  ;  evidently  these  beans  were 
a  favourite  food.  They  fed  in  circles  and  zigzags,  but 
toward  camp,  until  they  were  not  much  more  than  half 
a  mile  from  it,  and  the  noise  made  by  the  porters  in 
talking  and  gathering  wood  was  plainly  audible ;  but 
the  elephants  paid  no  heed  to  it,  being  evidently  too 
much  accustomed  to  the  natives  to  have  much  fear  of 
man.  We  continually  heard  them  breaking  branches, 
and  making  rumbling  or  squeaking  sounds.  They  then 
fed  slowly  along  in  the  opposite  direction,  and  got  into 
rather  more  open  country ;  and  we  followed  faster  in 
the  big  footprints  of  the  bull  we  had  selected.  Suddenly, 
in  an  open  glade,  Kongoni  crouched  and  beckoned  to 
me,  and  through  a  bush  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  tusker. 
But  at  that  instant  he  either  heard  us,  saw  us,  or  caught 
a  whifF  of  our  wind,  and  without  a  moment's  hesitation 
he  himself  assumed  the  offensive.  With  his  huge  ears 
cocked  at  right  angles  to  his  head,  and  his  trunk  hanging 
down,  he  charged  full  tilt  at  us,  coming  steadily,  silently, 


380  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

and  at  a  great  pace,  his  feet  swishing  through  the  long 
grass  ;  and  a  formidable  monster  he  looked.  At  forty 
yards  I  fired  the  right  barrel  of  the  Holland  into  his 
head,  and,  though  I  missed  the  brain,  the  shock  dazed 
him  and  brought  him  to  an  instant  halt.  Immediately 
Kermit  put  a  bullet  from  the  Winchester  into  his  head ; 
as  he  wheeled  I  gave  him  the  second  barrel  between  the 
neck  and  shoulder,  through  his  ear  ;  and  Kermit  gave 
him  three  more  shots  before  he  slewed  round  and  dis- 
appeared. There  were  not  many  minutes  of  daylight 
left,  and  we  followed  hard  on  his  trail,  Kongoni  leading. 
At  first  there  was  only  an  occasional  gout  of  dark  blood, 
but  soon  we  found  splashes  of  red  froth  from  the  lungs  ; 
then  we  came  to  where  he  had  fallen,  and  then  we 
heard  him  crashing  among  the  branches  in  thick  jungle 
to  the  right.  In  we  went  after  him,  through  the  gather- 
ing gloom,  Kongoni  leading  and  I  close  behind,  with 
the  rifle  ready  for  instant  action  ;  for,  though  his  strength 
was  evidently  fast  failing,  he  was  also  evidently  in  a 
savage  temper,  anxious  to  wreak  his  vengeance  before 
he  died.  On  we  went,  following  the  bloody  trail  through 
dim,  cavernous  windings  in  the  dark,  vine-covered 
jungle  ;  we  heard  him  smash  the  branches  but  a  few 
yards  ahead,  and  fall  and  rise ;  and,  stealing  forward, 
Kermit  and  I  slipped  up  to  within  a  dozen  feet  of  him 
as  he  stood  on  the  other  side  of  some  small  twisted  trees 
hung  with  a  mat  of  creepers.  I  put  a  bullet  into  his 
heart ;  Kermit  fired.  Each  of  us  fired  again  on  the  in- 
stant ;  the  mighty  bull  threw  up  his  trunk,  crashed  over 
backward,  and  lay  dead  on  his  side  among  the  bushes. 
A  fine  sight  he  was,  a  sight  to  gladden  any  hunter's 
heart,  as  he  lay  in  the  twilight,  a  giant  in  death. 

At  once  we  trotted   back  to  camp,  reaching  it  as 
darkness  fell ;  and  next  morning  all  of  us  came  out  to 


CH.  XIII]  SMELL  OF  BIG  GAME  381 

the  carcass.  He  was  full  grown,  and  was  ten  feet  nine 
inches  high.  The  tusks  were  rather  short,  but  thick, 
and  weighed  a  hundred  and  ten  pounds  the  pair.  Out 
of  the  trunk  we  made  excellent  soup. 

Several  times  while  following  the  trail  of  this  big  bull 
we  could  tell  he  was  close  by  the  strong  elephant  smell. 
Most  game  animals  have  a  peculiar  scent,  often  strong 
enough  for  the  species  to  be  readily  recognizable  before 
it  is  seen,  if  in  forest  or  jungle.  On  the  open  plains,  of 
course,  one  rarely  gets  close  enough  to  an  animal  to 
smell  it  before  seeing  it ;  but  I  once  smelt  a  herd  of 
hartebeest,  when  the  wind  was  blowing  strongly  from 
them,  although  they  were  out  of  sight  over  a  gentle 
rise.  Waterbuck  have  a  very  strong  smell.  Buffalo 
smell  very  much  like  domestic  cattle,  but  old  bulls  are 
rank.  More  than  once,  in  forest,  my  nostrils  have 
warned  me  before  my  eyes  that  I  was  getting  near  the 
quarry  whose  spoor  I  was  on. 

After  leaving  the  elephant  camp  we  journeyed  through 
country  for  the  most  part  covered  with  an  open  forest 
growth.  The  trees  were  chiefly  acacias.  Among  them 
were  interspersed  huge  candelabra  euphorbias,  all  in 
bloom,  and  now  and  then  one  of  the  brilliant  red- 
flowering  trees,  which  never  seem  to  carry  many  leaves 
at  the  same  time  with  their  gaudy  blossoms.  At  one 
place  for  miles  the  open  forest  was  composed  of  the 
pod-bearing,  thick-leafed  trees  on  which  we  had  found 
the  elephants  feeding  ;  their  bark  and  manner  of  growth 
gave  them  somewhat  the  look  of  jack-oaks  ;  where  they 
made  up  the  forest,  growing  well  apart  from  one  another, 
it  reminded  us  of  the  cross-timbers  of  Texas  and  Okla- 
homa. The  grass  was  everyw^iere  three  or  four  feet 
high  ;  here  and  there  were  patches  of  the  cane-like 
elephant-grass,  fifteen  feet  high. 


382  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

It  was  pleasant  to  stride  along  the  road  in  the  early 
mornings,  followed  by  the  safari,  and  we  saw  many 
a  glorious  sunrise.  But  as  noon  approached  it  grew 
very  hot  under  the  glare  of  the  brazen  equatorial  sun, 
and  we  w^ere  always  glad  when  we  approached  our  new 
camp,  with  its  grass-strewn  ground,  its  wickerwork 
fence,  and  cool,  open  rest-house.  The  local  sub-chief 
and  his  elders  were  usually  drawn  up  to  receive  me  at 
the  gate,  bowing,  clapping  their  hands,  and  uttering 
their  long-drawn  e-h-h-s  ;  and  often  banana  saplings  or 
branches  would  be  stuck  in  the  ground  to  form  avenues 
of  approach,  and  the  fence  and  rest-house  might  be 
decorated  with  flowers  of  many  kinds.  Sometimes  we 
were  met  with  music,  on  instruments  of  one  string,  of 
three  strings,  of  ten  strings— rudimentary  fiddles  and 
harps  ;  and  there  was  a  much  more  complicated  instru- 
ment, big  and  cumbrous,  made  of  bars  of  wood  placed 
on  two  banana-stems,  the  bars  being  struck  with  a 
hammer,  as  if  they  were  keys  ;  its  tones  were  deep  and 
good.  Along  the  road  we  did  not  see  habitations  or 
people ;  but  continually  there  led  away  from  it,  twisting 
through  the  tall  grass  and  the  bush  jungles,  native 
paths,  the  earth  beaten  brown  and  hard  by  countless 
bare  feet ;  and  these,  crossing  and  recrossing  in  a  net- 
work, led  to  plantation  after  plantation  of  bananas  and 
sweet  potatoes,  and  clusters  of  thatched  huts. 

In  the  afternoon,  as  the  sun  began  to  get  well  beyond 
the  meridian,  we  usually  sallied  forth  to  hunt,  under  the 
guidance  of  some  native  who  had  come  in  to  tell  us 
where  he  had  seen  game  that  morning.  The  jungle 
was  so  thick  in  places  and  the  grass  was  everywhere  so 
long,  that  without  such  guidance  there  was  little 
successful  hunting  to  be  done  in  only  two  or  three 
hours.  We  might  come  back  with  a  buck,  or  with  two 
or  three  guinea-fowl,  or  with  nothing. 


CH.  xiii]  SNAKES,  BIRDS,  ETC.  383 

There  were  a  good  many  poisonous  snakes.  I  killed 
a  big  puff-adder  with  thirteen  eggs  inside  it ;  and  we 
also  killed  a  squat,  short-tailed  viper,  beautifully 
mottled,  not  eighteen  inches  long,  but  with  a  wide,  flat 
head  and  a  girth  of  body  out  of  all  proportion  to  its 
length  ;  and  another  very  poisonous  and  vicious  snake, 
apparently  of  colubrine  type,  long  and  slender.  The 
birds  were  an  unceasing  pleasure.  White  wagtails  and 
yellow  wagtails  walked  familiarly  about  us  within  a  few 
feet,  wherever  we  halted  and  when  we  were  in  camp. 
Long-tailed  crested  colys,  with  all  four  of  their  red  toes 
pointed  forward,  clung  to  the  sides  of  the  big  fruits  at 
which  they  picked.  White-headed  swallows  caught 
flies  and  gnats  by  our  heads.  There  were  large  plantain 
eaters,  and  birds  like  small  jays  with  yellow  wattles 
round  the  eyes.  There  were  boat-tailed  birds,  in  colour 
iridescent  green  and  purple,  which  looked  like  our 
grakles,  but  were  kin  to  the  bulbuls ;  and  another  bird, 
related  to  the  shrikes,  with  bristly  feathers  on  the  rump, 
which  was  coloured  hke  a  red-winged  blackbird,  black 
with  red  shoulders.  Vultures  were  not  plentiful,  but 
the  yellow-billed  kites,  true  camp  scavengers,  were 
common  and  tame,  screaming  as  they  circled  overhead, 
and  catching  bits  of  meat  which  were  thrown  in  the  air 
for  them.  The  shrews  and  mice  which  the  naturalists 
trapped  around  each  camping-place  were  kin  to  the 
species  we  had  already  obtained  in  East  Africa,  but  in 
most  cases  there  was  a  fairly  well-marked  difference  ; 
the  jerbilles,  for  instance,  had  shorter  tails,  more  like 
ordinary  rats.  Frogs  with  queer  voices  abounded  in 
the  marshes.  Among  the  ants  was  one  arboreal  kind, 
which  made  huge  nests,  shaped  like  beehives,  or  rather 
hke  big  grey  bells,  in  the  trees.  Near  the  lake,  by 
the  way,  there  were  Goliath  beetles,  as  large  as  small 
rats. 


384  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

Ten  days  from  Kampalla  we  crossed  the  little  Kafu 
River,  the  black,  smooth  current  twisting  quickly  along 
between  beds  of  plumed  papyrus.  Beyond  it  we  entered 
the  native  kingdom  of  Unyoro.  It  is  part  of  the  British 
protectorate  of  Uganda,  but  is  separate  from  the  native 
kingdom  of  Uganda,  though  its  people  in  ethnic  type 
and  social  development  seem  much  the  same.  We 
halted  for  a  day  at  Hoima,  a  spread-out  little  native 
town,  pleasantly  situated  among  hills,  and  surrounded 
by  plantations  of  cotton,  plaintains,  yams,  millet,  and 
beans.  It  is  the  capital  of  Unyoro,  where  the  king 
lives,  as  well  as  three  or  four  English  officials,  and 
Episcopahan  and  Roman  Catholic  missionaries.  The 
king,  accompanied  by  his  prime  minister  and  by  the 
English  Commissioner,  called  on  me,  and  I  gave  him 
five  o'clock  tea.  He  is  a  Christian,  as  are  most  of  his 
chiefs  and  headmen,  and  they  are  sending  their  children 
to  the  mission  schools. 

A  heron,  about  the  size  of  our  night  heron,  but  with 
a  longer  neck,  and  with  a  curiously  crow-like  voice, 
strolled  about  among  the  native  houses  at  Hoima  ;  and 
the  kites  almost  brushed  us  with  their  wings  as  they 
swooped  down  for  morsels  of  food.  The  cheerful,  con- 
fiding little  wagtails  crossed  the  threshold  of  the  rest- 
house  in  which  we  sat.  Black  and  white  crows  and 
vultures  came  around  camp ;  and  handsome,  dark 
hawks,  with  white  on  their  wings  and  tails,  and  with 
long,  conspicuous  crests,  perched  upright  on  the  trees. 
There  were  many  kinds  of  doves ;  one  pretty  little 
fellow  was  but  six  inches  long.  At  night  the  jackals 
wailed  with  shrill  woe  among  the  gardens. 

From  Hoima  we  entered  a  country  covered  with  the 
tall,  rank  elephant-grass.  It  was  traversed  by  papyrus- 
bordered  streams,  and  broken  by  patches  of  forest,    The 


CH.  xiii]      LAKE  ALBERT  NYANZA  385 

date  palms  grew  tall,  and  among  the  trees  were  some 
with  orange-red  flowers  like  trumpet  flowers,  growing 
in  grape-shaped  clusters ;  and  both  the  flowers  and  the 
seed-pods  into  which  they  turned  stood  straight  up  in 
rows  above  the  leafy  tops  of  the  trees  that  bore  them. 

The  first  evening,  as  we  sat  in  the  cool,  open  cane 
rest-house,  word  was  brought  us  that  an  elephant  was 
close  at  hand.  We  found  him  after  ten  minutes'  walk  : 
a  young  bull,  with  very  small  tusks,  not  worth  shooting. 
For  three-quarters  of  an  hour  we  watched  him,  strolling 
about  and  feeding,  just  on  the  edge  of  a  wall  of  high 
elephant  grass.  Although  we  were  in  plain  sight, 
ninety  yards  off,  and  sometimes  moved  about,  he  never 
saw  us ;  for  an  elephant's  eyes  are  very  bad.  He  was 
feeding  on  some  thick,  luscious  grass,  in  the  usual 
leisurely  elephant  fashion,  plucking  a  big  tuft,  waving 
it  nonchalantly  about  in  his  trunk,  and  finally  tucking 
it  into  his  mouth  ;  pausing  to  rub  his  side  against  a  tree, 
or  to  sway  to  and  fro  as  he  stood ;  and  continually 
waving  his  tail  and  half  cocking  his  ears. 

At  noon  on  January  5,  1910,  we  reached  Butiaba,  a 
sandspit  and  marsh  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Albert 
Nyanza.  We  had  marched  about  one  hundred  and 
sixty  miles  from  Lake  Victoria.  We  camped  on  the 
sandy  beach  by  the  edge  of  the  beautiful  lake,  looking 
across  its  waters  to  the  mountains  that  walled  in  the 
opposite  shore.  At  mid-day  the  whole  landscape 
trembled  in  the  white,  glaring  heat ;  as  the  afternoon 
waned  a  wind  blew  off  the  lake,  and  the  west  kindled 
in  ruddy  splendour  as  the  sun  went  dowTi. 

At  Butiaba  we  took  boats  to  go  down  the  Nile  to  the 
Lado  country.  The  head  of  the  water  transportation 
service  in  Uganda,  Captain  Hutchinson,  R.N.R.,  met 
us,  having  most  kindly  decided  to  take  charge  of  our 

25 


386  UGANDA  [ch.  xiii 

flotilla  himself.  Captain  Hutchinson  was  a  mighty 
hunter,  and  had  met  with  one  most  extraordinary 
experience  while  elephant  hunting ;  in  Uganda  the 
number  of  hunters  who  have  been  killed  or  injured  by 
elephants  and  buffaloes  is  large.  He  wounded  a  big 
bull  in  the  head,  and  followed  it  for  three  days.  The 
wound  was  serious,  and  on  the  fourth  day  he  overtook 
the  elephant.  It  charged  as  soon  as  it  saw  him.  He 
hit  it  twice  in  the  head  with  his  -450  double  barrel  as  it 
came  on,  but  neither  stopped  nor  turned  it ;  his  second 
rifle,  a  double  8  bore,  failed  to  act ;  and  the  elephant 
seized  him  in  its  trunk.  It  brandished  him  to  and  fro 
in  the  air  several  times,  and  then  planting  him  on  the 
ground,  knelt  and  stabbed  at  him  with  its  tusks. 
Grasping  one  of  its  fore-legs  he  pulled  himself  between 
them  in  time  to  avoid  the  blow ;  and  as  it  rose  he 
managed  to  seize  a  hind-leg  and  cling  to  it.  But  the 
tusker  reached  round  and  plucked  him  off"  with  its 
trunk,  and  once  more  brandished  him  high  in  the  air, 
swinging  him  violently  about.  He  fainted  from  pain 
and  dizziness.  When  he  came  to  he  was  lying  on  the 
ground  ;  one  of  his  attendants  had  stabbed  the  elephant 
with  a  spear,  whereupon  the  animal  had  dropped  the 
white  man,  vainly  tried  to  catch  its  new  assailant,  and 
had  then  gone  off*  for  some  three  miles  and  died. 
Hutchinson  was  frightfully  bruised  and  strained,  and  it 
was  six  months  before  he  recovered. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  GREAT  RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO 

"  The  region  of  which  I  speak  is  a  dreary  region  in 
Libya,  by  the  borders  of  the  River  Zaire.  And  there 
is  no  quiet  there  nor  silence.  The  waters  of  the  river 
have  a  saffron  hue,  and  for  many  miles  on  either  side  of 
the  river's  oozy  bed  is  a  pale  desert  of  gigantic  water- 
lilies  .  .  .  and  I  stood  in  the  morass  among  the  tall 
lilies,  and  the  lilies  sighed  one  unto  the  other  in  the 
solemnity  of  their  desolation.  And  all  at  once  the 
moon  arose  through  the  thin,  ghastly  mist,  and  was 
crimson  in  colour.  .  .  .  And  the  man  looked  out  upon 
the  dreary  River  Zaire,  and  upon  the  yellow,  ghastly 
waters,  and  upon  the  pale  legions  of  the  water-lilies.  .  .  . 
Then  I  went  down  into  the  recess  of  the  morass,  and 
waded  afar  in  among  the  wilderness  of  the  lilies,  and 
called  unto  the  hippopotami  which  dwelt  among  the 
fens  in  the  recesses  of  the  morass."  I  was  reading  Poe, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Upper  Nile  ;  and  surely  his  "  fable  " 
does  deserve  to  rank  with  the  "  tales  in  the  volumes  of 
the  Magi — in  the  ironbound,  melancholy  volumes  of  the 
Magi." 

We  had  come  down  through  the  second  of  the  great 
Nyanza  lakes.  As  we  sailed  northward,  its  waters 
stretched  behind  us,  beyond  the  ken  of  vision,  to  where 
they  were  fed  by  streams  from  the  Mountains  of  the 

38T 


388        RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

Moon.  On  our  left  hand  rose  the  frowning  ranges,  on 
the  other  side  of  which  the  Congo  forest  lies  like  a 
shroud  over  the  land.  On  our  right  we  passed  the 
mouth  of  the  Victorian  Nile,  alive  with  monstrous 
crocodiles,  and  its  banks  barren  of  human  life  because 
of  the  swarms  of  the  fly  whose  bite  brings  the  torment 
which  ends  in  death.  As  night  fell  we  entered  the 
White  Nile,  and  steamed  and  drifted  down  the  mighty 
stream.  Its  current  swirled  in  long  curves  between 
endless  ranks  of  plumed  papyrus.  White,  and  blue, 
and  red,  the  floating  water-lilies  covered  the  lagoons 
and  the  still  inlets  among  the  reeds  ;  and  here  and  there 
the  lotus  lifted  its  leaves  and  flowers  stiffly  above  the 
surface.  The  brilliant  tropic  stars  made  lanes  of  light 
on  the  lapping  water  as  we  ran  on  through  the  night. 
The  river  horses  roared  from  the  reed  beds,  and  snorted 
and  plunged  beside  the  boat,  and  crocodiles  slipped 
sullenly  into  the  river  as  we  glided  by.  Toward  morn- 
ing a  mist  arose,  and  through  it  the  crescent  of  the 
dying  moon  shone  red  and  lurid.  Then  the  sun  flamed 
aloft,  and  soon  the  African  landscape,  vast,  lonely, 
mysterious,  stretched  on  every  side  in  a  shimmering 
glare  of  heat  and  light ;  and  ahead  of  us  the  great, 
strange  river  went  twisting  away  into  the  distance. 

At  midnight  we  had  stopped  at  the  station  of  Koba, 
where  we  were  warmly  received  by  the  District  Com- 
missioner, and  where  we  met  half  a  dozen  of  the 
professional  elephant  hunters,  who  for  the  most  part 
make  their  money,  at  hazard  of  their  lives,  by  poaching 
ivory  in  the  Congo.  They  are  a  hard-bitten  set,  these 
elephant  poachers  ;  there  are  few  careers  more  adven- 
turous, or  fraught  with  more  peril,  or  which  make 
heavier  demands  upon  the  daring,  the  endurance,  and 
the   physical  hardihood   of    those    who    follow   them. 


CH.  xiv]  WADELAI  389 

Elephant  hunters  face  death  at  every  turn — from  fever, 
from  the  assaults  of  warlike  native  tribes,  from  their 
conflicts  with  their  giant  quarry  ;  and  the  unending 
strain  on  their  health  and  strength  is  tremendous. 

At  noon  the  following  day  we  stopped  at  the  deserted 
station  of  Wadelai,  still  in  British  territory.  There 
have  been  outposts  of  white  mastery  on  the  Upper  Nile 
for  many  years,  but  some  of  them  are  now  abandoned, 
for  as  yet  there  has  been  no  successful  attempt  at  such 
development  of  the  region  as  would  alone  mean  per- 
manency of  occupation.  The  natives  whom  we  saw 
offered  a  sharp  contrast  to  those  of  Uganda  ;  we  were 
again  back  among  wild  savages.  Near  the  landing  at 
Wadelai  was  a  group  of  thatched  huts  surrounded  by 
a  fence ;  there  were  small  fields  of  mealies  and  beans, 
cultivated  by  the  women,  and  a  few  cattle  and  goats  ; 
while  big  wickerwork  fish-traps  showed  that  the  river 
also  offered  a  means  of  livelihood.  Both  men  and 
women  were  practically  naked  ;  some  of  the  women 
entirely  so  except  for  a  few  beads.  Here  we  were 
joined  by  an  elephant  hunter,  Quentin  Grogan,  who 
was  to  show  us  the  haunts  of  the  great  square-mouthed 
rhinoceros,  the  so-called  white  rhinoceros,  of  the  Lado, 
the  only  kind  of  African  heavy  game  which  we  had 
not  yet  obtained.  We  were  allowed  to  hunt  in  the 
Lado,  owing  to  the  considerate  courtesy  of  the  Belgian 
Government,  for  which  I  was  sincerely  grateful. 

After  leaving  Wadelai  we  again  went  downstream. 
The  river  flowed  through  immense  beds  of  papyrus. 
Beyond  these  on  either  side  were  rolling  plains,  gradually 
rising  in  the  distance  into  hills  or  low  mountains.  The 
plains  were  covered  with  high  grass,  dry  and  withered  ; 
and  the  smoke  here  and  there  showed  that  the  natives, 
according  to  their  custom,  were  now  burning  it.    There 


390        RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

was  no  forest ;  but  scattered  over  the  plains  were  trees, 
generally  thorns,  but  other  kinds  also,  among  them 
palms  and  euphorbias. 

The  following  morning,  forty-eight  hours  after  leaving 
Butiaba,  on  Lake  Albert  Nyanza,  we  disembarked  from 
the  little  flotilla  which  had  carried  us — a  crazy  little 
steam-launch,  two  sail-boats,  and  two  big  row-boats. 
We  made  our  camp  close  to  the  river's  edge,  on  the 
Lado  side,  in  a  thin  grove  of  scattered  thorn-trees. 
The  grass  grew  rank  and  tall  all  about  us.  Our  tents 
were  pitched,  and  the  gi*ass  huts  of  the  porters  built,  on 
a  kind  of  promontory,  the  main  stream  running  past 
one  side,  while  on  the  other  was  a  bay.  The  nights 
were  hot,  and  the  days  burning ;  the  mosquitoes  came 
with  darkness,  sometimes  necessitating  our  putting  on 
head-nets  and  gloves  in  the  evenings,  and  they  would 
have  made  sleep  impossible  if  we  had  not  had  mosquito 
biers.  Nevertheless  it  was  a  very  pleasant  camp,  and 
we  thoroughly  enjoyed  it.  It  was  a  wild,  lonely 
country,  and  we  saw  no  human  beings  except  an 
occasional  party  of  naked  savages  armed  with  bows 
and  poisoned  arrows.  Game  was  plentiful,  and  a 
hunter  always  enjoys  a  permanent  camp  in  a  good 
game  country ;  for  while  the  expedition  is  marching, 
his  movements  must  largely  be  regulated  by  those  of 
the  safari,  whereas  at  a  permanent  camp  he  is  more 
independent. 

There  was  an  abundance  of  animal  life,  big  and  little, 
about  our  camp.  In  the  reed  sand  among  the  water- 
lilies  of  the  bay  there  were  crocodiles,  monitor  lizards 
six  feet  long,  and  many  water  birds — herons,  flocks  of 
beautiful  white  egrets,  clamorous  spur-winged  plover, 
sacred  ibis,  noisy  purple  ibis,  saddle-billed  storks,  and 
lily-trotters,  which  ran  lightly  over  the  lily-pad  s.    There 


Crocodile  shot  by  Theodore  Roosevelt 
at  rhino  camp 


Ground  hombill,  rhino  camp 


Nile  bushbuck 


Wagtail 


Cobus  maria,  Lake  No. 


Nightjar,  with  long  plumes  in  wings 


Baker's  Roan  antelope,  Gondokoro 


Fish  eagle 


?.'jniw  in'-KMi 


CH.  XIV]  FLYCATCHERS,  ETC.  391 

were  cormorants  and  snake-birds.    Fish-eagles  screamed 
as  they  circled  around — very  handsome  birds,  the  head, 
neck,  tail,  breast,  and  forepart  of  the  back  white,  the 
rest  of  the  plumage  black  and  rich  chestnut.     There 
was  a  queer  little  eagle  owl  with  inflamed  red  eyelids. 
The  black  and  red  bulbuls  sang  noisily.     There  were 
many  kingfishers,  some  no  larger  than  chippy  sparrows, 
and  many  of  them  brilliantly  coloured ;  some  had,  and 
others  had  not,  the  regular  kingfisher  voice ;  and  while 
some  dwelt  by  the  river  bank  and  caught  fish,  others 
did   not   come   near  the  water  and   lived   on   insects. 
There  were  paradise  flycatchers,  with  long,  wavy  white 
tails  ;  and  olive-green  pigeons,  with  yellow  bellies.    Red- 
headed, red-tailed  lizards  ran  swiftly  up  and  down  the 
trees.    The  most  extraordinary  birds  were  the  nightjars ; 
the  cocks  carried  in  each  wing  one  very  long,  waving 
plume,  the  pHable  quill  being  twice  the  length  of  the 
bird's  body  and  tail,  and  bare  except  for  a  patch  of  dark 
feather  webbing  at  the  end.     The  two  big,  dark  plume 
tips  were  very  conspicuous,  trailing  behind  the  bird  as 
it  flew,  and  so  riveting  the  observer's  attention  as  to 
make  the  bird  itself  almost  escape  notice.     When  seen 
flying,  the  first  impression  conveyed  was  of  two  large, 
dark  moths  or  butterflies  fluttering  rapidly  through  the 
air ;  it  was  with  a  positive  effort  of  the  eye  that  I  fixed 
the  actual  bird.     The  big  slate  and  yellow  bats  were 
more  interesting  still.     There  were  several  kinds  of  bats 
at  this  camp ;  a  small  dark  kind  that  appeared  only 
when  night  had  fallen  and  flew  very  near  the  ground  all 
night  long,  and  a  somewhat  larger  one,  Ughter  beneath, 
which  appeared  late  in  the  evening  and  flew  higher  in 
the  air.     Both  of  these  had  the  ordinary  bat  habits  of 
continuous,  swallow-like  flight.     But  the  habits  of  the 
slate  and  yellow  bats  were  utterly  different.     They  were 


392       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

very  abundant,  hanging  in  the  thinly-leaved  acacias 
around  the  tents,  and,  as  everywhere  else,  were  crepus- 
cular— indeed,  to  a  large  extent  actually  diurnal — in  habit. 
They  saw  well  and  flew  well  by  daylight,  passing  the 
time  hanging  from  twigs.  They  became  active  before 
sunset.  In  catching  insects  they  behaved  not  like  swal- 
lows, but  like  flycatchers.  Except  that  they  perched 
upside  down,  so  to  speak — that  is,  that  they  hung  from 
the  twigs  instead  of  sitting  on  them — their  conduct  was 
precisely  that  of  a  phcebe-bird  or  a  wood  peewee.  Each 
bat  hung  from  its  twig  until  it  espied  a  passing  insect, 
when  it  swooped  down  upon  it,  and  after  a  short  flight 
returned  with  its  booty  to  the  same  perch  or  went  on 
to  a  new  one  close  by ;  and  it  kept  twitching  its  long 
ears  as  it  hung  head  downward  devouring  its  prey. 

There  were  no  native  villages  in  our  immediate  neigh- 
bourhood, and  the  game  was  not  shy.  There  were 
many  buck  :  waterbuck,  kob,  hartebeest,  bushbuck, 
reedbuck,  oribi,  and  duiker.  Every  day  or  two  Kermit 
or  I  would  shoot  a  buck  for  the  camp.  We  generally 
went  out  together  with  our  gun-bearers,  Kermit  striding 
along  in  front,  with  short  trousers  and  leggings,  his 
knees  bare.  Sometimes  only  one  of  us  would  go  out. 
The  kob  and  waterbuck  were  usually  found  in  bands, 
and  were  perhaps  the  commonest  of  all.  The  buck 
seemed  to  have  no  settled  time  for  feeding.  Two  oribi 
which  I  shot  were  feeding  right  in  the  open,  just  at 
noon,  utterly  indifferent  to  the  heat.  There  were  hippo 
both  in  the  bay  and  in  the  river.  All  night  long  we 
could  hear  them  splashing,  snorting,  and  grunting ;  they 
were  very  noisy,  sometimes  uttering  a  strange,  long- 
drawn  bellow,  a  little  like  the  exhaust  of  a  giant  steam- 
pipe,  once  or  twice  whinnying  or  neighing ;  but  usually 
making   a   succession   of  grunts   or    bubbling    squeals 


The  "  while  "  rhino 
Drawn  by  Philip  R.  Goodzvin  from  photographs,  and  from  descriptions  furnished  by  Mr.  Roosevelt 


CH.  XIV]        GAME  PRESERVATION  393 

through  the  nostrils.  The  long  grass  was  traversed  in 
all  directions  by  elephant  trails,  and  there  was  much 
fresh  sign  of  the  huge  beasts — their  dung,  and  the 
wrecked  trees  on  which  they  had  been  feeding ;  and 
there  was  sign  of  buffalo  also.  In  Middle  Africa,  thanks 
to  wise  legislation,  and  to  the  very  limited  size  of  the 
areas  open  to  true  settlement,  there  has  been  no  such 
reckless,  wholesale  slaughter  of  big  game  as  that  which 
has  brought  the  once  wonderful  big  game  fauna  of 
South  Africa  to  the  verge  of  extinction.  In  certain 
small  areas  of  Middle  Africa,  of  course,  it  has  gone  ; 
but  as  a  whole  it  has  not  much  diminished,  some  species 
have  actually  increased,  and  none  is  in  danger  of  im- 
mediate extinction,  unless  it  be  the  white  rhinoceros. 
During  the  last  decade,  for  instance,  the  buffalo  have 
been  recovering  their  lost  ground  throughout  the  Lado, 
Uganda,  and  British  East  Africa,  having  multiplied 
many  times  over.  During  the  same  period,  in  the 
same  region,  the  elephant  have  not  greatly  diminished 
in  aggregate  numbers,  although  the  number  of  bulls 
carrying  big  ivory  has  been  very  much  reduced ;  indeed, 
the  reproductive  capacity  of  the  herds  has  probably  been 
very  little  impaired,  the  energies  of  the  hunters  having 
been  almost  exclusively  directed  to  the  killing  of  the 
bulls  with  tusks  weighing  over  thirty  pounds  apiece  ; 
and  the  really  big  tuskers,  which  are  most  eagerly 
sought  after,  are  almost  always  past  their  prime,  and 
no  longer  associate  with  the  herd. 

But  this  does  not  apply  to  the  great  beast  which  was 
the  object  of  our  coming  to  the  Lado,  the  square- 
mouthed,  or,  as  it  is  sometimes  miscalled,  the  white, 
rhinoceros.  Africa  is  a  huge  continent,  and  many 
species  of  the  big  mammals  inhabiting  it  are  spread 
over  a  vast  surface  ;  and  some  of  them  offer  strange 


394       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  DADO     [ch.  xiv 

problems  for  inquiry  in  the  discontinuity  of  their  dis- 
tribution. The  most  extraordinary  instance  of  this 
discontinuity  is  that  offered  by  the  distribution  of  the 
square-mouthed  rhinoceros.  It  is  almost  as  if  our  bison 
had  never  been  known  within  historic  times  except  in 
Texas  and  Ecuador.  This  great  rhinoceros  was  formerly 
plentiful  in  South  Africa  south  of  the  Zambesi,  where 
it  has  been  completely  exterminated  except  for  a  score 
or  so  of  individuals  on  a  game  reserve.  North  of  the 
Zambesi  it  was  and  is  utterly  unknown,  save  that 
during  the  last  ten  years  it  has  been  found  to  exist  in 
several  localities  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Upper  Nile, 
close  to  the  river,  and  covering  a  north  and  south 
extension  of  about  two  hundred  miles.  Even  in  this 
narrow  ribbon  of  territory  the  square-mouthed  rhino- 
ceros is  found  only  in  certain  locahties,  and  although 
there  has  not  hitherto  been  much  slaughter  of  the 
mighty  beast,  it  would  certainly  be  well  if  all  killing  of 
it  were  prohibited  until  careful  inquiry  has  been  made 
as  to  its  numbers  and  exact  distribution.  It  is  a  curious 
animal,  on  the  average  distinctly  larger  than,  and  utterly 
different  from,  the  ordinary  African  rhinoceros.  The 
spinal  processes  of  the  dorsal  vertebras  are  so  developed 
as  to  make  a  very  prominent  hump  over  the  withers, 
while  forward  of  this  is  a  still  higher  and  more  prominent 
fleshy  hump  on  the  neck.  The  huge  misshapen  head 
differs  in  all  respects  as  widely  from  the  head  of  the 
common,  or  so-called  black,  rhinoceros  as  the  head  of  a 
moose  differs  from  that  of  a  wapiti. 

The  morning  after  making  camp  we  started  on  a 
rhinoceros  hunt.  At  this  time  in  this  neighbourhood 
the  rhinoceros  seemed  to  spend  the  heat  of  the  day  in 
sleep,  and  to  feed  in  the  morning  and  evening,  and 
perhaps   throughout   the   night ;    and  to  drink  in  the 


CH.  XIV]  SQUARE-MOUTHED  RHINOS  395 

evening  and  morning,  usually  at  some  bay  or  inlet  of 
the  river.  In  the  morning  they  walked  away  from  the 
water  for  an  hour  or  two,  until  they  came  to  a  place 
which  suited  them  for  the  day's  sleep.  Unlike  the 
ordinary  rhinoceros,  the  square-mouthed  rhinoceros 
feeds  exclusively  on  grass.  Its  dung  is  very  different ; 
we  only  occasionally  saw  it  deposited  in  heaps,  according 
to  the  custom  of  its  more  common  cousin.  The  big, 
sluggish  beast  seems  fond  of  nosing  the  ant-hills  of  red 
earth,  both  with  its  horn  and  with  its  square  muzzle ;  it 
may  be  that  it  licks  them  for  some  saline  substance.  It 
is  apparently  of  less  solitary  nature  than  the  prehensile- 
lipped  rhino,  frequently  going  in  parties  of  four  or  five 
or  half  a  dozen  individuals. 

We  did  not  get  an  early  start.  Hour  after  hour  we 
plodded  on,  under  the  burning  sun,  through  the  tall, 
tangled  grass,  which  was  often  higher  than  our  heads. 
Continually  we  crossed  the  trails  of  elephant  and  more 
rarely  of  rhinoceros,  but  the  hard  sun-baked  earth  and 
stiff,  tinder-dry  long  grass  made  it  a  matter  of  extreme 
difficulty  to  tell  if  a  trail  was  fresh,  or  to  follow  it. 
Finally,  Kermit  and  his  gun-bearer,  Kassitura,  dis- 
covered some  unquestionably  fresh  footprints  which 
those  of  us  who  were  in  front  had  passed  over.  Imme- 
diately we  took  the  trail,  Kongoni  and  Kassitura  acting 
as  trackers,  while  Kermit  and  I  followed  at  their  heels. 
Once  or  twice  the  two  trackers  were  puzzled,  but  they 
were  never  entirely  at  fault ;  and  after  half  an  hour 
Kassitura  suddenly  pointed  toward  a  thorn-tree  about 
sixty  yards  off.  Mounting  a  low  ant-hill  I  saw  rather 
dimly  through  the  long  grass  a  big  grey  bulk,  near  the 
foot  of  the  tree  ;  it  was  a  rhinoceros  lying  asleep  on  its 
side,  looking  like  an  enormous  pig.  It  heard  something 
and  raised  itself  on  its  fore-legs,  in  a  sitting  posture,  the 


896       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

big  ears  thrown  forward.  I  fired  for  the  chest,  and  the 
heavy  Holland  bullet  knocked  it  clean  off  its  feet. 
Squealing  loudly  it  rose  again,  but  it  was  clearly  done 
for,  and  it  never  got  ten  yards  from  where  it  had  been 
lying. 

At  the  shot  four  other  rhino  rose.  One  bolted  to  the 
right,  two  others  ran  to  the  left.  Firing  through  the 
grass  Kermit  wounded  a  bull  and  followed  it  for  a  long 
distance,  but  could  not  overtake  it ;  ten  days  later,  ^ 
however,  he  found  the  carcass,  and  saved  the  skull  and 
horns.  Meanwhile  I  killed  a  calf,  which  was  needed 
for  the  Museum  ;  the  rhino  I  had  already  shot  was  a 
full-grown  cow,  doubtless  the  calfs  mother.  As  the 
rhino  rose  I  was  struck  by  their  likeness  to  the  picture 
of  the  white  rhino  in  Cornwallis  Harris's  folio  of  the 
big  game  of  South  Africa  seventy  years  ago.  They 
were  totally  different  in  look  from  the  common  rhino, 
seeming  to  stand  higher  and  to  be  shorter  in  proportion 
to  their  height,  while  the  hump  and  the  huge,  ungainly, 
square-mouthed  head  added  to  the  dissimilarity.  The 
common  rhino  is  in  colour  a  very  dark  slate  grey  ; 
these  were  a  rather  lighter  slate  grey ;  but  this  was 
probably  a  mere  individual  peculiarity,  for  the  best 
observers  say  that  they  are  of  the  same  hue.  The 
muzzle  is  broad  and  square,  and  the  upper  lip  without  a 
vestige  of  the  curved,  prehensile  development  which 
makes  the  upper  lip  of  a  common  rhino  look  like  the 
hook  of  a  turtle's  beak.  The  stomachs  contained  nothing 
but  grass  ;  it  is  a  grazing,  not  a  browsing,  animal. 

There  were  some  white  egrets — not,  as  is  usually  the 
case  with  both  rhinos  and  elephants,  the  cow  heron,  but 

^  Kermit  on  this  occasion  was  using  the  double-barrelled  rifle 
which  had  been  most  kindly  lent  him  for  the  trip  by  Mr.  John  Jay 
White,  of  New  York. 


CH.  xiv]  A  FIRE  397 

the  slender,  black-legged,  yellow-toed  egret — on  the 
rhinos,  and  the  bodies  and  heads  of  both  the  cow  and 
calf  looked  as  though  they  had  been  splashed  with 
streaks  of  whitewash.  One  of  the  egrets  returned  after 
the  shooting  and  perched  on  the  dead  body  of  the  calf. 

The  heat  was  intense,  and  our  gun-bearers  at  once 
began  skinning  the  animals,  lest  they  should  spoil ;  and 
that  afternoon  Cuninghame  and  Heller  came  out  from 
camp  with  tents,  food,  and  water,  and  Heller  cared  for 
the  skins  on  the  spot,  taking  thirty-six  hours  for  the  job. 
The  second  night  he  was  visited  by  a  party  of  lions, 
which  were  after  the  rhinoceros  meat,  and  came  within 
fifteen  feet  of  the  tents. 

On  the  same  night  that  Heller  was  visited  by  the 
lions  we  had  to  fight  fire  in  the  main  camp.  At  noon 
we  noticed  two  fires  come  toward  us,  and  could  soon 
hear  their  roaring.  The  tall,  thick  grass  was  like 
tinder ;  and  if  we  let  the  fires  reach  camp  we  were 
certain  to  lose  everything  we  had.  So  Loring,  Mearns, 
Kermit,  and  I,  who  were  in  camp,  got  out  the  porters 
and  cut  a  lane  around  our  tents  and  goods ;  and  then 
started  a  back  fire,  section  after  section,  from  the  other 
side  of  this  lane.  We  kept  everyone  ready,  with 
branches  and  wet  gunny-sacks,  and  lit  each  section  in 
turn,  so  that  we  could  readily  beat  out  the  flames  at 
any  point  where  they  threatened.  The  air  was  still, 
and  soon  after  nightfall  our  back  fire  had  burnt  fifty  or 
a  hundred  yards  away  from  camp,  and  the  danger  was 
practically  over.  Shortly  afterward  one  of  the  fires 
against  which  we  were  guarding  came  over  a  low  hill 
crest  into  view,  beyond  the  line  of  our  back  fire.  It 
was  a  fine  sight  to  see  the  long  line  of  leaping,  wavering 
flames  advance  toward  one  another.  An  hour  or  two 
passed    before    they    met,    half    a    mile    from    camp. 


398        RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

Wherever  they  came  together  there  would  be  a 
moment's  spurt  of  roaring,  crackUng  fire,  and  then  it 
would  vanish,  leaving  at  that  point  a  blank  in  the  circle 
of  flame.  Gradually  the  blanks  in  the  lines  extended, 
until  the  fire  thus  burnt  itself  out,  and  darkness 
succeeded  the  bright  red  glare. 

The  fires  continued  to  burn  in  our  neighbourhood  for 
a  couple  of  days.  Finally,  one  evening  the  great  beds 
of  papyrus  across  the  bay  caught  fire.  After  nightfall  it 
was  splendid  to  see  the  line  of  flames  leaping  fifty  feet 
into  the  air  as  they  worked  across  the  serried  masses  of 
tall  papyrus.  When  they  came  toward  the  water  they 
kindled  the  surface  of  the  bay  into  a  ruddy  glare,  while 
above  them  the  crimson  smoke-clouds  drifted  slowly  to 
leeward.  The  fire  did  not  die  out  until  toward  morning, 
and  then,  behind  it,  we  heard  the  grand  booming  chorus 
of  a  party  of  lions.  They  were  full  fed,  and  roaring  as 
they  went  to  their  day  beds  ;  each  would  utter  a  succes- 
sion of  roars,  which  grew  louder  and  louder  until  they 
fairly  thundered,  and  then  died  gradually  away,  until 
they  ended  in  a  succession  of  sighs  and  grunts. 

As  the  fires  burned  to  and  fro  across  the  country, 
birds  of  many  kinds  came  to  the  edge  of  the  flames  to 
pick  up  the  insects  which  were  driven  out.  There  were 
marabou  storks,  kites,  hawks,  ground  hornbills,  and 
flocks  of  beautiful  egrets  and  cow  herons,  which  stalked 
sedately  through  the  grass,  and  now  and  then  turned 
a  small  tree  nearly  white  by  all  perching  in  it.  The 
little  bank-swallows  came  in  myriads — exactly  the  same, 
by  the  way,  as  our  familiar  home  friends,  for  the  bank- 
swallow  is  the  most  widely  distributed  of  all  birds.  The 
most  conspicuous  attendants  of  the  fires,  however,  were 
the  bee-eaters,  the  largest  and  handsomest  we  had  yet 
seen,  their  plumage  every  shade  of  blended  red  and  rose 


CH.  XIV]      SLEEPING-SICKNESS  FLY  399 

varied  with  brilliant  blue  and  green.  The  fires  seemed 
to  bother  the  bigger  animals  hardly  at  all.  The  game 
did  not  shift  their  haunts,  or  do  more  than  move  in 
quite  leisurely  fashion  out  of  the  line  of  advance  of  the 
fllames.  I  saw  two  oribi  which  had  found  a  patch  of 
short  grass  that  spHt  the  fire,  feeding  thereon,  entirely 
undisturbed,  although  the  flames  were  crackling  by  some 
fifty  yards  on  each  side  of  them.  Even  the  mice  and 
shrews  did  not  suffer  much,  probably  because  they  went 
into  holes.  Shrews,  by  the  way,  were  very  plentiful, 
and  Loring  trapped  four  kinds,  two  of  them  new.  It 
was  always  a  surprise  to  me  to  find  these  tiny  shrews 
swarming  in  Equatorial  Africa  just  as  they  swarm  in 
Arctic  America. 

In  a  little  patch  of  country  not  far  from  this  camp 
there  were  a  few  sleeping-sickness  fly,  and  one  or  two  of 
us  were  bitten  ;  but  seemingly  the  fly  were  not  infected, 
although  at  this  very  time  eight  men  were  dying  of 
sleeping  sickness  at  Wadelai,  where  we  had  stopped. 
There  were  also  some  ordinary  tsetse  fly,  which  caused 
us  uneasiness  about  our  mule.  We  had  brought  four 
little  mules  through  Uganda,  riding  them  occasionally 
on  safari ;  and  had  taken  one  across  into  the  Lado, 
while  the  other  three,  with  the  bulk  of  the  porters, 
marched  on  the  opposite  bank  of  the  Nile  from  Koba, 
and  were  to  join  us  at  Nimule. 

It  was  Kermit's  turn  for  the  next  rhino,  and  by  good 
luck  it  was  a  bull,  giving  us  a  complete  group  of  bull, 
cow,  and  calf  for  the  National  Museum.  We  got  it  as 
we  had  got  our  first  two.  Marching  through  likely 
country — burnt,  this  time — we  came  across  the  tracks 
of  three  rhino,  two  big  and  one  small,  and  followed  them 
through  the  black  ashes.  It  was  an  intricate  and  diffi- 
cult piece  of  tracking,  for  the  trail  wound  hither  and 


400       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE   LADO     [ch.  xiv 

thither  and  was  criss-crossed  by  others  ;  but  Kongoni 
and  Kassitura  gradually  untangled  the  maze,  found 
where  the  beasts  had  drank  at  a  small  pool  that  morn- 
ing, and  then  led  us  to  where  they  were  lying  asleep 
under  some  thorn-trees.  It  was  about  eleven  o'clock. 
As  the  bull  rose,  Kermit  gave  him  a  fatal  shot  with  his 
beloved  Winchester.  He  galloped  full  speed  toward  us, 
not  charging,  but  in  a  mad  panic  of  terror  and  bewilder- 
ment, and  with  a  bullet  from  the  Holland  I  brought 
him  down  in  his  tracks  only  a  few  yards  away.  The 
cow  went  off  at  a  gallop.  The  calf,  a  big  creature,  half 
grown,  hung  about  for  some  time,  and  came  up  quite 
close,  but  was  finally  frightened  away  by  shouting  and 
hand-clapping.  Some  cow  herons  were  round  these 
rhino,  and  the  head  and  body  of  the  bull  looked  as  if  it 
had  been  splashed  vdth  whitewash. 

It  was  an  old  bull,  with  a  short,  stubby,  worn-down 
horn.  It  was  probably  no  heavier  than  a  big  ordinary 
rhino  bull  such  as  we  had  shot  on  the  Sotik,  and  its 
horns  were  no  larger,  and  the  front  and  rear  ones  were 
of  the  same  proportions  relatively  to  each  other.  But 
the  misshapen  head  was  much  larger,  and  the  height 
seemed  greater  because  of  the  curious  hump.  This 
fleshy  hump  is  not  over  the  high  dorsal  vertebrse,  but 
just  forward  of  them,  on  the  neck  itself,  and  has  no 
connection  with  the  spinal  column.  The  square-mouthed 
rhinoceros  of  South  Africa  is  always  described  as  being 
very  much  bigger  than  the  common  prehensile-lipped 
African  rhinoceros,  and  as  carrying  much  longer  horns. 
But  the  square -mouthed  rhinos  we  saw  and  killed  in 
the  Lado  did  not  differ  from  the  common  kind  in  size 
and  horn  development  as  much  as  we  had  been  led  to 
expect ;  although  on  an  average  they  were  undoubtedly 
larger,  and  with  bigger  horns,  yet  there  was  in  both 


CH.  xTv]        A  TRAPPED  LEOPARD  401 

respects  overlapping,  the  bigger  prehensile-lipped  rhinos 
equalling  or  surpassing  the  smaller  individuals  of  the 
other  kind.  The  huge,  square-muzzled  head,  and  the 
hump,  gave  the  Lado  rhino  an  utterly  different  look, 
however,  and  its  habits  are  also  in  some  important 
respects  different.  Our  gun-bearers  w^ere  all  East 
Africans,  who  had  never  before  been  in  the  Lado. 
They  had  been  very  sceptical  when  told  that  the  rhinos 
were  different  from  those  they  knew,  remarking  that 
"  all  rhinos  were  the  same  ";  and  the  first  sight  of  the 
spoor  merely  confirmed  them  in  their  belief ;  but  they 
at  once  recognized  the  dung  as  being  different ;  and 
when  the  first  animal  was  down  they  examined  it  eagerly 
and  proclaimed  it  as  a  rhinoceros  with  a  hump,  like 
their  own  native  cattle,  and  with  the  mouth  of  a 
hippopotamus. 

On  the  way  to  camp,  after  the  death  of  this  bull 
rhino,  I  shot  a  waterbuck  bull  with  finer  horns  than  any 
I  had  yet  obtained.  Herds  of  waterbuck  and  of  kob 
stared  tamely  at  me  as  I  walked  along,  whereas  a  little 
party  of  hartebeest  were  wild  and  shy.  On  other  occa- 
sions I  have  seen  this  conduct  exactly  reversed,  the 
hartebeest  being  tame  and  the  waterbuck  and  kob  shy. 
Heller,  as  usual,  came  out  and  camped  by  this  rhino,  to 
handle  the  skin  and  skeleton.  In  the  middle  of  the 
night  a  leopard  got  caught  in  one  of  his  small  steel 
traps,  which  he  had  set  out  with  a  light  drag.  The 
beast  made  a  terrific  row,  and  went  off*  with  the  trap 
and  drag.  It  was  only  caught  by  one  toe.  A  hyena 
similarly  caught  would  have  wrenched  itself  loose,  but 
the  leopard,  though  a  far  braver  and  more  dangerous 
beast,  has  less  fortitude  under  pain  than  a  hyena. 
Heller  tracked  it  up  in  the  morning,  and  shot  it  as, 
hampered  by  the  trap  and  drag,  it  charged  the  porters. 

26 


402       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO    [ch.  xiv 

On  the  ashes  of  the  fresh  burn  the  footprints  of  the 
game  showed  almost  as  distinctly  as  on  snow.  One 
morning  we  saw  where  a  herd  of  elephant,  cows  and 
calves,  had  come  down  the  night  before  to  drink  at  a 
big  bay  of  the  Nile,  three  or  four  miles  north  of  our 
camp.  Numerous  hippo  tracks  showed  that  during  the 
darkness  these  beasts  wandered  freely  a  mile  or  two 
inland.  They  often  wandered  behind  our  camp  at 
night.  Always  beside  these  night-trails  we  found 
withered  remnants  of  water  cabbage  and  other  aquatic 
plants  which  they  had  carried  inland  with  them — I 
suppose  accidentally  on  their  backs.  On  several  occa- 
sions where  we  could  only  make  out  scrapes  on  the 
ground  the  hippo  trails  puzzled  us,  being  so  far  inland 
that  we  thought  they  might  be  those  of  rhinos,  until  we 
would  come  on  some  patch  of  ashes  or  of  soft  soil  where 
we  could  trace  the  four  toe-marks.  The  rhino  has  but 
three  toes,  the  one  in  the  middle  being  very  big ;  it 
belongs,  with  the  tapir  and  horse,  to  the  group  of 
ungulates  which  tends  to  develop  one  digit  of  each  foot 
at  the  expense  of  all  the  others,  a  group  which  in  a 
long-past  geological  age  was  the  predominant  ungulate 
group  of  the  world.  The  hippo,  on  the  contrary,  belongs 
to  the  class  of  such  cloven-hoofed  creatures  as  the  cow 
and  pig,  in  the  group  of  ungulates  which  has  developed 
equally  two  main  digits  in  each  foot — a  group  much 
more  numerously  represented  than  the  other  in  the 
world  of  to-day. 

As  the  hippos  grew  familiar  with  the  camp  they 
became  bolder  and  more  venturesome  after  nightfall. 
They  grunted  and  brayed  to  one  another  throughout 
the  night,  splashed  and  wallowed  among  the  reeds,  and 
came  close  to  the  tents  during  their  dry-land  rambles  in 
the  darkness.     One   night,   in   addition   to   the   hippo 


CH.  xiv]  ELEPHANTS  403 

chorus,  we  heard  the  roaring  of  lions  and  the  trumpet- 
ing of  elephants.  We  were  indeed  in  the  heart  of  the 
African  wilderness. 

Early  in  the  morning  after  this  concert  we  started  for 
a  day's  rhino  hunt,  Heller  and  Cuninghame  having  just 
finished  the  preparation,  and  transport  to  camp,  of  the 
skin  of  Kermit's  bull.  Loring,  who  had  not  hitherto 
seen  either  elephant  or  rhino  alive,  went  with  us,  and  by 
good  luck  he  saw  both. 

A  couple  of  miles  from  camp  we  were  crossing  a 
wide,  flat,  swampy  valley,  in  which  the  coarse  grass 
grew  as  tall  as  our  heads.  Here  and  there  were  kob, 
which  leaped  up  on  the  ant-hills  to  get  a  clear  view  of 
us.  Suddenly  our  attention  was  attracted  by  the  move- 
ments of  a  big  flock  of  cow  herons  in  front  of  us,  and 
then,  watching  sharply,  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  some 
elephants  about  four  hundred  yards  off".  We  now 
climbed  an  ant-hill  ourselves,  and  inspected  the  elephants, 
to  see  if  among  them  were  any  big-tusked  bulls.  There 
were  no  bulls,  however ;  the  little  herd  consisted  of  five 
cows  and  four  calves,  which  were  marching  across  a 
patch  of  burnt  ground  ahead  of  us,  accompa-  ied  by 
about  fifty  white  cow  herons.  We  stood  where  we 
were  until  they  had  passed  ;  we  did  not  wish  to  get  too 
close,  lest  they  might  charge  us  and  force  us  to  shoot  in 
self-defence.  They  walked  in  unhurried  confidence,  and 
yet  were  watchful,  continually  cocking  their  ears  and 
raising  and  curling  their  trunks.  One  dropped  behind 
and  looked  fixedly  in  our  direction,  probably  having 
heard  us  talking  ;  then,  with  head  aloft  and  tail  stiffly 
erect,  it  hastened  after  the  others,  presenting  an  absurd 
likeness  to  a  baboon.  The  four  calves  played  friskily 
about,  especially  a  very  comical  little  pink  fellow  which 
accompanied  the  leading  cow.     Meanwhile,  a  few  of  the 


404       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

white  herons  rode  on  their  backs,  but  most  of  the  flock 
stalked  sedately  alongside  through  the  burnt  grass, 
catching  the  grasshoppers  which  were  disturbed  by  the 
great  feet.  When,  however,  the  herd  reached  the  tall 
grass  all  the  herons  flew  up  and  perched  on  the  backs 
and  heads  of  their  friends ;  even  the  pink  calf  carried 
one.  Half  a  mile  inside  the  edge  of  the  tall  grass  the 
elephants  stopped  for  the  day  beside  a  clump  of  bushes  ; 
and  there  they  stood,  the  white  birds  clustered  on  their 
dark  bodies.  At  the  time  we  could  distinctly  hear  the 
doctor's  shot-gun  as  he  collected  birds  near  camp.  The 
reports  did  not  disturb  the  elephants,  and  when  we 
walked  on  we  left  them  standing  unconcernedly  in  the 
grass. 

A  couple  of  hours  later,  as  we  followed  an  elephant 
path,  we  came  to  a  spot  where  it  was  crossed  by  the  spoor 
of  two  rhino.  Our  gun-bearers  took  up  the  trail,  over  the 
burnt  ground,  while  Kermit  and  I  followed  immediately 
behind  them.  The  trail  wound  about,  and  was  not 
always  easy  to  disentangle ;  but  after  a  mile  or  two  we 
saw  the  beasts.  They  were  standing  among  bushes  and 
patches  of  rank,  unburned  grass  ;  it  was  just  ten  o'clock, 
and  they  were  evidently  preparing  to  lie  down  for  the 
day.  As  they  stood  they  kept  twitching  their  big  ears  ; 
both  rhino  and  elephant  are  perpetually  annoyed,  as  are 
most  game,  by  biting  flies,  large  and  small.  We  got 
up  very  close,  Kermit  with  his  camera  and  I  with  the 
heavy  rifle.  Too  little  is  known  of  these  northern 
square-mouthed  rhino  for  us  to  be  sure  that  they  are 
not  lingering  slowly  toward  extinction  ;  and,  lest  this 
should  be  the  case,  we  were  not  willing  to  kill  any 
merely  for  trophies  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  we 
deemed  it  really  important  to  get  good  groups  for  the 
National  Museum  in  Washington  and  the  American 


CH.  xiv]  A  WOUNDED  RHINO  405 

Museum  in  New  York,  and  a  head  for  the  National 
Collection  of  Heads  and  Horns  which  was  started  by- 
Mr.  Hornaday,  the  director  of  the  Bronx  Zoological 
Park.  Moreover,  Kermit  and  Loring  desired  to  get 
some  photos  of  the  animals  while  they  were  alive. 

Things  did  not  go  well  this  time,  however.  The 
rhinos  saw  us  before  either  Kermit  or  Loring  could  get 
a  good  picture.  As  they  wheeled  I  fired  hastily  into 
the  chest  of  one,  but  not  quite  in  the  middle,  and  away 
they  dashed — for  they  do  not  seem  as  truculent  as  the 
common  rhino.  We  followed  them.  After  an  hour 
the  trails  separated  ;  Cuninghame  went  on  one,  but 
failed  to  overtake  the  animal,  and  we  did  not  see  him 
until  we  reached  camp  late  that  afternoon. 

Meanwhile,  our  own  gun-bearers  followed  the  bloody 
spoor  of  the  rhino  I  had  hit,  Kermit  and  I  close  behind, 
and  Loring  with  us.  The  rhino  had  gone  straight  off 
at  a  gallop,  and  the  trail  offered  little  difficulty,  so  we 
walked  fast.  A  couple  of  hours  passed.  The  sun  was 
now  high  and  the  heat  intense  as  we  walked  over  the 
burnt  ground.  The  scattered  trees  bore  such  scanty 
foliage  as  to  cast  hardly  any  shade.  The  rhino  galloped 
strongly  and  without  faltering ;  but  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  blood  on  the  trail.  At  last,  after  we  had  gone 
seven  or  eight  miles,  Kiboko  the  skinner,  who  was 
acting  as  my  gun-bearer,  pointed  toward  a  small  thorn- 
tree  ;  and  beside  it  1  saw  the  rhino  standing  with 
drooping  head.  It  had  been  fatally  hit,  and  if  undis- 
turbed would  probably  never  have  moved  from  where 
it  was  standing  ;  and  we  finished  it  off  forthwith.  It 
was  a  cow,  and  before  dying  it  ran  round  and  round  in 
a  circle,  in  the  manner  of  the  common  rhino. 

Loring  stayed  to  superintend  the  skinning  and  bring- 
ing in  of  the  head  and  feet  and  slabs  of  hide.     Mean- 


406        RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

while,  Kermit  and  I,  with  our  gun-bearers,  went  off  with 
a  "  shenzi,"  a  wild  native  who  had  just  come  in  with  the 
news  that  he  knew  where  another  rhino  was  lying,  a 
few  miles  away.  While  bound  thither,  we  passed 
numbers  of  oribi,  and  went  close  to  a  herd  of  water- 
buck,  which  stared  at  us  with  stupid  tameness  ;  a  single 
hartebeest  was  with  them.  When  we  reached  the  spot 
there  was  the  rhino,  sure  enough,  under  a  little  tree, 
sleeping  on  his  belly,  his  legs  doubled  up,  and  his  head 
flat  on  the  ground.  Unfortunately,  the  grass  was  long, 
so  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  photograph  him. 
However,  Kermit  tried  to  get  his  picture  from  an 
ant-hill  fifty  yards  distant,  and  then,  he  with  his  camera 
and  I  with  my  rifle,  walked  up  to  within  about  twenty 
yards.  At  this  point  we  halted,  and  on  the  instant  the 
rhino  jumped  to  his  feet  with  surprising  agility,  and 
trotted  a  few  yards  out  from  under  the  tree.  It  was  a 
huge  bull,  with  a  fair  horn  ;  much  the  biggest  bull  we 
had  yet  seen  ;  and  with  head  up  and  action  high,  the 
sun  glinting  on  his  slate  hide  and  bringing  out  his 
enormous  bulk,  he  was  indeed  a  fine  sight.  I  waited  a 
moment  for  Kermit  to  snap  him.  Unfortunately  the 
waving  grass  spoiled  the  picture.  Then  I  fired  right 
and  left  into  his  body,  behind  the  shoulders,  and  down 
he  went.  In  colour  he  seemed  of  exactly  the  same 
shade  as  the  common  rhino,  but  he  was  taller  and 
heavier,  being  six  feet  high.  He  carried  a  stout  horn, 
a  little  over  two  feet  long  ;  the  girth  at  the  base  was 
very  great. 

Leaving  the  gun-bearers  (with  all  our  water)  to  skin 
the  mighty  beast,  Kermit  and  I  started  for  camp ;  and 
as  we  were  rather  late  Kermit  struck  out  at  a  great 
pace  in  front,  while  I  followed  on  the  little  ambling 
mule.     On  our  way  in  we  passed  the  elephants,  still 


CH.  XIV]  FIELD  NATURALISTS  407 

standing  where  we  had  left  them  in  the  morning,  with 
the  white  cow  herons  flying  and  walking  around  and 
over  them.  Heller  and  Cuninghame  at  once  went  out 
to  camp  by  the  skin  and  take  care  of  it,  and  to  bring 
back  the  skeleton.  We  had  been  out  about  eleven 
hours  without  food  ;  we  were  very  dirty  from  the  ashes 
on  the  burnt  ground  ;  we  had  triumphed  ;  and  we  were 
thoroughly  happy  as  we  took  our  baths  and  ate  our 
hearty  dinner. 

It  was  amusing  to  look  at  our  three  naturalists  and 
compare  them  with  the  conventional  pictures  of  men  of 
science  and  learning — especially  men  of  science  and 
learning  in  the  wilderness — drawn  by  the  novelists  a 
century  ago.  Nowadays  the  field  naturalist — who  is 
usually  at  all  points  superior  to  the  mere  closet 
naturalist — follows  a  profession  as  full  of  hazard  and 
interest  as  that  of  the  explorer  or  of  the  big-game 
hunter  in  the  remote  wilderness.  He  penetrates  to  all 
the  out-of-the-way  nooks  and  corners  of  the  earth ;  he 
is  schooled  to  the  performance  of  very  hard  work,  to 
the  endurance  of  fatigue  and  hardship,  to  encountering 
all  kinds  of  risks,  and  to  grappling  with  every  conceivable 
emergency.  In  consequence  he  is  exceedingly  competent, 
resourceful,  and  self-reliant,  and  the  man  of  all  others  to 
trust  in  a  tight  place. 

Around  this  camp  there  were  no  ravens  or  crows ; 
but  multitudes  of  kites,  almost  as  tame  as  sparrows, 
circled  among  the  tents,  uttering  their  wailing  cries, 
and  lit  on  the  little  trees  near  by  or  waddled  about  on 
the  ground  near  the  cook  fires.  Numerous  vultures, 
many  marabou  storks,  and  a  single  fish  eagle,  came  to 
the  carcasses  set  for  them  outside  the  camp  by  Loring ; 
and  he  took  pictures  of  them.  The  handsome  fish  eagle 
looked  altogether  out  of  place  among  the  foul  carrion- 


408       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

feeding  throng ;  on  the  ground  the  vultures  made  way 
for  him  respectfully  enough,  but  they  resented  his 
presence,  and  now  and  then  two  or  three  would  unite 
to  mob  him  while  on  the  wing. 

We  wished  for  another  cow  rhino,  so  as  to  have  a  bull 
and  a  cow  both  for  the  National  Museum  at  Washington, 
and  for  the  American  Museum  in  New  York ;  and 
Kermit  was  to  shoot  this.  Accordingly  he  and  1  started 
off  early  one  morning  with  Grogan — a  man  of  about 
twenty-five,  a  good  hunter  and  a  capital  fellow,  with 
whom  by  this  time  we  were  great  friends.  It  was 
much  like  our  other  hunts.  We  tramped  through  high 
grass  across  a  big,  swampy  plain  or  broad  valley  between 
low  rises  of  ground,  until,  on  the  opposite  side,  we 
struck  a  by-this-time  familiar  landmark,  two  tall  royal 
palms,  the  only  ones  for  some  miles  around.  Here  we 
turned  into  a  broad  elephant  and  rhinoceros  path,  worn 
deep  and  smooth  by  the  generation  of  huge  feet  that 
had  tramped  it ;  for  it  led  from  the  dry  inland  to  a 
favourite  drinking  place  on  the  Nile.  Along  this  we 
walked  until  Kassitura  made  out  the  trail  of  two  rhino 
crossing  it  at  right  angles.  They  were  evidently  feeding 
and  seeking  a  noonday  resting-place  ;  in  this  country 
the  square-mouthed  rhinoceros  live  on  the  grassy  flats, 
sparsely  covered  with  small  thorn-trees,  and  only  go 
into  the  high  reeds  on  their  way  to  drink.  With 
Kassitura  and  Kongoni  in  the  lead  we  followed  the  fresh 
trail  for  a  mile  or  so,  until  we  saw  our  quarry.  The 
stupid  beasts  had  smelt  us,  but  were  trotting  to  and  fro 
in  a  state  of  indecision  and  excitement,  tails  twisting 
and  ears  cocked,  uncertain  what  to  do.  At  first  we 
thought  they  were  a  bull  and  a  small  cow  ;  but  they 
proved  to  be  a  big  cow  with  good  horns,  and  a  calf 
which  was  nearly  full  grown.     The  wind  and  sun  were 


CH.  xiv]  MONITOR  LIZARD  409 

both  exactly  wrong,  so  Kermit  could  not  take  any 
photos ;  and  accordingly  he  shot  the  cow  behind  the 
shoulder.  Away  both  animals  went,  Kermit  tearing 
along  behind,  while  Grogan  and  I  followed.  After  a 
sharp  run  of  a  mile  and  a  half  Kermit  overtook  them, 
and  brought  down  the  cow.  The  younger  one  then 
trotted  threateningly  toward  him.  He  let  it  get  within 
ten  yards,  trying  to  scare  it ;  as  it  kept  coming  on,  and 
could  of  course  easily  kill  him,  he  then  fired  into  its 
face,  to  one  side,  so  as  to  avoid  inflicting  a  serious 
injury,  and,  turning,  off  it  went  at  a  gallop.  When  I 
came  up  the  cow  had  raised  itself  on  its  forelegs,  and  he 
was  taking  its  picture.  It  had  been  wallowing,  and  its 
whole  body  was  covered  with  dry  caked  mud.  It  was 
exactly  the  colour  of  the  common  rhino,  but  a  little 
larger  than  any  cow  of  the  latter  that  we  had  killed. 
We  at  once  sent  for  Heller — who  had  been  working 
without  intermission  since  we  struck  the  Lado,  and 
liked  it — and  waited  by  the  body  until  he  appeared,  in 
mid-afternoon. 

Here  in  the  Lado  we  were  in  a  wild,  uninhabited 
country,  and  for  meat  we  depended  entirely  on  our 
rifles  ;  nor  was  there  any  difficulty  in  obtaining  all  we 
needed.  We  only  shot  for  meat,  or  for  Museum 
specimens — all  the  Museum  specimens  being  used  for 
food  too — and  as  the  naturalists  were  as  busy  as  they 
well  could  be,  we  found  that,  except  when  we  were  after 
rhinoceros,  it  was  not  necessary  to  hunt  for  more  than 
half  a  day  or  thereabouts.  On  one  of  these  hunts,  on 
which  he  shot  a  couple  of  buck,  Kermit  also  killed  a 
monitor  lizard,  and  a  crocodile  ten  feet  long ;  it  was  a 
female,  and  contained  fifty-two  eggs,  which,  when 
scrambled,  we  ate  and  found  good. 

The  morning  after  Kermit  killed  his  cow  rhino  he 


410       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

and  Grogan  went  off  for  the  day  to  see  if  they  could 
not  get  some  Hve  rhino  photos.  Cuninghame  started 
to  join  Heller  at  the  temporary  camp  which  we  had 
made  beside  the  dead  rhino,  in  order  to  help  him  with 
the  skin  and  skeletons.  Mearns  and  Loring  were  busy 
with  birds,  small  beasts,  and  photographs.  So,  as  we 
were  out  of  fresh  meat,  I  walked  away  from  camp  to 
get  some,  followed  by  my  gun-bearers,  the  little  mule 
with  its  well-meaning  and  utterly  ignorant  shenzi  sais, 
and  a  dozen  porters. 

We  first  went  along  the  river  brink  to  look  for 
crocodiles.  In  most  places  the  bank  was  high  and 
steep.  Wherever  it  was  broken  there  was  a  drinking 
place,  with  leading  down  to  it  trails  deeply  rutted  in 
the  soil  by  the  herds  of  giant  game  that  had  travelled 
them  for  untold  years.  At  this  point  the  Nile  was 
miles  wide,  and  w^as  divided  into  curving  channels  which 
here  and  there  spread  into  lake-like  expanses  of  still 
water.  Along  the  edges  of  the  river,  and  between  the 
M^inding  channels  and  lagoons,  grew  vast  water-fields  of 
papyrus,  their  sheets  and  bands  of  dark  green  breaking 
the  burnished  silver  of  the  sunlit  waters.  Beyond  the 
farther  bank  rose  steep,  sharply  peaked  hills.  The  tri- 
coloured  fish  eagles,  striking  to  the  eye  because  of  their 
snow-white  heads  and  breasts,  screamed  continually — 
a  wild,  eerie  sound.  Cormorants  and  snake-birds  were 
perched  on  trees  overhanging  the  water,  and  flew  away, 
or  plunged  like  stones  into  the  stream,  as  I  approached  ; 
herons  of  many  kinds  rose  from  the  marshy  edges  of  the 
bays  and  inlets  ;  wattled  and  spur- winged  plovers  circled 
overhead  ;  and  I  saw  a  party  of  hippopotami  in  a  shallow 
on  the  other  side  of  the  nearest  channel,  their  lazy  bulks 
raised  above  water  as  they  basked  asleep  in  the  sun. 
The  semi-diurnal  slate-and-yellow  bats  flitted  from  one 


CH.  XIV]  A  VARIED  BAG  .         411 

scantily  leaved  tree  to  another  as  I  disturbed  them.  At 
the  foot  of  a  steep  bluff,  several  yards  from  the  water,  a 
crocodile  lay.  I  broke  its  neck  with  a  soft-nosed  bullet 
from  the  little  Springfield ;  for  the  plated  skin  of  a 
crocodile  offers  no  resistance  to  a  modern  rifle.  We 
dragged  the  ugly  man-eater  up  the  bank,  and  sent  one 
of  the  porters  back  to  camp  to  bring  out  enough  men  to 
carry  the  brute  in  bodily.  It  was  a  female,  containing 
thirty  eggs.  We  did  not  find  any  crocodile's  nest ;  but 
near  camp,  in  digging  a  hole  for  the  disposal  of  refuse, 
we  came  on  a  clutch  of  a  dozen  eggs  of  the  monitor 
lizard.  They  were  in  sandy  loam,  two  feet  and  a  half 
beneath  the  surface,  without  the  vestige  of  a  burrow 
leading  to  them.  When  exposed  to  the  sun,  unlike 
the  crocodile's  eggs,  they  soon  burst.  Evidently  the 
young  are  hatched  in  the  cool  earth  and  dig  their  way 
out. 

We  continued  our  walk,  and  soon  came  on  some  kob. 
At  two  hundred  yards  I  got  a  fine  buck,  though  he 
went  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  Then,  at  a  hundred  and  fifty 
yards,  I  dropped  a  straw-coloured  Nile  hartebeest. 
Sending  in  the  kob  and  hartebeest  used  up  all  our 
porters  but  two,  and  I  mounted  the  little  mule  and 
turned  toward  camp,  having  been  out  three  hours. 
Soon  Gouvimali  pointed  out  a  big  bustard,  marching 
away  through  the  grass  a  hundred  yards  off.  I  dis- 
mounted, shot  him  through  the  base  of  the  neck,  and 
remounted.  Then  Kongoni  pointed  out,  some  distance 
ahead,  a  bushbuck  ram,  of  the  harnessed  kind  found  in 
this  part  of  the  Nile  Valley.  Hastily  dismounting,  and 
stealing  rapidly  from  ant-heap  to  ant-heap,  until  I  was 
not  much  over  a  hundred  yards  from  him,  I  gave  him  a 
fatal  shot ;  but  the  bullet  was  placed  a  little  too  far 
back,  and  he  could  still  go  a  considerable  distance.     So 


412       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

far  I  had  been  shooting  well ;  now  pride  had  a  fall. 
Immediately  after  the  shot  a  difficulty  arose  in  the  rear 
between  the  mule  and  the  shenzi  sais ;  they  parted 
company,  and  the  mule  joined  the  shooting  party  in 
front  at  a  gallop.  The  bushbuck,  which  had  halted 
with  its  head  down,  started  off,  and  I  trotted  after  it, 
while  the  mule  pursued  an  uncertain  course  between  us, 
and  I  don't  know  which  it  annoyed  most.  I  emptied 
my  magazine  twice,  and  partly  a  third  time,  before  I 
finally  killed  the  buck  and  scared  the  mule  so  that  it 
started  for  camp.  The  bushbuck  in  this  part  of  the 
Nile  Valley  did  not  live  in  dense  forest,  like  those  of 
East  Africa,  but  among  the  scattered  bushes  and  acacias. 
Those  that  I  shot  in  the  Lado  had  in  their  stomachs 
leaves,  twig-tips,  and  pods ;  one  that  Kermit  shot,  a 
fine  buck,  had  been  eating  grass  also.  On  the  Uasin 
Gishu,  in  addition  to  leaves  and  a  little  grass,  they  had 
been  feeding  on  the  wild  olives. 

Our  porters  were  not,  as  a  rule,  by  any  means  the 
equals  of  those  we  had  in  East  Africa,  and  we  had  some 
trouble  because,  as  we  did  not  know  their  names  and 
faces,  those  who  wished  to  shirk  would  go  off  in  the 
bushes  while  their  more  vidlling  comrades  would  be  told 
off  for  the  needed  work.  So  Cuninghame  determined 
to  make  each  readily  identifiable  ;  and  one  day  I  found 
him  sitting,  in  Rhadamanthus  mood,  at  his  table  before 
his  tent,  while  all  the  porters  filed  by,  each  in  turn 
being  decorated  with  a  tag,  conspicuously  numbered, 
which  was  hung  round  his  neck — the  tags,  by  the  way, 
being  Smithsonian  label  cards,  contributed  by  Dr. 
Mearns. 

At  last  Kermit  succeeded  in  getting  some  good  white 
rhino  pictures.  He  was  out  with  his  gun-bearers  and 
Grogan.     They  had  hunted  steadily  for  nearly  two  days 


CH.  xivj  PHOTOGRAPHING  413 

without  seeing  a  rhino  ;  then  Kermit  made  out  a  big  cow 
with  a  calf  lying  under  a  large  tree,  on  a  bare  plain  of 
short  grass.  Accompanied  by  Grogan,  and  by  a  gun- 
bearer  carrying  his  rifle,  while  he  himself  carried  his 
*'  naturalist's  graphlex "  camera,  he  got  up  to  within 
fifty  or  sixty  yards  of  the  dull-witted  beasts,  and  spent 
an  hour  cautiously  manoeuvring  and  taking  photos.  He 
got  several  photos  of  the  cow  and  calf  lying  under  the 
tree.  Then  something,  probably  the  click  of  the  camera, 
rendered  them  uneasy,  and  they  stood  up.  Soon  the 
calf  lay  down  again,  while  the  cow  continued  standing 
on  the  other  side  of  the  tree,  her  head  held  down,  the 
muzzle  almost  touching  the  ground,  according  to  the 
custom  of  this  species.  After  taking  one  or  two  more 
pictures  Kermit  edged  in,  so  as  to  get  better  ones. 
Gradually  the  cow  grew  alarmed.  She  raised  her  head, 
as  these  animals  always  do  when  interested  or  excited, 
twisted  her  tail  into  a  tight  knot,  and  walked  out  from 
under  the  tree,  followed  by  the  calf.  She  and  the  calf 
stood  stern  to  stern  for  a  few  seconds,  and  Kermit  took 
another  photo.  By  this  time  the  cow  had  become  both 
puzzled  and  irritated.  Even  with  her  dim  eyes  she  could 
make  out  the  men  and  the  camera,  and  once  or  twice 
she  threatened  a  charge,  but  thought  better  of  it.  Then 
she  began  to  move  off,  but  suddenly  wheeled  and 
charged,  this  time  bent  on  mischief  She  came  on  at  a 
slashing  trot,  gradually  increasing  her  pace,  the  huge 
square  lips  shaking  from  side  to  side.  Hoping  that  she 
would  turn,  Kermit  shouted  loudly  and  waited  before 
firing  until  she  was  only  ten  yards  off ;  then,  with  the 
Winchester,  he  put  a  bullet  in  between  her  neck  and 
shoulder — a  mortal  wound.  She  halted  and  half 
wheeled,  and  Grogan  gave  her  right  and  left,  Kermit 
putting  in  a  couple  of  additional  bullets  as  she  went  off'. 


414       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

A  couple  of  hundred  yards  away  she  fell,  rose  again, 
staggered,  fell  again,  and  died.  The  calf,  which  was  old 
enough  to  shift  for  itself,  refused  to  leave  the  body, 
although  Kermit  and  Grogan  pelted  it  with  sticks  and 
clods.  Finally,  a  shot  through  the  flesh  of  the  buttocks 
sent  it  off  in  frantic  haste.  Kermit  had  only  killed  the 
cow  because  it  was  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to  avoid 
an  accident,  and  he  was  sorry  for  the  necessity ;  but  I 
was  not,  for  it  was  a  very  fine  specimen,  with  the  front 
horn  thirty-one  inches  long,  being  longer  than  any  other 
we  had  secured.  The  second  horn  was  compressed 
laterally,  exactly  as  with  many  black  rhinos  (although 
it  is  sometimes  stated  that  this  does  not  occur  in  the 
case  of  the  white  rhino).  We  preserved  the  head,  skin, 
and  skull  for  the  National  Museum. 

The  flesh  of  this  rhino,  especially  the  hump,  proved 
excellent.  It  is  a  singular  thing  that  scientific  writers 
seem  almost  to  have  overlooked,  and  never  lay  any  stress 
upon,  the  existence  of  this  neck  hump.  It  is  on  the 
neck,  in  front  of  the  long  dorsal  vertebra,  and  is  very 
conspicuous  in  the  living  animal ;  and  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  some  inches  of  the  exceptional  height 
measurements  attributed  to  South  African  white  rhinos 
may  be  due  to  measuring  to  the  top  of  this  hump.  I 
am  also  puzzled  by  what  seems  to  be  the  great  inferiority 
in  horn  development  of  these  square-mouthed  rhinos  of 
the  Lado  to  the  square-mouthed  or  white  rhinos  of 
South  Africa  (and,  by  the  way,  I  may  mention  that  on 
the  whole  these  Lado  rhinos  certainly  looked  lighter 
coloured  when  we  came  across  them  standing  in  the 
open  than  did  their  prehensile-lipped  East  African 
brethren).  We  saw  between  thirty  and  forty  square- 
mouthed  rhinos  in  the  Lado,  and  Kermit's  cow  had 
much  the  longest  horn  of  any  of  them  ;  and  while  they 


The  cow  and  caif  square-nosed  rhino  under  the  tree  after  being  disturbed 
by  the  click  of  the  camera 

From  a  photograph,  copyright,  by  Kcrmil  Roosevelt 


CH.  xiv]  THE  CRAZE  FOR  "RECORDS  '      415 

averaged  much  better  horns  than  the  black  rhinos  we 
had  seen  in  East  Africa,  between  one  and  two  hundred 
in  number,  there  were  any  number  of  exceptions  on  both 
sides.  There  are  recorded  measurements  of  white  rhino 
horns  from  South  Africa  double  as  long  as  our  longest 
from  the  Lado.  Now  this  is,  scientifically,  a  fact  of 
some  importance,  but  it  is  of  no  consequence  whatever 
when  compared  with  the  question  as  to  what,  if  any,  the 
difference  is  between  the  average  horns  ;  and  this  last 
fact  is  very  difficult  to  ascertain,  largely  because  of  the 
foolish  obsession  for  "  record  "  heads  which  seems  com- 
pletely to  absorb  so  many  hunters  who  write.  What 
we  need  at  the  moment  is  more  information  about  the 
average  South  African  heads.  There  are  to  be  found 
among  most  kinds  of  horn- bearing  animals  individuals 
with  horns  of  wholly  exceptional  size,  just  as  among  all 
nations  there  are  individuals  of  wholly  exceptional 
height.  But  a  comparison  of  these  whoUy  exceptional 
horns,  although  it  has  a  certain  value,  is,  scientifically, 
much  like  a  comparison  of  the  giants  of  different  nations. 
A  good  head  is,  of  course,  better  than  a  poor  one,  and  a 
special  effort  to  secure  an  exceptional  head  is  sportsman- 
like and  proper  ;  but  to  let  the  desire  for  "  record " 
heads,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else,  become  a  craze,  is 
absurd.  The  making  of  such  a  collection  is  in  itself  not 
only  proper,  but  meritorious ;  all  I  object  to  is  the  loss 
of  aU  sense  of  proportion  in  connection  therewith.  It 
is  just  as  with  philately,  or  heraldry,  or  collecting  the 
signatures  of  famous  men.  The  study  of  stamps,  or  of 
coats  of  arms,  or  the  collecting  of  autographs,  is  an 
entirely  legitimate  amusement,  and  may  be  more  than 
a  mere  amusement ;  it  is  only  when  the  student  or 
collector  allows  himself  utterly  to  overestimate  the 
importance  of  his  pursuit  that  it  becomes  ridiculous. 


416       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

Ciminghame,  Grogan,  Heller,  Kermit,  and  I  now 
went  off  on  a  week's  safari  inland,  travelling  as  light  as 
possible.  The  first  day's  march  brought  us  to  the  kraal 
of  a  local  chief  named  Sururu.  There  were  a  few 
banana-trees  and  patches  of  scrawny  cultivation  round 
the  little  cluster  of  huts,  ringed  with  a  thorn  fence, 
through  which  led  a  low  door,  and  the  natives  owned 
goats  and  chickens.  Sururu  himself  wore  a  white  sheet 
of  cotton  as  a  toga,  and  he  owned  a  red  fez  and  a  pair 
of  baggy  blue  breeches,  which  last  he  generally  carried 
over  his  shoulder.  His  people  were  very  scantily  clad 
indeed,  and  a  few  of  them,  both  men  and  women,  wore 
absolutely  nothing  except  a  string  of  blue  beads  around 
the  waist  or  neck.  Their  ears  had  not  been  pierced  and 
stretched  like  so  many  East  African  savages,  but  their 
lower  Hps  were  pierced  for  wooden  ornaments  and 
quills.  They  brought  us  eggs  and  chickens,  which  we 
paid  for  with  American  cloth,  this  cloth  and  some 
umbrellas  constituting  our  stock  of  trade  goods,  or 
gift  goods,  for  the  Nile. 

The  following  day  Sururu  himself  led  us  to  our  next 
camp,  only  a  couple  of  hours  away.  It  was  a  dry 
country  of  harsh  grass,  everywhere  covered  by  a  sparse 
growth  of  euphorbias  and  stunted  thorns,  which  were 
never  in  sufficient  numbers  to  make  a  forest,  each  little, 
well-nigh  leafless  tree,  standing  a  dozen  rods  or  so 
distant  from  its  nearest  fellow.  Most  of  the  grass  had 
been  burnt,  and  fires  were  still  raging.  Our  camp  was 
by  a  beautiful  pond,  covered  with  white  and  lilac  water- 
lilies.  We  pitched  our  two  tents  on  a  bluff,  under 
some  large  acacias  that  cast  real  shade.  It  was  between 
two  or  three  degrees  north  of  the  Equator.  The  moon, 
the  hot  January  moon  of  the  mid-tropics,  was  at  the 
full,  and  the  nights  were  very  lovely  ;  the  little  sheet  of 


The  calf  which  was  old  enough  to  shift  for  itself  refused  to  leave  the  body 
Frcm  a  photograph,  copyright,  by  Kermit  Roosevelt 


When  alarmed  they  failed  to  make  out  where  the  danger  lay 

From  a  pholograp't,  copyright,  by  Kermit  Roosrcelt 


CH.  XIV]  GREAT  HEAT  417 

water  glimmered  in  the  moon  rays,  and  round  about  the 
dry  landscape  shone  with  a  strange,  spectral  light. 

Near  the  pond,  just  before  camping,  I  shot  a  couple 
of  young  waterbuck  bulls  for  food,  and  while  we  were 
pitching  the  tents  a  small  herd  of  elephants — cows, 
young  bulls,  and  calves,  seemingly  disturbed  by  a  grass 
fire  which  was  burning  a  little  way  oiF — came  up  within 
four  hundred  yards  of  us.  At  first  we  mistook  one 
large  cow  for  a  bull,  and  running  quickly  from  bush  to 
bush,  diagonally  to  its  course,  I  got  within  sixty  yards, 
and  watched  it  pass  at  a  quick  shuffling  walk,  lifting 
and  curling  its  trunk.  The  blindness  of  both  elephant 
and  rhino  has  never  been  sufficiently  emphasized  in 
books.  Near  camp  was  the  bloody,  broken  skeleton 
of  a  young  wart-hog  boar,  killed  by  a  lion  the  previous 
night.  There  were  a  number  of  lions  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, and  they  roared  at  intervals  all  night  long.  Next 
morning,  after  Grogan  and  I  had  started  from  camp, 
when  the  sun  had  been  up  an  hour,  we  heard  one  roar 
loudly  less  than  a  mile  away.  Running  toward  the 
place,  we  tried  to  find  the  lion,  but  near  by  a  small  river 
ran  through  beds  of  reeds,  and  the  fires  had  left  many 
patches  of  tall,  yellow,  half-burned  grass,  so  that  it  had 
ample  cover,  and  our  search  was  fruitless. 

Near  the  pond  were  green  parrots  and  brilliant  wood 
hoopoos,  rollers,  and  sunbirds,  and  buck  of  the  ordinary 
kinds  drank  at  it.  A  duiker  which  I  shot  for  the  table 
had  been  feeding  on  grass  tips  and  on  the  stems  and 
leaves  of  a  small,  low-growing  plant. 

After  giving  up  the  quest  for  the  Hon,  Grogan  and  I, 
with  our  gun-bearers,  spent  the  day  walking  over  the 
great  dry  flats  of  burnt  grass-land  and  sparse,  withered 
forest.  The  heat  grew  intense  as  the  sun  rose  higher 
and  higher.      Hour  after  hour  we  plodded  on  across 

27 


418       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

vast  level  stretches,  or  up  or  down  inclines  so  slight  as 
hardly  to  be  noticeable.  The  black  dust  of  the  burnt 
soil  rose  in  puffs  beneath  our  feet,  and  now  and  then 
we  saw  dust  devils,  violent  little  whirlwinds,  which 
darted  right  and  left,  raising  to  a  height  of  many  feet 
grey  funnels  of  ashes  and  withered  leaves.  In  places 
the  coarse  grass  had  half  resisted  the  flames,  and  rose 
above  our  heads.  Here  and  there  bleached  skulls  of 
elephant  and  rhino,  long  dead,  showed  white  against 
the  charred  surface  of  the  soil.  Everywhere,  crossing 
and  recrossing  one  another,  were  game  trails,  some 
slightly  marked,  others  broad  and  hard,  and  beaten 
deep  into  the  soil  by  the  feet  of  the  giant  creatures  that 
had  trodden  them  for  ages.  The  elephants  had  been 
the  chief  road-makers,  but  the  rhinoceros  had  travelled 
their  trails,  and  also  buffalo  and  buck. 

There  were  elephant  about,  but  only  cows  and  calves, 
and  an  occasional  bull  with  very  small  tusks.  Of 
rhinoceros,  all  square-mouthed,  we  saw  nine,  none 
carrying  horns  which  made  them  worth  shooting.  The 
first  one  I  saw  was  in  long  grass.  My  attention  was 
attracted  by  a  row  of  white  objects  moving  at  some 
speed  through  the  top  of  the  grass.  It  took  a  second 
look  before  I  made  out  that  they  were  cow  herons 
perched  on  the  back  of  a  rhino.  This  proved  to  be  a 
bull,  which  joined  a  cow  and  a  calf.  None  had  decent 
horns,  and  we  plodded  on.  Soon  we  came  to  the  trail 
of  two  others,  and  after  a  couple  of  miles'  tracking 
Kongoni  pointed  to  two  grey  bulks  lying  down  under  a 
tree.  I  walked  cautiously  to  within  thirty  yards.  They 
heard  something,  and  up  rose  the  two  pig-like  blinking 
creatures,  who  gradually  became  aware  of  my  presence, 
and  retreated  a  few  steps  at  a  time,  dull  curiosity  con- 
tinually overcoming  an  uneasiness  which   never  grew 


CH.  XIV]  WATCHING  RHINOS  419 

into  fear.  Tossing  their  stumpy-horned  heads,  and 
twisting  their  tails  into  tight  knots,  they  ambled  briskly 
from  side  to  side,  and  were  ten  minutes  in  getting  to  a 
distance  of  a  hundred  yards.  Then  our  shenzi  guide 
mentioned  that  there  were  other  rhinos  close  by,  and 
we  walked  off  to  inspect  them.  In  three  hundred  yards 
we  came  on  them,  a  cow  and  a  well-grown  calf.  Sixty 
yards  from  them  was  an  ant-hill  with  little  trees  on  it. 
From  this  we  looked  at  them  until  some  sound  or  other 
must  have  made  them  uneasy,  for  up  they  got.  The 
young  one  seemed  to  have  rather  keener  suspicions, 
although  no  more  sense,  than  its  mother,  and  after  a 
while  grew  so  restless  that  it  persuaded  the  cow  to  go 
off  with  it.  But  the  still  air  gave  no  hint  of  our  where- 
abouts, and  they  walked  straight  toward  us.  I  did  not 
wish  to  have  to  shoot  one,  and  so  when  they  were 
within  thirty  yards  we  raised  a  shout  and  away  they 
cantered,  heads  tossing  and  tails  twisting. 

Three  hours  later  we  saw  another  cow  and  calf.  By 
this  time  it  was  half-past  three  in  the  afternoon,  and  the 
two  animals  had  risen  from  their  noonday  rest  and  were 
grazing  busily,  the  great  clumsy  heads  sweeping  the 
ground.  As  I  watched  them  forty  yards  off,  it  was 
some  time  before  the  cow  raised  her  head  high  enough 
for  me  to  see  that  her  horns  were  not  good.  Then  they 
became  suspicious,  and  the  cow  stood  motionless  for 
several  minutes,  her  head  held  low.  We  moved  quietly 
back,  and  at  last  they  either  dimly  saw  us,  or  heard  us, 
and  stood  looking  toward  us,  their  big  ears  cocked 
forward.  At  this  moment  we  stumbled  on  a  rhino 
skull,  bleached,  but  in  such  good  preservation  that  we 
knew  Heller  would  like  it ;  and  we  loaded  it  on  the 
porters  that  had  followed  us.  All  the  time  we  were 
thus  engaged  the  two  rhinos,  only  a  hundred  yards  off, 


420       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

were  intently  gazing  in  our  direction,  with  foolish  and 
bewildered  solemnity  ;  and  there  we  left  them,  survivors 
from  a  long  vanished  world,  standing  alone  in  the 
parched  desolation  of  the  wilderness. 

On  another  day  Kermit  saw  ten  rhino,  none  with 
more  than  ordinary  horns.  Five  of  them  were  in  one 
party,  and  were  much  agitated  by  the  approach  of  the 
men ;  they  ran  to  and  fro,  their  tails  twisted  into  the 
usual  pig-like  curl,  and  from  sheer  nervous  stupidity 
bade  fair  at  one  time  to  force  the  hunters  to  fire  in  self- 
defence.  Finally,  however,  they  all  ran  off.  In  the 
case  of  a  couple  of  others  a  curious  incident  happened. 
When  alarmed  they  failed  to  make  out  where  the 
danger  lay,  and  after  running  away  a  short  distance 
they  returned  to  a  bush  near  by  to  look  about.  One 
remained  standing,  but  the  other  deliberately  sat  down 
upon  its  haunches  like  a  dog,  staring  ahead,  Kermit 
meanwhile  being  busy  with  his  camera.  Two  or  three 
times  I  saw  rhino,  when  roused  from  sleep,  thus  sit  up 
on  their  haunches  and  look  around  before  rising  on  all 
four  legs ;  but  this  was  the  only  time  that  any  of  us 
saw  a  rhino  which  was  already  standing  assume  such  a 
position.  No  other  kind  of  heavy  game  has  this  habit ; 
and,  indeed,  so  far  as  I  know,  only  one  other  hoofed 
animal,  the  white  goat  of  the  northern  Rocky  Mountains. 
In  the  case  of  the  white  goat,  however,  the  attitude  is 
far  more  often  assumed,  and  in  more  extreme  form  ;  it 
is  one  of  the  characteristic  traits  of  the  queer  goat- 
antelope,  so  many  of  whose  ways  and  looks  are  peculiar 
to  itself  alone. 

From  the  lily-pond  camp  we  went  back  to  our  camp 
outside  Sururu's  village.  This  was  a  very  pleasant 
camp  because  while  there,  although  the  heat  was  intense 
in  the  daytime,  the  nights  were  cool  and  there  were 


CH.  XIV]  SURURU'S  VILLAGE  421 

no  mosquitoes.  During  our  stay  in  the  Lado  it  was 
generally  necessary  to  wear  head-nets  and  gloves  in  the 
evenings  and  to  go  to  bed  at  once  after  dinner,  and  then 
to  lie  under  the  mosquito  bar  with  practically  nothing 
on  through  the  long  hot  night,  sleeping  or  contentedly 
listening  to  the  humming  of  the  baffled  myriads  outside 
the  net.  At  the  Sururu  camp,  however,  we  could  sit 
at  a  table  in  front  of  the  tents,  after  supper — or  dinner, 
whichever  one  chose  to  call  it — and  read  by  lamplight, 
in  the  still,  cool,  pleasant  air ;  or  walk  up  and  down  the 
hard,  smooth  elephant  path  which  led  by  the  tents, 
looking  at  the  large  red  moon  just  risen,  as  it  hung  low 
over  the  horizon,  or  later  when,  white  and  clear,  it  rode 
high  in  the  heavens  and  flooded  the  land  with  its 
radiance. 

There  was  a  swamp  close  by,  and  we  went  through 
this  the  first  afternoon  in  search  of  buffalo.  We  found 
plenty  of  sign  ;  but  the  close-growing  reeds  were  ten 
feet  high,  and  even  along  the  winding  buffalo  trails  by 
which  alone  they  could  be  penetrated  it  was  impossible 
to  see  a  dozen  paces  ahead.  Inside  the  reeds  it  was 
nearly  impossible  to  get  to  the  buffalo,  or  at  least  to  be 
sure  to  kill  only  a  bull,  which  was  all  I  wanted ;  and  at 
this  time,  when  the  moon  w^s  just  past  the  full,  these 
particular  buffalo  only  came  out  into  the  open  to  feed 
at  night,  or  very  early  in  the  morning  and  late  in  the 
evening.  But  Sururu  said  that  there  were  other  buffalo 
which  lived  away  from  the  reeds,  among  the  thorn-trees 
on  the  grassy  flats  and  low  hills  ;  and  he  volunteered  to 
bring  me  information  about  them  on  the  morrow.  Sure 
enough,  shortly  before  eleven  next  morning,  he  turned 
up  with  the  news  that  he  had  found  a  solitary  bull  only 
about  five  miles  away.  Grogan  and  I  at  once  started 
back  with  him,  accompanied  by  our  gun-bearers.     The 


422       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

country  was  just  such  as  that  in  which  we  had  hitherto 
found  our  rhinos  ;  and  there  was  fresh  sign  of  rhino  as 
well  as  buffalo.     The  thorny,  scantily-leaved  trees  were 
perhaps  a  little  closer  together  than  in  most  places,  and 
there  were  a  good  many  half-burned  patches  of  tall 
grass.     We  passed  a  couple  of  ponds  which  must  have 
been  permanent,  as  water-lilies  were  growing  in  them  ; 
at  one  a  buffalo  had  been  drinking.     It  was  half-past 
twelve  when  we  reached  the  place  where  Sururu  had 
seen  the  bull.     We  then  advanced   with   the   utmost 
caution,  as  the  wind  was  shifty,  and  although  the  cover 
was  thin,  it  yet  rendered  it  difficult  to  see  a  hundred 
yards  in  advance.     At  last  we  made  out  the  bull,  on 
his  feet  and  feeding,  although  it  was  high  noon.     He 
was  stern  toward  us,  and  while  we  were  stealing  toward 
him  a  puff  of  wind  gave  him  our  scent.     At  once  he 
whipped  around,  gazed  at  us  for  a  moment  with  out- 
stretched head,  and  galloped  off.      I  could  not  get  a 
shot  through  the  bushes,  and  after  him  we  ran,  Kongoni 
leading,  with  me  at  his  heels.     It  was  hot  work  running, 
for  at  this  time  the  thermometer  registered  102°  F.  in  the 
shade.     Fortunately  the  bull  had  little  fear  of  man,  and 
being  curious,  and  rather  truculent,  he  halted  two  or 
three  times  to  look  round.     Finally,  after  we  had  run  a 
mile  and  a  half,  he  halted  once  too  often,  and  I  got  a 
shot  at  him  at  eighty  yards.     The  heavy  bullet  went 
home.     I  fired  twice  again  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and 
the   animal   never  moved  from  where   he   had   stood. 
He  was  an  old  bull,  as  big  as  an  East  African  buffalo, 
but  his  worn  horns  were  smaller  and  rather  different. 
This  had  rendered  Kongoni  uncertain  whether  he  might 
not  be  a  cow ;  and  when  we  came  up  to  the  body  he 
exclaimed  with  delight  that  it  was  a  "  duck  " — Kongoni's 
invariable  method  of  pronouncing  '*  buck,"  the  term  he 


CH.  XIV]  CAMP  ON  THE  NILE  423 

used  to  describe  anything  male,  from  a  lion  or  an 
elephant  to  a  bustard  or  a  crocodile  ;  "  cow  "  being  his 
expression  for  the  female  of  these  and  all  other  creatures. 
As  Gouvimali  came  running  up  to  shake  hands,  his  face 
wreathed  in  smiles,  he  exclaimed  "  G-o-o-d-e  morning  " 
— a  phrase  which  he  had  picked  up  under  the  impression 
that  it  was  a  species  of  congratulation. 

As  always  when  I  have  killed  buffalo,  I  was  struck 
by  the  massive  bulk  of  the  great  bull  as  he  lay  in  death, 
and  by  the  evident  and  tremendous  muscular  power  of 
his  big-boned  frame.  He  looked  what  he  was,  a  for- 
midable beast.  Thirty  porters  had  to  be  sent  out  to 
bring  to  camp  the  head,  hide,  and  meat.  We  found, 
by  the  way,  that  his  meat  made  excellent  soup,  his 
kidneys  a  good  stew,  while  his  tongue  was  delicious. 

Next  morning  Kermit  and  I  with  the  bulk  of  the 
safari  walked  back  to  our  main  camp,  on  the  Nile, 
leaving  Cuninghame  and  Heller  where  they  were  for  a 
day,  to  take  care  of  the  buffalo  skin.  Each  of  us  struck 
off  across  the  country  by  himself,  with  his  gun-bearers. 
After  walking  five  or  six  miles  I  saw  a  big  rhino  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile  off.  At  this  point  the  country  was 
flat,  the  acacias  very  thinly  scattered,  and  the  grass 
completely  burnt  off,  the  green  young  blades  sprouting  ; 
and  there  was  no  difficulty  in  making  out,  at  the 
distance  we  did,  the  vast  grey  bulk  of  the  rhino  as  it 
stood  inertly  under  a  tree.  Drawing  nearer,  we  saw 
that  it  had  a  good  horn,  although  not  as  good  as 
Kermit 's  best ;  and,  approaching  quietly  to  within 
forty  yards,  I  shot  the  beast. 

At  the  main  camp  we  found  that  Mearns  had  made 
a  fine  collection  of  birds  in  our  absence ;  while  Loring 
had  taken  a  variety  of  excellent  photos,  of  marabou, 
vultures,  and  kites  feeding,  and,  above  all,  of  a  monitor 


424       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO    [ch.  xiv 

lizard  plundering  the  nest  of  a  crocodile.  The  monitors 
were  quite  plentiful  near  camp.  They  are  amphibious, 
carnivorous  lizards  of  large  size  ;  they  frequent  the 
banks  of  the  river,  running  well  on  the  land,  and  some- 
times even  climbing  trees,  but  taking  to  the  water  when 
alarmed.  They  feed  on  mice  and  rats,  other  lizards, 
eggs,  and  fish ;  the  stomachs  of  those  we  caught 
generally  contained  fish,  for  they  are  expert  swimmers. 
One  morning  Loring  surprised  a  monitor  which  had 
just  uncovered  some  crocodile  eggs  on  a  small  sandy 
beach.  The  eggs,  about  thirty  in  number,  were  buried 
in  rather  shallow  fashion,  so  that  the  monitor  readily 
uncovered  them.  The  monitor  had  one  of  the  eggs 
transversely  in  its  mouth,  and,  head  erect,  was  marching 
off  with  it.  As  soon  as  it  saw  Loring  it  dropped  the 
egg  and  scuttled  into  the  reeds ;  in  a  few  minutes  it 
returned,  took  another  egg,  and  walked  off  into  the 
bushes,  where  it  broke  the  shell,  swallowed  the  yolk, 
and  at  once  returned  to  the  nest  for  another  egg. 
Loring  took  me  out  to  see  the  feat  repeated,  replenish- 
ing the  rifled  nest  with  eggs  taken  from  a  crocodile  the 
Doctor  had  shot ;  and  I  was  delighted  to  watch,  from 
our  hiding-place,  the  big  lizard  as  he  cautiously  ap- 
proached, seized  an  egg,  and  then  retired  to  cover  with 
his  booty.  Kermit  came  on  a  monitor  plundering  a 
crocodile's  nest  at  the  top  of  a  steep  bank,  while, 
funnily  enough,  a  large  crocodile  lay  asleep  at  the  foot 
of  the  bank  only  a  few  yards  distant.  As  soon  as  it 
saw  Kermit  the  monitor  dropped  the  egg  it  was  carrying, 
ran  up  a  slanting  tree  which  overhung  the  river,  and 
dropped  into  the  water  like  a  snake-bird. 

There  was  always  something  interesting  to  do  or  to 
see  at  this  camp.  One  afternoon  I  spent  in  the  boat. 
The  papyrus  along  the  channel  rose  like  a  forest,  thirty 


The  monitor  lizard  robbing  a  crocodile's  nest 
Prom  photographs  by  J.  Alden  Luring 


OH.  xiv]  COLOBUS  MONKEYS  425 

feet  high,  the  close-growing  stems  knit  together  by 
vines.  As  we  drifted  down,  the  green  wall  was  con- 
tinimlly  broken  by  openings,  through  which  side  streams 
from  the  great  river  rushed,  swirling  and  winding,  down 
narrow  lanes  and  under  low  archways,  into  the  dim 
mysterious  heart  of  the  vast  reed-beds,  where  dwelt 
bird  and  reptile  and  water  beast.  In  a  shallow  bay  we 
came  on  two  hippo  cows  with  their  calves,  and  a  dozen 
crocodiles.  I  shot  one  of  the  latter — as  I  always  do, 
when  I  get  a  chance — and  it  turned  over  and  over, 
lashing  with  its  tail  as  it  sank.  A  half-grown  hippo 
came  up  close  by  the  boat  and  leaped  nearly  clear  of 
the  water ;  and  in  another  place  I  saw  a  mother  hippo 
swimming,  with  the  young  one  resting  half  on  its  back. 
Another  day  Kermit  came  on  some  black  and  white 
Colobus  monkeys.  Those  we  had  shot  east  of  the  Rift 
Valley  had  long  mantles,  and  more  white  than  black  in 
their  colouring ;  west  of  the  Rift  Valley  they  had  less 
white  and  less  of  the  very  long  hair ;  and  here  on  the 
Nile  the  change  had  gone  still  farther  in  the  same 
direction.  On  the  west  coast  this  kind  of  monkey  is 
said  to  be  entirely  black.  But  we  were  not  prepared 
for  the  complete  change  in  habits.  In  East  Africa  the 
Colobus  monkeys  kept  to  the  dense,  cool,  mountain 
forests,  dwelt  in  the  tops  of  the  big  trees,  and  rarely 
descended  to  the  ground.  Here,  on  the  Nile,  they 
lived  in  exactly  such  country  as  that  affected  by  the 
smaller  greenish-yellow  monkeys,  which  we  found  along 
the  Guaso  Nyero  for  instance — country  into  which  the 
East  African  Colobus  never  by  any  chance  wandered. 
Moreover,  instead  of  living  in  the  tall  timber,  and  never 
going  on  the  ground  except  for  a  few  yards,  as  in  East 
Africa,  here  on  the  Nile  they  sought  to  escape  danger 
by  flight  over  the  ground,  in  the  scrub.     Kermit  found 


426        RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

some  in  a  grove  of  fairly  big  acacias,  but  they  instantly 
dropped  to  the  earth  and  galloped  off  among  the  dry, 
scattered  bushes  and  small  thorn-trees.  Kermit  also 
shot  a  twelve-foot  crocodile  in  which  he  found  the 
remains  of  a  big  heron. 

One  morning  we  saw  from  camp  a  herd  of  elephants 
in  a  piece  of  unburned  swamp.  It  was  a  mile  and  a 
half  away  in  a  straight  line,  although  we  had  to  walk 
three  miles  to  get  there.  There  were  between  forty 
and  fifty  of  them,  a  few  big  cows  with  calves,  the  rest 
half-grown  and  three-quarters-grown  animals.  Over  a 
hundred  white  herons  accompanied  them.  From  an 
ant-hill  to  leeward  we  watched  them  standing  by  a  mud 
hole  in  the  swamp  ;  evidently  they  now  and  then  got  a 
whifF  from  our  camp,  for  they  were  continually  lifting 
and  curling  their  trunks.  To  see  if  by  any  chance  there 
was  a  bull  among  them  we  moved  them  out  of  the 
swamp  by  shouting.  The  wind  blew  hard,  and  as  they 
moved  they  evidently  smelled  the  camp  strongly,  for  all 
their  trunks  went  into  the  air  ;  and  off  they  went  at  a 
rapid  pace,  half  of  the  herons  riding  on  them,  while 
the  others  hovered  over  and  alongside,  like  a  white 
cloud.  Two  days  later  the  same  herd  again  made  its 
appearance. 

Spur-winged  plover  were  nesting  near  camp,  and 
evidently  distrusted  the  carrion  feeders,  for  they  attacked 
and  drove  off  every  kite  or  vulture  that  crossed  what 
they  considered  the  prohibited  zone.  They  also  harassed 
the  marabous,  but  with  more  circumspection  ;  for  the 
big  storks  were  short-tempered,  and  rather  daunted  the 
spurwings  by  the  way  they  opened  their  enormous  beaks 
at  them.  The  fish  eagles  fed  exclusively  on  fish,  as  far 
as  we  could  tell,  and  there  were  piles  of  fish-bones  and 
heads  under  their  favourite  perches.     Once  I  saw  one 


CH.  XIV]  WHITE  ANTS  427 

plunge  into  the  water,  but  it  failed  to  catch  anything. 
Another  time,  suddenly,  and  seemingly  in  mere  mischief, 
one  attacked  a  purple  heron  which  was  standing  on  a 
mud  bank.  The  eagle  swooped  down  from  a  tree  and 
knocked  over  the  heron  ;  and  when  the  astonished  heron 
struggled  to  its  feet  and  attempted  to  fly  off",  the  eagle 
made  another  swoop  and  this  time  knocked  it  into  the 
water.  The  heron  then  edged  into  the  papyrus,  and  the 
eagle  paid  it  no  further  attention. 

In  this  camp  we  had  to  watch  the  white  ants,  which 
strove  to  devour  everything.  They  are  nocturnal,  and 
work  in  the  daytime  only  under  the  tunnels  of  earth 
which  they  build  over  the  surface  of  the  box,  or  what- 
ever else  it  is,  that  they  are  devouring ;  they  eat  out 
everything,  leaving  this  outside  shell  of  earth.  We  also 
saw  a  long  column  of  the  dreaded  driver  ants.  These 
are  carnivorous.  I  have  seen  both  red  and  black  species  ; 
they  kill  every  living  thing  in  their  path,  and  I  have 
known  them  at  night  drive  all  the  men  in  a  camp  out 
into  the  jungle  to  fight  the  mosquitoes  unprotected 
until  daylight.  On  another  occasion,  where  a  steam- 
boat was  moored  close  to  a  bank,  an  ant  column 
entered  the  boat  after  nightfall,  and  kept  complete 
possession  of  it  for  forty-eight  hours.  Fires  and 
boiling  water  offer  the  only  effectual  means  of  re- 
sistance. The  bees  are  at  times  as  formidable ;  when 
their  nests  are  disturbed  they  will  attack  everyone  in 
sight,  driving  all  the  crew  of  a  boat  overboard  or 
scattering  a  safari,  and  not  infrequently  killing  men  and 
beasts  of  burden  that  are  unable  to  reach  some  place  of 
safety. 

The  last  afternoon,  when  the  flotilla  had  called  to 
take  us  farther  on  our  journey,  we  shot  about  a  dozen 
buck  to  give  the  porters  and  sailors  a  feast,  which  they 


428       RHINOCEROS  OF  THE  LADO     [ch.  xiv 

had  amply  earned.  All  the  meat  did  not  get  into  camp 
until  after  dark — one  of  the  sailors,  unfortunately,  falling 
out  of  a  tree  and  breaking  his  neck  on  the  way  in — and 
it  was  picturesque  to  see  the  rows  of  big  antelope — 
hartebeest,  kob,  waterbuck — stretched  in  front  of  the 
flaring  fires,  and  the  dark  faces  of  the  waiting  negroes, 
each  deputed  by  some  particular  group  of  gun-bearers, 
porters,  or  sailors  to  bring  back  its  share. 

Next  morning  we  embarked,  and  steamed  and  drifted 
down  the  Nile ;  ourselves,  our  men,  our  belongings,  and 
the  spoils  of  the  chase  all  huddled  together  under  the 
torrid  sun.  Two  or  three  times  we  grounded  on  sand- 
bars, but  no  damage  was  done,  and  in  twenty-six  hours 
we  reached  Nimule.  We  were  no  longer  in  healthy 
East  Africa.  Kermit  and  I  had  been  in  robust  health 
throughout  the  time  we  were  in  Uganda  and  the  Lado  ; 
but  all  the  other  white  men  of  the  party  had  suffered 
more  or  less  from  dysentery,  fev^er,  and  sun-prostration 
while  in  the  Lado  ;  some  of  the  gun-bearers  had  been 
down  with  fever,  one  of  them  dpng  while  we  were  in 
Uganda ;  and  four  of  the  porters  who  had  marched  from 
Koba  to  Nimule  had  died  of  dysentery — they  were 
burying  one  when  we  arrived. 

At  Nimule  we  were,  as  usual,  greeted  with  hospitable 
heartiness  by  the  English  oflBcials,  as  well  as  by  two  or 
three  elephant  hunters.  One  of  the  latter,  three  days 
before,  had  been  charged  by  an  unwounded  bull  elephant. 
He  fired  both  barrels  into  it  as  it  came  on,  but  it 
charged  home,  knocked  him  down,  killed  his  gun-bearer, 
and  made  its  escape  into  the  forest.  In  the  forlorn 
little  graveyard  at  the  station  were  the  graves  of  two 
white  men  who  had  been  killed  by  elephants.  One  of 
them,  named  Stoney,  had  been  caught  by  a  wounded 
bull,  which  stamped  the  life  out  of  him  and  then  liter- 


CH.  xiv]  AT  NIMULE  429 

ally  dismembered  him,  tearing  his  arms  from  his  body. 
In  the  African  wilderness,  when  a  man  dies,  his  com- 
panion usually  brings  in  something  to  show  that  he  is 
dead,  or  some  remnant  of  whatever  it  is  that  has  de- 
stroyed him.  The  sailors  whose  companion  was  killed 
by  falling  out  of  the  tree  near  our  Lado  camp,  for 
instance,  brought  in  the  dead  branch  which  had  broken 
under  his  weight ;  and  Stoney's  gun-bearer  marched 
back  to  Nimule  carrying  an  arm  of  his  dead  master, 
and  deposited  his  gruesome  burden  in  the  office  of  the 
District  Commissioner. 


CHAPTER  XV 

DOWN  THE  NILE  :   THE  GIANT  ELAND 

We  spent  two  or  three  days  in  Nimule,  getting  every- 
thing ready  for  the  march  north  to  Gondokoro. 

By  this  time  Kermit  and  I  had  grown  really  attached 
to  our  personal  followers,  whose  devotion  to  us,  and 
whose  zeal  for  our  success  and  welfare  and  comfort,  had 
many  times  been  made  rather  touchingly  manifest ; 
even  their  shortcomings  were  merely  those  of  big, 
naughty  children,  and,  though  they  occasionally  needed 
discipline,  this  was  rare,  whereas  the  amusement  they 
gave  us  was  unending.  When  we  reached  Nimule  we 
were  greeted  with  enthusiasm  by  Magi,  Kermit 's  Kikuyu 
sais,  who  had  been  in  charge  of  the  mules  which  we  did 
not  take  into  the  Lado.  Magi  was  now  acting  as  sais 
for  me  as  well  as  for  Kermit,  and  he  came  to  Kermit  to 
discuss  the  new  dual  relationship.  "  Now  I  am  the  sais 
of  the  Bwana  Makuba,  as  well  as  of  you,  the  Bwana 
Merodadi "  (the  Dandy  Master,  as,  for  some  inscrutable 
reason,  all  the  men  now  called  Kermit) ;  "  well,  then, 
you'll  both  have  to  take  care  of  me,"  concluded  the 
ruse  Magi. 

Whenever  we  reached  one  of  these  little  stations 
where  there  was  an  Indian  trading  store,  we  would  see 
that  those  of  our  followers  who  had  been  specially 
devoted  to  us — and  this  always  included  all  our  imme- 

430 


CH.  XV]  NATIVE  SHOPPING  431 

diate  attendants — had  a  chance  of  obtaining  the  few 
little  comforts  and  luxuries — tea,  sugar,  or  tobacco, 
for  instance — which  meant  so  much  to  them.  Usually 
Kermit  would  take  them  to  the  store  himself,  for  they 
were  less  wily  than  the  Indian  trader,  and,  moreover,  in 
the  excitement  of  shopping  occasionally  purchased  some- 
thing for  which  they  really  had  no  use.  Kermit  would 
march  his  tail  of  followers  into  the  store,  give  them 
time  to  look  round,  and  then  make  the  first  purchase 
for  the  man  who  had  least  coming  to  him  ;  this  to  avoid 
heartburnings,  as  the  man  was  invariably  too  much 
interested  in  what  he  had  received  to  scrutinize  closely 
what  the  others  were  getting.  The  purchase  might  be 
an  article  of  clothing  or  a  knife,  but  usually  took  the 
form  of  tobacco,  sugar,  and  tea  ;  in  tobacco  the  man 
was  offered  his  choice  between  quality  and  quantity — 
that  is,  either  a  moderate  quantity  of  good  cigarettes  or 
a  large  amount  of  trade  tobacco.  Funny  little  Juma 
Yohari,  for  instance,  one  of  Kermit's  gun-bearers, 
usually  went  in  for  quality,  whereas  his  colleague 
Kassitura  preferred  quantity.  Juma  was  a  Zanzibari, 
a  wiry,  merry  little  grig  of  a  man,  loyal,  hard-working, 
fearless ;  Kassitura  a  huge  Basoga  negro,  of  guileless 
honesty  and  good  faith,  incapable  of  neglecting  his  duty. 
Juma  was  rather  the  wit  of  the  gun-bearers'  mess,  and 
Kassitura  the  musician,  having  a  little  native  harp,  on 
which  for  hours  at  a  time  he  would  strum  queer  little 
melancholy  tunes,  to  which  he  hummed  an  accompani- 
ment in  undertone. 

All  the  natives  we  met,  and  the  men  in  our  employ, 
were  fond  of  singing,  sometimes  simply  improvised 
chants,  sometimes  sentences  of  three  or  four  words 
repeated  over  and  over  again.  The  Uganda  porters 
who  were  with  us  after  we  left  Kampalla  did  not  sing 


432  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

nearly  as  freely  as  our  East  African  safari,  although  they 
depended  much  on  the  man  who  beat  the  drum  at  the 
head  of  the  marching  column.  The  East  African 
porters  did  every  kind  of  work  to  an  accompaniment  of 
chanting.  When,  for  instance,  after  camp  was  pitched, 
a  detail  of  men  was  sent  out  for  wood — the "  wood 
safari  " — the  men  as  they  came  back  to  camp  with  their 
loads  never  did  anything  so  commonplace  as  each 
merely  to  deposit  his  burden  at  the  proper  spot.  The 
first  comers  waited  in  the  middle  of  the  camp  until  all 
had  assembled,  and  then  marched  in  order  to  where  the 
fire  was  to  be  made,  all  singing  vigorously  and  stepping 
in  time  together.  The  leader,  or  chanty  man,  would 
call  out  "  Kooni  "  (wood),  and  all  the  others  would  hum 
in  unison  "  Kooni  telli  "  (plenty  of  wood).  "  Kooni " 
again  came  the  shout  of  the  chanty  man,  and  the  answer 
would  be  "  Kooni."  "  Kooni "  from  the  chanty  man, 
and  this  time  all  the  rest  would  simply  utter  a  long- 
drawn  "  Hum-m-m."  "  Kooni "  again,  and  the  answer 
would  be  "  Kooni  telli,"  with  strong  emphasis  on  the 
"telli."  Then,  if  they  saw  me,  the  chanty  man  might 
vary  by  shouting  that  the  wood  was  for  the  Bwana 
Makuba ;  and  so  it  would  continue  until  the  loads  were 
thrown  down. 

Often  a  man  would  improvise  a  song  regarding  any 
small  incident  which  had  just  happened  to  him  or  a 
thought  which  had  occurred  to  him.  Drifting  down 
the  Nile  to  Nimule,  Kermit  and  the  three  naturalists 
and  sixty  porters  were  packed  in  sardine  fashion  on  one 
of  the  sail-boats.  At  nightfall  one  of  the  sailors,  the 
helmsman,  a  Swahili  from  Mombasa,  began  to  plan  how 
he  would  write  a  letter  to  his  people  in  Mombasa  and 
give  it  to  another  sailor,  a  friend  of  his,  who  intended 
shortly  to  return  thither.     He  crooned  to  himself  as  he 


CH.  XV]  NIMULE  TO  GONDOKORO  433 

crouched  by  the  tiller,  steering  the  boat ;  and  gradually, 
as  the  moon  shone  on  the  swift,  quiet  water  of  the  river, 
his  crooning  turned  into  a  regular  song.  His  voice  was 
beautiful,  and  there  was  a  wild,  meaningless  refrain  to 
each  verse,  the  verses  reciting  how  he  intended  to  write 
this  letter  to  those  whom  he  had  not  seen  for  two  years  ; 
how  a  friend  would  take  it  to  them,  so  that  the  letter 
would  be  in  Mombasa  :  but  he,  the  man  who  wrote  it, 
would  for  two  years  more  be  in  the  far-off  wilderness. 

On  February  17  the  long  line  of  our  laden  safari 
left  Nimule  on  its  ten  days'  march  to  Gondokoro.  We 
went  through  a  barren  and  thirsty  land.  Our  first  camp 
was  by  a  shallow,  running  river,  with  a  shaded  pool,  in 
which  we  bathed.  After  that  we  never  came  on  running 
water,  merely  on  dry  watercourses  with  pools  here  and 
there,  some  of  the  pools  being  crowded  with  fish.  Tall, 
half-burnt  gi-ass  and  scattered,  well-nigh  leafless  thorn- 
scrub  covered  the  monotonous  landscape,  although  we 
could  generally  find  some  fairly  leafy  tree  near  which  to 
pitch  the  tents.  The  heat  was  great ;  more  than  once 
the  thermometer  at  noon  rose  to  112°  in  the  shade — not 
real  shade,  however,  but  in  a  stifling  tent,  or  beneath  a 
tree  the  foliage  of  which  let  through  at  least  a  third  of 
the  sun-rays.  The  fiery  heat  of  the  ground  so  burnt  and 
crippled  the  feet  of  the  porters  that  we  had  to  start  each 
day's  march  very  early. 

At  a  quarter  to  three  in  the  morning  the  whistle  blew. 
We  dressed  and  breakfasted  while  the  tents  were  taken 
down  and  the  loads  adjusted  ;  then  off*  we  strode  through 
the  hot  starlit  night,  our  backs  to  the  Southern  Cross 
and  our  faces  toward  the  Great  Bear,  for  we  were 
marching  northward  and  homeward.  The  drum 
throbbed  and  muttered  as  we  walked  on  and  on  along 
the  dim  trail.     At  last  the  stars  began  to  pale,  the  grey 

28 


484  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

east  changed  to  opal  and  amber  and  amethyst,  the  red 
splendour  of  the  sunrise  flooded  the  world,  and  to  the 
heat  of  the  night  succeeded  the  more  merciless  heat  of 
the  day.  Higher  and  higher  rose  the  sun.  The  sweat 
streamed  down  our  faces,  and  the  bodies  of  the  black 
men  glistened  like  oiled  iron.  We  might  halt  early  in 
the  forenoon,  or  we  might  have  to  march  until  noon, 
according  to  the  distance  from  water-hole  to  water-hole. 

Occasionally  in  the  afternoons,  and  once  when  we 
halted  for  a  day  to  rest  the  porters,  Kermit  and  1  would 
kill  buck  for  the  table — hartebeest,  reedbuck,  and  oribi. 
I  also  killed  a  big  red  ground  monkey,  with  baboon-like 
habits.  We  had  first  seen  the  species  on  the  Uasin 
Gishu,  and  had  tried  in  vain  to  get  it,  for  it  was  wary, 
never  sought  safety  in  trees,  and  showed  both  speed  and 
endurance  in  running.  Kermit  killed  a  bull  and  a  cow 
roan  antelope,  l^hese  so-called  horse  antelope  are  fine 
beasts,  light  roan  in  colour,  with  high  withers,  rather 
short  curved  horns,  huge  ears,  and  bold  face-markings. 
Usually  we  found  them  shy,  but  occasionally  very  tame. 
They  are  the  most  truculent  and  dangerous  of  all  ante- 
lope. This  bull,  when  seemingly  on  the  point  of  death, 
rose  like  a  flash  when  Kermit  approached,  and  charged 
him  full  tilt.  Kermit  had  to  fire  from  the  hip,  luckily 
breaking  the  animal's  neck. 

On  the  same  day  Loring  had  an  interesting  experi- 
ence with  one  of  the  small  cormorants  so  common  in 
this  region.  Previously,  while  visiting  the  rapids  of  the 
Nile  below  Nimule,  I  had  been  struck  by  the  com- 
parative unwariness  of  these  birds,  one  of  them  re- 
peatedly landing  on  a  rock  a  few  yards  away  from  me, 
and  thence  slipping  unconcernedly  into  the  swift  water 
— and,  by  the  way,  it  was  entirely  at  home  in  the 
boiling  rapids.     But  the  conduct  of  Loring's  bird  was 


CH.  XV]   CORMORANTS  AND  WAGTAILS    435 

wholly  exceptional.  He  was  taking  a  swim  in  a  pool 
when  the  bird  lit  beside  him.  It  paid  no  more  heed  to 
the  naked  white  man  than  it  would  have  paid  to  a 
hippo,  and,  although  it  would  not  allow  itself  to  be 
actually  touched,  it  merely  moved  a  few  feet  out  of  his 
way  when  he  approached  it.  Moreover,  it  seemed  to 
be  on  the  lookout  for  enemies  in  the  air,  not  in  the 
water.  It  was  continually  glancing  upward,  and,  when 
a  big  hawk  appeared,  followed  its  movements  with  close 
attention.  It  stayed  in  and  about  the  pool  for  many 
minutes  before  flying  off.  I  suppose  that  certain  eagles 
and  hawks  prey  on  cormorants  ;  but  I  should  also  be 
inclined  to  think  that  crocodiles  at  least  occasionally 
prey  on  them. 

The  most  attractive  birds  we  met  in  Middle  Africa 
and  along  the  Nile  were  the  brave,  cheery  little  wag- 
tails. They  wear  trim  black-and-white  suits,  when  on 
the  ground  they  walk  instead  of  hopping,  they  have  a 
merry,  pleasing  song,  and  they  are  as  confiding  and 
fearless  as  they  are  pretty.  The  natives  never  molest 
them,  for  they  figure  to  advantage  in  the  folklore  of  the 
various  tribes.  They  came  round  us  at  every  halting- 
place,  entering  the  rest-houses  in  Uganda  and  some- 
times even  our  tents,  coming  up  within  a  few  feet  of  us 
as  we  lay  under  trees,  and  boarding  our  boats  on  the 
Nile ;  and  they  would  stroll  about  camp  quite  uncon- 
cernedly, in  pairs,  the  male  stopping  every  now  and 
then  to  sing.  Except  the  whisky  jacks  and  Hudsonian 
chickadees  of  the  North  Woods,  I  never  saw  such  tame 
little  birds. 

At  Gondokoro  we  met  the  boat  which  the  Sirdar, 
Major-General  Sir  Reginald  Wingate,  had  sent  to  take 
us  down  the  Nile  to  Khartoum ;  for  he,  and  all  the 
Soudan   officials — including    especially   Colonel   Asser, 


486  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

Colonel  Owen,  Slatin  Pasha,  and  Butler  Bey — treated 
us  with  a  courtesy  of  which  I  cannot  too  strongly 
express  my  appreciation.  In  the  boat  we  were  to  have 
met  an  old  friend  and  fellow-countryman,  Leigh  Hunt. 
To  our  great  regret,  he  could  not  meet  us,  but  he  insisted 
on  treating  us  as  his  guests,  and  on  our  way  down  the 
Nile  we  felt  as  if  we  were  on  the  most  comfortable 
kind  of  yachting  trip ;  and  everything  was  done  for  us 
by  Captain  Middleton,  the  Scottish  engineer  in  charge. 

Nor  was  our  debt  only  to  British  officials  and  to 
American  friends.  At  Gondokoro  I  was  met  by 
M.  Ranquet,  the  Belgian  Commandant  of  the  Lado 
district,  and  both  he  and  M.  Massart,  the  Chef  de 
Poste  at  Redjaf,  were  kindness  itself,  and  aided  us  in 
every  way. 

From  Gondokoro  Kermit  and  I  crossed  to  Redjaf,  for 
an  eight  days'  trip  after  the  largest  and  handsomest,  and 
one  of  the  least  known,  of  African  antelopes — the 
giant  eland.  We  went  alone,  because  all  the  other 
white  men  of  the  party  were  down  with  dysentery  or 
fever.  We  had  with  us  sixty  Uganda  porters,  and  a 
dozen  mules  sent  us  by  the  Sirdar,  together  with  a 
couple  of  our  little  riding  mules,  which  we  used  now 
and  then  for  a  couple  of  hours  on  safari,  or  in  getting 
to  the  actual  hunting-ground.  As  always  when  only 
one  or  two  of  us  went,  or  when  the  safari  was  short,  we 
travelled  light,  with  no  dining- tent,  and  nothing  unneces- 
sary in  the  way  of  baggage  ;  the  only  impedimenta 
which  we  could  not  reduce  were  those  connected  with 
the  preservation  of  the  skins  of  the  big  animals,  which, 
of  course,  were  throughout  our  whole  trip  what  neces- 
sitated the  use  of  the  bulk  of  the  porters  and  other 
means  of  transportation  employed. 

From  the  neat  little  station  of  Redjaf,  lying  at  the 


CH.  XV]  BLACK  SOLDIERS  437 

foot  of  the  bold  pyramidal  hill  of  the  same  name,  we 
marched  two  days  west,  stopping  short  of  the  River 
Koda,  where  we  knew  the  game  drank.  Now  and  then 
we  came  on  flower-bearing  bushes,  of  marvellously 
sweet  scent,  like  gardenias.  It  was  the  height  of  the 
dry  season ;  the  country  was  covered  with  coarse  grass 
and  a  scrub  growth  of  nearly  leafless  thorn-trees,  usually 
growing  rather  wide  apart,  occasionally  close  enough 
together  to  look  almost  like  a  forest.  There  were  a 
few  palms,  euphorbias,  and  very  rarely  scattered  clumps 
of  withered  bamboo,  and  also  bright  green  trees  with 
rather  thick  leaves  and  bean-pods,  on  which  we  after- 
ward found  that  the  eland  fed. 

The  streams  we  crossed  were  dry  torrent  beds,  sandy 
or  rocky  ;  in  two  or  three  of  them  were  pools  of  stagnant 
water,  while  better  water  could  be  obtained  by  digging 
in  the  sand  alongside.  A  couple  of  hours  after  reaching 
each  camp  everything  was  in  order,  and  Ali  had  made 
a  fire  of  some  sUvers  of  wood  and  boiled  our  tea ;  and 
our  two  meals,  breakfast  and  dinner,  were  taken  at  a 
table  in  the  open,  under  a  tree. 

We  had  with  us  seven  black  soldiers  of  the  Belgian 
native  troops,  under  a  corporal ;  they  came  from  every 
quarter  of  the  Congo,  but  several  of  them  could  speak 
Swahili,  the  lingua  franca  of  Middle  Africa,  and  so 
Kermit  could  talk  freely  with  them.  These  black 
soldiers  behaved  excellently,  and  the  attitude,  both 
toward  them  and  toward  us,  of  the  natives  in  the  various 
villages  we  came  across  was  totally  incompatible  with 
any  theory  that  these  natives  had  suffered  from  any 
maltreatment ;  they  behaved  just  like  the  natives  in 
British  territory.  There  had  to  be  the  usual  parleys 
with  the  chiefs  of  the  villages  to  obtain  food  for  the 
soldiers  (we  carried  the  posho  for  our  own  men),  and 


438  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

ample  payment  was  given  for  what  was  brought  in ; 
and  in  the  only  two  cases  where  the  natives  thought 
themselves  aggrieved  by  the  soldiers  they  at  once 
brought  the  matter  before  us.  One  soldier  had  taken 
a  big  gourd  of  water  when  very  thirsty ;  another,  a 
knife  from  a  man  who  was  misbehaving  himself.  On 
careful  inquiry,  and  delivering  judgment  in  the  spirit 
of  Solomon,  we  decided  that  both  soldiers  had  been 
justified  by  the  provocation  received  ;  but  as  we  were 
dealing  with  the  misdeeds  of  mere  big  children,  we  gave 
the  gourd  back  to  its  owner  with  a  reprimand  for  having 
refused  the  water,  and  permitted  the  owner  of  the 
knife,  whose  offence  had  been  more  serious,  to  ransom 
his  property  by  bringing  in  a  chicken  to  the  soldier  who 
had  it. 

The  natives  lived  in  the  usual  pointed  beehive  huts  in 
unfenced  villages,  with  shambas  lying  about  them  ;  and 
they  kept  goats,  chickens,  and  a  few  cattle.  Our  per- 
manent camp  was  near  such  a  village.  It  was  interesting 
to  pass  through  it  at  sunrise  or  sunset,  when  starting  on 
or  returning  from  a  hunt.  The  hard,  bare  earth  was 
swept  clean.  The  doors  in  the  low  mud  walls  of  the 
huts  were  but  a  couple  of  feet  high  and  had  to  be 
entered  on  all-fours ;  black  pickaninnies  scuttled  into 
them  in  wdld  alarm  as  we  passed.  Skinny,  haggard  old 
men  and  women,  almost  naked,  sat  by  the  fires  smoking 
long  pipes  ;  the  younger  men  and  women  laughed  and 
jested  as  they  moved  among  the  houses.  One  day,  in 
the  course  of  a  long  and  fruitless  hunt,  we  stopped  to 
rest  near  such  a  village,  at  about  two  in  the  afternoon, 
having  been  walking  hard  since  dawn.  We — my  gun- 
bearer,  a  black  askari,  and  I,  a  couple  of  porters,  and  a 
native  guide — sat  down  under  a  big  tree  a  hundred 
yards  from  the  village.     Soon  the  chief  and  several  of 


CH.  XV]  A  NATIVE  CHIEF  439 

his  people  came  out  to  see  us.  The  chief  proudly  wore 
a  dirty  jersey  and  pair  of  drawers ;  a  follower  carried 
his  spear  and  the  little  wooden  stool  of  dignity  on  which 
he  sat.  There  were  a  couple  of  warriors  with  him,  one 
a  man  in  a  bark  apron  with  an  old  breech -loading  rifle, 
the  other  a  stark-naked  savage — not  a  rag  on  him — 
with  a  bow  and  arrows,  a  very  powerfully  built  man 
with  a  ferocious  and  sinister  face.  Two  women  bore  on 
their  heads,  as  gifts  for  us,  one  a  large  earthenware  jar 
of  water,  the  other  a  basket  of  groundnuts.  They  were 
tall  and  well-shaped.  One  as  her  sole  clothing  wore  a 
beaded  cord  around  her  waist,  and  a  breechclout  con- 
sisting of  half  a  dozen  long,  thickly  leaved,  fresh  sprays 
of  a  kind  of  vine  ;  the  other,  instead  of  this  vine  breech- 
clout, had  hanging  from  her  girdle  in  front  a  cluster  of 
long-stemmed  green  leaves,  and  behind  a  bundle  of  long 
strings,  carried  like  a  horse's  tail. 

The  weather  was  very  hot,  and  the  country,  far  and 
wide,  was  a  waste  of  barren  desolation.  The  flats  of 
endless  thorn-scrub  were  broken  by  occasional  low  and 
rugged  hills,  and  in  the  empty  watercourses  the  pools 
were  many  miles  apart.  Yet  there  was  a  good  deal  of 
game.  We  saw  buffalo,  giraffe,  and  elephant ;  and  on 
our  way  back  to  camp  in  the  evenings  we  now  and  then 
killed  a  roan,  hartebeest,  or  oribi.  But  the  game  we 
sought  was  the  giant  eland,  and  we  never  fired  when 
there  was  the  slightest  chance  of  disturbing  our  quarry. 
They  usually  went  iii  herds,  but  there  were  solitary 
bulls.  We  found  that  they  drank  at  some  pool  in  the 
Koda  before  dawn  and  then  travelled  many  miles  back 
into  the  parched  interior,  feeding  as  they  went ;  and, 
after  lying  up  for  some  hours  about  mid-day,  again 
moved  slowly  off,  feeding.  They  did  not  graze,  but 
fed  on  the  green  leaves,  and  the  bean-pods  of  the  tree 


440  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

of  which  I  have  already  spoken  and  of  another  tree. 
One  of  their  marked  habits — shared  in  some  degree  by 
their  forest  cousin,  the  bongo — was  breaking  the  higher 
branches  with  their  horns,  to  get  at  the  leaves  ;  they 
thus  broke  branches  two  or  three  inches  in  diameter 
and  seven  or  eight  feet  from  the  ground,  the  crash  of 
the  branches  being  a  sound  for  which  we  continually 
listened  as  we  followed  the  tracks  of  a  herd.  They 
were  far  more  wary  than  roan,  or  hartebeest,  or  any  of 
the  other  buck,  and  the  country  was  such  that  it  was 
difficult  to  see  more  than  a  couple  of  hundred  yards 
ahead. 

It  took  me  three  hard  days'  work  before  I  got  my 
eland.  Each  day  I  left  camp  before  sunrise,  and  on 
the  first  two  I  came  back  after  dark,  while  it  always 
happened  that  at  noon  we  were  on  a  trail  and  could  not 
stop.  We  would  walk  until  we  found  tracks  made  that 
morning,  and  then  the  gun-bearers  and  the  native  guide 
would  slowly  follow  them,  hour  after  hour,  under  the 
burning  sun.  On  the  first  day  we  saw  nothing ;  on  the 
next  we  got  a  moment's  glimpse  of  an  eland,  trotting  at 
the  usual  slashing  gait.  I  had  no  chance  to  fire.  By 
mid-afternoon  on  each  day  it  was  evident  that  further 
following  of  the  trail  we  were  on  was  useless,  and  we 
plodded  campward,  tired  and  thirsty.  Gradually  the 
merciless  glare  softened ;  then  the  sun  sank  crimson 
behind  a  chain  of  fantastically  carved  mountains  in  the 
distance  ;  and  the  hues  of  the  after-glow  were  drowned 
in  the  silver  light  of  the  moon,  which  was  nearing  the 
full. 

On  the  third  day  we  found  the  spoor  of  a  single  bull 
by  eight  o'clock.  Hour  after  hour  went  by  while  the 
gun-bearers,  even  more  eager  than  weary,  puzzled  out 
the  trail.     At  half-past  twelve  we  knew  we  were  close 


CH.  xv]  ELANDS  441 

on  the  beast,  and  immediately  afterward  caught  a 
ghmpse  of  it.  Taking  advantage  of  every  patch  of 
cover,  I  crawled  toward  it  on  all-fours,  my  rifle  too  hot 
for  me  to  touch  the  barrel,  while  the  blistering  heat  of 
the  baked  ground  hurt  my  hands.  At  a  little  over  a 
hundred  yards  I  knelt  and  aimed  at  the  noble  beast.  I 
could  now  plainly  see  his  huge  bulk  and  great,  massive 
horns,  as  he  stood  under  a  tree.  The  pointed  bullet 
from  the  little  Springfield  hit  a  trifle  too  far  back 
and  up,  but  made  such  a  rip  that  he  never  got  ten 
yards  from  where  he  was  standing ;  and  great  was  my 
pride  as  I  stood  over  him,  and  examined  his  horns, 
twisted  almost  like  a  koodoo's,  and  admired  his  size, 
his  finely  modelled  head  and  legs,  and  the  beauty  of  his 
coat. 

Meanwhile,  Kermit  had  killed  two  eland,  a  cow  on 
the  first  day,  and  on  the  second  a  bull  even  better  than, 
although  not  quite  so  old  as,  mine.  Kermit  could  see 
game  and  follow  tracks  almost  as  well  as  his  gun- 
bearers,  and  in  a  long  chase  could  outrun  them.  On 
each  day  he  struck  the  track  of  a  herd  of  eland,  and 
after  a  while  left  his  gun-bearers  and  porters,  and  ran 
along  the  trail,  accompanied  only  by  a  native  guide. 
The  cow  was  killed  at  two  hundred  yards  with  a  shot 
from  his  Winchester.  The  bull  yielded  more  excite- 
ment. He  was  in  a  herd  of  about  forty  which  Kermit 
had  followed  for  over  five  hours,  toward  the  last 
accompanied  only  by  the  wild  native  ;  at  one  point  the 
eland  had  come  upon  a  small  party  of  elephant,  and 
trotted  off  at  right  angles  to  their  former  course — 
Kermit  following  them  after  he  had  satisfied  himself 
that  the  elephants  were  cows  and  half-grown  animals. 
When  he  finally  overtook  the  eland,  during  the  torrid 
heat  of  the  early  afternoon,  they  were  all  lying  down, 


442  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

in  a  place  where  the  trees  grew  rather  more  thickly 
than  usual. 

Stalking  as  close  as  he  dared,  he  selected  a  big  animal 
which  he  hoped  was  a  bull,  and  fired  three  shots  into  it ; 
however,  it  ran,  and  he  then  saw  that  it  was  a  cow. 
As  the  rest  of  the  herd  jumped  up  he  saw  the  form  of 
the  master  bull  looming  above  the  others.  They  crossed 
his  front  at  a  slashing  trot,  the  cows  clustered  round  the 
great  bull ;  but  just  as  they  came  to  a  small  opening, 
they  parted  a  little,  giving  him  a  clear  shot.  Down 
went  the  bull  on  his  head,  rose,  received  another  bullet, 
and  came  to  a  standstill.  This  was  the  last  bullet  from 
the  magazine ;  and  now  the  mechanism  of  the  rifle 
refused  to  work  or  to  throw  the  empty  shell  out  of  the 
chamber.  The  faithful  Winchester,  which  Kermit  had 
used  steadily  for  ten  months,  on  foot  and  on  horseback, 
which  had  suffered  every  kind  of  hard  treatment  and 
had  killed  every  kind  of  game,  without  once  failing,  had 
at  last  given  way  under  the  strain.  While  Kermit  was 
working  desperately  at  the  mechanism,  the  bull,  which 
was  standing  looking  at  him  within  fifty  yards,  gradually 
recovered,  moved  off  step  by  step,  and  broke  into  a 
slow  trot.  After  it  went  Kermit  as  hard  as  he  could 
go,  still  fussing  with  the  rifle,  which  he  finally  opened, 
and  refilled  with  five  cartridges.  Kermit  could  just 
about  keep  the  eland  in  sight,  running  as  hard  as  he 
was  able.  After  a  mile  or  two  it  lay  down,  but  rose  as 
he  came  near,  and  went  off  again,  while  he  was  so 
blown  that  though,  with  four  shots,  he  hit  it  twice,  he 
failed  to  kill  it.  He  now  had  but  one  bullet  left,  after 
which  he  knew  that  the  rifle  would  jam  again  ;  and  it 
was  accordingly  necessary  to  kill  outright  with  the  next 
shot.  He  was  just  able  to  keep  close  to  the  bull  for 
half  a  mile,  then  it  halted  ;  and  he  killed  it.     Leaving 


CH.  XV]    NATURALISTS'  DIFFICULTIES       443 

the  shenzi  by  the  carcass,  he  went  off  to  see  about  the 
wounded  cow,  but  after  an  hour  was  forced  to  give  up 
the  chase  and  return,  so  as  to  be  sure  to  save  the  bull's 
skin.  The  gun-bearers  and  another  shenzi  had  by  this 
time  reached  the  dead  eland ;  they  had  only  Kermit's 
canteen  of  water  among  them.  One  of  the  shenzis  was 
at  once  sent  to  camp  to  bring  back  twenty  porters,  with 
rope,  and  plenty  of  water  ;  and,  with  parched  mouths, 
Kermit  and  the  gun-bearers  began  to  take  off  the  thick 
hide  of  the  dead  bull.  Four  hours  later  the  porters 
appeared  with  the  ropes  and  the  water,  and  the  thirsty 
men  drank  gallons  ;  the  porters  were  loaded  with  the 
hide,  head,  and  meat ;  and  they  marched  back  to  camp 
by  moonlight. 

It  was  no  easy  job,  in  that  climate,  to  care  for  and 
save  the  three  big  skins  ;  but  we  did  it.  On  the  trip 
we  had  taken,  besides  our  gun-bearers  and  tent-boys, 
Magi,  the  sais,  and  two  of  our  East  African  skinners, 
Kiboko  and  Merefu  ;  they  formed  in  the  safari  a  kind  of 
chief-petty-officer's  mess,  so  to  speak.  They  were  all 
devoted  to  their  duties,  and  they  worked  equally  hard 
whether  hunting  or  caring  for  the  skins  ;  the  day  Kermit 
killed  his  bull  he  and  the  gun-bearers  and  skinners,  with 
Magi  as  a  volunteer,  worked  until  midnight  at  the  hide. 
But  they  had  any  amount  of  meat,  and  we  shared  our 
sugar  and  tea  with  them.  On  the  last  evening  there 
was  nothing  to  do,  and  they  sat  in  the  brilUant  moon- 
light in  front  of  their  tents,  while  Kassitura  played  his 
odd  little  harp.  Kermit  and  I  strolled  over  to  listen ; 
and  at  once  Kassitura  began  to  improvise  a  chant  in 
my  honour,  reciting  how  the  Bwana  Makuba  had  come, 
how  he  was  far  from  his  own  country,  how  he  had  just 
killed  a  giant  eland,  and  so  on  and  so  on.  Meanwhile, 
over  many  little  fires  strips  of  meat  were  drying  on 


444  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

scaffolds  of  bent  branches,  and  askaris  and  porters 
were  gathered  in  groups,  chatting  and  singing ;  while 
the  mighty  tree  near  which  our  tents  were  pitched  cast 
a  black  shadow  on  the  silver  plain.  Then  the  shenzis 
who  had  helped  us  came  to  receive  their  reward,  and 
their  hearts  were  gladdened  with  red  cloth  and  salt,  and 
for  those  whose  services  had  been  greatest  there  were 
special  treasures  in  the  shape  of  three  green-and-white 
umbrellas.  It  was  a  pleasant  ending  to  a  successful 
hunt. 

On  our  return  to  Gondokoro  we  found  Cuninghame 
all  right,  although  he  had  been  obliged  single-handed 
to  do  the  work  of  getting  our  porters  safely  started  on 
their  return  march  to  Kampalla,  as  well  as  getting  all 
the  skins  and  skeletons  properly  packed  for  shipment. 
Heller  had  also  recovered,  and  had  gone  on  a  short  trip, 
during  which  he  trapped  a  leopard  and  a  serval  at  the 
same  carcass,  the  leopard  killing  the  serval.  Dr.  Mearns 
and  Loring  were  both  seriously  sick  ;  so  was  the  District 
Commissioner,  kind  Mr.  Haddon.  One  day  a  German 
missionary  dined  with  us ;  the  next  he  was  dead,  of 
black-water  fever.  An  English  sportsman  whom  we 
had  met  at  Nimule  had  been  brought  in  so  sick  that 
he  was  at  death's  door.  Dr.  Mearns  took  care  of  him, 
badly  off  though  he  himself  was.  We  had  brought 
with  us  a  case  of  champagne  for  just  such  emergencies  ; 
this  was  the  first  time  that  we  made  use  of  it. 

On  the  last  day  of  February  we  started  down  the 
Nile,  slipping  easily  along  on  the  rapid  current,  which 
wound  and  twisted  through  stretches  of  reeds  and 
marsh  grass  and  papyrus.  We  halted  at  the  attractive 
station  of  Lado  for  a  good-bye  breakfast  with  our  kind 
Belgian  friends,  and  that  evening  we  dined  at  Mongalla 
with   Colonel   Owen,   the  Chief  of  the   southernmost 


Kermit's  fust  giant  eland  cow,  shot  on  the  Redjaf  trip 


Giant  eland  bull 

From  a  phohgraph  by  Kermil  Roosevelt 


CH.  XV]        HORRORS  OF  MAHDISM  445 

section  of  the  Soudan.  I  was  greatly  interested  in  the 
Egyptian  and  Soudanese  soldiers,  and  their  service 
medals.  Many  of  these  medals  showed  that  their 
owners  had  been  in  a  dozen  campaigns ;  some  of  the 
native  officers  and  men  (and  also  the  Reis,  or  native 
captain  of  our  boat,  by  the  way)  had  served  in  the 
battles  which  broke  for  ever  the  Mahdi's  cruel  power ; 
two  or  three  had  been  with  Gordon.  They  were  a  fine- 
looking  set,  and  their  obvious  self-respect  was  a  good 
thing  to  see.  That  same  afternoon  I  witnessed  a  native 
dance,  and  was  struck  by  the  lack  of  men  of  middle 
age.  All  the  tribes  which  were  touched  by  the  blight 
of  the  Mahdist  tyranny,  with  its  accompaniments  of 
unspeakable  horror,  suffered  such  slaughter  of  the  then 
young  men  that  the  loss  has  left  its  mark  to  this  day. 
The  English,  when  they  destroyed  Mahdism,  rendered 
a  great  service  to  humanity ;  and  their  rule  in  the 
Soudan  has  been  astoundingly  successful  and  beneficial 
from  every  standpoint.^ 

We  steamed  onward  down  the  Nile,  sometimes  tying 
up  to  the  bank  at  nightfall,  sometimes  steaming  steadily 
through  the  night.  We  reached  the  Sud,  the  vast 
papyrus  marsh  once  so  formidable  a  barrier  to  all  who 
would  journey  along  the  river  ;  and  sunrise  and  sunset 
were  beautiful  over  the  endless,  melancholy  stretches  of 
water  reeds.  In  the  Sud  the  only  tree  seen  was  the 
water-loving  ambatch,  light  as  cork.  Occasionally  we 
saw  hippos  and  crocodiles  and  a  few  water  birds,  and 
now  and  then  passed  native  villages,  the  tall,  lean  men 

^  The  despotism  of  Mahdist  rule  was  so  revolting,  so  vilely  cruel 
and  hideous,  that  the  worst  despotism  by  men  of  European  blood 
in  recent  times  seems  a  model  of  humanity  by  comparison  ;  and  yet 
there  were  nominal  "  anti-militarists  "  and  self-styled  "  apostles  of 
peace  "  who  did  their  feeble  best  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  this 
infamy. 


446  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

and  women  stark  naked,  and  their  bodies  daubed  with 
mud,  grease,  and  ashes  to  keep  off  the  mosquitoes. 

On  March  4  we  were  steaming  slowly  along  the 
reedy,  water-soaked  shores  of  Lake  No,  keeping  a  sharp 
lookout  for  the  white-eared  kob,  and  especially  for  the 
handsome  saddle-marked  lechwe  kob,  which  has  been 
cursed  with  the  foolishly  inappropriate  name  of  "  Mrs. 
Gray's  waterbuck." 

Early  in  the  morning  we  saw  a  herd  of  these  saddle- 
marked  lechwe  in  the  long  marsh  grass,  and  pushed  the 
steamer's  nose  as  near  to  the  shore  as  possible.  Then 
Cuninghame,  keen-eyed  Kongoni,  and  I  started  for  what 
proved  to  be  a  five  hours'  tramp.  The  walking  was 
hard  ;  sometimes  we  were  on  dry  land,  but  more  often 
in  water  up  to  our  ankles  or  knees,  and  occasionally 
floundering  and  wallowing  up  to  our  hips  through 
stretches  of  reeds,  water-lilies,  green  water,  and  foul 
black  slime.  Yet  there  were  ant-hills  in  the  marsh. 
Once  or  twice  we  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  game  in  small 
patches  of  open  ground  covered  with  short  grass,  but 
almost  always  they  kept  to  the  high  grass  and  reeds. 
There  were  with  the  herd  two  very  old  bucks,  with  a 
white  saddle-shaped  patch  on  the  withers,  the  white 
extending  up  the  back  of  the  neck  to  the  head — a  mark 
of  their  being  in  full  maturity,  or  past  it,  for  on  some  of 
the  males  at  least  this  coloration  only  begins  to  appear 
when  they  seem  already  to  have  attained  their  growth 
of  horn  and  body,  their  teeth  showing  them  to  be  five 
or  six  years  old,  while  they  are  obviously  in  the  prime 
of  vigour  and  breeding  capacity.  Unfortunately,  in  the 
long  grass  it  was  impossible  to  single  out  these  old 
bucks.  Marking  as  well  as  we  could  the  general  direc- 
tion of  the  herd,  we  would  steal  toward  it  until  we 
thought   we   were    in    the   neighbourhood,   and    then 


CH.  XV]     SADDLE-BACKED  LECHWE  447 

cautiously  climb  an  ant-hill  to  look  about.  Nothing 
would  be  in  sight.  We  would  scan  the  ground  in  every 
direction  ;  still  nothing.  Suddenly  a  dozen  heads  would 
pop  up,  just  above  the  grass,  two  or  three  hundred 
yards  off,  and  after  a  steady  gaze  would  disappear,  and 
some  minutes  later  would  again  appear  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  farther  on.  Usually  they  skulked  off  at  a  trot  or 
canter,  necks  stretched  level  with  the  back,  for  they 
were  great  skulkers,  and  trusted  chiefly  to  escaping 
observation  and  stealing  away  from  danger  unperceived. 
But  occasionally  they  would  break  into  a  gallop,  making 
lofty  bounds,  clear  above  the  tops  of  the  grass,  and  then 
they  might  go  a  long  way  before  stopping.  I  never  saw 
them  leap  on  the  ant-hills  to  look  about,  as  is  the 
custom  of  the  common  or  Uganda  kob.  They  were 
rather  noisy ;  we  heard  them  grunting  continually,  both 
when  they  were  grazing  and  when  they  saw  us. 

At  last,  from  an  ant-hill,  I  saw  dim  outlines  of  two  or 
three  animals  moving  past  a  little  over  a  hundred  yards 
ahead.  There  was  nothing  to  shoot  at,  but  a  moment 
afterward  I  saw  a  pair  of  horns  through  the  grass  tops, 
in  such  a  position  that  it  was  evident  the  owner  was  look- 
ing at  me.  I  guessed  that  he  had  been  moving  in  the 
direction  in  which  the  others  had  gone,  and  T  guessed  at 
the  position  of  the  shoulder  and  fired.  The  horns  dis- 
appeared. Then  I  caught  a  glimpse,  first  of  a  doe,  next 
of  a  buck,  in  full  flight,  each  occasionally  appearing  for 
an  instant  in  a  gi*eat  bound  over  the  grass  tops.  I  had 
no  idea  whether  or  not  1  had  hit  my  buck,  so  Cuning- 
hame  stayed  on  the  ant-heap  to  guide  us,  while  Kongoni 
and  I  plunged  into  the  long  grass,  as  high  as  our  heads. 
Sure  enough,  there  was  the  buck,  a  youngish  one,  about 
four  years  old  ;  my  bullet  had  gone  true.  While  we 
were  looking  at  him  we  suddenly  caught  a  momentary 


448  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

glimpse  of  two  more  of  the  herd  rushing  off  to  our  right, 
and  we  heard  another  grunting  and  sneaking  away, 
invisible,  thirty  yards  or  so  to  our  left. 

Half  an  hour  afterward  I  shot  another  buck,  at  over 
a  hundred  and  fifty  yards,  after  much  the  same  kind  of 
experience.  At  this  one  I  fired  four  times,  hitting  him 
with  three  bullets  ;  three  of  the  shots  were  taken  when  I 
could  only  see  his  horns  and  had  to  guess  at  the  position 
of  the  body.  This  was  a  very  big  buck,  with  horns  over 
twenty-nine  inches  long,  but  the  saddle-mark  was  yellow, 
with  many  whitish  hairs,  showing  that  he  was  about  to 
assume  the  white  saddle  of  advanced  maturity.  His 
stomach  was  full  of  the  fine  swamp  grass. 

These  handsome  antelopes  come  next  to  the  situtunga 
as  lovers  of  water  and  dwellers  in  the  marshes.  They 
are  far  more  properly  to  be  called  *'waterbuck"  than 
are  the  present  proprietors  of  that  name,  which,  like  the 
ordinary  kob,  though  liking  to  be  near  streams,  spend 
most  of  their  time  on  dry  plains  and  hill-sides.  This 
saddle-marked  antelope  of  the  swamps  has  the  hoofs 
very  long  and  the  whole  foot  flexible  and  spreading,  so 
as  to  help  it  in  passing  over  wet  ground  and  soft  mud ; 
the  pasterns  behind  are  largely  bare  of  hair.  It  seems  to 
be  much  like  the  lechwe,  a  less  handsome,  but  equally 
water-loving,  antelope  of  Southern  Africa,  which  is  put 
in  the  same  genus  with  the  waterbuck  and  kob. 

That  afternoon  Dr.  Meams  killed  with  his  Winchester 
•30  to  '40,  on  the  wing,  one  of  the  most  interesting  birds 
we  obtained  on  our  whole  trip,  the  whale-billed  stork.  It 
was  an  old  male,  and  its  gizzard  was  full  of  the  remains 
of  small  fish.  The  whalebill  is  a  large  wader,  blackish- 
grey  in  colour,  slightly  crested,  with  big  feet  and  a  huge 
swollen  bill — a  queer-looking  bird,  with  no  near  kinsfolk, 
and  so  interesting  that  nothing  would  have  persuaded 


Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Kermit  Roosevelt  with  giant  eland  horns 


CH.  XV]  THE  ROHR  449 

me  to  try  to  kill  more  than  the  four  actually  needed  for 
the  public  (not  private)  Museum  to  which  our  collections 
were  going.  It  is  of  solitary  habits,  and  is  found  only 
in  certain  vast,  lonely  marshes  of  tropical  Africa,  where 
it  is  conspicuous  by  its  extraordinary  bill,  dark  colora- 
tion, and  sluggishness  of  conduct,  hunting  sedately  in 
the  muddy  shallows,  or  standing  motionless  for  hours, 
surrounded  by  reed-beds  or  by  long  reaches  of  quaking 
and  treacherous  ooze. 

Next  morning,  while  at  breakfast  on  the  breezy  deck, 
we  spied  another  herd  of  the  saddle-marked  lechwe,  in 
the  marsh  alongside,  and  Kermit  landed  and  killed  one, 
after  deep  wading,  up  to  his  chin  in  some  places,  and 
much  hard  work  in  the  rank  grass.  This  buck  was 
interesting  when  compared  with  the  two  I  had  shot. 
He  was  apparently  a  little  older  than  either,  but  not 
aged ;  on  the  contrary,  in  his  prime,  and  fat.  He  had 
the  white  saddle-like  mark  on  the  withers  and  the  white 
back  of  the  neck  well  developed.  Yet  he  was  smaller 
than  either  of  mine,  and  the  horns  much  smaller ; 
indeed,  they  were  seven  inches  shorter  than  my  longest 
ones.  It  looks  as  if,  in  some  animals  at  least,  the  full 
size  of  body  and  horns  are  reached  before  the  white 
saddle-markings  are  acquired.  The  horns  of  these 
saddle-mark  lechwes  are,  relatively  to  the  body,  far 
longer  and  finer  than  in  other  species  of  the  genus  ; 
just  as  is  the  case  with  the  big  East  African  gazelle 
when  compared  with  other  gazelles. 

That  afternoon,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rohr,  which 
runs  into  the  Bahr  el  Ghazal,  I  landed  and  shot  a  good 
buck  of  the  Vaughan's  kob,  which  is  perhaps  merely  a 
sub-species  of  the  white- eared  kob.  It  is  a  handsome 
animal,  handsomer  than  its  close  kinsman,  the  common 
or  Uganda  kob,  although  much  less  so  than  its  associate 

29 


450  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

the  saddle-marked  lechwe.  Its  hoofs  are  like  those  of 
the  ordinary  kobs  and  waterbucks,  not  in  the  least  like 
those  of  the  saddle-back ;  so  that,  although  the  does  are 
coloured  alike,  there  is  no  chance  of  mistaking  any 
lechwe  doe  for  any  true  kob  doe.  We  found  these  kobs 
in  much  drier  ground  than  the  saddle-backs,  and  there- 
fore they  were  easier  to  get  at.  The  one  I  shot  was  an 
old  ram,  accompanied  by  several  ewes.  We  saw  them 
from  the  boat,  but  they  ran.  Cuninghame  and  I,  with 
Kongoni  and  Gouvimali,  hunted  for  them  in  vain  for  a 
couple  of  hours.  Then  we  met  a  savage,  a  very  tall, 
lean  Nuer.  He  was  clad  in  a  fawn  skin,  and  carried 
two  spears,  one  with  a  bright,  sharp,  broad-bladed  head, 
the  other  narrow-headed  with  villainous  barbs.  His  hair, 
much  longer  than  that  of  a  West  Coast  negro,  was  tied 
back.  As  we  came  toward  him  he  stood  on  one  leg, 
with  the  other  foot  resting  against  it,  and,  raising  his 
hand,  with  fingers  extended,  he  motioned  to  us  with 
what  in  civilized  regions  would  be  regarded  as  a  gesture 
bidding  us  halt.  But  he  meant  it  as  a  friendly  greeting, 
and  solemnly  shook  hands  with  all  four  of  us,  including 
the  gun-bearers.  By  signs  we  made  him  understand 
that  we  were  after  game  ;  so  was  he  ;  and  he  led  us  to 
the  little  herd  of  kob.  Kongoni,  as  usual,  saw  them 
before  anyone  else.  From  an  ant-hill  I  could  make  out 
the  buck's  horns  and  his  white  ears,  which  he  was  con- 
tinually flapping  at  the  biting  flies  that  worried  him  ; 
when  he  lowered  his  head  I  could  see  nothing.  Finally, 
he  looked  fixedly  at  us  ;  he  was  a  hundred  and  fifty 
yards  off,  and  I  had  to  shoot  standing  on  the  peak  of 
the  ant-heap,  and  aim  through  the  grass,  guessing  where 
his  hidden  body  might  be  ;  and  I  missed  him.  At  the 
shot  the  does  went  off  to  the  left,  but  he  ran  to  the 
right,  once  or  twice  leaping  high  ;  and  when  he  halted. 


CH.  XV]         THE  BAHR  EL  GHAZAL  451 

at  less  than  two  hundred  yards,  although  I  could  still 
only  see  his  horns,  I  knew  where  his  body  was  ;  and 
this  time  I  killed  him.  We  gave  most  of  the  meat  to 
the  Nuer.  He  was  an  utterly  wild  savage,  and  when 
Cuninghame  suddenly  lit  a  match  he  was  so  frightened 
that  it  was  all  we  could  do  to  keep  him  from  bolting. 

Kermit  went  on  to  try  for  a  doe,  but  had  bad  luck, 
twice  killing  a  spikebuck  by  mistake,  and  did  not  get 
back  to  the  boat  until  long  after  dark. 

The  following  day  we  were  in  the  mouth  of  the  Bahr 
el  Ghazal.  It  ran  sluggishly  through  immense  marshes, 
which  stretched  back  from  the  river  for  miles  on  either 
hand,  broken  here  and  there  by  flats  of  slightly  higher 
land  with  thorn -trees.  The  whale-billed  storks  were 
fairly  common,  and  were  very  conspicuous  as  they  stood 
on  the  quaking  surface  of  the  marsh,  supported  by  their 
long-toed  feet.  After  several  fruitless  stalks  and  much 
following  through  the  thick  marsh  grass,  sometimes  up 
to  our  necks  in  water,  1  killed  one  with  the  Springfield 
at  a  distance  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  yards,  and 
Kermit,  after  missing  one  standing,  cut  it  down  as  it  rose 
with  his  Winchester  '30  to  '^O.  These  whalebills  had 
in  their  gizzards,  not  only  small  fish,  but  quite  a  number 
of  the  green  blades  of  the  marsh  grass.  The  Arabs  call 
them  the  "  Father  of  the  Shoe,"  and  Europeans  call 
them  shoebills  as  well  as  whalebills.  The  Bahr  el 
Ghazal  was  alive  with  water-fowl,  saddle-bill  storks, 
sacred  and  purple  ibis,  many  kinds  of  herons,  cormorants, 
plover,  and  pretty  tree-ducks,  which  twittered  instead 
of  quacking.  There  were  sweet-scented  lotus  water- 
lihes  in  the  ponds.  A  party  of  waterbuck  cows  and 
calves  let  the  steamer  pass  within  fifty  yards  without 
running. 

We  went  back  to  Lake  No,  where  we  met  another 


452  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

steamer,  ^vith  aboard  it  M.  Solve,  a  Belgian  sportsman, 
a  very  successful  hunter,  whom  we  had  already  met  at 
Lado  ;  with  him  were  his  wife,  his  sister,  and  his 
brother-in-law,  both  of  the  last  being  as  ardent  in  the 
chase,  especially  of  dangerous  game,  as  he  was.  His 
party  had  killed  two  whalebills,  one  for  the  British 
Museum  and  one  for  the  Congo  Museum.  They  were 
a  male  and  female  who  were  near  their  nest,  which  con- 
tained two  downy  young  ;  these  were  on  M.  Solv^'s 
boat,  where  we  saw  them.  The  nest  was  right  on  the 
marsh  water ;  the  birds  had  bent  the  long  blades  of 
marsh  grass  into  an  interlacing  foundation,  and  on  this 
had  piled  grass,  which  they  had  cut  with  their  beaks. 
These  beaks  can  give  a  formidable  bite,  by  the  way,  as 
one  of  our  sailors  found  to  his  cost  when  he  rashly  tried 
to  pick  up  a  wounded  bird. 

I  was  anxious  to  get  a  ewe  of  the  saddle-back  lechwe 
for  the  Museum,  and  landed  in  the  late  afternoon,  on 
seeing  a  herd.  The  swamp  was  so  deep  that  it  took  an 
hour's  very  hard  and  fatiguing  wading,  forcing  ourselves 
through  the  rank  grass  up  to  our  shoulders  in  water, 
before  we  got  near  them.  The  herd  numbered  about 
forty  individuals  ;  their  broad  trail  showed  where  they 
had  come  through  the  swamp,  and  even  through  a 
papyrus  bed  ;  but  we  found  them  grazing  on  merely 
moist  ground,  where  there  were  ant-hills  in  the  long 
grass.  As  I  crept  up  they  saw  me,  and  greeted  me 
with  a  chorus  of  croaking  grunts  ;  they  are  a  very  noisy 
buck.  I  shot  a  ewe,  and  away  rushed  the  herd  through 
the  long  grass,  making  a  noise  which  could  have  been 
heard  nearly  a  mile  off,  and  splashing  and  bounding 
through  the  shallow  lagoons.  They  halted,  and  again 
begun  grunting  ;  and  then  oiF  they  rushed  once 
more.     The  doe's  stomach  was  filled  with  tender  marsh 


CH.  XV]       WE  MEET  SIR  W.  GARSTIN         453 

grass.      Meanwhile,  Kermit  killed,  on  drier  ground,  a 
youngish  male  of  the  white-eared  kob. 

Next  morning  we  were  up  at  the  Bahr  el  Zeraf.  At 
ten  we  sighted  from  the  boat  several  herds  of  white- 
eared  kob,  and  Kermit  and  I  went  in  different  directions 
after  them,  getting  four.  The  old  rams  were  very  hand- 
some animals,  with  coats  of  a  deep  rich  brown  that  was 
almost  black,  and  sharply  contrasted  black  and  white 
markings  on  their  faces ;  but  it  was  interesting  to  see 
that  many  of  the  younger  rams,  not  yet  in  the  fully 
adult  pelage,  had  horns  as  long  as  those  of  their  elders. 
The  young  rams  and  ewes  were  a  light  reddish-yellow, 
being  in  colour  much  like  the  ewes  of  the  saddle-back 
lechwe  ;  and  there  was  the  usual  disproportion  in  size 
between  the  sexes.  With  each  flock  of  ewes  and  young 
rams  there  was  ordinarily  one  old  black  ram  ;  and  some 
of  the  old  rams  went  by  themselves.  The  ground  was 
so  open  that  all  my  shots  had  to  be  taken  at  long  range. 
In  habits  they  differed  from  the  saddle-back  lechwes, 
for  they  were  found  on  dry  land,  often  where  the  grass 
was  quite  short,  and  went  freely  among  the  thorn- 
trees  ;  they  cared  for  the  neighbourhood  of  water  merely 
as  ordinary  waterbuck  or  kob  care  for  it. 

Here  we  met  another  boat,  with  aboard  it  Sir  WilUam 
Garstin,  one  of  the  men  who  have  made  Egypt  and  the 
Soudan  what  they  are  to-day,  and  who  have  thereby 
rendered  an  incalculable  service,  not  only  to  England, 
but  to  civilization. 

We  had  now  finished  our  hunting,  save  that  once  or 
twice  we  landed  to  shoot  a  buck  or  some  birds  for  the 
table.  It  was  amusing  to  see  how  sharply  the  birds 
discriminated  between  the  birds  of  prey  which  they 
feared  and  those  which  they  regarded  as  harmless.  We 
saw  a  flock  of  guinea-fowl  strolling  unconcernedly  about 


454  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

at  the  foot  of  a  tree  in  which  a  fish  eagle  was  perched  ; 
and  one  evening  Dr.  Mearns  saw  some  guinea-fowl  go 
to  roost  in  a  bush  in  which  two  kites  had  already  settled 
themselves  for  the  night,  the  kites  and  the  guineas 
perching  amiably  side  by  side. 

We  stopped  at  the  mouth  of  the  Sobat  to  visit  the 
American  Mission,  and  were  most  warmly  and  hos- 
pitably received  by  the  missionaries,  and  were  genuinely 
impressed  by  the  faithful  work  they  are  doing,  under 
such  great  difficulties  and  with  such  cheerfulness  and 
courage.  The  Medical  Mission  was  especially  interest- 
ing. It  formed  an  important  part  of  the  mission  work  ; 
and  not  only  were  the  natives  round  about  treated,  but 
those  from  far  away  also  came  in  numbers.  At  the 
time  of  our  visit  there  were  about  thirty  patients, 
taking  courses  of  treatment,  who  had  come  from 
distances  varying  from  twenty-five  miles  to  a  hundred 
and  fifty. 

We  steamed  steadily  down  the  Nile.  Where  the 
great  river  bent  to  the  east  we  would  sit  in  the  shade 
on  the  forward  deck  during  the  late  afternoon  and  look 
down  the  long  glistening  water-street  in  front  of  us, 
with  its  fringe  of  reed-bed  and  marshy  grassland  and 
papyrus  swamp,  and  the  slightly  higher  dry  land  on 
which  grew  acacias  and  scattered  palms.  Along  the 
river  banks  and  inland  were  villages  of  Shilluks  and 
other  tribes,  mostly  cattle  owners  ;  some  showing  slight 
traces  of  improvement,  others  utter  savages,  tall,  naked 
men,  bearing  bows  and  arrows. 

Our  Egyptian  and  Nubian  crew  recalled  to  my  mind 
the  crew  of  the  dahabiah  on  which  as  a  boy  I  had  gone 
up  the  Egyptian  Nile  thirty- seven  years  before ; 
especially  when  some  piece  of  work  was  being  done  by 
the  crew  as  they  chanted  in  grunting  chorus,  "  Ya  Allah, 


CH.  XV]  KHARTOUM  ^55 

ul  Allah."  As  we  went  down  the  Nile  we  kept  seeing 
more  and  more  of  the  birds  which  I  remembered,  one 
species  after  another  appearing ;  familiar  cow  herons, 
crocodile  plover,  noisy  spurwing  plover,  black  and  white 
kingfishers,  hoopoos,  green  bee-eaters,  black  and  white 
chats,  desert  larks,  and  trumpeter  bullfinches. 

At  night  we  sat  on  deck  and  watched  the  stars  and 
the  dark,  lonely  river.  The  swimming  crocodiles  and 
plunging  hippos  made  whirls  and  wakes  of  feeble  light 
that  glimmered  for  a  moment  against  the  black  water. 
T'he  unseen  birds  of  the  marsh  and  the  night  called  to 
one  another  in  strange  voices.  Often  there  were  grass 
fires,  burning,  leaping,  lines  of  red,  the  lurid  glare  in 
the  sky  above  them  inaking  even  more  sombre  the 
surrounding  gloom. 

As  we  steamed  northward  down  the  long  stretch  of 
the  Nile  which  ends  at  Khartoum,  the  wind  blew  in  our 
faces,  day  after  day,  hard  and  steadily.  Narrow  reed- 
beds  bordered  the  shore  ;  there  were  grass  flats  and 
groves  of  acacias  and  palms,  and  farther  down  reaches 
of  sandy  desert.  The  health  of  our  companions  who 
had  been  suffering  from  fever  and  dysentery  gradually 
improved ;  but  the  case  of  champagne,  which  we  had 
first  opened  at  Gondokoro,  was  of  real  service,  for  two 
members  of  the  party  were  at  times  so  sick  that  their 
situation  was  critical. 

We  reached  Khartoum  on  the  afternoon  of  March  14, 
1910,  and  Kermit  and  I  parted  from  our  comrades  of 
the  trip  with  real  regret.  During  the  year  we  spent 
together  there  had  not  been  a  jar,  and  my  respect  and 
liking  for  them  had  grown  steadily.  Moreover,  it  was 
a  sad  parting  from  our  faithful  black  followers,  whom 
we  knew  we  should  never  see  again.  It  had  been  an 
interesting  and  a  happy  year ;  though  I  was  very  glad 


456  THE  GIANT  ELAND  [ch.  xv 

to  be  once  more  with  those  who  were  dear  to  me,  and 
to  turn  my  face  toward  my  own  home  and  my  own 
people. 

Kermit's  and  my  health  throughout  the  trip  had  been 
excellent.  He  had  been  laid  up  for  three  days  all  told, 
and  I  for  five.  Kermit's  three  days  were  due,  two  to 
tick  fever  on  the  Kapiti  plains,  one  probably  to  the  sun. 
Mine  were  all  due  to  fever ;  but  I  think  my  fever  had 
nothing  to  do  with  Africa  at  all,  and  was  simply  a  recur- 
rence of  the  fever  I  caught  in  the  Santiago  campaign, 
and  which  ever  since  has  come  on  at  long  and  irregular 
intervals  for  a  day  or  two  at  a  time.  The  couple  of  attacks 
I  had  in  Africa  were  very  slight,  by  no  means  as  severe 
as  one  I  had  while  bear- hunting  early  one  spring  in  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  One  of  these  attacks  came  on  under 
rather  funny  circumstances.  It  was  at  Lake  Naivasha, 
on  the  day  I  killed  the  hippo  which  charged  the  boat. 
We  were  in  the  steam-launch,  and  I  began  to  feel  badly, 
and  knew  I  was  in  for  a  bout  of  fever.  Just  then  we 
spied  the  hippo,  and  went  after  it  in  the  row-boat.  I 
was  anxious  to  hold  back  the  attack  until  I  got  the 
hippo,  as  when  shaking  with  a  chill  it  is,  of  course,  very 
difficult  to  take  aim.  I  just  succeeded,  the  excitement 
keeping  me  steady,  and  as  soon  as  the  hippo  was  dead, 
I  curled  up  in  the  boat  and  had  my  chill  in  peace  and 
comfort. 

There  are  differences  of  opinion  as  to  whether  any 
spirituous  liquors  should  be  drunk  in  the  tropics.  Per- 
sonally, I  think  that  the  less  one  has  to  do  with  them 
the  better.  Not  liking  whisky,  I  took  a  bottle  of 
brandy  for  emergencies.  Very  early  in  the  trip  I 
decided  that,  even  when  feverish  or  exhausted  by  a 
hard  day's  tramp,  hot  tea  did  me  inore  good  than  brandy, 
and    I    handed   the   bottle  over   to   Cuninghame.     At 


CH.  XV] 


LIST  OF  GAME 


457 


Khartoum  he  produced  it,  and  asked  what  he  should  do 
with  it,  and  I  told  him  to  put  it  in  the  steamer's  stores. 
He  did  so,  after  finding  out  the  amount  that  had  been 
drunk,  and  informed  me  that  I  had  taken  just  six  ounces 
in  eleven  months. 

LIST    OF    GAME    SHOT    WITH   THE    RIFLE 
DURING  THE  TRIP 


BY    T.    R. 

BY    K.    R 

Lion 

9 

8 

Leopard 
Cheetah 

— 

3 

7 

Hyena 

Elephant 

Square- mouthed  rhinoceros 

5 

8 
5 

4 
3 
4 

Hook-lipped  rhinoceros 

8 

3 

Hippopotamus 
Wart-hog 

7 
8 

1 

4 

Common  zebra 

15 

4 

Big  or  Grevy's  zebra    ... 
Giraffe 

5 

7 

5 
2 

Buffalo 

6 

4 

Giant  eland  ... 

1 

2 

Common  eland 

5 

2 

Bongo 
Koodoo 

— 

2 
2 

Situtunga 
Bushbuck  : 

— 

1 

East  African 

2 

4 

Uganda  harnessed 
Nile  harnessed 

1 
3 

2 
3 

Sable 

— 

3 

Roan 

4 

5 

Oryx 

Wildebeest    ... 

10 
5 

3 
2 

Neumann's  hartebeest  ... 

— 

3 

Coke's  hartebeest 

10 

3 

Big  hartebeest : 

Jackson's 

14 

7 

Uganda ... 
Nilotic  ... 

1 

8 

3 

4 

Topi 

12 

4 

458 


THE  GIANT  ELAND 


[CH.  XV 


BY    T.    R. 

BY    K.    K. 

Common  waterbuck 

.       5 

3 

Singsing  waterbuck 
Common  kob 

.       6 
.     10 

6 
6 

Vaughan's  kob 
White-eared  kob 

1 
.       3 

2 
2 

Saddle-backed  lechwe  (Mrs.  Gray''s 
Bohor  reedbuck 

)       3 
.     10 

1 
4 

Chanler's  buck 

.       3 

4 

Impalla 
Big  gazelle  : 
Granti    ... 

7 
5 

5 
3 

Robertsi 

4 

6 

Notata  ... 

.       8 

1 

Thomson's  gazelle 
Gerunuk 

.     11 
.       3 

9 

2 

Klipspringer ... 
Oribi 

1 
18 

3 

8 

Duiker 

.       3 

2 

Steinbuck 

4 

2 

Dikdik           

1 

1 

Baboon 

— 

3 

Red  ground  monkey     ... 
Green  monkey 

1 

".'.         1 

Black  and  white  monkey 

5 

4 

Serval 

— 

1 

Jackal 

— 

1 

Aardwolf 

— 

1 

Battel 

— 

1 

Porcupine 
Ostrich 

2 

2 

Great  bustard 

41 

31 

Lesser  bustard 

1 

1 

Kavirondo  crane 

22 

— 

Flamingo 
Whale-headed  stork     ... 

1 

4 

Marabou 

1 

1 

Saddle- billed  stork 

12 

— 

Ibis  stork 

21 

... 

Pelican 

1 

— 

Guinea-fowl  ... 

5 

5 

Francolin 

1 

2 

Fish  eagle 

— 

1 

'  One  on  wing. 

''  On 

wing. 

CH.  XV]  TROPHIES  459 

BY    T.    R.  BY'    K.    R. 

Vulture  ...  ...  ...     —  ...         2 

Crocodile       ...  ...  ...       1  ...         3 

Monitor         ...  ...  ...     —  ...          1 

Python  ...  ...  ...       3  ...         1 


296  216 

Grand  total       ...  ...  ...     512 

In  addition,  we  killed  with  the  Fox  shot-gun  Egyptian 
geese,  yellow-billed  mallards,  francolins,  spur-fowl,  and 
sand-grouse  for  the  pot,  and  certain  other  birds  for 
specimens. 

Kermit  and  I  kept  about  a  dozen  trophies  for  our- 
selves ;  otherwise  we  shot  nothing  that  was  not  used 
either  as  a  museum  specimen  or  for  meat — usually  for 
both  purposes.  We  were  in  hunting-grounds  practically 
as  good  as  any  that  have  ever  existed,  but  we  did  not 
kill  a  tenth  nor  a  hundredth  part  of  what  we  might  have 
killed  had  we  been  willing.  The  mere  size  of  the  bag 
indicates  little  as  to  a  man's  prowess  as  a  hunter,  and 
almost  nothing  as  to  the  interest  or  value  of  his  achieve- 
ment. 


ADDRESS    DELIVERED   AT   THE 
UNIVERSITY   OF   CAIRO, 

By  colonel   ROOSEVELT, 

March  28,  1910. 

It  is  to  me  a  peculiar  pleasure  to  speak  to-day  under 
such  distinguished  auspices  as  yours,  Prince  Fouad,^ 
before  this  National  University,  and  it  is  of  good 
augury  for  the  great  cause  of  higher  education  in  Egypt 
that  it  should  have  enlisted  the  special  interest  of  so 
distinguished  and  eminent  a  man.  The  Arabic-speak- 
ing world  produced  the  great  University  of  Cordova, 
which  flourished  a  thousand  years  ago,  and  was  a  source 
of  light  and  learning  when  the  rest  of  Europe  was 
either  in  twilight  or  darkness.  In  the  centuries  following 
the  creation  of  this  Spanish  Moslem  University,  Arabic 
men  of  science,  travellers,  and  geographers — such  as  the 
noteworthy  African  traveller,  Ibn  Batuta,  a  copy  of 
whose  book,  by  the  way,  I  saw  yesterday  in  the  library 
of  the  Alhazar^ — were  teachers  whose  works  are  still  to 
be  eagerly  studied  ;  and  I  trust  that  here  we  shall  see 
the  revival,  and  more  than  the  revival,  of  the  conditions 
that  made  possible  such  contributions  to  the  growth  of 
civilization. 

This  scheme  of  a  National  University  is  fraught  with 
literally  untold  possibilities  for  good  to  your  country. 

^  Prince  Fouad  is  the  uncle  of  the  Khedive. 
2  The  great  Moslem  University  of  Cairo, 
460 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAIRO  461 

You  have  many  rocks  ahead  of  which  you  must  steer 
clear ;  and  because  I  am  your  earnest  friend  and  well- 
wisher,  I  desire  to  point  out  one  or  two  of  these  which 
it  is  necessary  especially  to  avoid.  In  the  first  place, 
there  is  one  point  upon  which  I  always  lay  stress  in  my 
own  country,  in  your  country,  in  all  countries—  the 
need  of  entire  honesty  as  the  only  foundation  on  which 
it  is  safe  to  build.  It  is  a  prime  essential  that  all  who 
are  in  any  way  responsible  for  the  beginnings  of  the 
University  shall  make  it  evident  to  everyone  that  the 
management  of  the  University,  financial  and  otherwise, 
will  be  conducted  with  absolute  honesty.  Very  much 
money  will  have  to  be  raised  and  expended  for  this 
University  in  order  to  make  it  what  it  can  and  ought  to 
be  made  ;  for,  if  properly  managed,  I  firmly  believe  that 
it  will  become  one  of  the  greatest  influences,  and 
perhaps  the  very  greatest  influence,  for  good  in  all  that 
part  of  the  world  where  Mohammedanism  is  the  leading 
religion — that  is,  in  all  those  regions  of  the  Orient, 
including  North  Africa  and  South- Western  Asia,  which 
stretch  from  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to  the  farther  confines 
of  India  and  to  the  hither  provinces  of  China.  This 
University  should  have  a  profound  influence  in  all 
things  educational,  social,  economic,  industrial,  through- 
out this  whole  region,  because  of  the  very  fact  of 
Egypt's  immense  strategic  importance,  so  to  speak,  in 
the  world  of  the  Orient,  an  importance  due  partly  to 
her  geographical  position,  partly  to  other  causes. 
Moreover,  it  is  most  fortunate  that  Egypt's  present 
position  is  such  that  this  University  will  enjoy  a  free- 
dom hitherto  unparalleled  in  the  investigation  and 
testing  out  of  all  problems  vital  to  the  future  of  the 
peoples  of  the  Orient. 

Nor  will  the  importance  of  this  University  be  con- 


462  AIMS  OF  A  UNIVERSITY 

fined  to  the  Orient.  Egypt  must  necessarily,  from  now 
on,  always  occupy  a  similar  strategic  position  as  regards 
the  peoples,  of  the  Occident,  for  she  sits  on  one  of 
the  highways  of  the  commerce  that  will  flow  in  ever- 
increasing  volume  from  Europe  to  the  East.  Those 
responsible  for  the  management  of  this  University 
should  set  before  themselves  a  very  high  ideal.  Not 
merely  should  it  stand  for  the  uplifting  of  all  Moham- 
medan peoples,  and  of  all  Christians  and  peoples  of 
other  religions  who  live  in  Mohammedan  lands,  but 
it  should  also  carry  its  teaching  and  practice  to  such 
perfection  as  in  the  end  to  make  it  a  factor  in  instruct- 
ing the  Occident.  When  a  scholar  is  sufficiently  apt, 
sufficiently  sincere  and  intelligent,  he  always  has  before 
him  the  opportunity  of  eventually  himself  giving  aid  to 
the  teachers  from  whom  he  has  received  aid. 

Now,  to  make  a  good  beginning  towards  the  definite 
achievement  of  these  high  ends,  it  is  essential  that  you 
should  command  respect  and  should  be  absolutely 
trusted.  Make  it  felt  that  you  will  not  tolerate  the  least 
little  particle  of  financial  crookedness  in  the  raising  or  ex- 
penditure of  any  money,  so  that  those  who  wish  to  give 
money  to  this  deserving  cause  may  feel  entire  confidence 
that  their  piastres  will  be  well  and  honestly  applied. 

In  the  next  place,  show  the  same  good  faith,  wisdom, 
and  sincerity  in  your  educational  plans  that  you  do  in 
the  financial  management  of  the  institution.  Avoid 
sham  and  hollow  pretence  just  as  you  avoid  religious, 
racial,  and  political  bigotry.  You  have  much  to  learn 
from  the  Universities  of  Europe  and  of  my  own  land, 
but  there  is  also  in  them  not  a  little  which  it  is  well  to 
avoid.  Copy  what  is  good  in  them,  but  test  in  a 
critical  spirit  whatever  you  take,  so  as  to  be  sure  that 
you  take  only  what  is  wisest  and  best  for  yourselves. 


FORMATION  OF  CHARACTER         463 

More  important  even  than  avoiding  any  mere  educa- 
tional shortcoming  is  the  avoidance  of  moral  short- 
coming. Students  are  already  being  sent  to  Europe  to 
prepare  themselves  to  return  as  professors.  Such 
preparation  is  now  essential,  for  it  is  of  prime  impor- 
tance that  the  University  should  be  familiar  with  what 
is  being  done  in  the  best  Universities  of  Europe  and 
America.  But  let  the  men  who  are  sent  be  careful  to 
bring  back  what  is  fine  and  good,  what  is  essential  to 
the  highest  kind  of  modern  progress ;  and  let  them 
avoid  what  are  the  mere  non-essentials  of  the  present- 
day  civilization,  and,  above  all,  the  vices  of  modem 
civilized  nations.  Let  these  men  keep  open  minds. 
It  would  be  a  capital  blunder  to  refuse  to  copy,  and 
thereafter  to  adapt  to  your  own  needs,  what  has  raised 
the  Occident  in  the  scale  of  power  and  justice  and 
clean  living.  But  it  would  be  a  no  less  capital  blunder 
to  copy  what  is  cheap  or  trivial  or  vicious,  or  even  what 
is  merely  wrong-headed.  Let  the  men  who  go  to 
Europe  feel  that  they  have  much  to  learn,  and  much 
also  to  avoid  and  reject ;  let  them  bring  back  the  good 
and  leave  behind  the  discarded  evil. 

Remember  that  character  is  far  more  important  than 
intellect,  and  that  a  really  great  University  should  strive 
to  develop  the  qualities  that  go  to  make  up  character 
even  more  than  the  qualities  that  go  to  make  up 
a  highly  trained  mind.  No  man  can  reach  the 
front  rank  if  he  is  not  intelligent  and  if  he  is  not 
trained  with  intelligence ;  but  mere  intelligence  by 
itself  is  worse  than  useless  unless  it  is  guided  by  an 
upright  heart,  unless  there  are  also  strength  and 
courage  behind  it.  Morality,  decency,  clean  living, 
courage,  manliness,  self-respect  —  these  qualities  are 
more  important  in  the  make-up  of  a  people  than  any 


464  EDUCATIONAL  NEEDS 

mental  subtlety.  Shape  this  University's  course  so  that 
it  shall  help  in  the  production  of  a  constantly  upward 
trend  for  all  your  people. 

You  should  be  always  on  your  guard  against  one 
defect  in  Western  education.  There  has  been  alto- 
gether too  great  a  tendency  in  the  higher  schools  of 
learning  in  the  West  to  train  men  merely  for  literary, 
professional,  and  official  positions  ;  altogether  too  great 
a  tendency  to  act  as  if  a  literary  education  were  the 
only  real  education.  I  am  exceedingly  glad  that  you 
have  already  started  industrial  and  agricultural  schools 
in  Egypt.  A  literary  education  is  simply  one  of  many 
different  kinds  of  education,  and  it  is  not  wise  that 
more  than  a  small  percentage  of  the  people  of  any 
country  should  have  an  exclusively  literary  education. 
The  average  man  must  either  supplement  it  by  another 
education,  or  else  as  soon  as  he  has  left  an  institution  of 
learning,  even  though  he  has  benefited  by  it,  he  must  at 
once  begin  to  train  himself  to  do  work  along  totally 
different  lines.  His  Highness  the  Khedive,  in  the 
midst  of  his  activities  touching  many  phases  of  Egyptian 
life,  has  shown  conspicuous  wisdom,  great  foresight,  and 
keen  understanding  of  the  needs  of  the  country  in  the 
way  in  which  he  has  devoted  himself  to  its  agricultural 
betterment,  in  the  interest  which  he  has  taken  in  the 
improvement  of  cattle,  crops,  etc.  You  need  in  this 
country,  as  is  the  case  in  every  other  country,  a  certain 
number  of  men  whose  education  shall  fit  them  for  the 
life  of  scholarship,  or  to  become  teachers  or  public 
officials.  But  it  is  a  very  unhealthy  thing  for  any 
country  for  more  than  a  small  proportion  of  the 
strongest  and  best  minds  of  the  country  to  turn  into 
such  channels.  It  is  essential  also  to  develop  indus- 
trialism, to  train  people  so  that  they  can  be  cultivators 


INFLUENCE  OF  WORKERS  465 

of  the  soil  in  the  largest  sense  on  as  successful  a  scale  as 
the  most  successful  lawyer  or  public  man,  to  train  them 
so  that  they  shall  be  engineers,  merchants — in  short, 
men  able  to  take  the  lead  in  all  the  various  functions 
indispensable  in  a  great  modern  civilized  State.  An 
honest,  courageous,  and  far-sighted  politician  is  a  good 
thing  in  any  country.  But  his  usefulness  will  depend 
chiefly  upon  his  being  able  to  express  the  wishes  of  a 
population  wherein  the  politician  forms  but  a  fragment 
of  the  leadership,  where  the  business  man  and  the  land- 
owner, the  engineer  and  the  man  of  technical  knowledge, 
the  men  of  a  hundred  different  pursuits,  represent  the 
average  type  of  leadership.  No  people  has  ever  perma- 
nently amounted  to  anything  if  its  only  public  leaders 
were  clerks,  politicians,  and  lawyers.  The  base,  the 
foundation,  of  healthy  life  in  any  country,  in  any 
society,  is  necessarily  composed  of  the  men  who  do  the 
actual  productive  work  of  the  country,  whether  in 
tilling  the  soil,  in  the  handicrafts,  or  in  business  ;  and  it 
matters  little  whether  they  work  with  hands  or  head, 
although  more  and  more  we  are  growing  to  realize  that 
it  is  a  good  thing  to  have  the  same  man  work  with  both 
head  and  hands.  These  men,  in  many  differing  careers, 
do  the  work  which  is  most  important  to  the  com- 
munity's life,  although,  of  course,  it  must  be  supple- 
mented by  the  work  of  the  other  men  whose  education 
and  activities  are  literary  and  scholastic ;  who  work  in 
politics  or  law,  or  in  literary  and  clerical  positions. 

Never  forget  that  in  any  country  the  most  important 
activities  are  the  activities  of  the  man  who  works  with 
head  or  hands  in  the  ordinary  life  of  the  community, 
whether  he  be  handicraftsman,  farmer,  or  business  man 
— no  matter  what  his  occupation,  so  long  as  it  is  useful, 
and    no   matter  what   his   position,  from   the   guiding 


466  EDUCATION  A  PROCESS 

intelligence  at  the  top  down  all  the  way  through,  just 
as  long  as  his  work  is  good.  I  preach  this  to  you  here 
by  the  banks  of  the  Nile,  and  it  is  the  identical  doctrine 
I  preach  no  less  earnestly  by  the  banks  of  the  Hudson, 
the  Mississippi,  and  the  Columbia. 

Remember  always  that  the  securing  of  a  substantial 
education,  whether  by  the  individual  or  by  a  people, 
is  attained  only  by  a  process,  not  by  an  act.  You  can  no 
more  make  a  man  really  educated  by  giving  him  a 
certain  curriculum  of  studies  than  you  can  make  a 
people  fit  for  self-government  by  giving  it  a  paper 
constitution.  The  training  of  an  individual  so  as  to  fit 
him  to  do  good  work  in  the  world  is  a  matter  of  years, 
just  as  the  training  of  a  nation  to  fit  it  successfully  to 
fulfil  the  duties  of  self-government  is  a  matter,  not  of  a 
decade  or  two,  but  of  generations.  There  are  foolish 
empiricists  who  believe  that  the  granting  of  a  paper 
constitution,  prefaced  by  some  high-sounding  declara- 
tion, of  itself  confers  the  power  of  self-government  upon 
a  people.  This  is  never  so.  Nobody  can  "  give "  a 
people  "  self-government,"  any  more  than  it  is  possible 
to  "give"  an  individual  "self-help."  You  know  that 
the  Arab  proverb  runs,  "  God  helps  those  who  help 
themselves."  In  the  long-run,  the  only  permanent  way 
by  which  an  individual  can  be  helped  is  to  help  him  to 
help  himself,  and  this  is  one  of  the  things  your  University 
should  inculcate.  But  it  must  be  his  own  slow  growth  in 
character  that  is  the  final  and  determining  factor  in  the 
problem.  So  it  is  with  a  people.  In  the  two  Americas  we 
have  seen  certain  commonwealths  rise  and  prosper  greatly. 
We  have  also  seen  other  commonwealths  start  under 
identically  the  same  conditions,  with  the  same  freedom 
and  the  same  rights,  the  same  guarantees,  and  yet  have 
seen  them  fail  miserably  and  lamentably,  and  sink  into 


MURDER  OF  BOUTROS  PASHA        467 

corruption  and  anarchy  and  tyranny,  simply  because 
the  people  for  whom  the  constitution  was  made  did  not 
develop  the  qualities  which  alone  would  enable  them  to 
take  advantage  of  it.  With  any  people  the  essential 
quality  to  show  is,  not  haste  in  grasping  after  a  power 
which  it  is  only  too  easy  to  misuse,  but  a  slow,  steady, 
resolute  development  of  those  substantial  qualities, 
such  as  the  love  of  justice,  the  love  of  fair  play,  the 
spirit  of  self-reliance,  of  moderation,  which  alone  enable 
a  people  to  govern  themselves.  In  this  long  and  even 
tedious  but  absolutely  essential  process,  I  believe  your 
University  will  take  an  important  part.  When  I  was 
in  the  Soudan  I  heard  a  vernacular  proverb,  based  on  a 
text  in  the  Koran,  which  is  so  apt  that,  although  not  an 
Arabic  scholar,  1  shall  attempt  to  repeat  it  in  Arabic : 
'^  Allah  ma  el  saberin,  izza  sabaru" — God  is  with  the 
patient,  if  they  know  how  to  wait. 

One  essential  feature  of  this  process  must  be  a  spirit 
which  will  condemn  every  form  of  lawless  evil,  every 
form  of  envy  and  hatred,  and,  above  all,  hatred  based 
upon  religion  or  race.  All  good  men,  all  the  men 
of  every  nation  whose  respect  is  worth  having,  have 
been  inexpressibly  shocked  by  the  recent  assassination 
of  Boutros  Pasha.  It  was  an  even  greater  calamity  for 
Egypt  than  it  was  a  wrong  to  the  individual  himself. 
The  type  of  man  which  turns  out  an  assassin  is  a  type 
possessing  all  the  qualities  most  alien  to  good  citizen- 
ship ;  the  type  which  produces  poor  soldiers  in  time  of 
war  and  worse  citizens  in  time  of  peace.  Such  a  man 
stands  on  a  pinnacle  of  evil  infamy  ;  and  those  who 
apologize  for  or  condone  his  act,  those  who,  by  word  or 
deed,  directly  or  indirectly,  encourage  such  an  act  in 
advance,  or  detend  it  afterwards,  occupy  the  same  bad 
eminence.     It  is  of  no  consequence  whether  the  assassin 


468  RELIGIOUS  EQUALITY 

be  a  Moslem,  or  a  Christian,  or  a  man  of  no  creed ; 
whether  the  crime  be  committed  in  poHtical  strife  or 
industrial  warfare  ;  whether  it  be  an  act  hired  by  a  rich 
man  or  performed  by  a  poor  man ;  whether  it  be 
committed  under  the  pretence  of  preserving  order  or 
the  pretence  of  obtaining  liberty.  It  is  equally  abhorrent 
in  the  eyes  of  all  decent  men,  and,  in  the  long-run, 
equally  damaging  to  the  very  cause  to  which  the  assassin 
professes  to  be  devoted. 

Yours  is  a  National  University,  and  as  such  knows 
no  creed.  This  is  as  it  should  be.  When  I  speak  of 
equality  between  Moslem  and  Christian,  I  speak  as  one 
who  believes  that  where  the  Christian  is  more  powerful 
he  should  be  scrupulous  in  doing  justice  to  the  Moslem, 
exactly  as  under  reverse  conditions  justice  should  be 
done  by  the  Moslem  to  the  Christian.  In  my  own 
country  we  have  in  the  Philippines  Moslems  as  well  as 
Christians.  We  do  not  tolerate  for  one  moment  any 
oppression  by  the  one  or  by  the  other,  any  discrimina- 
tion by  the  Government  between  them  or  failure  to 
mete  out  the  same  justice  to  each,  treating  each  man 
on  his  worth  as  a  man,  and  behaving  towards  him  as  his 
conduct  demands  and  deserves. 

In  short,  I  earnestly  hope  that  all  responsible  for  the 
beginnings  of  the  University,  which  I  trust  will  become 
one  of  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  educational 
influences  throughout  the  world,  will  feel  it  incumbent 
upon  themselves  to  frown  on  every  form  of  wrong- 
doing, whether  in  the  shape  of  injustice,  or  corruption, 
or  lawlessness,  and  to  stand  with  firmness,  with  good 
sense,  and  with  courage,  for  those  immutable  principles 
of  justice  and  merciful  dealing  as  between  man  and 
man,  without  which  there  can  never  be  the  slightest 
growth  towards  a  really  fine  and  high  civilization. 


SPEECH   DELIVERED   AT   THE 
GUILDHALL,  LONDON, 

By  colonel   ROOSEVELT, 
May  31,   ipiO. 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen, — It  is  a  peculiar  pleasure  to 
me  to  be  here.  And  yet  I  cannot  but  appreciate,  as  we 
all  do,  the  sadness  of  the  fact  that  I  come  here  just 
after  the  death  of  the  Sovereign  whom  you  so  mourn, 
and  whose  death  caused  such  an  outburst  of  sympathy 
for  you  throughout  the  civiHzed  world.  One  of  the 
things  I  shall  never  forget  is  the  attitude  of  that  great 
mass  of  people,  assembled  on  the  day  of  the  funeral, 
who,  in  silence,  in  perfect  order,  and  with  uncovered 
heads,  saw  the  body  of  the  dead  King  pass  to  its  last 
resting-place.  I  had  the  high  honour  of  being  deputed 
to  come  to  the  funeral  as  the  representative  of  America, 
and  by  my  presence  to  express  the  deep  and  universal 
feeling  of  sympathy  which  moves  the  entire  American 
people  for  the  British  people  in  theii-  hour  of  sadness 
and  trial. 

I  need  hardly  say  how  profoundly  I  feel  the  high 
honour  that  you  confer  upon  me — an  honour  great  in 
itself,  and  great  because  of  the  ancient  historic  associa- 
tions connected  with  it,  with  the  ceremonies  incident  to 
conferring  it,  and  with  the  place  in  which  it  is  conferred. 
I  am  very  deeply  appreciative  of  all  that  this  ceremony 
means,  all  that  this  gift  implies,  and  all  the  kind  words 

which  Sir  Joseph  Dimsdale  has  used  in  conferring  it. 

469 


470  AFRICAN  EXPERIENCES 

I  thank  you  heartily  for  myself.  I  thank  you  still  more 
because  I  know  that  what  you  have  done  is  to  be  taken 
primarily  as  a  sign  of  the  respect  and  friendly  goodwill 
which  more  and  more,  as  time  goes  by,  tends  to  knit 
the  English-speaking  peoples. 

I  shall  not  try  to  make  you  any  extended  address  of 
mere  thanks,  still  less   of  mere   eulogy.     I   prefer  to 
speak,  and  I  know  you  would  prefer  to  have  me  speak, 
on  matters  of  real  concern  to  you,  as  to  which  I  happen 
at  this  moment  to  possess  some  first-hand  knowledge  ; 
for  recently  I  traversed  certain  portions  of  the  British 
Empire  under  conditions  which  made   me   intimately 
cognizant   of  their   circumstances   and  needs.     I  have 
just  spent  nearly  a  year  in  Africa.     While  there  I  saw 
four  British  protectorates.     I  grew  heartily  to  respect 
the  men  whom  I  there  met — settlers  and  military  and 
civil  officials — and  it  seems  to  me  that  the  best  service 
I  can  render  them  and  you  is  very  briefly  to  tell  you 
how  I  was  impressed  by  some  of  the  things  that  I  saw. 
Your  men  in  Africa  are  doing  a  great  work  for  your 
Empire,   and   they   are   also   doing   a   great   work   for 
civilization.     This  fact  and  my  sympathy  for  and  belief 
in  them  are  my  reasons  for  speaking.     The  people  at 
home,  whether   in   Europe   or   in   America,  who   live 
softly   often  fail  fully  to   realize  what  is   being   done 
for  them  by  the  men  who  are  actually  engaged  in  the 
pioneer  work  of  civilization  abroad.     Of  course,  in  any 
mass  of  men  there  are  sure  to  be  some  who  are  weak 
or  unworthy,  and  even  those  who  are  good  are  sure  to 
make  occasional  mistakes — that  is  as  true  of  pioneers  as 
of  other  men.     Nevertheless,  the  gi*eat  fact  in  world 
history  during  the  last   century  has   been   the   spread 
of  civilization  over  the  world's  waste  spaces.     The  work 
is  still  going  on  ;  and  the  soldiers,  the  settlers,  and  the 


CIVILIZATION  IN  AFRICA  471 

civic  officials  wfio  are  actually  doing  it  are,  as  a  wfiole, 
entitled  to  the  heartiest  respect  and  the  fullest  support 
from  their  brothers  who  remain  at  home. 

At  the  outset  there  is  one  point  upon  which  I  wish  to 
insist  with  all  possible  emphasis.  The  civilized  nations 
who  are  conquering  for  civilization  savage  lands  should 
work  together  in  a  spirit  of  hearty  mutual  goodwill.  I 
listened  with  special  interest  to  what  Sir  Joseph  Dims- 
dale  said  about  the  blessing  of  peace  and  goodwill 
among  nations.  I  agree  with  that  in  the  abstract.  Let 
us  show  by  our  actions  and  our  words  in  specific  cases 
that  we  agree  with  it  also  in  the  concrete.  Ill-wiU 
between  civilized  nations  is  bad  enough  anywhere,  but 
it  is  peculiarly  harmful  and  contemptible  when  those 
actuated  by  it  are  engaged  in  the  same  task — a  task  of 
such  far-reaching  importance  to  the  future  of  humanity 
— the  task  of  subduing  the  savagery  of  wild  man  and 
wild  nature,  and  of  bringing  abreast  of  our  civilization 
those  lands  where  there  is  an  older  civilization  which 
has  somehow  gone  crooked.  Mankind,  as  a  whole,  has 
benefited  by  the  noteworthy  success  that  has  attended 
the  French  occupation  of  Algiers  and  Tunis,  just  as 
mankind,  as  a  whole,  has  benefited  by  what  England 
has  done  in  India ;  and  each  nation  should  be  glad  of 
the  other  nation's  achievements.  In  the  same  way  it 
is  of  interest  to  all  civilized  men  that  a  similar  success 
shall  attend  alike  the  Britisher  and  the  German  as  they 
work  in  East  Africa  ;  exactly  as  it  has  been  a  benefit  to 
everyone  that  America  took  possession  of  the  Philip- 
pines. Those  of  you  who  know  Lord  Cromer's  excel- 
lent book,  in  which  he  compares  modern  and  ancient 
Imperialism,  need  no  words  from  me  to  prove  that  the 
dominion  of  modern  civilized  nations  over  the  dark 
places  of  the  earth  has  been  fraught  with  widespread 


472  A  WHITE  MAN'S  COUNTRY 

good  for  mankind ;  and  my  plea  is  that  the  civih'zed 
nations  engaged  in  doing  this  work  shall  treat  one 
another  with  respect  and  friendship,  and  shall  hold  it  as 
discreditable  to  permit  envy  and  jealousy,  backbiting 
and  antagonism,  among  themselves. 

I  visited  four  different  British  protectorates  or  posses- 
sions in  Africa — namely,  British  East  Africa,  Uganda, 
the  Soudan,  and  Egypt.  About  the  first  three  I  have 
nothing  to  say  to  you  save  what  is  pleasant,  as  well  as 
true.  About  the  last  I  wish  to  say  a  few  words  because 
they  are  true,  without  regard  to  whether  or  not  they 
are  pleasant. 

In  the  highlands  of  East  Africa  you  have  a  land 
which  can  be  made  a  true  white  man's  country.  While 
there  I  met  many  settlers  on  intimate  terms,  and  I  felt 
for  them  a  peculiar  sympathy,  because  they  so  strikingly 
reminded  me  of  the  men  of  our  own  western  frontier  of 
America,  of  the  pioneer  farmers  and  ranchmen  who 
build  up  the  States  of  the  great  plains  and  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  It  is  of  high  importance  to  encourage 
these  settlers  in  every  way,  remembering — I  say  that 
here  in  the  City — remembering  that  the  prime  need  is 
not  for  capitalists  to  exploit  the  land,  but  for  settlers 
who  shall  make  their  permanent  homes  therein.  Capital 
is  a  good  servant,  but  a  mighty  poor  master.  No  alien 
race  should  be  permitted  to  come  into  competition 
with  the  settlers.  Fortunately,  you  have  now  in  the 
Governor  of  East  Africa,  Sir  Percy  Girouard,  a  man 
admirably  fitted  to  deal  wisely  and  firmly  with  the 
many  problems  before  him.  He  is  on  the  ground  and 
knows  the  needs  of  the  country,  and  is  zealously 
devoted  to  its  interests.  All  that  is  necessary  is  to 
follow  his  lead,  and  to  give  him  cordial  support  and 
backing.     The  principle  upon  which  I  think  it  is  wise  to 


UGANDA  AND  THE  SOUDAN    473 

act  in  dealing  with  far-away  possessions  is  this  :  choose 
your  man,  change  him  if  you  become  discontented  with 
him,  but  while  you  keep  him  back  him  up. 

In  Uganda  the  problem  is  totally  different.  Uganda 
cannot  be  made  a  white  man's  country,  and  the  prime 
need  is  to  administer  the  land  in  the  interest  of  the 
native  races,  and  to  help  forward  their  development. 
Uganda  has  been  the  scene  of  an  extraordinary  develop- 
ment of  Christianity.  Nowhere  else  of  recent  times  has 
missionary  effort  met  with  such  success.  The  inhabi- 
tants stand  far  above  most  of  the  races  in  the  Dark 
Continent  hi  their  capacity  for  progress  towards  civiliza- 
tion. They  have  made  great  strides,  and  the  British 
officials  have  shown  equal  judgment  and  disinterested- 
ness in  the  work  they  have  done  ;  and  they  have  been 
especially  wise  in  trying  to  develop  the  natives  along  their 
own  lines,  instead  of  seeking  to  turn  them  into  imitation 
Englishmen.  In  Uganda  all  that  is  necessary  is  to  go 
forward  on  the  paths  you  have  already  marked  out. 

The  Soudan  is  peculiarly  interesting  because  it 
affords  the  best  possible  example  of  the  wisdom — and 
when  I  say  that  I  speak  with  historical  accuracy — of 
disregarding  the  well-meaning  but  unwise  sentimen- 
talists who  object  to  the  spread  of  civilization  at  the 
expense  of  savagery.  I  remember  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago,  when  you  were  engaged  in  the  occupation  of  the 
Soudan,  that  many  of  your  people  at  home,  and  some  of 
ours  in  America,  said  that  what  was  demanded  in  the 
Soudan  was  the  apphcation  of  the  principles  of  indepen- 
dence and  self-government  to  the  Soudanese,  coupled 
with  insistence  upon  complete  religious  toleration  and 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade.  Unfortunately,  the 
chief  reason  why  the  Mahdists  wanted  independence 
and  self-government  was  that  they  could  put  down  all 


474  HORRORS  OF  MAHDISM 

religions  but  their  own  and  carry  on  the  slave-trade. 
I  do  not  believe  that  in  the  whole  world  there  is  to  be 
found  any  nook  of  territory  which  has  shown  such 
astonishing  progress  from  the  most  hideous  misery  to 
well-being  and  prosperity  as  the  Soudan  has  shown 
during  the  last  twelve  years,  while  it  has  been  under 
British  rule.  Up  to  that  time  it  was  independent,  and 
it  governed  itself;  and  independence  and  self-govern- 
ment in  the  hands  of  the  Soudanese  proved  to  be  much 
what  independence  and  self-government  would  be  in  a 
wolf  pack.  Great  crimes  were  coinmitted  there — crimes 
so  dark  that  their  very  hideousness  protected  them  from 
exposure.  During  a  decade  and  a  half,  while  Mahdism 
controlled  the  country,  there  flourished  a  tyranny  which 
for  cruelty,  bloodthirstiness,  unintelligence,  and  wanton 
destructiveness,  surpassed  anything  which  a  civilized 
people  can  even  imagine.  The  keystones  of  the  Mahdist 
party  were  religious  intolerance  and  slavery,  with 
murder  and  the  most  abominable  cruelty  as  the  method 
of  obtaining  each. 

During  those  fifteen  years  at  least  two-thirds  of  the 
population,  probably  seven  or  eight  millions  of  people, 
died  by  violence  or  by  starvation.  Then  the  British 
came  in,  put  an  end  to  the  independence  and  self- 
government  which  had  wrought  this  hideous  evil, 
restored  order,  kept  the  peace,  and  gave  to  each 
individual  a  liberty  which  during  the  evil  days  of  their 
own  self-government  not  one  human  being  possessed, 
save  only  the  blood-stained  tyrant  who  at  the  moment 
was  ruler.  I  stopped  at  village  after  village  in  the 
Soudan,  and  in  many  of  them  I  was  struck  by  the  fact 
that,  while  there  were  plenty  of  children,  they  were  all 
under  twelve  years  old ;  and  inquiry  always  developed 
that    these    children    were    known    as    "  Government 


EGYPT  AND  THE  SOUDAN  475 

children,"  because  in  the  days  of  Mahdism  it  was  the 
Hteral  truth  that  in  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
communities  every  child  was  either  killed  or  died  of 
starvation  and  hardship,  whereas  under  the  peace 
brought  by  British  rule  families  are  flourishing,  men 
and  women  are  no  longer  hunted  to  death,  and  the 
children  are  brought  up  under  more  favourable  circum- 
stances, for  soul  and  body,  than  have  ever  previously 
obtained  in  the  entire  history  of  the  Soudan.  In 
administration,  in  education,  in  police  work,  the  Sirdar 
and  his  lieutenants,  great  and  small,  have  performed  to 
perfection  a  task  equally  important  and  difficult.  The 
Government  officials,  civil  and  military,  who  are  respon- 
sible for  this  task,  and  the  Egyptian  and  Soudanese 
who  have  worked  with  and  under  them,  and  as  directed 
by  them,  have  a  claim  upon  all  civilized  mankind  which 
should  be  heartily  admitted.  It  would  be  a  crime  not 
to  go  on  with  the  work — a  work  which  the  inhabitants 
themselves  are  helpless  to  perform,  unless  under  firm 
and  outside  wise  guidance.  I  have  met  people  who 
had  some  doubt  as  to  whether  the  Soudan  would  pay. 
Personally,  I  think  it  probably  will.  But  I  may  add 
that,  in  my  judgment,  this  fact  does  not  alter  the  duty 
of  Britain  to  stay  there.  It  is  not  worth  while  belong- 
ing to  a  big  nation  unless  the  big  nation  is  willing 
when  the  necessity  arises  to  undertake  a  big  task.  I 
feel  about  you  in  the  Soudan  just  as  I  felt  about  us  in 
Panama.  When  we  acquired  the  right  to  build  the 
Panama  Canal,  and  entered  on  the  task,  there  were 
worthy  people  who  came  to  me  and  said  they  wondered 
whether  it  would  pay.  I  always  answered  that  it  was 
one  of  the  great  world  works  which  had  to  be  done ; 
that  it  was  our  business  as  a  nation  to  do  it,  if  we  were 
ready  to  make  good  our  claim  to  be  treated  as  a  great 


476  EGYPT 

world  Power  ;  and  that  as  we  were  unwilling  to  abandon 
the  claim,  no  American  worth  his  salt  ought  to  hesitate 
about  performing  the  task.  I  feel  just  the  same  way 
about  you  in  the  Soudan. 

Now  as  to  Egypt.  It  would  not  be  worth  my  while 
to  speak  to  you  at  all,  nor  would  it  be  worth  your  while 
to  listen,  unless  on  condition  that  I  say  what  I  deeply 
feel  ought  to  be  said.  I  speak  as  an  outsider,  but  in 
one  way  this  is  an  advantage,  for  I  speak  without 
national  prejudice.  I  would  not  talk  to  you  about 
your  own  internal  affairs  here  at  home  ;  but  you  are  so 
very  busy  at  home  that  1  am  not  sure  whether  you 
reaUze  just  how  things  are,  in  some  places  at  least, 
abroad.  At  any  rate,  it  can  do  you  no  harm  to  hear 
the  view  of  one  who  has  actually  been  on  the  ground, 
and  has  information  at  first  hand  ;  of  one,  moreover, 
who,  it  is  true,  is  a  sincere  well-wisher  of  the  British 
Empire,  but  who  is  not  British  by  blood,  and  who  is 
impelled  to  speak  mainly  because  of  his  deep  concern 
for  the  welfare  of  mankind  and  for  the  future  of  civiliza- 
tion. Remember  also  that  I  who  address  you  am  not 
only  an  American,  but  a  Radical,  a  real — not  a  mock — 
Democrat,  and  that  what  I  have  to  say  is  spoken  chiefly 
because  I  am  a  Democrat — a  man  who  feels  that  his 
first  thought  is  bound  to  be  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of 
mankind,  and  his  first  duty  to  war  against  violence  and 
injustice  and  wrong-doing,  wherever  found ;  and  I 
advise  you  only  in  accordance  with  the  principles  on 
which  I  myself  acted  when  I  was  President  of  the 
United  States  in  dealing  with  the  Philippines. 

In  Egypt  you  are  not  only  the  guardians  of  your 
own  interests ;  you  are  also  the  guardians  of  the  interests 
of  civilization ;  and  the  present  condition  of  affairs  in 
Egypt  is  a  grave  menace  both  to  your  Empire  and  to 


ENGLAND'S  DUTIES  IN  EGYPT       477 

civilization.  You  have  given  Egypt  the  best  govern- 
ment it  has  had  for  at  least  two  thousand  years — 
probably  a  better  government  than  it  has  ever  had 
before  ;  for  never  in  history  has  the  poor  man  in  Egypt 
— the  tiller  of  the  soil,  the  ordinary  labourer — been 
treated  with  as  much  justice  and  mercy,  under  a  rule  as 
free  irom  corruption  and  brutahty,  as  during  the  last 
twenty-eight  years.  Yet  recent  events,  and  especially 
what  has  happened  in  connection  with  and  following  on 
the  assassination  of  Boutros  Pasha  three  months  ago, 
have  shown  that,  in  certain  vital  points,  you  have  erred, 
and  it  is  for  you  to  make  good  your  error.  It  has  been 
an  error  proceeding  from  the  effort  to  do  too  much,  and 
not  too  little,  in  the  interests  of  the  Egyptians  them- 
selves ;  but,  unfortunately,  it  is  necessary  for  all  of  us 
who  have  to  do  wath  uncivilized  peoples,  and  especially 
with  fanatical  peoples,  to  remember  that  in  such  a 
situation  as  yours  in  Egypt  weakness,  timidity,  and 
sentimentality,  may  cause  even  more  far-reaching  harm 
than  violence  and  injustice.  Of  all  broken  reeds,  senti- 
mentality is  the  most  broken  reed  on  which  righteous- 
ness can  lean. 

In  Egypt  you  have  been  treating  all  religions  with 
studied  fairness  and  impartiality ;  and  instead  of  grate- 
fully acknowledging  this,  a  noisy  section  of  the  native 
population  takes  advantage  of  what  your  good  treat- 
ment has  done  to  bring  about  an  anti- foreign  movement 
— a  movement  in  which,  as  events  have  shown,  murder 
on  a  large  or  a  small  scale  is  expected  to  play  a  leading 
part.  Boutros  Pasha  was  the  best  and  most  competent 
Egyptian  official,  a  steadfast  upholder  of  British  rule, 
and  an  earnest  worker  for  the  welfare  of  his  country- 
men ;  and  he  was  murdered  simply  and  solely  because 
of  these   facts,  and   because   he   did   his  duty  wisely. 


478  THE  NATIONALIST  PARTY 

fearlessly,  and  uprightly.  The  attitude  of  the  so-called 
Egj'^pt  Nationalist  Party  in  connection  with  this  murder 
has  shown  that  they  were  neither  desirous  nor  capable 
of  guaranteeing  even  that  primary  justice  the  failure  to 
supply  which  makes  self-government  not  merely  an 
empty  but  a  noxious  farce.  Such  are  the  conditions  ; 
and  where  the  effort  made  by  your  officials  to  help  the 
Egyptians  towards  self-government  is  taken  advantage 
of  by  them,  not  to  make  things  better,  not  to  help  their 
country,  but  to  try  to  bring  murderous  chaos  upon  the 
land,  then  it  becomes  the  primary  duty  of  whoever  is 
responsible  for  the  Government  in  Eg>^pt  to  estabhsh 
order,  and  to  take  whatever  measures  are  necessary  to 
that  end. 

It  was  with  this  primary  object  of  estabHshing  order 
that  you  went  into  Egypt  twenty-eight  years  ago  ;  and 
the  chief  and  ample  justification  for  your  presence  in 
Egypt  was  this  absolute  necessity  of  order  being  estab- 
lished from  without,  coupled  with  your  abihty  and 
willingness  to  establish  it.  Now,  either  you  have  the 
right  to  be  in  Egypt  or  you  have  not ;  either  it  is  or  it 
is  not  your  duty  to  establish  and  keep  order.  If  you 
feel  that  you  have  not  the  right  to  be  in  Egypt,  if  you 
do  not  wish  to  establish  and  to  keep  order  there,  why, 
then,  by  all  means  get  out  of  Egypt.  If,  as  I  hope,  you 
feel  that  your  duty  to  civilized  mankind  and  your  fealty 
to  your  own  great  traditions  alike  bid  you  to  stay,  then 
make  the  fact  and  the  name  agree,  and  show  that  you 
are  ready  to  meet  in  very  deed  the  responsibihty  which 
is  yours.  It  is  the  thing,  not  the  form,  which  is  vital. 
If  the  present  forms  of  government  in  Egypt,  estabhshed 
by  you  in  the  hope  that  they  would  help  the  Egyptians 
upward,  merely  serve  to  provoke  and  permit  disorder, 
then  it  is  for  you  to  alter  the  forms  ;  for  if  you   stay 


THE  FUTURE  OF  EGYPT  479 

in  Egypt,  it  is  your  first  duty  to  keep  order,  and,  above 
all  things,  also  to  punish  murder  and  to  bring  to  justice 
all  who  directly  or  indirectly  incite  others  to  commit 
murder  or  condone  the  crime  when  it  is  committed. 
When  a  people  treats  assassination  as  the  corner-stone 
of  self-government,  it  forfeits  all  right  to  be  treated  as 
worthy  of  self-government.  You  are  in  Egypt  for 
several  purposes,  and  among  them  one  of  the  greatest  is 
the  benefit  of  the  Egyptian  people.  You  saved  them 
from  ruin  by  coming  in,  and  at  the  present  moment,  if 
they  are  not  governed  from  outside,  they  will  again 
sink  into  a  welter  of  chaos.  Some  nation  must  govern 
Egypt.  I  hope  and  believe  that  you  will  decide  that  it 
is  your  duty  to  be  that  nation. 


APPENDICES 


31 


APPENDIX  A 

I  WISH  to  thank  Sir  Edward  Grey  and  Lord  Crewe  for  the 
numerous  courtesies  extended  to  me  by  the  British  officials 
throughout  the  British  possessions  in  Africa ;  and  M.  Renkin  for 
the  equal  courtesy  shown  me  by  the  Belgian  officials  in  the 
Lado. 

The  scientific  part  of  the  expedition  could  not  have  been  under- 
taken save  for  the  generous  assistance  of  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie, 
Mr.  Oscar  Straus,  Mr.  Leigh  Hunt,  and  certain  others,  to  all  of 
whom  lovers  of  natural  history  are  therefore  deeply  indebted. 

I  owe  more  than  I  can  express  to  the  thoughtful  and  unwearied 
consideration  of  Mr.  F.  C.  Selous  and  Mr.  E.  N.  Buxton,  through 
whom  my  excellent  outfit  was  obtained. 

Mr.  R.  J.  Cuninghame,  assisted  in  East  Africa  by  Mr.  Leslie 
J.  Tarlton,  managed  the  expedition  in  the  field,  and  no  two  better 
men  for  our  purposes  could  have  been  found  anywhere.  I  doubt 
if  Mr.  Cuninghame's  equal  in  handling  such  an  expedition  as  ours 
exists ;  I  know  no  one  else  who  combines  as  he  does  the  qualities 
which  make  a  first-class  explorer,  guide,  hunter,  field-naturalist, 
and  safari  manager.  Messrs.  Newland  and  Tarlton,  of  Nairobi, 
did  the  actual  work  of  providing  and  arranging  for  our  whole 
journey  in  the  most  satisfactory  manner. 


483 


APPENDIX  B 

The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  the  small  mammals  obtained  on 
the  trip,  except  certain  bats,  shrews,  and  rodents,  which  it  is  not 
possible  to  identify  in  the  field.  Even  some  of  these  identifications 
are  not  final. 

LIST    OF    SMALL    MAMMALS. 


UNGULATA— HOOFED  MAMMALS. 


Procavia  mackinderi 
Procavia  brucei  maculata 
Procavia  i^Dendrohyrax)  bettoni . 
Procavia  {Dendrohyrajc)  crawshayi 


Alpine  Hyrax. 
Athi  Rock  Hyrax. 
Kikuyu  Tree  Hyrax. 
Alpine  Tree  Hyrax. 


GLIRES— RODENTS. 


Heliosciurus  keniee 
Paraxerus  bcehmi  emini 
Paraxerus  jacksoni 
Paraxerus  jacksoni  capitis 
Euxerus  microdon  fulvior 
Graphiurus  raptor 
Graphiurus  parvus 
Lophiomys  testudo 
Tatera  mombasee 
Tatera  pothee 
Tat&rafalUix 
Tatera  varia 
Tatera  emini 
Tatera  nigrita 
Dipodillus  harwoodi 
Otomys  irroratus  orestes 
Otomys  irroratus  tropicalis 
Dendroniug  nigrifrons    . 
Dendromus  insignis 
Dendromus  whytei  pallescens 
Steatomys  athi    . 
Lophuromys  ansorgei 
Lophuromys  aquilus 
Mug  {Leggada)  bellus 


484 


Kenia  Forest  Squirrel. 
Uganda  Striped  Squirrel. 
Jackson  Forest  Squirrel. 
Nairobi  Forest  Squirrel. 
Kenia  Ground  Squirrel. 
Kenia  Dormouse. 
Pigmy  Dormouse. 
Nandi  Maned  Rat. 
Mombasa  Gerbille. 
Highland  Gerbille. 
Uganda  Gerbille. 
Sotik  Gerbille. 
Nile  Gerbille. 
Dusky  Gterbille. 
Pigmy  Gerbille. 
Alpine  Veldt  Rat. 
Masai  Veldt  Rat. 
Black-fronted  Tree  Mouse. 
Greater  Tree  Mouse. 
Athi  Tree  Mouse. 
East  African  Fat  Moose. 
Uganda  Harsh-furred  Mouse. 
Masai  Harsh-furred  Mouse. 
East  African  Pigmy  Mouse. 


LIST  OF  SMALL  MAMMALS 


485 


Mus  {Leggada)  gratun     . 

Mtui  (Leggada)  sorelltui  . 

Mus  {Leggada)  triton  murillws 

Mus  {Leggada)  triton  naivashce 

Epimys  hindei    . 

Epimys  endorobce 

Epimys  jacksoni 

Epimys  perotnyscns 

Epimys  hildebranti 

Epimys  Uganda; . 

Epimys  panya     . 

Epimys  nieventris  ulce    . 

Zelotomys  hildegarda' 

Thamnomys  surdaster  polionops 

Thamnoniys  loringi 

(Enomys  hypoxanthus  bacchante 

Dasymus  helukus 

Acomys  wilsoni  . 

Arvicanthis  abyssinicus  nairobee 

Arvicanthis  abyssinicus  rubescens 

Arvicanthis  pulchelhts  massaicus 

Arvicanthis  bar  bar  us  albolineatus 

Arvicanthis  pumilio  diminutus 

Arvicanthis  dorsalis  maculosvAi 

Pelomys  roosevelti 

Saccostomus  umbriventer 

ISaccostomus  mearnsi 

Tachyoryctes  annectens  . 

Tachyoryctes  splendens  ibeanus 

Tachyoryctes  re.v 

Myoscalops  kapiti 

Pedetes  surdaster 

Hystrix  galeata  . 

Lepus  victoriee    . 


Uganda  Pigmy  Mouse. 

Elgon  Pigmy  Mouse. 
.     Sooty  Pigmy  Mouse. 
.     Naivasha  Pigmy  Mouse. 
.     Masai  Bush  Rat. 
.     Small-footed  Forest  Mouse. 

Uganda  Forest  Mouse. 

Large-footed  Forest  Mouse. 

Taita  Multimammate  Mouse. 

Uganda  Multimammate  Mouse. 

Masai  Multimammate  Mouse. 
.     Athi  Rock  Mouse. 
.     Broad-headed  Bush  Mouse. 
.     Athi  Tree  Rat. 

Masked  Tree  Rat. 
.     Rusty-nosed  Rat. 
.     East  African  Swamp  Rat. 

East  African  Spiny  Mouse 
.     Athi  Grass  Rat. 

Uganda  Grass  Rat. 
.     Spotted  Grass  Rat 

Striped  Grass  Rat. 

Pigmy  Grass  Rat. 
.     Single  Striped  Grass  Rat. 

Iridescent  Creek  Rat. 
.     Sotik  Pouched  Rat. 
.     Swahili  Pouched  Rat. 
.     Rift  Valley  Mole  R;it. 

Nairobi  Mole  Rat. 
.     Alpine  Mole  Rat. 
.     Masai  Blcsmol. 
.     East  African  Springhaas. 
.     East  African  Porcupine. 
.     East  African  Hare. 


FERiE— CARNIVORES. 


llyrerui  striata  schillingsi 
llya'na  crocuta  germinans 
Proteles  cristatus  septentrionalis 
Genetta  bettoni   . 
Crossarchus  fasciatus  macnirus 
Mungos  sanguienus  ibece 
Mungos  albicaudus  ibeanus 
Canis  mesomelas 
Canis  variegattis 
Lycaon  pictus  lupinus 
Otocyon  virgatus 
Mellivora  ratel  . 


Masai  Striped  Hyaena. 
East  African  Spotted  Hywna. 
Somali  Aard  Vvolf. 
East  African  Genet. 
Uganda  Banded  Mongoose. 
Kikuyu  Lesser  Mongoose. 
Masai  White- tailed  Mongoose. 
Black-backed  Jackal. 
Silver- backed  Jackal. 
East  African  Hunting  Dog. 
Masai  Great- eared  Fox. 
Cape  Honey  Badger. 


INSECTTVORA— INSECTIVORES. 


Nasilio  hrachyrhynchus  delamerei 
Elephantulus  pulcher 
Erinaceus  albiventris 
Crocidura  flavescens  myanste 


Athi  Lesser  Elephant  Shrew. 
East  African  Elephant  Shrew. 
White-bellied  Hedgehog. 
Giant  Shrew. 


486 


APPENDIX  B 


Grocidura  alchemilke 
Crocidura  fumosa 
Grocidura  argentata  fisheri 
Crocidura  bicolor  elgonius 
Crocidura  alhx . 
Surdisorex  noroe 


Alpine  Shrew. 
Dusky  Shrew. 
Veldt  Shrew. 
Elgon  Pigmy  Shrew. 
Rift  Valley  Pigmy  Shrew. 
Short-tailed  Shrew. 


CHIROPTERA— BATS. 


Scotophilus  nigrita  colics 

Pipistrellus  kuhlii  fuscatun 

Nyctinomus  hindei 

Laviafrons 

Laviafrons  affinis 

Petalia  thebaica . 

Rhinolophus  hildehrandti  eloqueus 

Hipposiderus  caffer  centralis 


Kikuyu  Green  Bat. 
Naivasha  Pigmy  Bat. 
Free-tailed  Bat. 
East  African  Great-eared  Bat. 
Nile  Great-eared  Bat. 
Nile  Wrinkle- nosed  Bat. 
Elgon  Horseshoe  Bat. 
Uganda  Leaf-nosed  Bat. 


PRIMATES— MONKEYS. 


Gakujo  {Otolemur)  Uisiotis 
Papio  ibeanu^    . 
Cercocebus  albigena  johtutoni 
Erythrocebus  formosus  . 
Cercopithecus  ascanius  schmidti. 
Cercopithecus  pygerythrus  johnstoni 
Cercopithecus  kolbi 
Cercopithecus  kolbi  hindei 
Colobus  abyssinicus  caudaius 
Colobus  abyssinicus  matschiei 
Colobus  palliatus  cottoni 


Mombasa  Lemur. 
East  African  Baboon. 
Uganda  Mangabey. 
Uganda  Patas  Monkey. 
Uganda  White-nosed  Monkey. 
Masai  Green  Monkey. 
Kikuyu  Forest  Green  Monkey. 
Kenia  Forest  (ireen  Monkey. 
White-tailed  Colobus  Monkey. 
Uganda  Colobus  Monkey. 
Nile  Colobus  Monkey. 


LIST    OF    LARGE    MAMMALS. 


UNGULATA— HOOFED  MAMMALS. 


Dieeros  simxis  cottoni 

Diceros  bicornis 

Equus  burchelli  granti    . 

Equus  grevyi 

Hippopotamus  amphibius 

Potamochceru^  choeropotamus  daemonis 

Hylochcerus  meinertzhageni 

Phacochcerus  eethiopicus  massaicus 

Bos  caffer  radcliffei 

Bos  cequinoctialis 

Taurotragua  oryx  livingstonii     . 

Taurotragus  gigas 

Boocer  cusaisaci 

Strepsiceros  strepsiceros 

Tragelaphus  scriptus  heywoodi   . 

Tragelaphus  scriptus  dama 

Tragelaphus  scriptus  bar 

Limnotragus  spekii 

Ozanna  roosevelti 

Ozanna  equinus  langheldi 


Nile  Square-nosed  Rhinoceros. 

Black  Rhinoceros. 

Northern  Burchell  Zebra. 

Grevy  Zebra. 

Nile  Hippopotamus. 

East  African  Bush  Pig. 

East  African  Forest  Hog. 

East  African  Wart  Hog. 

East  African  Buffalo. 

Abyssinian  Buffalo. 

East  African  Eland. 

Giant  Eland. 

East  African  Bongo. 

Greater  Koodoo. 

Aberdare  Bushbuck. 

Kavirondo  Bushbuck. 

Nile  Bushbuck. 

Uganda  Situtunga. 

Roosevelt  Sable  Antelope. 

East  African  Roan  Antelope. 


LIST  OF  LARGE  MAMMALS 


487 


Ozanna  equinus  bakeri 

Oryx  beisa  annectens 

Gazella  granti    . 

Gazella  granti  robertsi 

Gazella  granti  notata 

Gazella  thomsoiii 

Lithocranius  walleri 

^pyceros  melampus  suara 

lledunca  fulvorujfula  chanleri 

Redunca  redunca  wardi 

Redunca  redunca  donaldsoni 

Kobus  kob  thomasi 

Kobus  vaughani 

Kobus  leucotis    . 

Kobus  defassa  Uganda- 

Kobus  defassa  harnieri 

Kobus  ellipsiprymnu^ 

Kobus  maria 

Cephalopkus  abyssinicus  hindei 

Cephalophus  abyssinicus  nyansce 

Cephalopus  ignifer 

Nototragus  neumanni     . 

Ourebia  montana 

Ourebia  cott^ni  . 

Rhynchotragus  kirki  hindei 

Oreotragus  schillingsi 

Connocheetes  albojubatu^ 

Damaliscus  corrigum  jimela 

Bubalis  jacksoni 

Bubalis  jacksoni  insignis 

Buhalis  cokei 

Bubalis  neumanni 

Bubalis  lelwel  niediecki  . 

Giraffa  reticulata 

Giraffa  camelopardalis  tippelskirchi 

Giraffa  camelopardalis  rothschildi 

Elephas  africanus  peeli  . 


Nile  Roan  Antelope. 

East  African  Beisa. 

Grant  Gazelle. 

Nyanza  Grant  Gazelle. 

Boran  Grant  Gazelle. 

Thomson  Gazelle. 

Gerenuk  Gazelle. 

Impalla. 

East  African  Rock  Reedbuck. 

Highland  Bohor  Reedbuck. 

Uganda  Bohor  Reedbuck. 

Kavirondo  Kob. 

Rufous  White-eared  Kob. 

White-eared  Kob. 

Uganda  Defassa  Waterbuck. 

Vvhite  Nile  Defassa  Waterbuck. 

East  African  Waterbuck. 

White-withered  Waterbuck. 

Masailand  Duikerbok. 

Kavirondo  Duikerbok. 

Rufous  Forest  Duikerbok. 

East  African  Steinbok. 

Abyssinian  Oribi. 

Guas  Ngishu  Oribi. 

Masai  Dikdik. 

East  African  Klippspringer. 

White- bearded  Wildebeest. 

East  African  Topi. 

Jackson  Hartebeest. 

Uganda  Hartebeest. 

Kongoni  Hartebeest. 

Neumann  Hartebeest. 

White  Nile  Hartebeest. 

Somali  GirafFe. 

Masailand  Giraffe. 

Five-horned  Giraffe. 

British  East  African  Elephant. 


FERiE— CARNIVORES. 


Felis  lea  massaica 
Felis  pardu^  suahelica 
Felis  capensis  hindei 
Cyneelurus  jubatus  guttatus 


East  African  Lion. 
East  African  Leopard. 
East  African  Serval  Cat. 
African  Cheetah. 


The  following  is  a  partial  list  of  those  species  obtained  by 
Heller,  concerning  which  he  (and  occasionally  I)  could  make 
observations  as  to  their  life  histories.  In  the  comparisons  with  or 
allusions  to  our  American  species  there  is,  I  need  hardly  say,  no 
implication  of  kinship  ;  the  differences  are  generally  fundamental, 
and  I  speak  of  the  American  animals  only  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  a  familiar  standard  of  comparison.  The  Central  African 
fauna  is  of  course  much  more  nearly  allied  to  that  of  Europe  than 
to  that  of  North  America,  and  were  I  familiar  with  small  European 


488  APPENDIX  B 

mammals,  I  should  use  them,  rather  than  the  American,  for  pur- 
poses of  illustration. 

Heliosciurus  kenia;  (Kenia  Forest  Squirrel).  Mount  Kenia,  B.  E.  A.  Heller 
shot  oue  in  a  tree  in  the  heavy  forest  by  our  first  elephant  camp.  In 
size  and  actions  like  our  grey  squirrel.     Shy. 

Paraxerus  jacksoni.  Shot  at  same  camp  ;  common  at  Nairobi  and  Kijabe, 
B.  E.  A.  A  little  smaller  than  our  red  squirrel ;  much  less  noisy  and 
less  vivacious  in  action.  Tamer  than  the  larger  squirrel,  but  much 
shyer  than  our  red  squirrel  or  chickaree.  Kept  among  the  bushes  and 
lower  limbs  of  the  trees.  Local  in  distribution  ;  found  in  pairs  or  small 
families. 

Graphiurus  parvus  (Pigmy  Dormouse).  Everywhere  in  B.  E,  A.  in  the  forest ; 
arboreal,  often  descending  to  the  ground  at  night,  for  they  are  strictly 
nocturnal.  Found  in  the  woods  fringing  the  rivers  in  the  Sotik  and  on 
the  Athi  Plains,  but  most  common  in  the  juniper  forests  of  the  higher 
levels.  Spend  the  daytime  in  crevices  and  hollows  in  the  big  trees. 
Build  round,  ball-like  nests  of  bark  fibre  and  woolly  or  cottony  vegetable 
fibre.  One  of  them  placed  in  a  hollow,  four  inches  across,  in  a  stump, 
the  entrance  being  iive  feet  above  the  ground.  Caught  in  traps  baited 
with  walnuts  or  peanuts. 

Tatera  pothee  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Athi  Gerbille).  Common  on  the  Athi  Plains,  in 
open  ground  at  the  foot  of  the  hills.  Live  in  short  grass,  not  bush. 
Nocturnal.  Live  in  burrows,  each  burrow  often  possessing  several 
entrances,  and  sometimes  several  burrows,  all  inhabited  by  same  animal, 
not  communicating. 

Tatera  varia  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Sotik  Gerbille).  A  large  form,  seemingly  new. 
Lives  in  the  open  plains,  among  the  grass  ;  not  among  bushes,  nor  at 
foot  of  hills.  Lives  in  burrows,  one  animal  apparently  having  several, 
each  burrow  with  a  little  mound  at  the  entrance.  Nocturnal.  In  aspect 
and  habits  bears  much  resemblance  to  our  totally  different  kangaroo 
rats. 

Dipodillus  harwoodi  (Naivasha  Pigmy  Gerbille).  Common  around  Naivasha, 
also  in  Sotik.  A  small  form,  quarter  the  size  of  the  above  ;  about  as 
big  as  a  house  mouse.  Same  habits  as  above,  but  apparently  only  one 
burrow  to  eaeh  animal ;  much  more  plentiful.  The  burrows  in  the  Sotik 
were  in  hard  ground,  and  went  straight  down.  Round  Naivasha  the 
ground  was  soft  and  dry,  and  most  of  the  burrows  entered  it  diagonally. 

Otomys  irroratus  tropicalis  (V'eldt  Rat).  Generally  throughout  B.  E.  A.,  but 
always  in  moist  places,  never  on  dry  plains.  Abundant  on  top  of  Aber- 
dares,  and  ten  thousand  feet  up  on  slopes  of  Kenia.  Always  in  open 
grass.  Make  very  definite  trails,  which  they  cut  with  their  teeth  through 
the  grass.  Feed  on  the  grass,  which  they  cut  into  lengths  just  as  our 
meadow  mice  (Mirotus)  do.  Largely  diurnal,  but  also  run  about  at  night. 
The  gravid  females  examined  had  in  each  of  them  two  embryos  only. 
Live  in  burrows,  in  which  they  place  nests  of  fine  grass  six  inches  in 
diameter. 

Dendromys  nigrofrons  (Black-fronted  Tree  Mouse).  On  Athi  Plains  and  on 
the  Sotik.  Size  of  our  harvest  mouse.  Do  not  go  into  forest,  but  dwell 
in  bush  country  and  thin  timber  along  streams.  Nocturnal  ;  not 
abundant.  Live  in  covered  nests  in  bushes  ;  nests  made  of  long  wiry 
grass,  not  lined,  and  very  small,  less  than  three  inches  in  diameter. 
They  are  globular,  and  entered  by  a  liole  in  one  side,  as  with  our  marsh 
wrens.  Only  one  mouse  to  a  nest,  as  far  as  we  saw  ;  Heller  caught  two 
in  their  nests.  The  nests  were  in  thorn-bushes,  only  about  a  foot  and  a 
half  from  the  ground  ;  once  or  twice  these  mice  were  found  in  what  were 


SPECIES  OBTAINED  BY  HELLER     489 

apparently  abandoned  weaver-birds'  nests.  If  frightened,  one  would 
drop  out  of  its  nest  to  the  ground  and  run  off ;  but  if  Heller  waited 
quietly  for  ten  minutes  the  mouse  would  come  back,  climb  up  the  twigs 
of  the  bush,  and  re-enter  the  nest.  It  never  stayed  away  long,  seeming 
to  need  the  nest  for  protection. 

Dendromys  insignis.  Although  belonging  to  the  genus  of  tree  mice,  this  large 
JJendromys  lives  on  the  ground,  seemingly  builds  no  nest,  and  is  most 
often  found  in  the  runways  of  the  Otomys. 

Ijophuromys  aquilus  (Harsh-furred  Mouse).  Common  in  Rift  Valley,  on  the 
top  of  the  Aberdares,  and  in  the  Kenia  forest.  Go  up  to  timber  line, 
but  are  not  found  in  the  deep  forest,  save  above  the  edges  of  the  stream. 
Very  fond  of  brush.  Do  not  go  out  on  the  grassy  plains.  Usually,  but 
not  strictly,  nocturnal  ;  and  in  the  cold,  foggy  uplands,  as  on  the 
Aberdares,  become  diurnal. 

(Leggada)  Mtis  gratun  (Pigmy  Harvest  Mouse).  As  small  as  our  smallest 
harvest  mouse.  A  grass  mouse,  usually  entirely  away  from  bushes  and 
trees.  Usually  taken  in  the  runways  of  the  larger  species.  Occasionally 
come  into  tents.  .Vocturnal.  Found  generally  throughout  East  Africa, 
but  nowhere  as  abundant  as  many  other  species. 
Epimys  hindei  (Masai  Bush  Rat).  Trapped  on  the  Kapiti  and  Athi  Plains. 
About  the  size  of  the  Southern  wood  rat  of  California  ;  almost  the  size 
of  the  wood  rat  of  the  Eastern  States.  Is  a  ground  loving  species,  fond 
of  bushes  ;  in  habits  like  the  Mus  panya,  but  less  widely  distributed,  and 
entering  houses  less  freely. 

Ejnmys  peraniyscus  Heller  (n.  s.)  (African  White-footed  Mouse).  Externally 
strikingly  like  our  white-footed  mouse.  Found  in  thick  forest,  along  the 
edges  of  the  Rift  Valley  and  on  Mount  Kenia.  Near  our  elephant  camp 
Heller  failed  to  trap  any  white-footed  mice  in  the  open  glades,  even 
when  the  glades  were  of  small  size,  but  caught  them  easily  if  the  traps 
were  set  only  a  few  yards  within  the  dense  forest.  Evidently  very 
abundant  in  the  forest,  but  not  venturing  at  all  into  the  open.  Strictly 
nocturnal.  Dwell  under  logs  and  in  decayed  places  around  stumps,  and 
the  trunks  of  big  trees. 

Epimys  panya  (East  African  House  Mouse).  Common  in  B.  E.  A.,  coming 
into  the  houses,  and  acting  like  a  house  mouse,  but  twice  the  size. 
Frequently  came  into  our  camps,  entering  the  tents.  Very  common  on 
the  edges  of  the  forest,  and  in  brush  country  and  long  grass,  and  among 
the  shambas  ;  not  in  the  deep  forests,  except  along  streams,  and  not  in 
the  bare  open  plains.  Nocturnal.  Found  in  the  runways  of  Otomys  and 
Arvicanthia.  Does  not  seem  to  be  a  grass-feeding  species,  like  Otomys ; 
eats  grain,  beans,  etc. 

Epimys  nieventris  uUe  (Athi  Rock  Mouse).  On  the  Athi  Plains,  in  the  Sotik, 
around  Nai\asha,  and  in  the  Rift  Valley.  Body  only  slightly  larger  than 
that  of  a  house  mouse,  but  tail  at  least  a  third  longer  than  the  head  and 
body  together.  Yellowish-brown  above  and  whitish  beneath.  Never 
found  except  among  rocks  ;  we  always  found  it  where  there  were  cliffs  or 
on  stony  koppies.  Lives  in  crevices  in  the  rocks  and  along  the  ledges  of 
the  cliffs.     Nocturnal.     Caught  in  traps  with  nuts. 

Zelotomys  hildegardcp  (Broad-headed  Bush  Mouse).  Looks  like  a  small-eared, 
broad-headed  house  mouse.  Rather  common  on  Athi  Plains,  in  same 
localities  with  TTganda  mouse,  but  rarer,  and  seldom  enters  houses. 

Thumnomys  surda«ter  poliunops  (Long-tailed  Tree  Mouse).  Arboreal ;  more 
like  a  mouse  than  a  rat.  On  the  Athi  Plains,  in  the  Sotik  and  Rift 
Valley.  Not  found  in  heavy  forest,  but  in  the  open  acacia  woods  and  in 
bushy  country.  Apparently  lives  much  of  the  time  on  the  ground,  and 
builds  no  nests  in  the  trees,  but  runs  up  and  down  them  and  among  their 
branches  freely.     Nocturnal. 


490  APPENDIX  B 

Thamnomys  Loringi  Heller  (ii.  s.)  (Masked  IVee  Rat).  In  the  Rift  Valley  : 
common  around  Naivasha.  Has  a  black  ring  around  each  eye,  the  colour 
spreading  over  the  nose  like  a  mask.  Arboreal  and  nocturnal.  Much 
the  habits  of  our  Neotoma,  but  do  not  build  large  nests.  Build  nests 
about  six  inches  in  diameter,  made  of  sticks,  placed  in  the  branches  of 
the  thorn  trees  ;  also  in  burrows  near  the  bottom  of  the  trunks  ;  runways 
lead  from  the  trees  containing  the  nests  to  the  burrows.  Trapped  on  the 
ground  and  in  traps  set  in  notches  of  the  trees. 

(Enomys  hypoxanthus  bacchante  (Rusty-nosed  Rat).  Found  in  same  country 
as  above,  and  with  similar  habits,  but  somewhat  less  arboreal.  A  hand- 
some species. 

Dasymus  helukus  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Swamp  Rat).  In  appearance  much  like  the 
Alexandrian  or  roof  rat,  but  with  longer  hair  and  shorter,  much  less 
conspicuous  ears.  Found  all  over  the  Athi  Plains  where  there  was  brush, 
especially  along  stream  beds.     Nocturnal. 

Arvicanthis  abyssinicus  nairobcB  (Athi  Gra^s  Rat).  ITie  commonest  mouse  in 
B.  E.  A.  on  the  plains.  Outnumbers  any  other  species.  Found  every- 
where in  grass  and  brush,  but  not  in  deep  forest.  Often  lives  in  shallow 
burrows  round  the  bases  of  thorn-trees,  from  which  its  well  marked 
runways  radiate  into  the  grass.  Strictly  diurnal.  Often  seen  running 
about  in  bright  sunlight.  Never  found  in  traps  at  night.  A  striped 
mouse  that  has  lost  its  stripes,  vestiges  of  which  are  occasionally  found  in 
the  young. 

Arvicanthis  pulchellus  masaicus  (Nairobi  Striped  Mouse).  Diurnal.  Common 
on  the  Athi  Plains,  and  on  the  Sotik  and  in  Rift  Valley.  Around  Neri 
we  often  saw  them  running  about  through  the  shambas.  Live  in  brush 
and  cultivated  fields.  In  pattern  of  coloration  much  like  our  thirteen- 
striped  gopher. 

Arvicanthis  pundlio  diminutus  (Naivasha  Striped  Rat).  Common  in  Rift 
Valley,  and  on  the  Aberdares  and  around  Kenia.  Sometimes  occurs  in 
company  with  Nairobi  mouse,  but  less  widely  distributed  ;  much  more 
abundant  where  found,  and  ascends  to  much  higher  altitudes. 

Pelomys  roosevelti  Heller  (n.  s.).  About  the  size  of  our  cotton  rat,  and  with 
much  the  same  build.  Coarse,  bristly  hair  ;  the  dorsal  coloration  is 
golden  yellow,  overlaid  by  long  hairs,  with  an  olive  iridescence  ;  the 
under  parts  are  silky  white.  It  is  a  meadow  mouse,  found  at  high 
altitudes,  seven  to  nine  thousand  feet  high ;  usually  lives  close  to  streams 
in  heavy  grass,  through  which  it  makes  runways.     Not  common. 

Saccostomus  umbriventer  (Sotik  Pouched  Rat).  Heller  trapped  several  on  the 
Sotik,  at  the  base  of  the  southernmost  range  of  mountains  we  reached. 
Found  in  the  longish  grass  along  a  dry  creek  bed.  Trapped  in  their 
rather  indistinct  runways.  The  pockets,  or  pouches,  are  internal,  not 
external,  as  in  our  pocket  mice. 

Tachyroyctes  splendens  iheanus  (Nairobi  Mole  Rat).  A  mole  rat  of  B.  E.  A., 
with  general  habits  of  above,  but  avoiding  rocky  places,  and  not 
generally  found  many  miles  out  on  the  plains  away  from  the  forest. 
Rarely  found  in  the  bamboos,  in  spite  of  its  name. 

Myoscalops  kapiti  Heller  (n.  s.)  (Kapiti  Blesmole).  On  the  Kapiti  and  Athi 
Plains,  and  in  the  Sotik.  Smaller  than  German  East  African  form,  and 
no  white  occipital  spot ;  a  cinnamon  wash  on  its  silvery  fur.  Burrows 
like  our  pocket  gophers,  and  has  same  squat  look  and  general  habits. 
Lives  in  rocky  ground,  where  bamboo  rat  does  not  penetrate.  It  does 
not  run  just  below  the  surface  of  the  soil,  as  tlie  pocket  gopher  does  in 
winter.  The  blesmole's  burrows  are  about  a  foot  below  tlie  surface. 
Eats  roots. 

Pedetes  .surdaster  (Springhaas).  (See  body  of  book.)  One  young  at  birth. 
A  colony  of  four  to  eight  open  burrows,  all  inhabited  by  a  single  animal. 


SPECIES  OBTAINED  BY  HELLER     491 

Hystriw  ga/eata.  (See  body  of  book.)  Heller  found  in  stomach  the  remains 
of  a  root  or  tuber,  and  seeds  like  tliose  of  the  nightshade. 

Lepus  victoria.  Generally  distributed  on  plains  ;  much  the  habits  and  look 
of  a  small  jack-rabbit.     Does  not  burrow. 

Elephantulus  pulcher  (Elephant  Shrew).  Fairly  common  throughout  B.  E.  A. 
in  bush  and  on  hills,  not  in  deep  forests  or  on  bare  plains.  Often  out 
at  dusk,  but  generally  nocturnal.  A  gravid  female  contained  a  single 
embryo.  One  in  a  trap  had  its  mouth  full  of  partly  masticated  brown 
ants.  A  gentle  thing,  without  the  fierceness  of  the  true  shrews.  Trapped 
in  the  runways  of  Arvicanthis. 

Erinaceug  alhiventris  (Hedgehog).  Fairly  common  in  the  Sotik.  In  certain 
places,  under  trees.  Heller  found  accumulations  of  their  spiny  skins,  as 
if  some  bird  of  prey  had  been  feeding  on  them. 

Crocidura  fisheri.  The  common  shrew  of  the  Athi  Plains  and  the  Sotik,  in 
the  Rift  Valley.  Largely  diurnal.  Males  quite  yellowish,  females  smoky 
brown.  Generally  trapped  in  runways  of  Arvicanthis.  Pregnant  females 
contained  three  to  five  embryos,  usually  four.  Not  found  in  heavy 
forest  or  swamp. 

Crocidura  fumofia  (Dusky  Shrew).  A  darker  form  found  in  the  rush  swamps 
and  sedgy  places  of  the  same  region.  Number  of  young  usually  three. 
Diurnal.     Occasional  in  forests. 

Crocidura  alchemillcB  Heller  (n.  a.).  Aberdare  shrew  ;  a  diurnal  form,  occur- 
ring above  timber  line  on  the  Aberdare  ;  perhaps  identical  with  the 
foregoing.^ 

Crocidura  allex.     A  pigmy  shrew,  taken  at  Naivasha. 

Crocidura  nyansce.  Very  big  for  a  shrew.  Chiefly  in  the  high  country,  near 
watercourses  ;  found  round  the  edge  of  the  forest  at  Kenia  and  Kijabe. 
A  fierce,  carnivorous  creature,  preying  on  small  rodents  as  well  as 
insects  ;  habitually  ate  mice,  rats,  or  shrews  which  it  found  in  the  traps, 
and  would  then  come  back  and  itself  be  readily  trapped. 

Surdisorex  norce.  A  shrew  in  shape,  not  unlike  our  mole  shrew.  On  the 
high,  cold,  wet  Aberdare  plateau.     Diurnal. 

Scotophilus  migrita  colius.  Common  at  Nairobi ;  flying  among  the  tree  tops 
in  the  evenings.  Greenish  back,  with  metallic  glint ;  belly  sulphur. 
Has  the  same  flight  as  our  big  brown  bat — Vespertilio  fuscus. 

Pipistrellus  kuhlii  fuscatus.  Common  at  Naivasha  and  Nairobi.  Very  closely 
kin  to  our  Myotis,  or  little  brown  bat,  with  same  habits.  Flies  high  in  the 
air  after  dusk,  and  is  easily  shot.     We  never  found  its  day  roosts. 

Nyctinomus  hindei  (Free-tailed  Bat).  At  Naivasha.  Very  swift  flight,  almost 
like  a  swallow's  ;  fairly  high  in  the  air.  Live  in  colonies  ;  one  such  in  a 
house  at  Naivasha.  On  the  Athi  Plains  they  were  found  in  daytime 
hanging  up  behind  the  loose  bark  of  the  big  yellow-trunked  acacias. 

^  Crocidura  alchemillcc,  new  species  (Heller).  Type  from  the  summit  of  the 
Aberdare  Range;  altitude,  10,500  feet;  British  East  Africa;  adult  male,  number 
163,087,  U.S.  Nat.  Mus  ;  collected  by  Edmund  Heller,  October  17,  1909  ;  original 
number,  1,177. 

Allied  to  fuvwsa  of  Mount  Kenia,  but  coloration  much  darker,  everywhere  clove- 
brown,  the  under  parts  but  slightly  lighter  in  shade  ;  feet  somewhat  lighter  sepia 
brown,  but  much  darker  than  in  fumosu;  hair  at  base  slaty-black.  Hair  long  and 
heavy,  on  back  6  to  7  mm.  long ;  considerably  longer  than  in  fumosa.  Musk-glands 
on  sides  of  body,  clothed  with  short  brownish  hairs,  the  glands  producing  an  oily 
odour  very  similar  to  that  of  a  petrel.  Skull  somewhat  smaller  tha,nfu7)wsa,  with 
relatively  smaller  teeth. 

Measurements  :  Head  and  body,  90  ;  tail,  55  ;  hind  foot,  15-3.  Skull :  Condylo- 
incisive  length,  21  ;  mastoid  breadth,  9*7  ;  upper  tooth  row  (alveoli),  8-3. 

This  species  is  an  inhabitant  of  the  dense  beds  of  Alchemilla  which  clothe  the 
alpine  moorland  of  the  Aberdare  range. 


492  APPENDIX  B 

Lavia  frons  (GreM-eared  Bat).     Bluish  body  and  yellowish  wings  ;  very  long 
ears.     Almost  diurnal ;  flies  well  by  day  ;  hangs  from  the  thorn-tree 
branches  in  the  sunlight,  and  flies  as  soon  as  it  sees  a  man  approaching. 
One  young,  which  remains  attached  to  the  mother  until  it  is  more  than 
half  her  size. 
Petalia  thebaica  (Large-eared  Nycterine  Bat).     Caves  in  the  Rift  ^'alley,  also 
in  the  Sotik,  spending  the  day  in  the  tops  of  the  limestone  wells  or 
caverns  which  contained  water.     Both  sexes  occurred  together  in  company 
with  a  bat  of  another  genus — Rhinolophus.     Fly  very  close  to  the  ground, 
only  two  or  three  feet  above  it,  and  usually  among  trees  and  brush,  and 
not  in  the  open,  so  that  it  is  almost  impossible  to  shoot  them. 
Rhinolophus.     Found  at  the  Limestone  Springs  in  the  Sotik,  and  in  great 
numbers  in  a  cave  at  Naivasha,  no  other  bat  being  found  in  the  cave. 
Same  general  habits  as  the  Nycterin.     Specimens  flew  among  our  tents 
in  the  evening. 
PujAo  ibeanus.     The  baboon  is  common  all  over  the  plains,  in  troops.     It 
digs  up  lily  bulbs,  and  industriously  turns  over  stones  for  grubs  and 
insects.     Very  curious,  intelligent,  and  bestial. 
C'ercapithecus  kolbi.     Found  in  company  with  the  Colobus  in  heavy  forest  along 

the  Kikuyu  escarpment.  The  sub-species  Hindei  is  found  on  Kenia. 
C'ercopithecns  pygerythrus  Johiuoni  (Green  Monkey).  In  the  yellow  thorns  of 
the  Sotik  and  Rift  Valley,  and  along  the  northern  Guaso  Nyero.  Leaves 
and  acacia  pods  in  their  stomachs.  Live  in  troops  of  from  ten  to  twenty 
individually.  Exceedingly  active  and  agile.  Often  sit  motionless  on  the 
very  tops  of  the  trees,  when  they  cannot  be  seen  from  below.  Run  well 
on  the  ground. 
Colobus  caudatus  (Black  and  White  Monkey).  Heavy  mountain  forests, 
Kijabe  and  Kenia,  and  on  the  Aberdares.  Only  foliage  in  the  stomachs 
of  those  shot.  Goes  in  small  troops,  each  seemingly  containing  both 
males  and  females  ;  not  as  agile  as  the  other  monkeys,  and  less  wary. 
The  natives  prize  their  skins. 

On  the  Guas  Ngishu  the  small  mammals  were  in  general  identical  with 
those  of  the  Aberdares  and  Mount  Kenia. 

In  Uganda  Heller  shot  an  old  male,  Cerco]nthecus  ascanius  schinidti— 
a  red-backed,  red-tailed,  white-nosed  monkey  ;  it  was  alone  in  a  small 
grove  of  trees  surrounded  by  elephant  grass.  In  the  same  grove  he  shot 
a  squirrel,  Paraxerus,  very  difi^erent  from  the  Kenia  species.  In  Uganda 
there  were  fewer  species  of  small  mammals  than  in  East  Africa,  in  spite 
of  the  abundance  of  vegetation  and  water. 

In  the  Lado  we  found  rats,  mice,  and  shrews  abundant,  but  the 
number  of  species  limited,  and  for  the  most  part  representing  wide- 
spread types.  Some  of  the  bats  were  different  from  any  yet 
obtained  ;  the  same  may  be  true  of  the  shrews.  The  small 
carnivores,  and  hyaenas  also,  were  very  scarce. 

North  of  Nimule  Kermit  shot  another  Fimisciurus,  while  it  was 
climbing  a  bamboo. 

At  Gondokoro  there  were  many  bats  in  the  house.«,  chiefly 
Nyctinomiis,  the  swift-flying,  high-flying,  free-tailed  bats,  with  a 
few  leaf-nosed  bats,  and  yellow  bats. 

I  wish  field  naturalists  would  observe  the  relation  of  zebras  and 
wild-dogs.  Our  observations  were  too  limited  to  be  decisive  ;  but 
it  seemed  to  us  that  zebras  did  not  share  the  fear  felt  by  the  other 


ZEBRAS  AND  WILD  DOGS  493 

game  for  the  dogs.  I  saw  a  zebra,  in  a  herd,  run  toward  some 
wild-dogs,  with  its  mouth  open  and  ears  back ;  and  they  got  out 
of  the  way,  although  seemingly  not  much  frightened.  Loring  saw 
a  solitary  zebra  seemingly  unmoved  by  the  close  neighbourhood  of 
some  wild-dogs. 

Once,  on  the  Nile,  while  Loring  and  I  were  watching  a  monitor 
stealing  crocodiles'"  eggs,  we  noticed  a  hippo  in  mid-stream.  It 
was  about  ten  in  the  morning.  The  hippo  appeared  regularly,  at 
two  or  three  minute  intervals,  always  in  the  same  place,  breathed, 
and  immediately  sank.  This  continued  for  an  hour.  We  could 
not  make  out  what  he  was  doing.  It  seemed  unlikely  that  he 
could  be  feeding ;  and  the  current  was  too  swift  to  allow  him  to 
rest ;  all  other  hippos  at  that  time  were  for  the  most  part  lying  in 
the  shallows  or  were  back  among  the  papyi*us  beds. 


APPENDIX  C 


The  following  notes  were  made  by  Loring  in  East  Africa  : 

Alpine  Hyrax  (Procavia  mackinderi).  On  Mount  Keuiaj  at  altitudes  between 
12,000  and  15,000  feet,  we  found  these  animals  common  wherever  pro- 
tective rocks  occurred.  Under  the  shelving  rocks  were  great  heaps  of 
their  droppings  ;  and  in  the  places  where  for  centuries  they  had  sunned 
themselves  the  stone  was  stained  and  worn  smooth.  At  all  times  of  the 
day,  but  more  frequently  after  the  sun  had  risen,  they  could  be  seen 
singly,  in  pairs,  and  in  families,  perched  on  the  peaks.  At  our  highest 
camp  (14,700  feet),  where,  on  September  22,  more  than  half  an  inch 
of  ice  formed  in  buckets  of  water  outside  the  tent,  they  were  often 
heard.  They  emit  a  variety  of  chatters,  whistles,  and  catlike  squalls 
that  cannot  be  described  in  print,  and  we  found  them  very  noisy. 
Whenever  they  saw  anyone  approaching  they  always  sounded  some  note 
of  alarm,  and  frequently  continued  to  harangue  the  intruder  until  he  had 
approached  so  close  that  they  took  fright  and  disappeared  in  the  rocks, 
or  until  he  had  passed.  All  along  the  base  of  cliffs,  and  leading  from 
one  mass  of  rocks  to  another,  they  made  well-worn  trails  through  the 
grass.  At  this  time  of  the  year  many  young  ones,  about  one-third 
grown,  were  seen  and  taken. 

Kenia  Tree  Hyrax  {Procavia  crawshayi).  From  the  time  that  we  reached 
the  edge  of  the  forest  belt  (altitude  7,000),  on  Mount  Kenia,  we  heard 
these  tree  dassies  every  night,  and  at  all  camps  to  an  altitude  of 
10,700  feet  they  were  common.  I  once  heard  one  on  a  bright  afternoon 
about  four  o'clock,  and  on  a  second  occasion  another  about  two  hours 
before  sundown.  Although  I  searched  diligently  on  the  ground  for  run- 
ways and  for  suitable  places  to  set  traps,  no  such  place  was  found.  In  a 
large  yew-tree  that  had  split  and  divided  fifteen  feet  from  the  ground  I 
found  a  bed  or  bulky  platform  of  dried  leaves  and  moss  of  Nature's 
manufacture.  On  the  top  of  this  some  animal  had  placed  a  few  dried 
green  leaves.  In  this  bed  I  set  a  steel  trap,  and  carefully  covered  it, 
and  on  the  second  night  (October  14)  captured  a  dassie  containing  a 
foetus  almost  mature.  We  were  informed  by  our  "  boys "  that  these 
animals  inhabited  hollow  stumps  and  logs,  as  well  as  the  foliage  of  the 
live  trees,  but  we  found  no  signs  that  proved  it,  although,  judging  from 
the  din  at  night,  dassies  were  abundant  everywhere  in  the  forests. 

At  evening,  about  an  hour  after  darkness  had  fully  settled,  a  dassie 
would  call,  and  in  a  few  seconds  dassies  were  answering  from  all  around, 
and  the  din  continued  for  half  an  hour  or  an  hour.  The  note  began  with 
a  series  of  deep,  froglike  croaks,  that  gradually  gave  way  to  a  series  of 
shrill,  tremulous  screams,  at  times  resembling  the  squealing  of  a  pig,  and 
again  the  cries  of  a  child.     It  was  a  far-reaching  sound,  and  always  came 

494 


NOTES  MADE  BY  LORING  495 

from  the  large  forest  trees.  Often  the  cries  were  directly  over  our 
heads^  and  at  a  time  when  the  porters  were  singing  and  dancing  about  a 
bright  camp  fire.  Although  we  tried  many  times  to  shine  their  eyes 
with  a  powerful  light,  we  never  succeeded,  nor  were  we  able  to  hear  any 
rustling  of  the  branches  or  scraping  on  the  tree-trunks  as  one  might 
expect  an  animal  of  such  size  to  make.  The  porters  were  offered  a  rupee 
apiece  for  dassies,  but  none  were  brought  in. 

Rock  Hyrax  {Procavia  brucei  maculata).  These  animals  inhabited  the  rocks 
and  cliffs  on  Ulukenia  Hills  in  fair  numbers.  None  lived  in  burrows  of 
their  own  make,  but  took  advantage  of  the  natural  crevices  for  cover.  I 
heard  their  shrill  calls  at  night,  usually  when  the  moon  was  out. 
Several  were  shot,  and  two  trapped  in  traps  set  in  narrow  passages 
through  which  the  animals  travelled. 

Klippspringer  {Oreotragus  oreotrugus).  Several  pairs  of  these  little  antelopes 
were  seen  on  Ulukenia  Hills,  but  never  were  more  than  two  found  at  a 
time.  They  lived  on  the  rocky  hillsides,  and  were  quite  tame,  allowing 
one  to  approach  within  twenty-five  yards  before  taking  fright  and  dashing 
into  the  rocks — invariably  their  shelter  when  alarmed.  When  thoroughly 
frightened  they  made  a  loud  sneezing  sound.  Two  were  collected,  one 
of  which  was  a  female  with  horns.  A  young  Boer  who  had  lived  in  that 
neighbourhood  three  years  told  me  that  all  the  females  of  proper  age 
had  horns. 

Pigmy  Gerbille  {Dipodillus  harwoodi).  These  little  sand  mice  resemble  very 
closely  some  of  our  American  pocket  mice  (Perognathus).  Heller  took 
several  on  the  Njoro  O  Solali,  and  found  them  common  ;  and  I  caught 
one  specimen  on  the  South  Guaso  Nyero  River.  On  the  sandy  desert 
flats  on  the  south-west  side  of  Lake  Naivasha  they  were  abundant.  The 
holes,  running  obliquely  into  the  ground,  were  sometimes  blocked  with 
sand  from  the  inside.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  lake  there  was  less 
sand,  and  here  the  gerbilles  were  found  only  in  spots.  In  sand  alone 
their  burrows  resembled  those  described,  but  where  the  ground  was  hard 
they  entered  almost  perpendicular,  and  were  never  blocked  with  sand. 
Often  seed-pods  and  tiny  cockle-burrs  were  strewn  about  the  entrances. 

Pigmy  Mouse  (Mus  [Leggada]  gratus).  Various  forms  of  this  tiny  little 
mouse  were  taken  all  along  the  route  we  travelled.  They  were  caught  in 
traps  set  at  random  in  the  brushy  thickets  in  the  lowland,  as  well  as  in 
the  open  grassy  spots  on  the  rocky  hillsides,  where  they  frequented  the 
runways  made  by  various  species  of  Mus.  A  few  were  collected  on 
Mount  Kenia. 

Athi  Rock  Mouse  {Epimys  nieventris  uke).  This  mouse  proved  to  be  a  new 
species.  It  was  common  in  and  about  the  rocks  on  Ulukenia  Hills, 
which  is  the  only  place  where  we  found  them.  Those  taken  were  caught 
in  traps,  baited  with  peanut-butter,  dried  apple,  and  rolled  oats,  and  set 
among  the  rocks. 

Forest  Mouse  (Epimys  peromyscus).  At  our  camp,  at  8,600  feet  altitude, 
we  first  met  with  this  mouse  ;  and  although  a  good  line  of  traps,  well 
baited,  and  set  about  stumps,  tree-trunks,  and  logs,  for  three  nights,  but 
one  mouse  was  captured,  that  being  taken  under  a  large  log.  Several 
others  were  trapped  in  the  thick  brush  bordering  the  bamboos.  At 
10,000  feet  several  were  caught  in  the  bamboo,  and  at  10,700  feet  a 
good  series  was  collected  on  a  well-thicketed  and  timbered  rocky  ridge. 

Masked  Tree  Rat  {Thamnomus  loringi).  None  were  taken  until  we  reached 
the  south-west  end  of  Lake  Naivasha.  Here,  and  also  at  Naivasha 
Station,  a  number  were  collected  in  traps  baited  with  rolled  oats  and 
dried  apple,  and  set  at  the  base  of  large  trees  and  in  brushy  thickets  in 
groves.     In  some  of  these  trees  and  in  the  bushes,  nests  of  sticks,  grass. 


496  APPENDIX  C 

and  leaves  were  found.  While  setting  traps  one  afternoon  I  saw  what 
might  have  been  one  of  these  rats  dart  from  a  deserted  bird's-nest  and 
run  down  a  limb  to  the  ground.  The  following  morning  I  caught  a 
masked  tree  rat  in  a  trap  set  beneath  the  nest. 

Four-striped  Grass  Rat  {Arvicanthus  pumilio  minutus).  At  Naivasha  we  first 
came  across  this  species,  where  it  was  found  on  the  east  side  of  the  lake 
only,  although  the  spotted  rat  was  common  on  both  the  east  and  the 
west  side.  At  Naivasha  these  two  animals  inhabited  slightly  different 
regions.  In  the  brushy  and  grassy  thickets  bordering  the  lake  spotted 
rats  were  abundant,  but  a  few  four-striped  rats  were  captured.  As  soon 
as  the  traps  were  transferred  to  thorn-tree  groves,  where  there  was 
plenty  of  under-bushes,  and  not  so  much  grass  and  weeds,  the  spotted 
rats  were  found  in  great  numbers,  but  no  four-striped  rats.  All  the  way 
from  Fort  Hail  to  Mount  Kenia,  and  as  high  as  10,700  feet,  where 
Dr.  Mearns  secured  one  specimen,  this  species  was  common.  We  also 
caught  them  along  the  route  between  Kampala  and  Butiaba. 

Giant  Rat  {Thrynoinys  gregoriamis).  Along  the  skirtings  of  the  rivers  in  the 
thick  weeds,  grass,  and  bushes  at  Fort  Hall  signs  of  these  animals  were 
common.  There  were  no  well-defined  paths.  Footprints  the  size  and 
shape  of  those  made  by  our  muskrats  (Fiber)  were  found  in  the  mud  at 
the  water's  edge,  and  here  and  there  were  clusters  of  grass  and  weed- 
stems  cut  in  lengths  averaging  six  inches.  In  sections  where  the  vegeta- 
tion had  been  burned  were  innumerable  holes,  where  some  animal  had 
dug  about  the  base  of  grass- tufts.  Their  signs  did  not  extend  farther 
than  fifty  feet  from  water.  While  passing  through  a  thicket  close  to  the 
water,  I  started  a  large  rodent,  which  darted  through  the  grass  and 
plunged  into  the  water, 

Mole-Rat  (Tachyorycfes  splendens  iheanm).  Mounds  of  earth  that  these  rats 
had  thrown  from  the  mouth  of  their  burrows  at  the  time  that  the  tunnels 
were  made  were  found  as  far  west  as  Oljoro  O'Nyon  River,  but  none  at 
N'garri  Narok  River.  At  our  camp  on  the  South  Guaso  Nyero  River  a 
pale,  mole-coloured  mole  rat  took  this  animal's  place.  Some  fifteen  miles 
west  of  Lake  Naivasha  mole-rats  became  common,  and  on  the  sandy  flats, 
within  five  miles  of  the  lake,  they  were  so  abundant  that  our  horses 
broke  into  their  runways  nearly  every  step.  Their  underground  tunnels 
and  the  mounds  of  earth  that  were  thrown  out  were  similar  to  those 
made  by  the  pocket  gophers  of  Western  United  States.  Many  were 
snared  by  the  porters  and  brought  to  camp  alive.  They  would  crawl 
about  slowly,  not  attempting  to  run  away,  but  looking  for  a  hole  to  enter. 
After  the  lapse  of  a  few  seconds  they  would  begin  to  dig.  In  any  slight 
depression  they  began  work  ;  and  when  small  roots  or  a  tussock  of  grass 
intervened,  they  used  their  teeth  until  the  obstruction  was  removed,  and 
then,  with  the  nails  of  their  front  feet  only,  continued  digging.  As  the 
hole  deepened  they  threw  the  dirt  out  between  their  hind-legs,  and  with 
them  still  farther  beyond.  After  the  earth  had  accumulated  so  that  it 
drifted  back,  they  faced  about,  and,  using  their  chest  as  a  scoop,  pushed 
it  entirely  out  of  the  way.  They  were  most  active  in  the  evening,  at 
night,  and  in  early  morning.  Several  were  found  dead  near  their  holes, 
having  evidently  been  killed  by  owls  or  small  carnivorous  mammals. 

Alpine  Mole-Rat  {Tachyoryctes  rew).  Mole-rat  mounds  were  common  about 
the  West  Kenia  Forest  Station,  but  none  were  seen  between  7,>^00  and 
8,500  feet,  and  from  this  altitude  they  ranged  to  11,000  feet.  They 
inhabited  all  of  the  open  grassy  plots  in  the  bamboo  belt  and  in  the  open 
timber.  The  "  boys '  snared  many  in  nooses  ingeniously  placed  in  the 
runs  that  were  opened  and  closed  after  the  trap  was  set.  Wliile  digging 
into  the  burrows,  several  times  I  found  bulky  nests  of  dried  grass  in  side 


NOTES  MADE  BV  LORING  497 

pockets  just  off  the  main  runway.     Most  of  them  were  empty,  but  oue 
was  filled  with  the  animal's  droppings. 

Kapiti  Blesmol  {Myoscalops  kapiti).  This  mole-rat,  which  proved  to  be  new 
to  science,  was  first  encountered  at  Potha,  on  Kapiti  Plains,  and  it  was 
again  met  with  at  Ulukeuia  Hills.  I  was  shown  several  skins  that  were 
taken  about  fifteen  miles  east  of  Nairobi.  They  were  the  most  difficult 
of  all  mole-rats  to  catch,  because  they  lived  in  the  very  sandy  soil,  and 
almost  invariably  covered  the  trap  with  sand  without  themselves  getting 
into  it.  J  found  a  number  of  their  skulls  in  the  pellets  of  barn  and  other 
species  of  owls. 

Springhaas  (Pedetes  surdaster).  Very  common  at  Naivasha  station,  where 
their  burrows  were  numerous,  on  a  sandy  flat  practically  in  the  town, 
and  many  were  taken  within  a  hundred  yards  of  the  station.  ITiey  are 
nocturnal,  although  one  instance  came  under  my  observation  where  a 
springhaas  was  seen  on  a  dark  day  to  run  from  one  burrow  to  another. 
By  hunting  them  on  dark  nights,  with  the  aid  of  an  acetylene  light,  we 
were  able  to  secure  a  good  series  of  skins.  When  the  light  was  flashed 
on  them,  their  eyes  shone  like  balls  of  fire  the  size  of  a  penny,  and  it  was 
not  uncommon  to  see  from  two  to  five  and  six  within  the  radius  of  the 
light  at  one  time.  They  were  usually  flashed  at  a  distance  of  about  a 
hundred  yards,  and  as  the  light  drew  near  they  would  watch  it,  frequently 
bobbing  up  and  down.  Often  they  hopped  away  to  right  or  to  left,  but 
very  seldom  did  their  fright  carry  them  into  their  burrows  unless  a  shot 
was  fired  ;  in  fact,  even  then  we  sometimes  followed  up  one  of  their 
companions  and  secured  it.  Some  allowed  us  to  approach  within  ten 
feet  before  moving,  and  then  off  they  would  go  in  great  bounds,  but  I 
was  never  able  in  the  dim  light  to  see  whether  or  not  their  tails  aided 
them  in  jumping.  I  once  shot  a  fox  from  a  cluster  of  eyes  that  I  am 
positive  were  those  of  springhaas  ;  this,  together  with  the  fact  that  the 
stomachs  of  all  of  the  foxes  killed  contained  termites  and  insects,  leads 
me  to  believe  that  these  two  animals  are  more  or  less  congenial.  Dr. 
Mearns  saw  a  springhaas  sitting  with  its  tail  curled  around  to  one  side  of 
its  body,  similar  to  the  position  often  assumed  by  a  house  cat. 

Several  small  colonies  of  springhaas  were  discovered  on  sandy  flats  near 
Ulukenia  Hills.  Two  females  taken  from  the  same  burrow  showed  great 
variation  in  size,  oue  having  a  tail  several  inches  longer  and  ears  larger 
than  the  oT;her.  Although  1  never  discovered  a  burrow  that  was  com- 
pletely blocked  with  sand,  in  the  morning  one  could  find  quantities  of 
fresh  sand  that  had  been  thrown  out  of  the  entrance  during  the  night. 

Great-eared  Fox  {Otocyon  virgartus).  This  new  species  of  fox  we  discovered 
at  Naivasha,  and  found  it  very  common  there.  All  of  the  seven  specimens 
secured  were  taken  by  "jacking"  at  night,  although  while  travelling 
over  the  Uganda  Railroad  we  frequently  saw  tliem  singly  or  in  pairs  in 
broad  daylight.  The  white  people  knew  nothing  of  a  fox  in  this  country, 
and  had  always  called  them  "jackals.''  ITiey  seemed  to  live  in  pairs, 
and  groups  of  three  to  six.  On  dark  nights  it  was  usually  easy  to  shine 
their  eyes,  and  approach  within  shooting  range.  We  would  shine  a  fox, 
then  suddenly  the  glare  of  its  eyes  would  disappear,  and  we  would  walk 
about,  casting  the  light  in  all  directions,  until  we  again  saw  the  two  balls 
of  fire  glaring  some  fifty  or  a  hundred  yards  away.  Often  the  foxes 
would  slink  about  for  some  time  before  we  got  within  gunshot  range. 
Frequently  we  saw  two,  and  sometimes  three  and  four,  standing  so  close 
together  that  it  was  surprising  that  the  spread  of  the  shot  did  not  kill 
more  than  one.  Oue  evening  Dr.  Mearns  and  1  started  out  about  nine 
o'clock,  and  returned  about  midnight.  Most  of  the  hunting  was  done 
on  an  elevated  brushy  plateau,  within  short  distance  of  a  native  village, 

a2 


498  APPENDIX  C 

where   the   occupants  were  singing,  dancing,  and  playing  their  crude 
stringed  instruments.     We  ran  into  a  bunch  of  five  of  these  foxes,  and 
got  four  of  them,  none  of  which  was  the  young  of  the  year.      After 
shooting  one,  we  would  search  about  in  the  dark  until  the  light  picked 
up  another  pair  of  eyes,  and  in  this  way  we  kept  circling  about  close  to 
the  village.     One  fox  was  killed  within  two  hundred  yards  of  the  rail- 
road station,  and  at  dusk  one  evening  I  saw  a  fox  emerge  from  a  burrow 
close  to  a  group  of  natives,  and  scamper  across  the  flat.     The  stomachs 
of  several  were  examined,  and  found  to  contain  about  a  quart  of  termites 
and  other  insects. 
Giant    Shrew   {Crocidura  nyansai).      Giant  shrews   were   common  at   Lake 
Naivasha,  where  most  of  them  were  caught  in  the  thick  reeds  and  rank 
grass  bordering  the  lake.     One  was   taken   at   Nyeri   and  another   on 
Mount  Kenia,  at  an  altitude  of  10,700  feet.     They  seemed  to  be  as  much 
diurnal  as  nocturnal,  and  were  captured  in  traps  baited  with  rolled  oats, 
dried  apple,  and   raw   meat.      They  inhabited  the  dense  parts  of  the 
thickets,  where  the  foliage  had  to  be  parted,  and  a  clearing  made  for  the 
traps.     ITiese  localities  were  the  home  of  a  large  rat,  and  many  of  the 
rats  captured  were  decapitated  or  partly  eaten  by  animals  that  probably 
were  giant  shrews.     A   shrew   captured   alive  was  very  ferocious,  and 
would  seize  upon  anything  that  came  within  its  reach.     When   fully 
excited,  and  lifted  into  the  air  by  its  tail,  it  would  emit  a  loud,  shrill, 
chirping  note. 
Short-taued  Shrew  (Surdisorex  noree).     Collected  between  altitudes  of  10,000 
and  12,100  feet  on  Mount  Kenia.     With  the  exception  of  those  collected 
at  10,000  feet,  where  they  were  trapped  in  open  grassy  and  brushy  parks 
in  the  bamboo,  most  of  them  were  taken  in  runways  of  Otomys,  and  all 
of  those  taken  at  12,100  were  caught  in  such  runways  in  tall  marsh 
grass. 
Elephant  Shrew  {Elephantulus  pulcher).     Both  diurnal  and  nocturnal.     While 
riding   over   the  country  I  frequently  saw  them  darting  through  the 
runways  from   one  thicket  to  another.     Nearly  every  clump  of  bushes 
and  patch  of  rank  vegetation  in  the  Sotik  and  Naivasha  districts  was 
traversed   with  well-worn  trails,   used  by  different  species  of  Mus  and 
shrews.     The  elephant  shrews  were  most  common  on  the  dry  flats,  where 
clumps  of  fibre  plants  grew,  and  their  trails  usually  led  into  some  thorny 
thicket  and  finally  entered  the  ground. 
Yellow-Winged  Tree  Bat  {Lavia  froiifi).     These  large  semi-diurnal  bats  lived 
in  the  thorn-tree  groves  and  thick  bush  along  the  Athi,  South  Guaso 
Nyero,  and  Nile  rivers,  where  we  found  them  more  or  less  common,  and 
at  the  latter  place  abundant.     At  the  two  first  named  places  they  were 
almost  always  found  in  pairs,  hanging  from  the  thorn-trees  by  their  feet, 
their  wings  folded  before  their  faces.     When  disturbed,  they  fly  a  short 
distance  and  alight ;  but  when  we  returned  to  the  spot  a  few  minutes 
later,  they  would  often  be  found  in  the  same  tree  from  which  they  had 
been  started.     On  the  Nile  at  Rhino  Camp,  and  in  suitable  places  all 
along  the  trail  between  Kampala  and  Butiaba,  it  was  not  unusual  to  find 
three  and  four  in  a  single  thorn-tree.     On  dark  days,  and  once  in  the 
bright  sunlight,  I  saw  these  bats  flying  about  and  feeding.     At  evening 
they  always  appeared  an  hour  or  so  before  the  sun  went  down.     Their 
method  of  feeding  was  quite  similar  to  that  of  our  fly-catching  birds. 
They  would  dart  from  the  branches  of  a  thorn-tree,  catch  an  insect,  then 
return  and  hang  head  downward  in  the  tree  while  they  ate  the  morsel. 
One  was  captured  with  a  young  one  clinging  to  it  head  downward,  its 
feet  clasped  about  its  mother's  neck. 


APPENDIX  D 

Dr.  Mearns,  accompanied  by  Loring,  spent  fron)  the  middle  of 
September  to  after  the  middle  of  October,  1909,  in  a  biological 
survey  of  Mount  Kenia.  I  take  the  following  account  from  his 
notes.  In  them  he  treats  the  mountain  proper  as  beginning  at  an 
altitude  of  7,500  feet. 

Mount  Kenia  is  the  only  snow-capped  mountain  lying  exactly 
on  the  equator.  Its  altitude  is  about  17,200  feet.  The  mountain 
is  supposed  to  support  fifteen  glaciers  ;  those  that  Mearns  and 
Loring  examined  resembled  vast  snow-banks  rather  than  clear 
ice-glaciers.  The  permanent  snow-line  begins  at  the  edge  of  the 
glacial  lakes  at  15,000  feet ;  on  October  18  there  was  a  heavy 
snow-storm  as  low  down  as  11,000  feet.  For  some  distance  below 
the  snow-line  the  slopes  were  of  broken  rock,  bare  earth,  and 
gravel,  with  a  scanty  and  insignificant  vegetable  growth  in  the 
crannies  between  the  rocks.  These  grasses  and  Alpine  plants, 
including  giant  groundsels  and  lobelias,  cover  the  soil.  At 
13,000  feet  timber  line  is  reached. 

The  Kenia  forest  belt,  separating  this  treeless  Alpine  region  from 
the  surrounding  open  plains,  is  from  six  to  nine  miles  wide.  The 
forest  zone  is  only  imperfectly  divided  into  successive  belts  of  trees 
of  the  same  species  ;  for  the  species  vary  on  different  sides  of  the 
mountain.  Even  the  bamboo  zone  is  interrupted.  On  the  west 
side  the  zones  may  be  divided  into  : 

1.  A  cedar  zone  from  7,000  or  7,500  to  8,500  feet.     The  cedars 

are  mixed  with  many  hardwood  trees. 

2.  A  belt  composed  mainly  of  bamboo  and  yellow-wood  (African 

yew)  from  8,500  to  10,700  feet.  Here  the  true  timber 
zone  ends. 

3.  A  zone  of  giant  heath,  mixed  with  giant  groundsels  and 

shrubs,  extending  to  13,000  feet.  The  heaths  may  be  30 
feet  high,  and  can  be  used  as  fuel.  In  this  zone  are  many 
boggy  meadows. 

Loring  and  Mearns  occupied  five  collecting  camps  in  the  forest 
zone  and  one  above  it,  at  13,700  feet.     One  day  Mearns  followed 

499 


500  APPENDIX  D 

the  snow-line  for  a  mile  without  seeing  any  traces  of  large  animals, 
although  leopards  and  smaller  cats  sometimes  wander  to  this 
height.  The  groove -toothed  rat  {Otomys)  was  numerous  in  the  grass 
bordering  the  glacial  lakes  at  a  height  of  15,000  feet :  so  were  the 
big  mountain  hyrax  ;  and  Mearns  shot  one  of  these  animals  at 
15,500  feet,  by  a  snow-bank ;  it  was  the  highest  point  at  which 
any  mammal  was  collected.  Various  kinds  of  rats  and  shrews 
were  numerous  about  the  13,700-foot  camp.  Above  12,000  feet 
only  three  small  birds  were  seen  :  a  long-tailed  sunbird,  a  stone- 
chat,  and  a  fantail  warbler. 

On  the  entire  Mount  Kenia  trip  1,112  birds,  of  210  species,  were 
collected  ;  1,320  mammals  and  771  reptiles  and  batrachians  were 
collected,  but  the  species  represented  were  much  fewer.  Mearns 
also  made  an  excellent  collection  of  plants  and  a  good  collection  of 
invertebrates.  Fresh-water  crabs  were  numerous  in  the  streams  up 
to  10,000  feet,  frogs  went  as  high  as  10,700,  a  chameleon  was 
taken  at  11,000,  and  a  lizard  at  12,100. 

Loring  ascended  the  mountain  to  the  base  of  the  pinnacle,  at 
about  16,500  feet.  He  started  from  the  highest  camp,  where  the 
water  froze  each  night.  The  ascent  was  easy,  and  he  carried  his 
camera  ;  but  the  glare  of  the  snow  gave  him  snow-blindness. 


APPENDIX  E 

PROTECTIVE  COLORATION 

Mk,  Dugmore  has  taken  a  wonderful  series  of  photographs  of 
African  big  game.  Mr.  Kearton  has  taken  a  series  of  moving 
pictures  of  various  big  animals  which  were  taken  alive  by  Buffalo 
Jones  and  his  two  cowboys,  Loveless  and  Meany,  on  his  recent  trip 
to  East  Africa — a  trip  on  which  they  were  accompanied  by  a 
former  member  of  my  regiment,  Guy  Scull.  All  three  men  are 
old-time  Westerners  and  plainsmen,  skilled  in  handling  both  hoi*se 
and  rope.  They  took  their  big,  powerful,  thoroughly  trained  cow 
horses  with  them,  and  roped  and  captured  a  lioness,  a  rhinoceros, 
a  giraffe,  and  other  animals.  I  regard  these  feats  of  my  three 
fellow-countrymen  as  surpassing  any  feats  which  can  possibly  be 
performed  by  men  who  hunt  with  the  rifle. 

For  the  natural  history  of  African  big  game,  probably  the 
three  most  valuable  books — certainly  the  most  valuable  modern 
books — are  Selous's  "  African  Nature  Notes,"  Schilling's  "  Flash- 
light and  Rifle,"  and  Millais's  "Breath  from  the  Veldt."  The 
photographer  plays  an  exceedingly  valuable  part  in  Nature  study, 
but  our  appreciation  of  the  great  value  of  this  part  must  never 
lead  us  into  forgetting  that  as  a  rule  even  the  best  photograph 
renders  its  highest  service  when  treated  as  material  for  the  best 
picture,  instead  of  as  a  substitute  for  the  best  picture ;  and  that 
the  picture  itself,  important  though  it  is,  comes  entirely  secondary 
to  the  text  in  any  book  worthy  of  serious  consideration  either  from 
the  standpoint  of  science  or  the  standpoint  of  literature.  Of 
course  this  does  not  mean  any  failure  to  appreciate  the  absolute 
importance  of  photographs — of  Mr.  Dugmore's  capital  photo- 
graphs, for  instance ;  what  I  desire  is  merely  that  we  keep  in 
mind,  when  books  are  treated  seriously,  the  relative  values  of  the 
photograph,  the  picture,  and  the  text.  The  text,  again,  to  be  of 
the  highest  worth,  must  be  good  both  in  form  and  in  substance — 
that  is,  the  writer  who  tells  us  of  the  habits  of  big  game  must  be  a 
man  of  ample  personal  experience,  of  trained  mind,  of  keen  powers 

501 


502  APPENDIX  E 

of  observation,  and,  in  addition,  a  man  possessing  the  ability  to 
portray  vividly,  clearly,  and  with  interest  what  he  has  seen. 

Experience  in  the  field  is  of  great  value  in  helping  to  test  various 
biological  theories.  One  of  the  theories  which  has  had  a  very 
great  vogue  of  recent  years  is  that  of  the  protective  coloration  of 
animals.  It  has  been  worked  out  with  a  special  elaborateness  in 
Mr.  Thayer's  book  on  "  Concealing  Coloration  in  the  Animal 
Kingdom."  I  do  not  question  the  fact  that  there  are  in  all 
probability  multitudes  of  cases  in  which  the  coloration  of  an 
animal  is  of  protective  value  in  concealing  it  from  its  prey  or  its 
foes.  But  the  theory  is  certainly  pushed  to  preposterous  extremes; 
its  ultra-adherents  taking  up  a  position  like  that  of  some  of  the 
earlier  champions  of  the  glacial  theory,  who,  having  really  dis- 
covered notable  proofs  of  glacial  action  in  parts  of  Europe  and 
North  America,  then  went  slightly  crazy  on  their  favourite  subject, 
and  proceeded  to  find  proofs  of  glacial  action  over  the  entire  world 
surface,  including,  for  instance,  the  Amazon  Valley.  As  regards 
many  of  the  big  game  animals,  at  any  rate,  which  are  claimed  by 
the  ultra-exponents  of  the  protective  coloration  theory  as  offering 
examples  thereof,  there  is  not  the  least  particle  of  justification  for 
the  claim. 

I  select  Mr.  Thayer''s  book  because  it  is  a  really  noteworthy 
book,  written  and  illustrated  by  men  of  great  ability,  and  because 
it  contains  much  that  is  of  genuine  scientific  value,^  I  have  no 
question  whatever,  for  instance,  that  concealing  coloration  is  of 
real  value  in  the  struggle  for  existence  to  certain  mammals  and 
certain  birds,  not  to  mention  invertebrates.  The  night  hawk, 
certain  partridges  and  grouse,  and  numerous  other  birds  which 
seek  to  escape  observation  by  squatting  motionless,  do  unquestion- 
ably owe  an  immense  amount  to  the  way  in  which  their  colours 
harmonize  with  the  surrounding  colours,  thus  enabling  them  to  lie 
undetected  while  they  keep  still,  and  probably  even  protecting 
them  somewhat  if  they  try  to  skulk  off.  In  these  cases,  where  the 
theory  really  applies,  the  creature  benefited  by  the  coloration 
secures  the  benefit  by  acting  in  a  way  which  enables  the  coloration 
to  further  its  concealment.  A  night  hawk,  or  a  woodcock,  or  a 
prairie  chicken,  will  lie  until  nearly  trodden  on,  the  bird  showing 
by  its  action  that  its  one  thought  is  to  escape  observation,  and  its 
coloration  and  squatting  attitude  enabling  it  thus  to  escape 
observation,  as  Mr.  Beddard  puts  it  in  his  book  on  "Animal 
Coloration,"  "  absence  of  movement  is  absolutely  essential  for 
protectively  coloured  animals,  whether   they  make  use  of  their 

^  In  passing  I  wish  to  bear  testimony  to  the  admirable  work  done  by  various 
members  of  the  Thayer  family  in  preserving  birds  and  wild  life — work  so  admirable 
that  if  those  concerned  in  it  will  go  on  with  it,  they  are  entitled  to  l)elieve  anything 
in  the  world  they  wish  about  protective  coloration  ! 


PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  503 

coloration  for  defensive  purposes  or  offensive  purposes.""  So  far  as 
Mr.  Tfiayer's  book  or  similar  books  confine  themselves  to  pointing 
out  cases  of  this  kind,  and  to  working  on  hypotheses  where  the 
facts  are  supplied  by  such  cases,  they  do  a  real  service.  But  it  is 
wholly  different  when  the  theory  is  pushed  to  fantastic  extremes, 
as  by  those  who  seek  to  make  the  coloration  of  big  game  animals 
such  as  zebras,  giraffes,  hartebeests,  and  the  like,  protective.  I 
very  gravely  doubt  whether  some  of  the  smaller  mammals  and 
birds  to  which  Mr.  Thayer  refers  really  bear  out  his  theory  at  all. 
He  has,  for  instance,  a  picture  of  blue  jays  by  snow  and  blue 
shadow,  which  is  designed  to  show  how  closely  the  blue  jay  agrees 
with  its  surroundings  (I  would  be  uncertain  from  the  picture 
whether  it  is  really  blue  water  or  a  blue  shadow).  Now,  it  is  a 
simple  physical  impossibility  that  the  brilliant  and  striking 
coloration  of  the  blue  jay  can  be  protective  both  in  the  bare 
woods  when  snow  is  on  the  ground  and  in  the  thick  leafy  woods 
of  midsummer.  Countless  such  instances  could  be  given.  Mr. 
Thayer  insists,  as  vital  to  his  theory,  that  partridges  and  other 
protectively  coloured  animals  owe  their  safety,  not  at  all  to  being 
inconspicuously  coloured — that  is,  to  being  coloured  like  their 
surroundings — but  to  their  counter-shading,  to  their  being  coloured 
dark  above  and  light  below.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  most  small 
mammals  and  birds  which  normally  owe  their  safety  to  the  fact 
that  their  coloration  matches  their  surroundings,  crouch  flat  when- 
ever they  seek  to  escape  observation ;  and  when  thus  crouched  flat, 
the  counter-shading  on  which  Mr.  Thayer  lays  such  stress  almost, 
or  completely,  disappears.  The  counter-shading  ceases  to  be  of 
any  use  in  concealing  or  protecting  the  animal  at  the  precise 
moment  when  it  trusts  to  its  coloration  for  concealment.  Small 
rodents  and  small  dull-coloured  ground  birds  are  normally  in  fear 
of  foes  which  must  see  them  from  above  at  the  critical  moment  if 
they  see  them  at  all ;  and  from  above  no  such  shading  is  visible. 
This  is  true  of  almost  all  the  small  birds  in  question,  and  of  the 
little  mice  and  rats  and  shrews,  and  it  completely  upsets  Mr. 
Thayer's  theory  as  regards  an  immense  proportion  of  the  animals 
to  which  he  applies  it ;  most  species  of  mice,  for  example,  which 
he  insists  owe  their  safety  to  counter-shading,  live  under  conditions 
which  make  this  counter-shading  of  practically  no  consequence 
whatever  in  saving  them  from  their  foes.  The  nearly  uniform 
coloured  mice  and  shrews  are  exactly  as  difficult  to  see  as  the 
others. 

Again,  take  what  Mr.  Thayer  says  of  hares  and  prongbucks. 
Mr.  Thayer  insists  that  the  white  tails  and  rumps  of  deer, 
antelopes,  hares,  etc.,  help  them  by  "  obliteration  "  of  them  as  they 
flee.  He  actually  continues  that  "  when  these  beasts  flee  at  night 
before  terrestrial  enemies,  their  brightly  displayed,  sky-lit  white 


504  APPENDIX  E 

stems  blot  out  their  foreshortened  bodies  against  the  sky.*"     He 
illustrates  what  he  means  by  pictures,  and  states  that  "  in   the 
night  the  illusion  must  often  be  complete,  and  most  beneficent  to 
the  hunted  beast,"  and  that  what  he  calls  "  these  rear-end  sky- 
pictures  are  worn  by  most  fleet  ruminants  of  the  open  land,  and 
by  many  rodents  with  more  or  less  corresponding  habits,  notably 
hares ""  and  smaller  things  whose  enemies  are  beasts  of  low  stature, 
like  weasels,  minks,  snakes,  and  foxes  ;  "  in  sho%i,  that  they  are 
worn  by  animals  that  are  habitually  or  most  commonly  looked  up 
at  by  their  enemies."     Mr.  Thayer  gives  several  pictures  of  the 
prongbuck  and  of  the  northern  rabbit  to  illustrate  his  theory, 
and  actually   treats  the  extraordinarily  conspicuous  white  rump 
patch  of  the  prongbuck  as  an  "  obliterative  "  marking.     In  reality, 
so  far  from  hiding  the  animal,  the  white  rump  is  at  night  often 
the  only  cause  of  the  animal's  being  seen  at  all.     Under  one  picture 
of  the  prongbuck  Mr.  Thayer  says  that  it  is  commonly  seen  with 
the  white  rump  against  the  sky-line  by  all  its  terrestrial  enemies, 
such  as  wolves   and    cougars.      Of  course,  as    a    matter  of  fact, 
when    seen    against    the    sky-line,    the    rest    of  the    prongbuck's 
silhouette  is  so  distinct  that  the  white  rump  mark   has  not  the 
slightest  obliterative  value  of  any  kind.     I  can  testify  personally 
as  to  this,  for  I  have  seen  prongbuck  against  the  sky-line  hundreds 
of  times  by  daylight,  and  at  least  a  score  of  times  by  night.     The 
only  occasion  it  could  ever  have  such  obliterative  value  would  be 
at  the  precise  moment  when  it  happened  to  be  standing  stern-on 
in  such  a  position  that  the  rump  was  above  the  sky-line  and  all 
the  rest  of  the  body  below  it.     Ten   steps  farther   back,  or  ten 
steps  farther  forward,  would  in  each  case  make  it  visible  instantly 
to  the  dullest- sighted  wolf  or  cougar  that  ever  killed  game ;  so 
that  Mr.  Thayer's  theory  is  of  value  only  on  the  supposition  that 
both  the  prongbuck  and  its  enemy  happen  to  be  so  placed  that  the 
enemy  never  glances  in  its  direction  save  at  just  the  one  particular 
moment  when,  by  a  combination  of  circumstances  which  might  not 
occur  once  in  a  million  times,  the  prongbuck  happens  to  be  helped 
by  the  obliterative  quality  of  the  white  rump  mark.     Now,  in  the 
first  place,  the  chance  of  the  benefit  happening  to  any  individual 
prongbuck  is  so  inconceivably  small  that  it  can  be  neglected,  and, 
in  the  next  place,  in  reality  the  white  rump  mark  is  exceedingly 
conspicuous  under  all  ordinary  circumstances,  and,  for  once  that  it 
might  help  the  animal  to  elude  attention,  must  attract  attention 
to  it  at  least  a  thousand  times.     At  night,  in  the  darkness,  as 
anyone  who  has  ever  spent  much  time  hunting  them  knows,  the 
white  rump  mark  of  the  antelope  is  almost  always  the  first  thing 
about  them  that  is  seen,  and  is  very  often  the  only  thing  that  is 
ever  seen  ;  and  at  night  it  does  not  fade  into  the  sky,  even  if  the 
animal  is  on  the  sky-line.     So  far  as  beasts  of  prey  are  guided  by 


i'ROTECTIVE  COLORATION  505 

their  sight  at  night,  the  white  rump  must  always  under  all  circum- 
stances be  a  source  of  danger  to  the  prongbuck,  and  never  of  any 
use  as  an  obliterative  pattern.  In  the  daytime,  so  far  from  using 
this  white  rump  as  obliterative,  the  prongbuck  almost  invariably 
erects  the  white  hairs  with  a  kind  of  chrysanthemum  effect  when 
excited  or  surprised,  and  thereby  doubles  its  conspicuousness.  In 
the  daytime,  if  the  animals  are  seen  against  the  sky-line,  the  white 
rump  has  hardly  the  slightest  effect  in  making  them  less  con- 
spicuous ;  while  if  they  are  not  seen  against  the  sky-line  (and  of 
course  in  a  great  majority  of  cases  they  are  not  so  seen),  it  is  much 
the  most  conspicuous  feature  about  them,  and  attracts  attention 
from  a  very  long  distance.  But  this  is  not  all.  Anyone  ac- 
quainted with  the  habits  of  the  prongbuck  knows  that  the  adult 
prongbuck  practically  never  seeks  to  protect  itself  from  its  foes  by 
concealment  or  by  eluding  their  observation  ;  its  one  desire  is 
itself  to  observe  its  foes,  and  it  is  quite  indifferent  as  to  whether  or 
not  it  is  seen.  It  lives  in  open  ground,  where  it  is  always  very 
conspicuous,  excepting  during  the  noonday  rest,  when  it  prefers  to 
lie  down  in  a  hollow,  almost  always  under  conditions  which  render 
the  white  rump  patch  much  less  conspicuous  than  at  any  other 
time.  In  other  words,  during  the  time  when  it  is  comparatively 
off"  its  guard  and  resting  it  takes  a  position  where  it  does  not  stand 
against  the  sky-line — as,  according  to  Mr.  Thayer's  ingenious 
theory,  it  should  ;  and,  again  contrary  to  this  same  theory,  it 
usually  lies  down,  so  that  any  foe  would  have  to  look  down  at  it 
from  above.  Whenever  it  does  lie  down,  the  white  patch  becomes 
less  conspicuous  ;  it  is  rarely  quiet  for  any  length  of  time  except 
when  lying  down.  The  kids  of  the  prongbuck,  on  the  other  hand, 
do  seek  to  escape  observation,  and  they  seek  to  do  so  by  lying 
perfectly  flat  on  the  ground,  with  their  heads  outstretched  and  the 
body  pressed  so  against  the  ground  that  the  eff*ect  of  the  white 
rump  is  minimized,  as  is  also  the  eff*ect  of  the  "  counter-shading"; 
for  the  light-coloured  under  parts  are  pressed  against  the  earth, 
and  the  little  kid  lies  motionless,  trusting  to  escape  observation 
owing  to  absence  of  movement,  helped  by  the  unbroken  colour 
surface  which  is  exposed  to  view.  If  the  adult  prongbucks  really 
ever  gained  any  benefit  by  any  "  protective ""  quality  in  their 
coloration,  they  would  certainly  act  like  the  kids,  and  crouch 
motionless.  In  reality  the  adult  prongbuck  never  seeks  to  escape 
observation,  never  trusts  in  any  way  to  the  concealing  or  protec- 
tive power  of  any  part  of  its  coloration,  and  is  not  benefited  in 
the  slightest  degree  by  this  supposed,  but  in  reality  entirely  non- 
existent, concealing,  or  protective  power.  The  white  rump 
practically  never  has  any  obliterative  or  concealing  function  ;  on 
the  contrary,  in  the  great  majority  of  instances,  it  acts  as  an 
advertisement  to  all  outside  creatures  of  the  prongbuck's  existence. 


506  APPENDIX  E 

Probably  it  is  an  example  of  what  is  known  as  directive  coloration, 
of  coloration  used  for  purposes  of  advertisement  or  communication 
with  the  animal's  followers.  But  however  this  may  be,  it  is  certain 
that  there  is  not  the  smallest  justification  for  Mr.  Thayer''s  theory 
so  far  as  the  prongbuck  is  concerned. 

It  is  practically  the  same  as  regards  the  rabbit  or  the  hare. 
Anyone  who  has  ever  been  in  the  woods  must  know,  or  certainly 
ought  to  know,  that  when  hares  are  sitting  still  and  trying  to 
escape  observation,  they  crouch  flat,  so  that  the  white  of  the  tail 
and  rump  is  almost  concealed,  as  well  as  the  white  of  the  under 
parts,  while  the  effect  of  the  counter-shading  almost  or  entirely 
vanishes.  No  terrestrial  foe  of  the  hare  would  ever  see  the  white 
rump  against  the  sky-line  unless  the  animal  was  in  rapid  motion 
(and  parenthetically  I  may  observe  that  even  then  it  would  only 
see  the  rump  against  the  sky-line  in  an  infinitesimally  small  number 
of  cases).  Of  course,  as  soon  as  the  animal  is  in  motion  it  is 
conspicuous  to  even  the  most  dull-sighted  beast  of  prey  ;  and 
Mr.  Thayers  idea  that  the  white  rear  patch  may  mislead  a  foe  as 
it  jumps  upon  it  is  mere  supposition,  unsustained  by  any  proof, 
and  contrary  to  all  the  facts  that  I  have  observed.  Civilized  man, 
who  is  much  more  dull-sighted  than  most  wild  things,  can  always 
see  a  rabbit  when  it  runs  because  its  white  is  then  so  very  con- 
spicuous. Here,  again,  I  do  not  think  there  is  the  slightest  value 
in  Mr.  Thayer's  theory.  The  white  rump  is  certainly  not  a  pro- 
tective or  obliterative  marking;  it  is  probably  a  directive  or 
advertisement  marking. 

The  Virginia  deer,  utterly  unlike  the  prongbuck,  does  often  seek 
to  evade  observation  by  lying  close,  or  skulking.  When  it  lies 
close,  it  lies  flat  on  the  ground  like  a  hare,  and  its  white  tail  is 
almost  invisible,  while  of  course  even  the  most  low-creeping  foe 
would  not  under  such  circumstances  get  it  against  the  sky-line. 
When  it  skulks,  it  moves  off*  with  head  and  neck  outstretched  and 
tail  flattened  down,  with  the  white  as  much  obscured  as  possible. 
The  white  is  never  shown  in  conspicuous  fashion  until  the  animal 
is  frightened  and  no  longer  seeks  concealment.  It  then  bounds  off* 
openly,  crashing  through  the  bush,  with  its  white  tail  flaunted, 
and  under  such  circumstances  the  white  mark  is  extremely  con- 
spicuous. 

Indeed,  I  feel  that  there  is  grave  ground  to  question  the  general 
statement  of  Mr.  Thayer  that  "  almost  all  mammals  are  equipped 
with  a  full  obliterative  shading  of  surface  colours ;  that  is,  they 
are  darkest  on  the  back  and  lightest  on  the  belly,  usually  with 
connected  intermediate  shades."  This  is  undoubtedly  true  as  a 
statement  of  the  coloration,  but  whether  this  coloration  is  in 
fact  obliterative  needs  further  investigation.  Of  course,  if  it  is 
obliterative,  then  its  use  is  to  conceal  the  mammals.     Mr.  Thayer's 


PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  507 

whole  thesis  is  that  such  is  the  case.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 
great  majority  of  these  mammals,  when  they  seek  to  escape 
observation,  crouch  on  the  ground,  and  in  that  posture  the  light 
belly  escapes  observation,  and  the  animal's  colour  pattern  loses 
very  much  of,  and  sometimes  all  of,  the  "  full  obliterative  shading 
of  surface  colours ""  of  which  Mr.  Thayer  speaks.  Moreover,  when 
crouched  down  in  seeking  to  escape  observation,  the  foes  of  the 
animal  are  most  apt  to  see  it  from  above,  not  from  below  or  from 
one  side.  This  is  also  the  case  with  carnivorous  animals  which 
seek  to  escape  the  observation  of  their  prey.  The  cougar  crouches 
when  lying  in  wait  or  stalking,  so  that  it  is  precisely  when  it  is 
seeking  to  escape  observation  that  its  lighter-coloured  under  parts 
are  obscured,  and  the  supposed  benefit  of  the  "  obliterative  shading 
pattern "  lost.  I  do  not  intend  without  qualification  to  take 
ground  one  way  or  the  other  on  this  general  question  ;  but  it  is 
certainly  true  that  any  such  sweeping  statement  as  that  quoted 
above  by  Mr.  Thayer  is  as  yet  entirely  unproved.  I  have  no  doubt 
that  in  most  cases  animals  whose  colours  harmonize  with  their 
environment,  and  which  also  seek  to  escape  observation  by  remain- 
ing motionless  when  they  think  there  is  danger,  are  very  materially 
helped  by  their  concealing  coloration  ;  but  when  this  concealment 
is  said  to  be  due  to  the  obliterative  shading  as  described  by 
Mr.  Thayer,  it  is  certainly  worth  while  considering  the  fact  that 
the  so-called  obliterative  pattern  is  least  shown,  or  is  not  shown  at 
all,  at  the  only  time  when  the  animal  seeks  to  escape  observation, 
or  succeeds  in  escaping  observation — that  is,  when  it  crouches 
motionless,  or  skulks  slowly,  with  the  conscious  aim  of  not  being 
seen.  No  colour  scheme  whatever  is  of  much  avail  to  animals 
when  they  move,  unless  the  movement  is  very  slow  and  cautious ; 
rats,  mice,  gophers,  rabbits,  shrews,  and  the  enormous  majority  of 
mammals  which  are  coloured  in  this  fashion  are  not  helped  by  their 
special  coloration  pattern  at  all  when  they  are  in  motion.  Against 
birds  of  prey  they  are  practically  never  helped  by  the  counter- 
shading,  but  merely  by  the  general  coloration  and  by  absence  of 
movement.  Their  chief  destroyers  among  mammals — such  as 
weasels,  for  instance — hunt  them  almost  or  altogether  purely  by 
scent,  and  though  the  final  pounce  is  usually  guided  by  sight,  it  is 
made  from  a  distance  so  small  that,  as  far  as  we  can  tell  by 
observation,  the  "  counter-shading  "  is  useless  as  a  protection.  In 
fact,  while  the  general  shading  of  these  small  mammals'"  coats  may 
very  probably  protect  them  from  certain  foes,  it  is  as  yet  an  open 
question  as  to  just  how  far  they  are  helped  (and  indeed  in  very 
many  cases  whether  they  really  are  helped  to  any  appreciable 
extent)  by  what  Mr.  Thayer  lays  such  special  stress  upon  as  being 
"  full  obliterative  shading  (counter-shading)  of  surface  colouring.'" 
Certainly  many  of  the  markings  of  mammals,  just  as  is  the  case 


508  APPENDIX  E 

with  birds,  must  be  wholly  independent  of  any  benefit  they  give  to 
their  possessors  in  the  way  of  concealment.  Mr.  Thayer's  pictures 
in  some  cases  portray  such  entirely  exceptional  situations  or  sur- 
roundings that  they  are  misleading — as,  for  instance,  in  his  pictures 
of  the  peacock  and  the  male  wood-duck.  An  instant's  reflection  is 
sufficient  to  show  that  if  the  gaudily-coloured  males  of  these  two 
birds  are  really  protectively  coloured,  then  the  females  are  not,  and 
vice  versa  ;  for  the  males  and  females  inhabit  similar  places,  and  if 
the  elaborate  arrangement  of  sky  or  water  and  foliage  in  which 
Mr.  Thayer  has  placed  his  peacock  and  wood-drake  represented 
(which  they  do  not)  their  habitual  environment,  a  peahen  and 
wood-duck  could  not  be  regarded  as  protectively  coloured  at  all  ; 
•whereas  of  course  in  reality,  as  everyone  knows,  they  are  far  more 
difficult  to  see  than  the  corresponding  males.  Again,  he  shows  a 
chipmunk  among  twigs  and  leaves,  to  make  it  evident  that  the 
white  and  black  markings  conceal  it ;  but  a  weasel,  which  lacks 
these  markings,  would  be  even  more  difficult  to  see.  The  simple 
truth  is  that  in  most  woodland,  mountain,  and  prairie  surroundings 
any  small  mammal  that  remains  motionless  is,  unless  very  vividly 
coloured,  exceedingly  apt  to  escape  notice.  I  do  not  think  that 
the  stripes  of  the  chipmunk  are  of  any  protective  value — that  is,  I 
believe  (and  the  case  of  the  weasel  seems  to  me  to  prove)  that  its 
coloration  would  be  at  least  as  fully  "  protective  "  without  them. 
The  striped  gophers  and  grey  gophers  seem  equally  easy  to  see ; 
they  live  in  similar  habitats,  and  the  stripes  seem  to  have  no 
protective  effect  one  way  or  the  other. 

It  is  when  Mr.  Thayer  and  the  other  extreme  members  of  the 
protective  coloration  school  deal  with  the  big  game  of  Africa 
that  they  go  most  completely  wide  of  the  mark.  For  instance, 
Mr.  Thayer  speaks  of  the  giraffe  as  a  sylvan  mammal  with  a 
checkered  sun-fleck  and  leaf-coloured  pattern  of  coloration,  accom- 
panied by  complete  obliterative  shading,  and  the  whole  point  of 
his  remark  is  that  the  giraffe's  coloration  "  always  maintains  its 
potency  for  obliteration."  Now,  of  course,  this  means  nothing 
unless  Mr.  Thayer  intends  by  it  to  mean  that  the  giraffe's  coloration 
allows  it  to  escape  the  observation  of  its  foes.  I  doubt  whether 
this  is  ever  under  any  circumstances  the  case — that  is,  I  doubt 
whether  the  giraffe's  varied  coloration  ever  "  enables  "  it  to  escape 
observation  save  as  the  dark  monochrome  of  the  elephant,  rhinoceros, 
or  buffalo  may  "  enable  "  one  of  these  animals  to  escape  observation 
under  practically  identical  conditions.  There  is,  of  course,  no 
conceivable  colour  or  scheme  of  colour  which  may  not,  under  some 
conceivable  circumstances,  enable  the  bearer  to  escape  observation ; 
but  if  such  colouring,  for  once  that  it  enables  the  bearer  to  escape 
observation  exposes  the  bearer  to  observation  a  thousand  times,  it 
cannot   be  called  protective.     I  do   not   think   that  the  giraffe's 


PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  509 

coloration  exposes  it  to  observation  on  the  part  of  its  foes ;  I  think 
that  it  simply  has  no  effect  whatsoever.  The  giraffe  never  trusts 
to  escaping  observation  ;  its  sole  thought  is  itself  to  observe  any 
possible  foe.  At  a  distance  of  a  few  hundred  yards,  the  colour 
pattern  becomes  indistinct  to  the  eye,  and  the  animal  appears  of  a 
nearly  uniform  tint,  so  that  any  benefit  given  by  the  colour  pattern 
must  be  comparatively  close  at  hand.  On  the  very  rare  occasions 
when  beasts  of  prey — that  is,  lions — do  attack  giraffes,  it  is  usually 
at  night,  when  the  coloration  is  of  no  consequence  ;  but  even  by 
daylight  I  should  really  doubt  whether  any  giraffe  has  been  saved 
from  an  attack  by  lions  owing  to  its  coloration  allowing  it  to 
escape  observation.  It  is  so  big,  and  so  queerly  shaped,  that  any 
trained  eyes  detect  it  at  once,  if  within  a  reasonable  distance ;  it 
only  escapes  observation  when  so  far  off'  that  its  coloration  does 
not  count  one  way  or  the  other.  There  is  no  animal  which  will 
not  at  times  seem  invisible  to  the  untrained  eyes  of  the  average 
white  hunter,  and  any  beast  of  any  shape  or  any  colour  standing  or 
lying  motionless,  under  exceptional  circumstances,  may  now  and 
then  escape  observation.  The  elephant  is  a  much  more  truly 
sylvan  beast  than  the  giraffe,  and  it  is  a  one-coloured  beeist,  its 
coloration  pattern  being  precisely  that  which  Mr.  Thayer  points 
out  as  being  most  visible.  But  I  have  spent  over  a  minute  in 
trying  to  see  an  elephant  not  fifty  yards  off",  in  thick  forest,  my 
black  companion  vainly  trying  to  show  it  to  me;  I  have  had  just 
the  same  experience  with  the  similarly  coloured  rhinoceros  and 
buffalo  when  standing  in  the  same  scanty  bush  that  is  affected  by 
giraffes,  and  with  the  rhinoceros  also  in  open  plains  where  there 
are  ant-hills.  It  happens  that  I  have  never  had  such  an  experience 
with  a  giraffe.  Doubtless  such  experiences  do  occur  with  giraffes, 
but  no  more  frequently  than  with  elephant,  rhinoceros,  and  buffalo ; 
and  in  my  own  experience  I  found  that  1  usually  made  out  giraffes 
at  considerably  larger  distances  than  I  made  out  rhinos.  The 
buffalo  does  sometimes  try  to  conceal  itself,  and,  Mr.  Thayer  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding,  it  is  then  much  more  difficult  to 
make  out  than  a  girafle,  because  it  is  much  smaller  and  less  oddly 
shaped.  The  buffalo,  by  the  way,  really  might  be  benefited  by 
protective  coloration,  if  it  possessed  it,  as  it  habitually  lives  in 
cover,  and  is  often  preyed  on  by  the  lion  ;  whereas  the  giraffe  is 
not  protected  at  all  by  its  coloration,  and  is  rarely  attacked  by 
lions. 

Elephants  and  rhinoceroses  occasionally  stand  motionless,  wait- 
ing to  see  if  they  can  place  a  foe,  and  at  such  times  it  is  possible 
they  are  consciously  seeking  to  evade  observation.  But  the  giraffe 
never  under  any  circumstances  tries  to  escape  observation,  and  I 
doubt  if,  practically  speaking,  it  ever  succeeds  so  far  as  wild  men  or 
wild   beasts  that  use  their  eyes  at  all  are  concerned.     It  stands 


510  APPENDIX  E 

motionless,  looking  at  the  hunter,  out  it  never  tries  to  hide  from 
him.  It  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  animals  in  Nature.  Native 
hunters  of  the  true  hunting  tribes  pick  it  up  invariably  at  an 
astonishing  distance,  and  near  by  it  never  escapes  their  eyes ;  its 
coloration  is  of  not  the  slightest  use  to  it  from  the  standpoint  of 
concealment.  Of  course,  white  men,  even  though  good  ordinary 
hunters,  and  black  men  of  the  non-hunting  tribes,  often  fail  to  see 
it,  just  as  they  often  fail  to  see  a  man  or  a  horse,  at  a  distance ; 
but  this  is  almost  always  at  such  a  distance  that  the  coloration 
pattern  cannot  be  made  out  at  all,  the  animal  seeming  neutral 
tinted,  like  the  rest  of  the  landscape,  and  escaping  observation 
because  it  is  motionless,  just  as  at  the  same  distance  a  rhinoceros 
may  escape  observation.  A  motionless  man,  if  dressed  in  neutral- 
tinted  clothes,  will  in  the  same  manner  escape  observation,  even 
from  wild  beasts,  at  distances  so  short  that  no  giraffe  could  possibly 
avoid  being  seen.  I  have  often  watched  game  come  to  watering- 
places,  or  graze  toward  me  on  a  nearly  bare  plain  ;  on  such  occasions 
I  might  be  unable  to  use  cover,  and  then  merely  sat  motionless  on 
the  grass  or  in  a  game  trail.  My  neutral -tinted  clothes,  grey  or 
yellow-brown,  were  all  of  one  colour,  without  any  counter- shading ; 
but  neither  the  antelope  nor  the  zebra  saw  me,  and  they  would 
frequently  pass  me,  or  come  down  to  drink,  but  thirty  or  forty 
yards  off,  without  ever  knowing  of  my  presence.  My  "  conceal- 
ment "  or  "  protection "  was  due  to  resting  motionless  and  to 
wearing  a  neutral-tinted  suit,  although  there  was  no  counter- 
shading,  and  although  the  colour  was  uniform  instead  of  being 
broken  up  with  a  pattern  of  various  tints. 

The  zebra  offers  another  marked  example  of  the  complete  break- 
down of  the  protective  coloration  theory.  Mr.  Thayer  says : 
"  Among  all  the  bolder  obliterative  patterns  worn  by  mammals, 
that  of  the  zebra  probably  bears  away  the  palm  for  potency." 
The  zebra''s  coloration  has  proved  especially  attractive  to  many 
disciples  of  this  school,  even  to  some  who  are  usually  good  ob- 
servers ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  zebra''s  coloration  is  the 
reverse  of  protective,  and  it  is  really  extraordinary  how  any  fairly 
good  observer  of  accurate  mind  can  consider  it  so.  One  argument 
used  by  Mr.  Thayer  is  really  funny,  when  taken  in  connection  with 
an  argument  frequently  used  by  other  disciples  of  the  protective 
coloration  theory  as  applied  to  zebras.  Mr.  Thayer  shows  by  in- 
genious pictures  that  a  wild  ass  is  much  less  protectively  coloured 
than  a  zebra.  Some  of  his  fellow-disciples  triumphantly  point  out 
that  at  a  little  distance  the  zebra's  stripes  merge  into  one  another, 
and  that  the  animal  then  becomes  protectively  coloured  because  it 
looks  exactly  like  a  wild  ass  !  Of  course,  each  author  forgets  that 
zebras  and  wild  asses  live  under  substantially  the  same  conditions, 
and  that  this   mere   fact  totally  upsets  the  theory  that  each  is 


PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  511 

beneficially  affected  by  its  protective  coloration.  The  two  animals 
cannot  both  be  protectively  coloured ;  they  cannot  each  owe  to  its 
coloration  an  advantage  in  escaping  from  its  foes.  It  is  absolutely 
impossible,  if  one  of  them  is  so  coloured  as  to  enable  it  to  escape 
the  observation  of  its  foes,  that  the  other  can  be.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  neither  is,  and  neither  makes  any  attempt  to  elude  observa- 
tion by  its  foes,  but  trusts  entirely  to  vigilance  in  discerning  them 
and  fleetness  in  escaping  from  them  ;  although  the  wild  ass,  unlike 
the  zebra,  really  is  so  coloured  that  because  thereof  it  may  occa- 
sionally escape  observation  from  dull-sighted  foes. 

Mr.  Thayer's  argument  is  based  throughout  on  a  complete 
failure  to  understand  the  conditions  of  zebra  life.  He  makes  an 
elaborate  statement  to  show  that  the  brilliant  cross-bands  of  the 
zebra  have  great  obliterative  effect,  insisting  that,  owing  to  the 
obliterative  coloration,  zebras  continually  escape  observation  in 
the  country  in  which  they  live.  He  continues  :  "  Furthermore,  all 
beasts  must  have  water,  and  so  the  zebras  of  the  dry  plains  must 
needs  make  frequent  visits  to  the  nearest  living  sloughs  and  rivers. 
There,  by  the  water's  edge,  tall  reeds  and  grasses  almost  always 
flourish,  and  there,  where  all  beasts  meet  to  drink,  is  the  great 
place  of  danger  for  the  ruminants,  and  all  on  whom  the  lion  preys. 
In  the  open  land  they  can  often  detect  their  enemy  afar  off,  and 
depend  on  their  fleetness  for  escape ;  but  when  they  are  down  in 
the  river-bed,  among  the  reeds,  he  may  approach  unseen  and  leap 
among  them  without  warning.  It  is  probably  at  these  drinking- 
places  that  the  zebra's  pattern  is  most  beneficently  potent.  From 
far  or  near  the  watching  eye  of  the  hunter  (bestial  or  human)  is 
likely  to  see  nothing,  or  nothing  but  reed-stripes,  where  it  might 
otherwise  detect  the  contour  of  a  zebra."  In  a  footnote  he  adds 
that,  however  largely  lions  and  other  rapacious  mammals  hunt  by 
scent,  it  is  only  sight  that  serves  them  when  they  are  down  wind 
of  their  quarry ;  and  that  sight  alone  must  guide  their  ultimate 
killing  dash  and  spring. 

Now,  this  theory  of  Mr.  Thayer's  about  the  benefit  of  the  zebra's 
coloration  at  drinking-places,  as  a  shield  sigainst  foes,  lacks  even 
the  slightest  foundation  in  fact ;  for  it  is  self-evident  that  animals, 
when  they  come  down  to  drink,  necessarily  move.  The  moment 
that  any  animal  the  size  of  a  zebra  moves,  it  at  once  becomes 
visible  to  the  eye  of  its  human  or  bestial  foes,  unless  it  skulks  in 
the  most  cautious  manner.  The  zebra  never  skulks,  and,  like  most 
of  the  plains  game,  it  never,  at  least  when  adult,  seeks  to  escape 
observation — indeed,  in  the  case  of  the  zebra  (unlike  what  is  true 
of  the  antelope)  I  am  not  sure  that  even  the  young  seek  to  escape 
observation.  I  have  many  times  watched  zebras  and  antelopes — 
wildebeest,  hartebeest,  gazelle,  waterbuck,  kob — coming  down  to 
water ;  their  conduct  was  substantially  similar.     The  zebras,  for 


512  APPENDIX  E 

instance,  made  no  effort  whatever  to  escape  observation ;  they 
usually  went  to  some  drinking-place  as  clear  of  reeds  as  possible ; 
but  sometimes  they  were  forced  to  come  down  to  drink  where 
there  was  rather  thick  cover,  in  which  case  they  always  seemed 
more  nervous,  more  on  the  alert,  and  quicker  in  their  movements. 
They  came  down  in  herds,  and  they  would  usually  move  forward 
by  fits  and  starts — that  is,  travel  a  few  hundred  yards,  and  then 
stop  and  stand  motionless  for  some  time,  looking  around.  They 
were  always  very  conspicuous,  and  it  was  quite  impossible  for  any 
watcher  to  fail  to  make  them  out.  As  they  came  nearer  to  the 
water  they  seemed  to  grow  more  cautious.  They  would  move 
forward  some  distance,  halt,  perhaps  wheel  and  dash  off  for  a 
hundred  yards,  and  then  after  a  little  while  return.  As  they  got 
near  the  water  they  would  again  wait,  and  then  march  boldly 
down  to  drink — except  in  one  case  where,  after  numerous  false 
starts,  they  finally  seemed  to  suspect  that  there  was  something  in 
the  neighbourhood,  and  went  off  for  good  without  drinking. 
Never  in  any  case  did  I  see  a  zebra  come  down  to  drink  under 
conditions  which  would  have  rendered  it  possible  for  the  most 
dull-sighted  beast  to  avoid  seeing  it.  Of  course,  I  usually  watched 
the  pools  and  rivers  when  there  was  daylight ;  but  after  nightfall 
the  zebra's  stripes  would  be  entirely  invisible,  so  that  their  only 
effect  at  the  drinking-place  must  be  in  the  daytime ;  and  in  the 
daytime  there  was  absolutely  no  effect,  and  the  zebras  that  I  saw 
could  by  no  possibility  have  escaped  observation  from  a  lion,  for 
they  made  no  effort  whatever  thus  to  escape  observation,  but 
moved  about  continually,  and,  after  drinking,  retired  to  the  open 
ground. 

The  zebra"'s  coloration  is  certainly  never  of  use  to  him  in  helping 
him  escape  observation  at  a  drinking-place.  But  neither  is  it  of 
use  to  him  in  escaping  observation  anywhere  else.  As  I  have  said 
before,  there  are,  of  course,  circumstances  under  which  any  pattern 
or  coloration  will  harmonize  with  the  environment.  Once  I  came 
upon  zebras  standing  in  partially  burned  grass,  some  of  the  yellow 
stalks  still  erect,  and  here  the  zebras  were  undoubtedly  less  con- 
spicuous than  the  red-coated  hartebeests  with  which  they  were 
associated ;  but  as  against  the  one  or  two  occasions  where  I  have 
seen  the  zebra's  coat  make  it  less  conspicuous  than  most  other 
animals,  there  have  been  scores  where  it  has  been  more  conspicuous. 
I  think  it  would  be  a  safe  estimate  to  say  that  for  one  occasion  on 
which  the  coloration  of  the  zebi*a  serves  it  for  purposes  of  conceal- 
ment from  any  enemy,  there  are  scores,  or  more  likely  hundreds, 
of  occasions  when  it  reveals  it  to  an  enemy ;  while  in  the  great 
majority  of  instances  it  has  no  effect  one  way  or  the  other.  The 
different  effects  of  light  and  shade  make  different  patterns  of 
coloration  more  or  less  visible  on  different  occasions.     There  have 


PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  513 

been  occasions  when  I  have  seen  antelopes  quicker  than  I  have 
seen  the  zebra  with  which  they  happened  to  be  associated.  More 
often  the  light  has  been  such  that  I  have  seen  the  zebra  first. 
Where  I  was,  in  Africa,  the  zebra  herds  were  on  the  same  ground, 
and  often  associated,  with  eland,  oryx,  wildebeest,  topi,  hartebeest. 
Grant's  gazelle,  and  Thomson's  gazelle.  Of  all  these  animals,  the 
wildebeest,  because  of  its  dark  coloration,  was  the  most  conspicuous 
and  most  readily  seen.  The  topi  also  usually  looked  very  dark. 
Both  of  these  animals  were  ordinarily  made  out  at  longer  distances 
than  the  others.  The  gazelles,  partly  from  their  small  size  and 
partly  from  their  sandy  coloration,  were,  I  should  say,  usually  a 
little  harder  to  make  out  than  the  others.  The  remaining  animals 
were  conspicuous  or  not,  largely  as  the  light  happened  to  strike 
them.  Ordinarily,  if  zebras  were  mixed  with  elands  or  oryx,  I  saw 
the  zebras  before  seeing  the  eland  and  oryx,  although  I  ought  to 
add  that  my  black  companions  on  these  occasions  usually  made  out 
both  sets  of  animals  at  the  same  time.  But  in  mixed  herds  of 
hartebeests  and  zebras  I  have  sometimes  seen  the  hartebeests  first, 
and  sometimes  the  zebras.^ 

The  truth  is  that  this  plains  game  never  seeks  to  escape  observa- 
tion at  all,  and  that  the  coloration  patterns  of  the  various  animals 
are  not  concealing,  and  are  of  practically  no  use  whatever  in 
protecting  the  animals  from  their  foes.  The  beasts  above 
enumerated  are  coloured  in  widely  different  fashions.  If  any  one 
of  them  was  really  obliteratively  coloured,  it  would  mean  that 
some  or  all  of  the  others  were  not  so  coloured.  But,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  they  are  none  of  them  instances  of  concealing  coloration  ; 
none  of  the  beasts  seek  to  escape  observation,  or  trust  for  safety  to 
eluding  the  sight  of  their  foes.  When  they  lie  down  they  almost 
always  lie  down  in  very  open  ground,  where  they  are  readily  seen, 
and  where  they  can  hope  to  see  their  foes.  When  topi,  roan 
antelope,  hartebeest,  and  so  forth,  are  standing  head-on,  the  under 
pai-ts  look  darker  instead  of  lighter  than  the  upper  parts,  so  that 
in  this  common  position  there  is  no  "  counter-shading."  The 
roan  and  oryx  have  nearly  uniform  coloured  coats  which  often  do 
harmonize  with  their  surroundings  ;  but  their  bold  face- markings 
are   conspicuous.^      None   of  these   big   or   medium-sized    plains 

^  Mr.  Thayer  tries  to  show  that  the  cross  stripes  on  the  legs  of  zebras  are  of 
protective  value.  He  has  forgotten  that  in  the  typical  Burchell's  zebra  the  legs  are 
white  ;  whether  they  are  striped  or  not  is  evidently  of  no  consequence  from  the 
protective  standpoint.  There  is  even  less  basis  for  Mr.  Thayer's  theory  that 
the  stripings  on  the  legs  of  elands  and  one  or  two  other  antelopes  have  any,  even 
the  slightest,  protective  value. 

^  A  curious  instance  of  the  lengths  to  which  some  protective-coloration  theorists 
go  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that  they  actually  treat  these  bold  markings  as  obliterative 
or  concealing.  In  actual  fact  the  reverse  is  true  ;  these  face-markings  are  much  more 
apt  to  advertise  the  animal's  presence. 

33 


514  APPENDIX  E 

animals,  while  healthy  and  unhurt,  seeks  to  escape  observation  by 
hiding. 

This  is  the  direct  reverse  of  what  occurs  with  many  bush  ante- 
lopes. Undoubtedly  many  of  the  latter  do  seek  to  escape  observa- 
tion. I  have  seen  waterbucks  stand  perfectly  still,  and  then  steal 
cautiously  off  through  the  brush ;  and  I  have  seen  duiker  and 
steinbuck  lie  down  and  stretch  their  heads  out  flat  on  the  ground 
when  they  noticed  a  horseman  approaching  from  some  distance. 
Yet  even  in  these  cases  it  is  very  hard  to  say  whether  their 
coloration  is  really  protective.  The  steinbuck,  a  very  common 
little  antelope,  is  of  a  foxy  red,  which  is  decidedly  conspicuous. 
The  duiker  lives  in  the  same  localities,  and  seems  to  me  to  be 
more  protectively  coloured — at  any  rate,  if  the  coloration  is 
protective  for  one  it  certainly  is  not  for  the  other.  The  bushbuck 
is  a  boldly- coloured  beast,  and  I  do  not  believe  for  a  moment  that 
it  ever  owes  its  safety  to  protective  coloration.  The  reedbuck, 
which  in  manners  corresponds  to  our  white-tailed  deer,  may  very 
possibly  at  times  be  helped  by  its  coloration,  although  my  own 
belief  is  that  all  these  bush  creatures  owe  their  power  of  conceal- 
ment primarily  to  their  caution,  noiselessness,  and  power  to  remain 
motionless,  rather  than  to  any  pattern  of  coloration.  But  all  of 
these  animals  undoubtedly  spend  much  of  their  time  in  trying  to 
elude  observation. 

On  the  open  plains,  however,  nothing  of  the  kind  happens. 
The  little  tommy  gazelle,  for  instance,  never  strives  to  escape 
observation.  It  has  a  habit  of  constantly  jerking  its  tail  in  a  way 
which  immediately  attracts  notice,  even  if  it  is  not  moving  other- 
wise. When  it  lies  down,  its  oliliterative  shading  entirely  dis- 
appears, because  it  has  a  very  vivid  black  line  along  its  side,  and 
when  recumbent — or  indeed,  for  the  matter  of  that,  when  standing 
up — this  black  line  at  once  catches  the  eye.  However,  when  stand- 
ing, it  can  be  seen  at  once  anyhow.  The  bigger  Grant's  gazelle  is,  as 
far  as  the  adult  male  is  concerned,  a  little  better  off  than  the 
tommy,  because  the  bucks  have  not  got  the  conspicuous  black 
lateral  stripe ;  but  this  is  possessed  by  both  the  young  and  the 
does — who  stand  in  much  more  need  of  concealing  coloration. 
But  as  I  have  already  so  often  said,  neither  concealment  nor 
concealing  coloration  plays  any  part  whatever  in  protecting  these 
animals  from  their  foes.  There  is  never  any  difficulty  in  seeing 
them ;  the  difficulty  is  to  prevent  their  seeing  the  hunter. 

Mr.  Thayer's  thesis  is  "that  all  patterns  and  colours  whatsoever 
of  all  animals  that  ever  prey  or  are  preyed  on  are  under  certain 
normal  circumstances  obi  iterative."  Either  this  sentence  is  entirely 
incorrect  or  else  it  means  nothing ;  either  no  possible  scheme  of 
coloration  can  be  imagined  which  is  not  protective  (in  which  case, 
of  course,  the  whole  theory  becomes  meaningless),  or  else  the  state- 


PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  515 

ment  so  sweepingly  made  is  entirely  incorrect.  As  I  have  already 
shown,  there  are  great  numbers  of  animals  to  which  it  cannot  apply  ; 
and  some  of  the  very  animals  which  do  escape  observation  in  com- 
plete fashion  are  coloured  utterly  differently  when  compared  one 
with  the  other,  although  their  habitats  are  the  same.  The  intricate 
pattern  of  the  leopard,  and  the  uniform,  simple  pattern  of  the 
cougar,  seem  equally  efficient  under  precisely  similar  conditions; 
and  so  do  all  the  intermediate  patterns  when  the  general  tint  is 
neutral ;  and  even  the  strikingly-coloured  melanistic  forms  of  these 
creatures  seem  as  well  fed  and  successful  as  the  others.  Mono- 
coloured  cougars  and  spotted  jaguars,  black  leopards  and  spotted 
leopards,  and  other  cats  of  all  tints  and  shades,  broken  or  unbroken, 
are  frequently  found  in  the  same  forests,  dwelling  under  precisely 
similar  conditions,  and  all  equally  successful  in  eluding  observation 
and  in  catching  their  prey. 

One  of  the  most  extreme,  and  most  unwarrantable,  of  the 
positions  taken  by  the  ultra-advocates  of  the  protective-coloration 
theory  is  that  in  reference  to  certain  boldly-marked  black  and 
white  animals,  like  skunks  and  Colobus  monkeys,  whose  coloration 
patterns  they  assert  to  be  obliterative.  In  skunks,  the  coloration 
is  certainly  not  protective  in  any  way  against  foes,  as  every  human 
being  must  know  if  he  has  ever  come  across  skunks  by  night  or  by 
day  in  the  wilderness  ;  their  coloration  advertises  their  presence  to 
all  other  creatures  which  might  prey  on  them.  In  all  probability, 
moreover,  it  is  not  of  the  slightest  use  in  helping  them  obtain  the 
little  beasts  on  which  they  themselves  prey.  Mr.  Thayer's  "  sky- 
pattern  "  theory  about  skunks  cannot  apply,  for  bears,  which  are 
equally  good  mousers  and  insect-grubbers,  have  no  white  on  them, 
nor  have  fishers,  weasels,  raccoons,  or  foxes ;  and  in  any  event  the 
"  sky-pattern "  would  not  as  often  obliterate  the  skunk  from  the 
view  of  its  prey  as  it  would  advertise  it  to  its  prey.  It  is  to  the 
last  degree  unlikely  that  any  mouse  or  insect  is  ever  more  easily 
caught  because  of  the  white  "  sky-pattern  "  on  the  skunk  ;  and  it 
is  absolutely  certain  that  any  of  these  little  creatures  that  trust  to 
their  eyes  at  all  must  have  their  vision  readily  attracted  by  the 
skunk's  bold  coloration ;  and  the  skunk's  method  of  hunting  is 
incompatible  with  deriving  benefit  from  its  coloration.  Besides,  it 
usually  hunts  at  night,  and  at  night  the  white  "  sky-pattern  "  is 
not  a  sky-pattern  at  all,  but  is  exceedingly  conspicuous,  serving  as 
an  advertisement. 

The  big  black  and  white  Colobus  monkey  has  been  adduced  as 
an  instance  of  the  "  concealing  "  quality  of  bold  and  conspicuous 
coloration  patterns.  Of  course,  as  I  have  said  before,  there  is  no 
conceivable  pattern  which  may  not,  under  some  wholly  exceptional 
circumstances,  be  of  use  from  the  protective  standpoint ;  a  soldier 
in  a  black  frock-coat  and  top-hat,  with  white  duck  trousers,  might 


516  APPENDIX  E 

conceivably  in  the  course  of  some  city  fight  get  into  a  coal-cellar 
with  a  white- washed  floor,  and  find  that  the  "coloration  pattern" 
of  his  preposterous  uniform  was  protective ;  and  really  it  would  be 
no  more  misleading  to  speak  of  such  a  soldier''s  dress  as  protective 
compared  to  khaki  than  it  is  to  speak  of  the  Colobus  monkey's 
coloration  as  protective  when  compared  with  the  colorations  of  the 
duller-coloured  monkeys  of  other  species  that  are  found  in  the 
same  forests.  When  hunting  with  the  wild  'Ndorobo,  1  often 
found  it  impossible  to  see  the  ordinary  monkeys,  which  they  tried 
to  point  out  to  me,  before  the  latter  fled  ;  but  I  rarely  failed  to 
see  the  Colobus  monkey  when  it  was  pointed  out.  In  the  tops  of 
the  giant  trees,  any  monkey  that  stood  motionless  was  to  my  eyes 
difficult  to  observe;  but  nine  times  out  of  ten  it  was  the  dull- 
coloured  monkey,  and  not  the  black  and  white  Colobus,  which  was 
most  difficult  to  observe.  I  questioned  the  'Ndorobos  as  to  which 
they  found  hardest  to  see,  and,  rather  to  my  amusement,  at  first 
they  could  not  understand  my  question,  simply  because  they  could 
not  understand  failing  to  make  out  either ;  but,  when  they  did 
understand,  they  always  responded  that  the  black  and  white 
Colobus  was  the  monkey  easiest  to  see  and  easiest  to  kill.  These 
monkeys  stretch  nearly  across  Africa,  from  a  form  at  one  extremity 
of  the  range  which  is  almost  entirely  black,  to  a  form  at  the  other 
extremity  of  the  range  which  is  mainly  or  most  conspicuously  white. 
Of  course  it  is  quite  impossible  that  both  forms  can  be  protec- 
tively coloured  ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  is. 

I  am  not  speaking  of  the  general  theory  of  protective  coloration. 
1  am  speaking  of  certain  phases  thereof  as  to  which  I  have  made 
observations  at  first-hand.  I  have  studied  the  facts  as  regards  big 
game  and  certain  other  animals,  and  I  am  convinced  that  as 
regards  these  animals  the  protective-coloration  theory  either  does 
not  apply  at  all  or  applies  so  little  as  to  render  it  necessary  to 
accept  with  the  utmost  reserve  the  sweeping  generalizations  of 
Mr.  Thayer  and  the  protective-coloration  extremists.  It  is  an 
exceedingly  interesting  subject.  It  certainly  seems  that  the  theory 
must  apply  as  regards  many  animals ;  but  it  is  even  more  certain 
that  it  does  not,  as  its  advocates  claim,  apply  universally ;  and 
careful  study  and  cautious  generalizations  are  imperatively  neces- 
sary in  striving  to  apply  it  extensively,  while  fanciful  and  im- 
possible efforts  to  apply  it  where  it  certainly  does  not  apply  can 
do  no  real  good.  It  is  necessary  to  remember  that  some  totally 
different  principle,  in  addition  to  or  in  substitution  for  protective 
coloration,  must  have  been  at  work  where  totally  different  colora- 
tions and  colour  patterns  seem  to  bring  the  same  results  to  the 
wearers.  The  bear  and  the  skunk  are  both  catchers  of  small 
rodents,  and  when  the  colour  patterns  of  the  back,  nose,  and 
breast,  for  instance,  are  directly  opposite  in  the  two  animals,  there 


PROTECTIVE  COJ.ORATION  517 

is  at  least  need  of  very  great  caution  in  deciding  that  either 
represents  obliterative  coloration  of  a  sort  that  benefits  the 
creature  in  catching  its  prey.  Similarly,  to  say  that  white  herons 
and  pelicans  and  roseate-coloured  flamingoes  and  spoon-bills  are 
helped  by  their  coloration,  when  other  birds  that  live  exactly  in 
the  same  fashion  and  just  as  successfully,  are  black,  or  brown,  or 
black  and  white,  or  grey,  or  green,  or  blue,  certainly  represents 
mere  presumption,  as  yet  unaccompanied  by  a  vestige  of  proof, 
and  probably  represents  error.  There  is  probably  much  in  the 
general  theory  of  concealment  coloration,  but  it  is  not  possible  to 
say  how  much  until  it  is  thoroughly  tested  by  men  who  do  not 
violate  the  advice  of  the  French  scientific  professor  to  his  pupils : 
"  Above  all  things  remember  in  the  course  of  your  investigations 
that  if  you  determine  to  find  out  something  you  will  probably 
do  so." 

I  have  dealt  chiefly  with  big  game.  But  I  think  it  high 
time  that  sober  scientific  men  desirous  to  find  out  facts  should 
not  leave  this  question  of  concealing  coloration  or  protec- 
tive coloration  to  theorists  who,  however  able,  become  so 
interested  in  their  theory  that  they  lose  the  capacity  to  state  facts 
exactly.  Mr.  Thayer  and  the  various  gentlemen  who  share  his 
views  have  undoubtedly  made  some  very  interesting  discoveries, 
and  it  may  well  be  that  these  discoveries  are  of  widespread  impor- 
tance. But  they  must  be  most  carefully  weighed,  considered,  and 
corrected  by  capable  scientific  men  before  it  is  possible  to  say  how 
far  the  theory  applies  and  what  limitations  there  are  to  it.  At 
present  all  that  is  absolutely  certain  is  that  it  does  not  apply 
anywhere  near  as  extensively  as  Mr.  Thayer  alleges,  and  that  he 
is  so  completely  mistaken  as  to  some  of  his  facts  as  to  make  it 
necessary  carefully  to  reconsider  most  of  the  others.  I  have 
shown  that  as  regards  most  kinds  of  big  game  which  inhabit 
open  places  and  do  not  seek  to  escape  observation,  but  trust 
to  their  own  wariness  for  protection,  his  theories  do  not  apply  at 
all.  They  certainly  do  not  apply  at  all  to  various  other  mammals. 
Many  of  his  sweeping  assertions  are  certainly  not  always  true,  and 
may  not  be  true  in  even  a  very  small  number  of  cases.  Thus,  in 
his  introduction,  Mr.  Thayer  says  of  birds  that  the  so-called 
"  nuptial  colours,  etc.,  are  confined  to  situations  where  the  same 
colours  are  to  be  found  in  the  wearers  background,  either  at  certain 
periods  of  his  life  or  all  the  time,"  and  that  apparently  not  one  of 
these  colours  "  exists  anywhere  in  the  world  where  there  is  not 
every  reason  to  believe  it  the  very  best  conceivable  device  for  the 
concealment  of  its  wearer,  either  throughout  the  main  part  of  this 
wearer's  life  or  under  certain  peculiarly  important  circumstances." 
It  is  really  difficult  to  argue  about  a  statement  so  flatly  contra- 
dicted  by  ordinary  experience.     Taking  at  random   two  of  the 


518  APPENDIX  E 

common  birds  around  our  own  homes,  it  is  only  necessary  to 
consider  the  bobolink  and  the  scarlet  tanager.  The  males  of 
these  two  birds  in  the  breeding  season  put  on  liveries  which  are 
not  only  not  the  "  very  best  conceivable,"  but,  on  the  contrary,  are 
the  very  worst  conceivable  devices  for  the  concealment  of  the 
wearers.  If  the  breeding  cock  bobolink  and  breeding  cock  tanager 
are  not  coloured  in  the  most  conspicuous  manner  to  attract  atten- 
tion, if  they  are  not  so  coloured  as  to  make  it  impossible  for 
them  to  be  more  conspicuous,  then  it  is  absolutely  hopeless  for 
man  or  Nature  or  any  power  above  or  under  the  earth  to  devise 
any  scheme  of  coloration  whatsoever  which  shall  not  be  concealing 
or  protective  ;  and  in  such  cases  Mr.  Thayer''s  whole  argument  is 
a  mere  play  upon  words.  In  sufficiently  thick  cover,  whether  of 
trees  or  grass,  any  small  animal  of  any  colour  or  shape  may,  if 
motionless,  escape  observation  ;  but  the  coloration  patterns  of  the 
breeding  bobolink  and  breeding  tanager  males,  so  far  from  being 
concealing  or  protective,  are  in  the  highest  degree  advertising  ; 
and  the  same  is  true  of  multitudes  of  birds,  of  the  red- winged 
blackbird,  of  the  yellow-headed  grackle,  of  the  wood-duck,  of  the 
spruce  grouse,  of  birds  which  could  be  mentioned  offhand  by 
the  hundred,  and  probably,  after  a  little  study,  by  the  thousand. 
As  regards  many  of  these  birds,  the  coloration  can  never  be 
protective  or  concealing ;  as  regards  others,  it  may  under  certain 
rare  combinations  of  conditions,  like  those  set  forth  in  some 
of  Mr.  Thayer's  ingenious  but  misleading  coloured  pictures,  ^  serve 
for  concealment  or  protection,  but  in  an  infinitely  larger  number 
of  cases  it  serves  simply  to  advertise  and  attract  attention  to  the 
wearers.  As  regards  these  cases,  and  countless  others,  Mr.  Thayer''s 
theories  seem  to  me  without  substantial  foundation  in  fact,  and 
other  influences  than  those  he  mentions  must  be  responsible  for  the 
coloration.  It  may  be  that  his  theories  really  do  not  apply  to  a 
very  large  number  of  animals  which  are  coloured  white,  or  are  pale 
in  tint,  beneath.  For  instance,  in  the  cases  of  creatures  like  those 
of  snakes  and  mice — where  the  white  or  pale  tint  beneath  can  never 
be  seen  by  either  their  foes  or  their  prey — this  "counter-shading" 
may  be  due  to  some  cause  wholly  differing  from  anything  concerned 
with  protection  or  concealment. 

There  are  other  problems  of  coloration  for  which  Mr.  Thayer 
professes  to  give  an  explanation  where  this  explanation  breaks 
down  for  a  different  reason.  The  cougar's  coloration,  for  instance, 
is  certainly  in  a  high  degree  concealing  and  protective,  or  at  any 
rate  it  is  such  that  it  does  not  interfere  with  the  animaPs  pro- 
tecting itself  by  concealment,  for  the  cougar  is  one  of  the  most 

^  Some  of  the  pictures  are  excellent,  and  undoubtedly  put  the  facts  truthfully 
and  clearly  ;  others  portray  as  normal  conditions  which  are  wholly  abnormal  and 
exceptional,  and  are  therefore  completely  misleading. 


PROTECTIVE  COLORATION  519 

elusive  of  creatures,  one  of  the  most  difficult  to  see,  either  by  the 
hunter  who  follows  it  or  by  the  animal  on  which  it  preys.  But 
the  cougar  is  found  in  every  kind  of  country — in  northern  pine- 
woods,  in  thick  tropical  forests,  on  barren  plains  and  among  rocky 
mountains.  Mr.  Thayer  in  his  introduction  states  that  "  one  may 
read  on  an  animal's  coat  the  main  facts  of  his  habits  and  habitat, 
without  ever  seeing  him  in  his  home."  It  would  be  interesting  to 
know  how  he  would  apply  this  statement  to  the  cougar,  and,  if  he 
knew  nothing  about  the  animal,  tell  from  its  coat  which  specimen 
lived  in  a  Wisconsin  pine-forest,  which  among  stunted  cedars  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains,  which  on  the  snow-line  of  the  Andes,  which 
in  the  forest  of  the  Amazon,  and  which  on  the  plains  of  Patagonia. 
With  which  habitat  is  the  cougar's  coat  supposed  especially  to 
harmonize  ?  A  lioness  is  coloured  like  a  cougar,  and  in  Africa  we 
found  by  actual  experience  that  the  very  differently-coloured 
leopard  and  lioness  and  cheetah  and  serval  were,  when  in  precisely 
similar  localities,  equally  difficult  to  observe.  It  almost  seems  as 
if  with  many  animals  the  matter  of  coloration  is  immaterial,  so 
far  as  concealment  is  concerned,  compared  with  the  ability  of  the 
animal  to  profit  by  cover  and  to  crouch  motionless  or  slink 
stealthily  along. 

Again,  there  seems  to  be  much  truth  in  Mr.  Thayer's  statement 
of  the  concealing  quality  of  most  mottled  snake-skins.  But 
Mr.  Thayer  does  not  touch  on  the  fact  that  in  exactly  the  same 
localities  as  those  where  these  mottled  snakes  dwell,  there  are  often 
snakes  entirely  black  or  brown  or  green,  and  yet  all  seem  to  get 
along  equally  well,  to  escape  equally  well  from  their  foes,  and  pi-ey 
with  equal  ease  on  smaller  animals.  In  Africa,  the  two  most 
common  poisonous  snakes  we  found  were  the  black  cobra  and  the 
mottled  puff-adder.  If  the  coloration  of  one  was  that  best  suited 
for  concealment,  then  the  reverse  was  certainly  true  of  the  colora- 
tion of  the  other. 

But  perhaps  the  climax  of  Mr.  Thayer's  theory  is  reached  when 
he  suddenly  applies  it  to  human  beings,  saying :  "  Among  the 
aboriginal  human  races,  the  various  war-paints,  tattooings,  head 
decorations,  and  appendages,  such  as  the  long,  erect  mane  of  eagle 
feathers  worn  by  North  American  Indians — all  these,  whatever 
purposes  their  wearers  believe  they  serve,  do  tend  to  obliterate 
them,  precisely  as  similar  devices  obliterate  animals."  Now,  this 
simply  is  not  so,  and  it  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  understand  how 
any  man  trained  to  proper  scientific  observation  can  believe  it  to 
be  so.  The  Indian,  and  the  savage  generally,  have  a  marvellous 
and  wild-beast-like  knack  of  concealing  themselves.  I  have  seen 
in  Africa  'Ndorobo  hunters,  one  clad  in  a  white  blanket  and  one  in 
a  red  one,  coming  close  toward  elephants,  and  yet,  thanks  to  their 
skill,  less  apt  to  be  observed  than  I  was  in  dull-coloured  garments. 


520  APPENDIX  E 

So  I  have  seen  an  Indian  in  a  rusty  frock-coat  and  a  battered  derby 
hat  make  a  successful  stalk  on  a  deer  which  a  white  hunter  would 
have  had  some  difficulty  in  approaching.  But  when  the  'Ndorobos 
got  to  what  they — not  I — considered  close  quarters,  they  quietly 
dropped  the  red  or  white  blankets ;  and  an  Indian  would  take 
similar  pains  when  it  came  to  making  what  he  regarded  as  a 
difficult  stalk.  The  feathered  head-dress  to  which  Mr.  Thayer 
alludes  would  be  almost  as  conspicuous  as  a  sun  umbrella,  and  an 
Indian  would  no  more  take  it  out  on  purpose  to  go  stalking  in  than 
a  white  hunter  would  attempt  the  same  feat  with  an  open  umbrella. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  paint  and  tattooing  of  which  Mr.  Thayer 
speaks,  where  they  are  sufficiently  conspicuous  to  be  visible  from 
any  distance.  Not  only  do  the  war-bonnets  and  war-paint  of  the 
American  Indians  and  other  savages  have  no  concealing  or  pro- 
tective quality,  as  Mr.  Thayer  supposes,  but,  as  a  matter  of  jPact, 
they  are  highly  conspicuous  ;  and  this  I  know  by  actual  experience, 
by  having  seen  in  the  open  savages  thus  arrayed,  and  compared 
them  with  the  aspect  of  the  same  savages  when  hunting. 


APPENDIX  F 


The  original  list  of  the  "  Pigskin  Library  "  was  as  follows 

Bible. 
Apocrypha. 


Borrow 

.     Bible  in  Spain. 

Zingali. 

Lavengro. 

Wild  Waves. 

The  Romany  Rye, 

Shakespeare. 

Spenser 
Marlowe. 

.     Faerie  Queene. 

Mahan 

.     Sea  Power. 

Macaulay 

.     History. 

Essays. 

Poems. 

Homer 

.     Iliad. 

Odyssey. 

La  Chanson  de  Roland. 

Nibelungenlied. 

Carlyle 
Shelley 

Frederick  the  Great. 

.     Poems. 

Bacon 

.     Essays. 

Lowell 

.     Literary  Essays. 

Biglow  Papers. 

Emerson 

.     Poems. 

Longfellow. 

Tennyson. 

Poe  . 

.     Tales. 

Poems. 

Keats. 

Milton 

.     Paradise  Lost  (Books  L  and  H. ). 

Dante 

.     Inferno  (Carlyle's  translation). 

Holmes 

.     Autocrat. 

Over  the  Teacups. 

Bret  Harte  . 

.     Poems. 

Tales  of  the  Argonauts. 

Luck  of  Roaring  Camp. 

Browning     . 

.     Selections. 

Crothers 

.     Gentle  Reader. 

Pardoner's  Wallet, 

521 


522  APPENDIX  F 

Mark  Twain  .  .  .     Huckleberry  Finn. 

Tom  Sawyer. 
Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress.'' 
Euripides  (Murray's  translation)     .     Hippolytus. 

Bacchffi. 
The  Federalist. 

Gregorovius  .  .  .     Rome. 

Scott  ....     Legend  of  Montrose. 

Guy  Mannering. 

Waverley. 

Rob  Roy. 

Antiquary. 
Cooper         ....     Pilot. 

Two  Admirals. 
Froissart. 
Percy's  Reliques. 
Thackeray    ....     Vanity  Fair. 

Pendennis. 
Dickens         ....     Mutual  Friend. 

Pickwick. 

I  received  so  many  inquiries  about  the  "  Pigskin  Library  "  (as 
the  list  appeared  in  the  first  chapter  of  my  African  articles  in 
Scribner's  Magazine  [see  p.  23]),  and  so  many  comments  were 
made  upon  it,  often  in  connection  with  the  list  of  books  recently 
made  public  by  ex-President  Eliot,  of  Harvard,  that  I  may  as  well 
myself  add  a  word  on  the  subject. 

In  addition  to  the  books  originally  belonging  to  the  "  library," 
various  others  were  from  time  to  time  added.  Among  them, 
"  Alice  in  Wonderland "  and  "  Through  the  Looking- Glass," 
Dumas'  "  Louves  de  Machekoule,"  "  Tartarin  de  Tarascon "  (not 
until  after  I  had  shot  my  lions !),  Maurice  Egan's  "  Wiles  of  Sexton 
Maginnis,"  James  Lane  Allen's  "  Summer  in  Arcady,"  William 
Allen  White's  "A  Certain  Rich  Man,"  George  Meredith's  "  Farina," 
and  d'Aurevilly's  "  Chevalier  des  Touches."  I  also  had  sent  out 
to  me  Darwin's  "  Origin  of  Species  "  and  "  Voyage  of  the  Beagle," 
Huxley's  Essays,  Frazer's  "  Passages  from  the  Bible,"  Braithwaite's 
"  Book  of  Elizabethan  Verse,"  FitzGerald's  "  Omar  Khayyam," 
Gobineau's  "Inegalite  des  Races  Humaines"  (a  well-written  book, 
containing  some  good  guesses ;  but  for  a  student  to  approach  it 
for  serious  information  would  be  much  as  if  an  abaltross  should 
apply  to  a  dodo  for  an  essay  on  flight),  "  Don  Quixote,"  Montaigne, 
Moliere,  Goethe's  "  Faust,"  Green's  "  Short  History  of  the  English 
People,"  Pascal,  Voltaire's  "  Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.,"  the  "  Memoires 
de  M.  Simon  "  (to  read  on  the  way  home),  and  "The  Soul's  In- 
heritance," by  George  Cabot  Lodge.  Where  possible  I  had  them 
bound  in  pigskin.  They  were  for  use,  not  ornament.  I  almost 
always  had  some  volume  with  me,  either  in  my  saddle-pocket  or  in 
the  cartridge-bag  which  one  of  my  gun-bearers  carried  to  hold 
odds  and  ends.     Often  my  reading  would  be  done  while  resting 


THE  "PIGSKIN   LIBRARY  "  523 

under  a  tree  at  noon,  perhaps  beside  the  carcass  of  a  beast  I  had 
killed,  or  else  while  waiting  for  camp  to  be  pitched  ;  and  in  either 
case  it  might  be  impossible  to  get  water  for  washing.  In  conse- 
quence the  books  were  stained  with  blood,  sweat,  gun-oil,  dust, 
and  ashes ;  ordinary  bindings  either  vanished  or  became  loath- 
some, whereas  pigskin  merely  grew  to  look  as  a  well-used  saddle 
looks. 

Now,  it  ought  to  be  evident,  on  a  mere  glance  at  the  complete 
list,  both  that  the  books  themselves  are  of  unequal  value,  and  also 
that  they  were  chosen  for  various  reasons,  and  for  this  particular 
trip.  Some  few  of  them  I  would  take  with  me  on  any  trip  of  like 
length  ;  but  the  majority  I  should  of  course  change  for  others — 
as  good  and  no  better — were  I  to  start  on  another  such  trip.  On 
trips  of  various  length  in  recent  years,  I  have  taken,  among  many 
other  books,  the  "  Memoirs  of  Marbot,"  .Eschylus,  Sophocles, 
Aristotle,  Joinville's  "  History  of  St.  Louis,""  the  Odyssey  (Pal- 
mer's translation),  volumes  of  Gibbon  and  Parkraan,  Lounsbury's 
Chaucer,  Theocritus,  Lea's  "  History  of  the  Inquisition,"  Lord 
Acton's  Essays,  and  Ridgeway's  "  Prehistoric  Greece."  Once  I 
took  Ferrero's  "  History  of  Rome,"  and  liked  it  so  much  that  I 
got  the  author  to  come  to  America  and  stay  at  the  White  House  ; 
once  De  La  Gorce's  "  History  of  the  Second  Republic  and  Second 
Empire  " — an  invaluable  book.  I  did  not  regard  these  books  as 
better  or  worse  than  those  I  left  behind ;  I  took  them  because  at 
the  moment  I  wished  to  read  them.  The  choice  would  largely 
depend  upon  what  I  had  just  been  reading.  This  time  I  took 
Euripides,  because  I  had  just  been  reading  Muiray's  "  History  of 
the  Greek  Epic."^  Having  become  interested  in  MahafFy's  Essays 
on  Hellenistic  Greece,  I  took  Polybius  on  my  next  trip  ;  having 
just  read  Benjamin  Ide  Wheeler's  "  History  of  Alexander,"  I  took 
Arrian  on  my  next  hunt.  Something  having  started  me  reading 
German  poetry,  I  once  took  Schiller,  Koerner,  and  Heine  to  my  ranch. 
Another  time  I  started  with  a  collection  of  essays  on  and  transla- 
tions from  early  Irish  poetry.  Yet  another  time  I  took  Morris's 
translations  of  various  Norse  Sagas,  including  the  Heimskringia, 
and  liked  them  so  much  that  I  then  incautiously  took  his  transla- 
tion of  Beowulf,  only  to  find  that  while  it  had  undoubtedly  been 
translated  out  of  Anglo-Saxon,  it  had  not  been  translated  into 
English,  but  merely  into  a  language  bearing  a  specious  resemblance 
thereto.  Once  I  took  Sutherland's  "  History  of  the  Growth  of  the 
Moral  Instinct ";  but  I  did  not  often  take  scientific  books,  simply 
because  as  yet  scientific  books  rarely  have  literary  value.  Of 
course  a  really  good  scientific    book  should  be  as  interesting  to 

>  I  am  wTiting  on  the  White  Nile  from  memory.  The  titles  I  give  may  some- 
times be  inaccurate,  and  I  cannot,  of  course,  begin  to  remember  all  the  books  I  have 
at  diflferent  times  taken  out  with  me. 


524  APPENDIX  F 

read  as  any  other  good  book  ;  and  the  volume  in  question  was 
taken  because  it  fulfilled  this  requirement,  its  eminent  Australian 
author  being  not  only  a  learned  but  a  brilliant  man. 

I  as  emphatically  object  to  nothing  but  heavy  reading  as  I  do 
to  nothing  but  light  reading,  all  that  is  indispensable  being  that 
the  heavy  and  the  light  reading  alike  shall  be  both  interesting  and 
wholesome.  So  I  have  always  carried  novels  with  me,  including, 
as  a  rule,  some  by  living  authors,  but  (unless  I  had  every  confidence 
in  the  author)  only  if  I  had  already  read  the  book.  Among  many, 
I  remember  offhand  a  few  such  as  "The  Virginian,"  "Lin 
McLean,"  "  Puck  of  Pook's  Hill,"  "  Uncle  Remus,"  "  Aaron  of  the 
Wild  Woods,"  "Letters  of  a  Self-made  Merchant  to  his  Son," 
"  Many  Cargoes,"  "  The  Gentleman  from  Indiana,"  "  David 
Harum,"  "The  Crisis,"  "The  Silent  Places,"  "  Marse  Chan," 
"  Soapy  Sponge's  Sporting  Tour,"  "  All  on  the  Irish  Shore,"  "  The 
Blazed  Trail,"  "  Stratagems  and  Spoils,"  "  Knights  in  Fustian," 
"Selma,"  "The  Taskmasters,"  Edith  Wyatt's  "Every  Man  to 
his  Humour,"  the  novels  and  stories  of  Octave  Thanet.  I  wish  I 
could  remember  more  of  them,  for,  personally,  I  have  certainly 
profited  as  much  by  reading  really  good  and  interesting  novels  and 
stories  as  by  reading  anything  else ;  and  from  the  contemporary 
ones  I  have  often  reached,  as  in  no  other  way  I  could  have 
reached,  an  understanding  of  how  real  people  feel  in  certain 
country  districts,  and  in  certain  regions  of  great  cities  like  Chicago 
and  New  York. 

Of  course  I  also  generally  take  out  some  of  the  novels  of  those 
great  writers  of  the  past  whom  one  can  read  over  and  over  again ; 
and  occasionally  one  by  some  writer  who  was  not  great,  like  "The 
Semi-attached  Couple  " — a  charming  little  early  Victorian  or  pre- 
Victorian  tale,  which,  I  suppose,  other  people  cannot  like  as  I  do, 
or  else  it  would  be  reprinted. 

Above  all,  let  me  insist  that  the  books  which  I  have  taken  were, 
and  could  only  be,  a  tiny  fraction  of  those  for  which  I  cared  and 
which  I  continually  read,  and  that  I  care  for  them  neither  more 
nor  less  than  for  those  I  left  at  home.  I  took  "  The  Deluge  "  and 
"Pan  Michael"  and  "Flight  of  a  Tartar  Tribe"  because  I  had 
just  finished  "Fire  and  Sword";  "Moby  Dick"  because  I  had 
been  re-reading  "  Omoo  "  and  "  Typee  ";  Gogol's  "  Taras  Bulba  " 
because  I  wished  to  get  the  Cossack  view  of  what  was  described  by 
Sienkiewicz  from  the  Polish  side  ;  some  of  Maurice  Jokai  and  "  St. 
Peter's  Umbrella  "  (I  am  not  at  all  sure  about  the  titles)  because 
my  attention  at  the  moment  was  on  Hungary  ;  and  the  novels  of 
Topelius  when  I  happened  to  be  thinking  of  Finland.  I  took 
Dumas'  cycle  of  romances  dealing  with  the  French  Revolution 
because  I  had  just  finished  Carlyle's  work  thereon,  and  I  felt  that 
of  the  two  the  novelist  was  decidedly  the  better  historian.     I  took 


THE  "PIGSKIN  LIBRARY"  525 

"  Salammbo "  and  "  The  Nabob "  rather  than  scores  of  other 
French  novels  simply  because  at  the  moment  I  happened  to  see 
them  and  think  that  I  would  like  to  read  them.  I  doubt  if  I 
ever  took  anything  of  Hawthorne's,  but  this  was  certainly  not 
because  I  failed  to  recognize  his  genius. 

Now,  all  this  means  that  I  take  with  me  on  any  trip,  or  on  all 
trips  put  together,  but  a  very  small  proportion  of  the  books  that 
I  like ;  and  that  I  like  very  many  and  very  different  kinds  of 
books,  and  do  not  for  a  moment  attempt  anything  so  preposterous 
as  a  continual  comparison  between  books  which  may  appeal  to 
totally  different  sets  of  emotions.  For  instance,  one  correspondent 
pointed  out  to  me  that  Tennyson  was  "  trivial "  compared  to 
Browning,  and  another  complained  that  I  had  omitted  Walt 
Whitman  ;  another  asked  why  I  put  Longfellow  "on  a  level"  with 
Tennyson.  I  believe  I  did  take  Walt  Whitman  on  one  hunt ;  and 
I  like  Browning,  Tennyson,  and  Longfellow,  all  of  them,  without 
thinking  it  necessary  to  compare  them.  It  is  largely  a  matter  of 
personal  taste.  In  a  recent  English  review  I  glanced  at  an  article 
on  English  verse  of  to-day,  in  which,  after  enumerating  various 
writers  of  the  first  and  second  classes,  the  writer  stated  that 
Kipling  was  at  the  head  of  the  third  class  of  "ballad-mongers."" 
It  happened  that  I  had  never  even  heard  of  most  of  the  men 
he  mentioned  in  the  first  two  classes,  whereas  I  should  be  surprised 
to  find  that  there  was  any  one  of  Kipling's  poems  which  I  did  not 
already  know.  I  do  not  quarrel  with  the  taste  of  the  critic  in 
question,  but  I  see  no  reason  why  anyone  should  be  guided  by  it. 
So  with  Longfellow.  A  man  who  dislikes  or  looks  down  upon 
simple  poetry — ballad  poetry — will  not  care  for  Longfellow ;  but 
if  he  really  cares  for  "  Chevy  Chase,"  "  Sir  Patrick  Spens,"  "  Twa 
Corbies,"  Michael  Drayton's  "  Agincourt,"  Scotfs  "  Harlaw," 
"  Eve  of  St.  John,"  and  the  Flodden  fight  in  "  Marmion,"  he  will 
be  apt  to  like  such  poems  as  the  "  Saga  of  King  Olaf,"  "  Othere," 
"The  Driving  Cloud,"  "Belisarius,"  "  Helen  of  Tyre,"  "Enceladus," 
"  The  Warden  of  the  Cinque  Ports,"  "  Paul  Revere,"  and  "  Simon 
Danz."  I  am  exceedingly  fond  of  these,  and  of  many,  many  other 
poems  of  Longfellow.  This  does  not  interfere  in  the  least  with 
ray  admiration  for  "  Ulysses,"  "  The  Revenge,"  "  The  Palace  of 
Art,"  the  little  poems  in  "  The  Princess,"  and,  in  fact,  most  of 
Tennyson.  Nor  does  my  liking  for  Tennyson  prevent  my  caring 
greatly  for  "  Childe  Roland,"  "  Love  among  the  Ruins,"  "  Proteus," 
and  nearly  all  the  poems  that  I  can  understand,  and  some  that  I 
can  merely  guess  at,  in  Browning.  I  do  not  feel  the  slightest 
need  of  trying  to  apply  a  common  measuring-rule  to  these  three 
poets,  any  more  than  I  find  it  necessary  to  compare  Keats  with 
Shelley,  or  Shelley  with  Poe.     I  enjoy  them  all. 

As  regards  Mr.  Eliot's  list,  I  think  it  slightly  absurd  to  compare 


526  APPENDIX  F 

any  list  of  good  books  with  any  other  list  of  good  books  in  the 
sense  of  saying  that  one  list  is  "  better"  or  "  worse ""  than  another. 
Of  course  a  list  may  be  made  up  of  worthless  or  noxious  books ; 
but  there  are  so  many  thousands  of  good  books  that  no  list  of 
small  size  is  worth  considering  if  it  purports  to  give  the  "  best " 
books.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  the  hundred  best  books,  or  the 
best  five-foot  library ;  but  there  can  be  drawn  up  a  very  large 
number  of  lists,  each  of  which  shall  contain  a  hundred  good  books 
or  fill  a  good  five-foot  library.  This  is,  I  am  sure,  all  that 
Mr.  Eliot  has  tried  to  do.  His  is  in  most  respects  an  excellent 
list,  but  it  is  of  course  in  no  sense  a  list  of  the  best  books  for  all 
people,  or  for  all  places  and  times.  The  question  is  largely  one 
of  the  personal  equation.  Some  of  the  books  which  Mr.  Eliot 
includes  I  would  not  put  in  a  five-foot  library,  nor  yet  in  a  fifty- 
foot  library ;  and  he  includes  various  good  books  which  are  at 
least  no  better  than  many  thousands  (I  speak  literally)  which  he 
leaves  out.  This  is  of  no  consequence  so  long  as  it  is  frankly 
conceded  that  any  such  list  must  represent  only  the  individual's 
personal  preferences,  that  it  is  merely  a  list  o^  good  books,  and 
that  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  list  of  the  best  books.  It 
would  be  useless  even  to  attempt  to  make  a  list  with  such  pre- 
tensions unless  the  library  were  to  extend  to  many  thousand 
volumes,  for  there  are  many  voluminous  writers,  most  of  whose 
writings  no  educated  man  ought  to  be  willing  to  spare.  For 
instance,  Mr.  Eliot  evidently  does  not  care  for  history ;  at  least,  he 
includes  no  historians  as  such.  Now,  personally,  I  would  not 
include,  as  Mr.  Eliot  does,  third  or  fourth  rate  plays,  such  as  those 
of  Dryden,  Shelley,  Browning,  and  Byron  (whose  greatness  as 
poets  does  not  rest  on  such  an  exceedingly  slender  foundation  as 
these  dramas  supply),  and  at  the  same  time  completely  omit 
Gibbon  and  Thucydides,  or  even  Xenophon  and  Napier.  Macaulay 
and  Scott  are  practically  omitted  from  Mr.  Eliot's  list ;  they  are 
the  two  nineteenth-century  authors  that  I  should  most  regret  to 
lose.  Mr.  Eliot  includes  the  ^Eneid  and  leaves  out  the  Iliad  ;  to 
my  mind  this  is  like  including  Pope  and  leaving  out  Shakespeare. 
In  the  same  way,  Emerson's  "  English  Traits "  is  included  and 
Holmes's  "  Autocrat "  excluded — an  incomprehensible  choice  from 
my  standpoint.  So  with  the  poets  and  novelists.  It  is  a  mere 
matter  of  personal  taste  whether  one  prefers  giving  a  separate 
volume  to  Bums  or  to  Wordsworth  or  to  Browning  ;  it  certainly 
represents  no  principle  of  selection.  "  I  Promessi  Sposi "  is  a 
good  novel ;  to  exclude  in  its  favour  "  Vanity  Fair,"  "  Anna 
Karenina,"  "  Les  Miserables,"  "  The  Scarlet  Letter,"  or  hundreds 
of  other  novels,  is  entirely  excusable  as  a  mere  matter  of  personal 
taste,  but  not  otherwise.  Mr.  Eliot's  volumes  of  miscellaneous 
essays,  "  Famous  Prefaces"  and  the  like,  are  undoubtedly  just  what 


THE  "PIGSKIN  LIBRARY"  527 

certain  people  care  for,  and  therefore  what  they  ought  to  have,  as 
there  is  no  harm  in  such  collections ;  though,  personally,  I  doubt 
whether  there  is  much  good,  either,  in  this  -'tidbit"  style  of 
literature. 

Let  me  repeat  that  Mr.  Eliot's  list  is  a  good  list,  and  that  my 
protest  is  merely  against  the  belief  that  it  is  possible  to  make  any 
list  of  the  kind  which  shall  be  more  than  a  list  as  good  as  many 
scores  or  many  hundreds  of  others.  Aside  from  personal  taste,  we 
must  take  into  account  national  tastes  and  the  general  change  in 
taste  from  century  to  century.  There  are  four  books  so  pre- 
eminent— the  Bible,  Shakespeare,  Homer,  and  Dante  —  that  I 
suppose  there  would  be  a  general  consensus  of  opinion  among  the 
cultivated  men  of  all  nationalities  in  putting  them  foremost;^  but 
as  soon  as  this  narrow  limit  was  passed  there  would  be  the  wildest 
divergence  of  choice,  according  to  the  individuality  of  the  man 
making  the  choice,  to  the  country  in  which  he  dwelt,  and  the 
century  in  which  he  lived.  An  Englishman,  a  Frenchman,  a 
German,  an  Italian,  would  draw  up  totally  different  lists,  simply 
because  each  must  necessarily  be  the  child  of  his  own  nation.^ 

We  are  apt  to  speak  of  the  judgment  of  "  posterity  "  as  final ; 
but  "  posterity ""  is  no  single  entity,  and  the  "  posterity ""  of  one 
age  has  no  necessary  sympathy  with  the  judgments  of  the 
"  posterity  "  that  preceded  it  by  a  few  centuries.  Montaigne,  in  a 
very  amusing  and,  on  the  whole,  sound  essay  on  training  children, 
mentions  with  pride  that  when  young  he  read  Ovid  instead  of 
wasting  his  time  on  "  '  King  Arthur,' '  Lancelot  du  Lake,"*  .  .  .  and 
such  idle  time-consuming  and  wit  besotting  trash  of  books,  wherein 
youth  doth  commonly  amuse  itself."  Of  course  the  trashy  books 
which  he  had  specially  in  mind  were  the  romances  which  Cervantes 

'  Eveu  this  may  represent  too  much  optimism  on  my  part.  In  Ingres's  picture 
on  the  crowning  of  Homer,  the  foreground  is  occupied  by  the  figures  of  those  whom 
the  French  artist  conscientiously  believed  to  be  the  greatest  modern  men  of  letters. 
They  include  half  a  dozen  Frenchmen — only  one  of  whom  would  probably  have  been 
included  by  a  painter  of  some  other  nation — and  Shakespeare,  although  reluctantly 
admitted,  is  put  modestly  behind  another  figure,  and  only  a  part  of  his  face  is 
permitted  to  peek  through. 

2  The  same  would  be  true,  although  of  course  to  a  less  extent,  of  an  American, 
an  Englishman,  a  Scotchman,  and  an  Irishman,  ,in  spite  of  the  fact  that  all  speak 
substantially  the  same  language.  I  am  entirely  aware  that  if  I  made  an  anthology 
of  poems  I  should  include  a  great  many  American  poems — like  Whittier's  "Snow- 
Bound,"  "  Ichabod,"  and  "  Laus  Deo "  ;  like  Lowell's  "Commemoration  Ode "  and 
'  Biglow  Papers  " — which  could  not  mean  to  an  Englishman  what  they  mean  to 
me.  In  the  same  way,  such  an  English  anthology  as  the  "Oxford  Book  of 
English  Verse  "  is  a  good  anthology — as  good  as  many  other  anthologies — as  long 
as  it  confines  itself  to  the  verse  of  British  authors.  But  it  would  have  been  far 
better  to  exclude  American  authors  entirely ;  for  the  choice  of  the  American  verse 
included  in  the  volume,  compared  in  quantity  and  quality  with  the  correspond- 
ing British  verse  of  the  same  period  which  is  selected,  makes  it  impossible  to 
treat  the  book  seriously,  if  it  is  regarded  as  a  compendium  of  the  authors  of  both 
countries. 


528  APPENDIX  F 

not  long  afterwards  destroyed  at  a  stroke.  But  Malory's  book  and 
others  were  then  extant ;  and  yet  Montaigne,  in  full  accord  with 
the  educated  taste  of  his  day,  saw  in  them  nothing  that  was  not 
ridiculous.  His  choice  of  Ovid  as  representing  a  culture  and 
wisdom  immeasurably  greater  and  more  serious,  shows  how  much 
the  judgment  of  the  "  posterity  "  of  the  sixteenth  century  differed 
from  that  of  the  nineteenth,  in  which  the  highest  literary  thought 
was  deeply  influenced  by  the  legends  of  Arthur''s  knights,  and 
hardly  at  all  by  anything  Ovid  wrote.  Dante  offers  an  even  more 
striking  instance.  If"  posterity'^s  "  judgment  could  ever  be  accepted 
as  final,  it  would  seem  to  be  when  delivered  by  a  man  like  Dante  in 
speaking  of  the  men  of  his  own  calHng  who  had  been  dead  from 
one  to  two  thousand  years.  Well,  Dante  gives  a  list  of  the  six 
greatest  poets.  One  of  them,  he  modestly  mentions,  is  himself, 
and  he  was  quite  right.  Then  come  Virgil  and  Homer,  and  then 
Horace,  Ovid,  and  Lucan  !  Nowadays  we  simply  could  not  under- 
stand such  a  choice,  which  omits  the  mighty  Greek  dramatists 
(with  whom  in  the  same  canto  Dante  shows  his  acquaintance),  and 
includes  one  poet  whose  works  come  about  in  the  class  of  the 
"  Columbiad." 

With  such  an  example  before  us,  let  us  be  modest  about 
dogmatizing  overmuch.  The  ingenuity  exercised  in  choosing  the 
"  Hundred  Best  Books"  is  all  right  if  accepted  as  a  mere  amuse- 
ment, giving  something  of  the  pleasure  derived  from  a  missing- word 
puzzle.  But  it  does  not  mean  much  more.  There  are  very  many 
thousands  of  good  books ;  some  of  them  meet  one  man's  needs, 
some  another's ;  and  any  list  of  such  books  should  simply  be 
accepted  as  meeting  a  given  individual's  needs  under  given  con- 
ditions of  time  and  surroundings. 

Khaktouu,  March  15,  1910. 


INDEX 


Aberdare  ranges,  228,  314 

Abutilon,  a   flowering  shrub  on  which 

elephant  feed,  259 
Africa,  British  East,  1 ;  English  rule  in, 

100  ;  healthy  climate  of,  123  ;  future 

of,  143  ;  spring  in,  230  ;  preservation 

of  elephant  in,  239  ;  missionary  work 

in,  368,  369 
Africa,  East,  growth  and  development 

of,  34  ;  natives  of,  35-37 
Africa,  German  East,  39 
Akeley,  Carl,  57,  340,  341-345 
Akeley,  Mrs.,  340,  345 
Ali,  the  tent-boy,  273,  331 
Allen,  Mr.,  345 
American  flag,  17,  81,  369 
American    Mission-stations,    100,    101  ; 

Industrial,  144, 363  ;  Mission  at  Sobat, 

visit  to,  454 
Antelope,  47,  123,  271 ;  roan  antelope, 

324,  326,  434 
Ants,  361,  383  ;  damage  done  by,  427  ; 

driver  ants,  427 
Arabs,  273 

Ardwolf  (a  miniature  hyena),  282 
Askaris,  or  native  soldiers,  18,  84 
Asser,  Colonel,  435 
Athi  Plains,  42 
Attenborough,  Messrs.,  207 

Baboons,  215,  216 

Bahima  herdsmen,  374 

Bahr  el  Ghazal,  451 

Bahr  el  Zeraf,  453 

Baker,  Sir  Samuel,  62 

Bakhari,   a  gun-bearer,  271  ;    ostriches 

described  by,  274,  331 
Banana  plantation,  257 
Bateleur  eagle,  the,  376 
Bats,  302,  391,  392 
Beetles,  Goliath,  383 
Belgian  Government,  courtesy  of,  389 
Belgian  troops,  soldiers  of,  437 
Birds,   32,   33 ;   honey-bird,   106,    194  ; 
.   extraordinary    habit    of,    335,    338  ; 

whydah  finches,  130,  131,  141  ;  "  lily 


trotters,"  208  ;  wealth  of  bird-life, 
208,  213,  217  ;  water  birds,  221,  225, 
284,  335,  376,  383,  384,  391,  398,  426, 
427  ;  wagtails.  435,  455,  459 

Bishops  in  Africa.  See  Hanlon,  Streicher, 
Tucker 

Black-water  fever,  444 

Boar,  202 

Boers,  the,  37,  38,  39,  40  ;  identity  of 
interest  between  Britons  and,  41,  112, 
347 

Bondoni,  37,  80 

Bongo,  358,  359 

Borani  caravan,  a,  279 

Botha,  Mr.,  346 

Boyle.  Mr. .  365 

Brandy,  moderate  use  of.  456,  457 

Brooks.  Mr.,  345 

Browne,  Mr.,  District  Commissioner,  231 

Buffalo,  57,  126,  181.  132.  133  et  seq., 
240  ;  bulls,  282  ;  disease  wiped  out 
herds  of.  283,  284.  302,  303,  304,  421, 
422  ;  great  muscular  power  of,  423 

Bulpett,  Mr.,  106 

Burroughs,  John,  335 

Bushbuck,  227,  271,  334,  338,  377,  411, 
412 

Bustard,  189,  281,  411 ;  great  bustard, 
137,  193 

Butiaba,  385 

Butler  Bey,  436 

Buxton,  E<lward  North,  4  ;  books  on 
sport  of,  322 

"Bwana,"  Swahili  title  of,  99,  430 

Cambridge  Museum,  345 

Camp,  pitching,  83  ;  at  Kilimakiu,  86 ; 

fires  in,  397 
Caravan,  a,  279 

Carnegie,  Andrew,  Appendix  A 
Champagne,  case  of,  444,  455 
Chapman,  Abel,  62 
Chapman,  Captain,  347,  348 
Cheetah,  76,  121,  281 
Christians,  274 
Christmas  Day,  march  on,  876 


529 


34 


530 


INDEX 


Clark,  265,  340,  345 

CJobra,  193,  200 

Cole,  Barclay,  360 

Collier,  Robert,  340 

Colobus  monkey,  357,  425 

Coloration  of  animals,  eflFect  of  sunlight 
on,  181.  182,  199,  276,  338,  Appen- 
dix E 

Congo,  the,  377 

Corbett,  Mr.,  District  Commissioner, 
347-348 

Corbett,  Mrs.,  347-348 

Cormorants,  434 

Coryndon,  Major  R.  T.,  59 

Cow-catcher,  ride  on  the,  13,  15 

Cow  heron,  132,  372,  426 

Crewe,  Lord,  Appendix  A 

Crocodile.  282,  306,  410,  411,  424 

Cuckoos,  mice  eaten  by,  353 

Cuningharae,  R.  J.,  4,  128,  138,  148, 
154,  176,  188,  215,  241,  242,  248,  254, 
277,  326,  362,  378,  415,  444,  446,  456, 
Appendix  A 

Dance,  funeral,  361 

Dance,  Kikuyu,  231 

Dancing-rings,  130-131 

Delamere,  Lord,  354-360 

Dikdik,  42.  200 

Dogs,  123,  140 

Donors  of  double  elephant  rifle,  list  of, 

22 
Donyo  Sabuk,  107 
Dorobo,  a,  244  ;  elephant's  death  causes 

hysterics  of,  249 
Drummond,  62 
Dugmore,  A.  R. ,  Appendix  E 
Duiker,  42,  229,  353,  417 
Dust  devils,  418 
Dysentery,  deaths  from,  428,  436 

Egrets,  white,  396 

Egyptian  geese,  221 

Eland,    88,   89,    157,   269  ;    Patterson's 

eland.  270,   271,  284  ;   gait  of,  287  ; 

fun  with  a  herd  of,  313,   314,  337  ; 

giant  eland,  436,  439,  440,  441 
Elephant,    57,  234.   235    et   seq.,   245  ; 

wonderful  climbing  powers  of,   246  ; 

death  of  first.  248,  249,  258,  262  ;  bad 

sight  of,  339,  341,  342,  378,  380,  393, 

403  ;  large  herd  of,  426  ;  men  killed 

by,  428 
Elukania,  49 
Entebbe,  363 
Equipment,  22 
Euphorbias,  32,  180,  381 

Fires,  397 
Fish  eagles,  426 
Flamingoes,  317 


Flies,  game  annoyed  by,  299  ;  tsetse  fly, 

354,  399  ;  sleeping-sickness  fly,  399 
Flowers,  32,  229,  230,  331,  372 
Fox,  African,  227 
Francolins,  339 
Freakishness  of  wild  beasts,  285 

Game,  reserve,  11  ;  laws,  11  ;  butchery 
of,  12  ;  comparative  danger  in  hunt- 
ing diff"erent  kinds  of,  57,  63,  64  ; 
stamping-grounds  of,  183  ;  varying 
habits  of,  195,  196,  197  et  seq.  ;  books 
on  East  African,  322 ;  need  of  an 
adequate  term  to  distinguish  the  sexes 
of  African,  334  ;  scent  of,  381 ;  in 
middle  Africa,  preservation  of,  393  ; 
shot  during  trip,  list  of,  457 

Garstin,  Sir  William.  453 

Gazelles,  26 ;  Grant's  gazelles,  26,  42, 
51  ;  northern  form  of,  291  ;  Roberts' 
gazelles,  173, 174 ;  Thomson's  gazelles, 
26,  42,  51,  174 

Genet  kittens,  295 

Gerenuk,  282,  291,  301 

Girafie,  interruption  of  telegraph  service 
by,  14,  44  ;  characteristics  of,  93-98 
et  seq.,  169.  170  ;  peculiar  gait  of,  287; 
"reticulated"  form  of,  296,  297,  298  ; 
indifi^erence  to  water  of,  302  ;  interest- 
ing experience  with  a,  309,  310,  329, 
330  ;  note  on,  330 

Gii-ouard,  Sir  Percy,  363 

Goanese,  8,  225 

Goldfinch,  Mr.,  encounter  with  a  lion, 
64 

Gondokoro,  430  ;  march  to,  433,  444 

Gouvimali,  the  gun-bearer,  156,  272, 
274,  312,  332,  423 

Government  farm,  221 

Government  House,  224 

Grey,  Sir  Edward.     Appendix  A 

Grogan,  Quentin,  389,  408,  409,  413, 
414,  417,  421 

Guaso  Nyero,  153,  155,  268,  300,  331 

Guerza,  146 

Guinea-fowls,  301 

Gun-bearers,  105, 106  ;  rejoicings  of  the, 
255  ;  amusing  English  of  the,  274  ; 
characteristics  of  the,  331,  332 

Haddon,  Mr.,  District  Commissioner,  414 

Hamburg,  4 

Hanlon,  Bishop,  369,  371 

Hartebeest,    26;    "Kongoni,"   Swahili 

name  of,  42  ;  Coke's,   50,   128,   158  ; 

159  ;  Neuman's,  315  ;  Jackson's,  326, 

331,  339,  377  ;  Nile,  411 
Hay,  John,  160 
Heat,  433,  439 
Heatley,  Hugh  H.,  38,  123,   125,   126, 

136,  142,  224 


INDEX 


531 


Heller,  Edmund  A.,  3,  75,  92,  98,  137, 
154,  188,  214,  229,  256,  260,  277,330, 
397,  407,  415,  444 

Hill,  CliflFord,  20,  37,  67 

HiU,  Harold,  20, 37,  67,  68,  76,  76,  77. 78 

Hinde,  Major,  9 

Hinterland,  1 

Hippo,  119,  120,  208,  209,  210,  etc.,  216, 
217,  etc.,  240  ;  porters  chased  by  a, 
341,  392,  401 

Hobley,  Mr.,  Provincial  Commissioner, 
320 

Hog,  the  giant,  358,  359 

Hoima,  384 

Honey-bird,  first  sight  of,  106  ;  charac- 
teristic experience  vnth  a,  194  ;  ex- 
traordinary habit  of,  335,  338 

Homaday,  W.  T.,  405 

Hombills,  267 

Home,  Mr.,  251,  279,  283 

Horses,  the,  275,  354 

Humphries,  Mr.,  District  Commissioner, 
41,  65 

Hunt,  Leigh,  436,  Appendix  A 

Huriburt,  Mr.,  144 

Hutchinson,  Captain,  R.N.R.,  385 

Hyena,  58,  59,  162,  163,  183  ;  difficulty 
in  determining  sex  of,  328, 331, 345, 355 

Hyraxes.  313,  358 

Ibis  stork,  221 

ImpaUa.  42,  107.  108-111,  317 
Indian  trader,  letter  from  an,  266 
lugowa,  an,  a  war-dance  of  the  natives, 

265 
Ivory,  234,  260  ;  poachers  of,  388 

Jackal.  281 

Jackson,   Lieutenant-Governor,  60,  63, 

142,  265 
Jordaan,  Mr.,  347,  348 
Judd,  H.,  38,  107,  223 
Juja  Farm,  100,  104.  121 
Juma  Yohari,  Kennifs  gun-bearer.  332. 

362,  431 
Jungle,  the.  252 
Jusserand,  M.,  French  Ambassador,  160 

KaCu  River,  384 

Kamiti  Ranch,  123 

Kamiti  River,  125,  126 

Kampalla,  366 

Kangani,  293,  307,  308 

Kapiti  Plains,  16,  42 

Kassitura,  Kermit's  gun-bearer,  332, 
395,  431,  443 

Kavirondo,  226 

Kavirondo  crane.  130,  276,  289 

Kearton,  Mr.,  265 

Kenia,  Mount,  232,  268  ;  biological  sur- 
vey of,  318,  319  ;  Appendix  D 


Khartoum,   parting  from  comrades  at, 

455 
Kijabe,  144,  145,  146,  226,  363 
Kikuyu  savages,    104,    105,   213,   226: 

dance  of,  231,  232,  250,  266,  272 
Kilimakiu,  37,  86 
Kilimanjaro,  30 
Kilindini,  361 
King's  African  Rifles,  the,  encamped  at 

Neri,  265 
Kirke,  Mr.,  347,  348,  351 
Kisumu,  363 
Kitanga.  hills  of,  29,  30 
Klipspringers,  55.  184 
Klopper,  Mr.,  37,  39 
Knowles,   Mr.,   District    Commissioner, 

365  ;  struck  by  lightning,  372 
Kob,    Uganda.    336,    337,    411,     447 ; 

lechwe,    446,     448,    449,    450,    452; 

Vaughan's,  449;  white-eared,  446,  453 
Koba,  388 

Koda,  the  river,  437 
Kolb,  Dr. .  356 
Kongoni,  a  Wakamba  gun-bearer,  331, 

341,  378,  379.  395,  423 
Koodoo,  315,  316 

Lado  country,  the,  385,  388,  409,  444 

Lake  Albert  Nyanza,  373,  385 

Lake  Hannington,  288,  317 

Lake  Ingouga,  260 

Lake  Naivasha,  195,  206,  226 

Lake  No,  446 

Lake  Sergoi,  345,  346 

Lake  Victoria  Nyanza,  363 

Lantana  brush,   a   favourite    cover  for 

elephants,  256 
Leopard,    44,    57,    112,  113,  214,   215; 

man-eating,     285,     337,     355  ;    trap 

carried  off  by  a,  401,  444 
Lioness,  63,  77,  78,  164,  165,  185.  187 
Lions,  57,  63,   65.  66  et  seq. ;  death  of 

first,  72,  74,   75,   160,  184-187,   189, 

223  ;    cow    elephants    charge.    264  ; 

party  of  eleven,  279  et  seq.,  309,  360  ; 

stabbed    to    death    by    spears,    350 ; 

supposed  monogamy  of,  352 
Lizards,  blue-green.  313  ;  monitor,  390. 

409,   411  ;  crocodile's  nest  plundered 

by,  424 
Loijs,  Mr.,  37,  39 
Londiaui,  323,  354 
London,  Mr.,  317 
Loring.  J.  Alden,  3,  137.  154,  202.  226, 

397,    403,    405  ;    variety    of   photos 

taken  by,  424,  434,  444  ;  Appendices 

C,  D 
Lucas,  Mr.,  killed  by  a  lion,  64 

Machakos-bonia,  21,  100 
Magi,  a  sais,  333.  431,  443 


532 


INDEX 


Mahdism,  445 

Mali,  Kermit's  tent-boy,  332 
Mammals,  large,  list  of,  Appendix  B.  ; 
small.  34, 154,203  ;  list  of,  Appendix  B 

Man-eater,  adventure  witli  a,  10 

Marabou  stork,  271.  427 

Masai,  34,  105,  158  ;  kraal  of  the.  165, 
189  ;  lions'  attack  on.  203,  204  ; 
guides,  205,  226  ;  dance  of  the,  232  ; 
villages  of,  267 

Massart,  M..  436 

Mau  escarpment,  360 

McCutcheon,  John  T.,  the  cartoonist, 
340,  345 

McMillans,  41,  104,  223,  225 

Meams,  Surgeon  -  Lieutenant  -  Colonel 
Edgar  A.,  3,  137,  154.  202,  203,  226, 
335,  397,  423,  444,  454,  Appendix  D 

Medlicott,  69-72 

Meru  Boma,  254,  257,  278,  284 

Meru,  wild  hunters,  257 

Mice,  varieties  of,  154,  213,  229  ;  tree- 
mouse,  301,  383,  399 

Middleton,  Captain,  436 

Millais,  John  G.,  "A  Breath  from  the 
Veldt. "     Appendix  E 

Milne,  Dr.,  320 

Missions  :  American,  100.  101  ;  French 
Catholic,  144  ;  American  Industrial, 
144  ;  Kijabe,  226  ;  Kampalla,  head- 
quarters of  the,  366  ;  Church  of  Eng- 
land, 369  ;  Catholic,  369  ;  Medical, 
369  ;  Mission  of  the  White  Fathers, 
371  ;  Sobat,  454 

Mohammedanism,  14 

Mombasa,  2,  6 

Mombasa  Club,  dinner  at,  7 

Mongalla,  444 

Mongoose,  interesting  anecdote  of  a, 
286,  358 

Monkey,  Colobus,  357,  425 

Monkeys,  245  ;  swim  across  a  river,  309, 
358,  376,  425,  434 

Moose,  anecdote  of  a,  287 

Mosquitoes,  375,  390,  421 

Mother  Paul,  370 

Mouton,  Mr.,  347-349 

Mua  Hills,  42 

Mules,  399,  436 

Music,  instruments  of,  382 

Nairobi,  60,  143,  144,  223  ;  race  week 
at,  225  ;  plague  of  wild  beasts  in,  320, 
362  ;  good-bye  to  friends  at,  363 

Nairobi  Falls,  126 

Nairobi  River,  104,  126 

Naivasha,  Lake.     See  Lake 

Nakuni,  318,  363 

Nandi.  the,  347,  348,  350  ;  lion  killed 
by  spears  of,  350  ;  rejoicings  of,  351 

Naples,  arrival  at,  5 


Naturalists,  work  of  the  modern,  17  ; 
pre-eminence  of  the,  188  ;  need  of 
ample  observation  by  trustworthy 
field,  281  ;  troubles  of  hunting  as  a, 
298  ;  difficult  profession  of,  407 

'Ndorobo,  primitive  lives  of  the,  200  ; 
Masai  'Ndorobo,  241,  242,  243,  245  ; 
accident  to  the,  250  ;  characteristics  of 
the,  355,  356,  357 

Neri,  228,  231,  268 

Neuman,  Arthur,  306 

Newland,  Mr.,  352,  Appendix  A 

Nile,  the,  428,  445,  454,  455 

Nimule,  428,  430,  432 

Njoro,  354 

Nuer,  a,  450 

Nyanza  lakes.     SeeLake 

Nyika  village,  a,  361 

'Nzoi  River,  323,  333 

Oribi,  327,  331,  334,  353,  392 
Oryx,  270,  271,  276,  282,  292 
Ostrich,  294,  295,  296 
Ostrich-farming,  129 
Otters,  211 
Oioego  Gazette,  221 
Owen,  Colonel,  436,  444 
Ox-waggons,  147,  148.  346 

Pagans,  14 

Palms,  257  ;  ivory-nut,  300 

Papyrus  swamps,  125,  126,  207,  425 

Patterson,  Colonel  J.  H.,  author  ot 
"The  Man-eaters  of  Tsavo,"  9 

"  Pax  Europaica,"  results  of  the,  279 

Peary,  news  of  finding  of  the  Pole  by, 
288  ;  cable  from,  288 

Pease,  Sir  Alfred,  20,  42,  61,  69.  72,  73, 
102 

Pease,  Miss,  72,  73 

Pelican,  221 

Pennant,  Captain  Douglas,  320 

Percival,  37,  67,  69 

Piggott.  L.  Mr.,  District  Commissioner, 
285 

Pigskin  Libraiy,  24,  159  ;  additions  to, 
362  ;  Appendix  F 

Pleistocene,  2 

Poe,  quotation  from,  387 

Police,  New  York,  370  ;  note  on,  370 

Porcupines,  215 

Porters,  songs  of  the,  79,  431  ;  character- 
istics of,  costumes  of,  81,  82  ;  feasts 
of,  93,  427  ;  white  men  christened  by, 
99,  141  ;  game  hal-lalled  for,  188  ; 
short-sightedness  of,  205,  207,  275  ; 
rhino  tosses  a,  304,  325,  332  ;  good-bye 
to  the,  354  ;  work  of  Uganda,  374  ; 
tags  to  designate,  412  ;  faithfulness  of 
the,  431  ;  presents  for,  431,  444 ; 
"Posho."  food  for  the  porters,  266 


INDEX 


538 


Potha,  75 

Prinsloo,  Mr.,  37,  42 

"Protective  coloration,"  43,  44,  45,  338, 

358,  Appendix  E 
Pnff-adder,  186.  193,  286,  383 
Python,  111,  155 

Quiu,  378 

Race  week,  225 

"  Railway  Journey,  Most  Interesting,  in 
the  World,"  10 

Ranquet,  M.,  436 

Ratel,  or  honey  badger,  324 

Rats,  different  species  of,  213,  229,  383 

Redjaf,  436 

Reedbuck,  mountain,  42,  55  ;  Bohor, 
327.  334,  337,  353,  377 

Renkin,  M.     Appendix  A 

Rewero  Falls,  127 

Rewero  River,  104,  126 

Rhinoceros,  57,  89-91  et  seq.,  115-118  ; 
habits  of  different  species  of,  172. 175, 
180  ;  "  Keitloa  "  type  of  horn  of,  192  ; 
comparison  mth  elephant  of,  236 ; 
finest  specimen  of,  256,  262  ;  porter 
tossed  and  gored  by  a,  304  ;  the 
square-mouthed  or  white,  393-396, 
400 ;  difference  in  size  of,  400,  401, 
404-407  ;  pictures  of,  412,  413  ;  horn 
measurement  of,  414,  415 ;  unusual 
position  of,  420,  423 

Rifles,  22  ;  donors  of  the  elephant  rifle, 
22;  first  trial  of  the  Holland,  90; 
work  done  by  the  different,  98  ;  com- 
parison of,  116,  118,  119,  121,  157, 
163,  164,  170,  176,  192,  193,  221.  254, 
263.  442 

Rift  Valley,  425 

Rohr,  the.  449 

Roosevelt,  Kermit.  3,  23,  98  ;  red-letter 
day  of,  160,  173,  177,  191,  202,  225, 
227  ;  successful  photos  of  wild  ele- 
phant taken  by,  256.  280.  281  ;  un- 
equalled record  in  killing  cheetahs  of, 
281,  315,  316  ;  twentieth  birthday  of, 
318,  328,  335,  338,  361  ;  hunt  for 
sable  of,  362  et  seq.,  380;  good  rhino 
pictures  taken  by,  412  ;  health  of,  428, 
456  ;  devotion  of  followers  to.  430  ; 
in  seeing  and  chasing  game,  skill  of, 
191,  441 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  sails  from  New 
York,  3  ;  arrival  at  Mombasa  of,  6 ; 
starts  on  a  hunt  alone,  250  ;  fifty-first 
birthday  of,  323  ;  health  throughout 
trip  of,  456 

Rumeruti,  315 

Sable,  the,  362 

"Safari,"  16,  80,154;  peace-offering  to 


the  "  safari  ants,"  267  ;  attraction  for 

natives  of  work  of,  325  ;  good-bye  to 

the,  354  ;  conduct  of  the.  354  ;  "  wood 

safari."  432 
Sahara,  366 

Saises,  or  horse-boys,  19,  273,  274 
Salt  marsh,  a,  199.  200 
Samburu,    the,   cattle-owning    nomads, 

305 
Sanderson,  Captain,  Town  Clerk,  320 
Sandiford.  Mr..  60 
Scale  for  weighing  game,  25,  313 
Schilling,    Carl     G.,    "Flashlight   and 

Rifle,"  Appendix  E 
Scientific  expedition,  difficulty  of  trans- 
porting supplies  on  a,  288 
Scotch  settlers,  engaged  to  take  charge 

of  the  safari,  265 
Selous,  Frederick  Courteney,  3,  5,  6,  42, 

62,  180,  223 
Serval  cat.  281,  444 
"Shambas,"  233 
"Shenzis."  wild  natives,  258,  272,  374  ; 

gifts  to  the.  444 
Situtunga,  373 
Skally.  Mr.,  347-348 
Skins,  difficulty  in  preparing,  137,  142, 

436 
Slatin  Pasha,  436 
Slatter,  Captain  Arthur,  37,  38.  89,  92, 

94,  96,  97 
Sleeping   sickness,   ravages  of,   39,    58, 

364  ;    preventive  of,   365  ;    sleeping- 
sickness  fly,  bite  of,  399 
Smith  hopelessly  crippled  by  a  lion,  163 
Smith,  Captain,  320 
Smith,  William  Lord,  345 
Smithsonian,  8 
Snakes,  193,  286  ;  man  bitten  by  a,  326, 

383 
Soldiers,     Sikh,     372 ;     Egyptian    and 

Soudanese,  445 
Solve,  M.,  452 
Somalis,  105,  226 
Songs,  native :  victory  song,  75,  79.  213 ; 

on  death  of  elephant,  255  ;   Kikuyu 

savages'  songs,  266,  351,  431 
Sotik,  144,  195 
Soudan,  success  of  English  rule  in  the, 

445 
Southern  Crosi,,  30 
Spearmen.  Nandi,  350 
Spirillum  tick,  375 
Springhaas,  214,  221  ;  "shining"  spring- 

haas  by  night.  226,  227 
"Star-spangled  Banner,  The,"  369 
Stations,  condition  of  railroad,  14 
Steinbuck,   42,   192.   273  ;    conspicuous 

coat  of  the.  277,  353 
Stevenson,  340,  345 
Stigand,  62 


534 


INDEX 


Stork,  saddle-billed,  or  jabiru,  228 

Stork,  the  whale-billed,  448,  452 

Storms,  majesty  of  the,  272  ;  thunder- 
storms, 372 

Straus,  Oscar,  Appendix  A 

Streicher,  Bishop,  369 

Suavi  River,  152 

Sud,  the,  445 

Supplies,  naturalists',  17 

Sururu,  kraal  of  Chief,  416  ;  camp  out- 
side village  of,  420 

Swahili,  the  coast  men,  18,  226,  325 

Swahili  (a  kind  of  African  chinook),  258, 
273 

Tana  232 

Tarlton,  Leslie,  4,  20, 154, 162,  164,  188, 
189,   241.   253,    256,    279,   283,    316, 
326,  329,  333,  337,   338  et  seq.,  362, 
Appendix  A 
"Teddy  bears,"  358 
Tent-boys,  273,  274.  332 
Terriers,  wart-hog  killed  by,  216 
Thayer,  Gerald  H.,  book  on  "Conceal- 
ing Coloi-ation,"  Appendix  E 
"  Thiret,  The."  146,  148 
Throwing-sticks,  56 
Ticks,  29,  110 

Topi,  156,  159,  160,  173.  176 
Tranquillity,  the  horse,  20,  96,  97.  329 
"Transport  riding,"  147 
Trails.  Africa  a  country  of,  86,  87 
Traps,  beasts  caught  in,  214,  215 
Trees,  231,  245  ;  many  kinds  of  strange. 
278,  290;  "sausage-tree,"  339;  bao- 
bab-tree, 361,  372,  381 
Tsetse-fly,  354,  399 
Tucker,  Bishop,  369 

Uasin  Gishu,  323,  325,  331 

Uganda,  58,  363  ;   explorers  of,  people 


of,  366  ;  government  of,  367.  368,  369  ; 

houses  in,  372 
Uganda,  King  of,  366  ;  visit  to,  371 
Uganda  Railway,  12 
Ulyate.  147 
University  of  California,  elephant  skin 

presented  to.  255 
Unyoro,  384  ;  King  of,  384 

Vegetation,  character  of  the,  277 

Wadelai,  389  ;  natives  of,  389 
Wakamba,  35,  36,  75,  87,  89  ;   trained 

to  act  as  skinners,  92,  99,  226 
Wa-Meru,  the,  a  wild  martial  tribe,  251, 

257,  278 
Ward,  Mr.  F.  A.,  319 
Wart-hog.  85,  127.  164 
Waterbuck,    107,   108  ;    singsing,    215, 

227,  228,  301,  311,  336,  337,  338,  401. 

417 
Waterspout,  a,  268 
Whale-billed  stork,  the,  451,  452 
White,  Mr.  John  Jay,  396 
White  Nile,  the.  388 
Whydah  finches,  130,  131  ;   new  kinds 

of  whydah  birds,  261 
Wildebeest,  26,  27,  28,  43,  158  ;  shyness 

of,  173,  174,  178 
Williams,  203,  223 
Wingate,  Major-General   Sir  Reginald, 

435 

Zebra,  Burchell's,  293,  299 

Zebra,    Grevy's.    282 ;     called    by    the 

porters  "kangani,"  293  ;  weight  of  a, 

308 
Zebras,  protection  of,  13.  44.  47-50,  129  ; 

savagery   of,   224,    311 ;    put   in   the 

pound  at  Nairobi,  321 
Zoological  garden,  15 


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Sir  Harry  H.  Johnston,  writing  in  the  Daily  Chronicle,  says :  "  The  work  is  well  worth 
reading  from  beginning  to  end,  and  conveys  a  very  accurate  impression  of  the  country,  the 
scenery,  the  natives,  and  the  magnificent  wild  beasts." 

QUIET  DAYS  IN  SPAIN.     By  C.  Bogue  Luff- 

mann,  Author  of  "  A  Vagabond  in  Spain."     Demy  8vo.    8s.  net. 

"...  A  diary  in  which  the  continual  change  of  impression,  and  especially  of  the  impres- 
sion of  personalities,  is  abundant  and  vivid.  The  Sixteenth  Chapter,  that  upon  Montserrat, 
is  particularly  excellent,  and  may  stand  for  a  sample  of  the  whole  book." — Morning  Post. 

"  An  entertaining  and  observant  book  by  a  writer  who  has  wandered  and  mixed  with  the 
people  in  almost  every  quarter  of  Spain.  ' — Times. 

"...  This  delightful  record  of  leisurely  travel." — Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

"...  The  book  has  the  indefinable  quality  of  charm.  Moreover,  his  pages  bear  such 
mellow  fruit,  they  are  so  sweet  and  ingratiating,  that  nobody  can  possibly  quarrel  with 
him." — Evening  Standard. 


STORM  AND  SUNSHINE  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA. 

By   Rosamond   Southey.      Edited  by  Frances  Slaughter.      With 

Illustrations.     Demy  8vo. 

This  book  has  the  merit  of  beii^  written  from  the  inside  of  the  political 
and  social  life  of  South  Africa.  With  near  relatives  holding  important  posts 
in  the  Government  of  Cape  Colony,  and  with  many  relations  and  friends  holding 
appointments  in  the  country,  Miss  Southey  has  been  able  to  make  the  most  of 
her  unusual  gifts  of  observation,  both  in  describing  the  life  at  Cape  Town  and 
in  the  up-country  towns  and  farms.  An  expedition  made  by  her  sister,  Mrs. 
Bruce  Steer,  alone  through  Zululand,  and  her  experiences  duringthe  late  war, 
are  also  given.  General  Sir  John  Dartnell,  K.C.B.,  C.M.G.,  and  Colonel 
George  Mansel,  C.M.G.,  contribute  accounts  of  fishing  and  lion-shooting 
expeditions,  and  the  history  of  the  Nongai,  or  Zululand  Native  Police,  as  well 
as  of  the  Natal  Police. 

INDIA    AND    TIBET.      Being   a   History   of  the 

Relations  which  have  subsisted  between  the  two  countries  from  the  time 
of  Warren  Hastings  to  the  present  year ;  together  with  a  particular 
account  of  the  Mission  to  Lhasa  of  1904.  By  Sir  Francis  Young- 
husband,  K.C.I.  E.     With  Maps  and  Illustrations.     Medium  8vo. 

LION  AND  DRAGON  IN  NORTHERN  CHINA. 

By  R.  F.  Johnston,  M.A.  (Oxon.),  F.R.G.S.,  District  Officer  and 
Magistrate,  Weihaiwei ;  Formerly  Private  Secretary  to  the  Governor 
of  Hong-Kong,  etc.  ;  Author  of  "  From  Peking  to  Mandalay, "  With 
Map  and  Illustrations.     Demy  8vo, 

In  this  book  will  be  found  the  only  full  description  that  exists  of  the  British 
dependency  of  Weihaiwei — the  three  hundred  square  miles  of  Chinese  territory 
that  have  been  under  British  control  since  1898.  The  author,  the  District 
Officer  and  Magistrate  of  Weihaiwei,  has  seen  service  in  both  south  and  north 
China,  and  has  travelled  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Chinese 
Empire.  His  book,  although  primarily  dealing  with  the  "Cinderella  of  the 
British  Empire,"  practically  touches  the  whole  relations  of  Europeans  to 
Chinamen  in  their  own  land.  Mr.  Johnston's  practical  experience  in  the 
country,  the  nature  of  his  official  duties,  and  his  knowledge  of  the  language 
have  given  him  unique  opportunities  for  acquiring  an  intimate  knowledge  of 
the  Chinese  people  and  their  customs.  Much  of  the  information  given  in  these 
pages  has  been  collected  from  various  historical  and  topographical  works  in 
the  Chinese  language,  but  the  greater  part  has  been  gathered  at  first  hand  in 
the  course  of  several  years'  residence  among  the  people.  Lovers  of  folk-lore, 
students  of  sociology  and  of  comparative  religions,  as  well  as  of  the  condition 
and  destiny  of  the  people  of  China,  should  find  in  this  book  much  that  is  new 
and  of  permanent  value. 

SHANS   AT   HOME.     Their   Customs,    Habits   of 

Life,  Industries,  Folk-lore,  Derived  from  a  Fifteen  Months'  Residence 
among  them.  By  Mrs.  Leslie  Milne.  With  Two  Chapters  on  Shan 
History  and  Literature  by  the  Rev.  W.  W.  Cochrane.  With  Illus- 
trations from  the  Author's  Sketches  and  from  Photographs  and  Maps 
Demy  Svo. 

3 


LIFE  AND  LABOUR  IN  INDIA.    By  A.  Yusuf- 

Ali,  M.A.,  LL.M.  (Cantab.),  M.R.A.S.  With  Illustrations,  including 
Drawings  by  Native  Artists.     Demy  8vo.     I2S.  net. 

"  It  is  a  welcome  surprise  to  find  in  Mr.  Yusuf-Ali  an  essayist  who  combines  an  individual 
sense  of  style  with  a  light  and  humourous  touch  of  which  the  most  polished  Englishman 
might  well  be  proud." — Daily  Chronicle. 

MY  LIFE  AS  AN  INDIAN.    By  J.  W.  Schultz. 

With  Illustrations.     Crown  8vo.    6s.  net. 

"  The  boy  who  loves  adventure  will  feel  himself  once  more  under  the  insidioas  spell  of 
Fenimore  Cooper  as  he  turns  Mr.  Schultz's  spirited  pages.  .  .  .  The  very  artlessness  of 
the  narrative  adds  to  its  charm  ;  the  sincerity  is  patent  and  persuasive.  The  young  of  all  ages 
will  find  it  a  treasure-house  of  delight  and  of  suggestion." — Daily  Telegraph. 

"  This  is  a  book  that  will  live.  It  is  a  fascinating  story.  .  .  .  We  must  vote  this  one 
of  the  most  readable,  interesting  books  ever  written  on  the  Red  Indians." — Sheffield  Daily 
Telegraph. 

FROM    WEST   TO   EAST.       Notes  by  the  Way. 

By  Sir  Hubert  Jemingham,  K.C.M.G.,  sometime  Governor  of 
Mauritius,  of  Trinidad,  and  Tobago.  With  Illustrations.  Demy 
8vo.     15s.  net. 

"  Sir  Hubert  Jemingham  shows  himself  to  be  a  keen  observer  and  a  charming  writer, 
and,  taken  merely  as  a  sympathetic  study  of  Japan  and  the  Japanese  after  the  great  war,  his 
present  work  must  rank  among  the  most  notable  books  of  the  day.  .  .  .  His  description 
of  Port  Arthur  and  of  the  battlefields  in  Manchuria  helps  us  to  understand  more  than  one 
point  which  even  elaborate  histories  of  the  operations  have  left  doubtful." — Staiidard. 


A  HISTORY  OF  SOUTH  AMERICA,  1 854-1904. 

By  Charles  Edmond  Akers.     With  Maps,  Portraits,  and  other  Illus- 
trations.    Medium  Svo.    2is.  net. 

"  We  would  highly  recommend  this  work  to  all  interested  in  the  future  of  South  America. 
.  .  .  Lovers  of  history  will  also  derive  much  pleasure  as  well  as  profit  from  its  perusal,  and 
the  way  the  chapters  are  divided  and  furnished  with  exhaustive  summaries  and  the  index  at 
the  end  will  make  Mr.  Akers's  book  valuable  as  a  work  of  reference." — Field. 


LETTERS    TO    A    SALMON-FISHER'S    SONS. 

By  A.  H.  Chaytor.     With  8  full-page  Illustrations  and  Diagrams. 
Demy  8vo.    9s.  net. 

"  No  keen  angler  would  grudge  finding  space  for  such  an  engrossing  volume.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Chaytor  treats  of  all  forms  of  salmon-fishing,  with  flies,  minnows,  worms ;  he  describes 
the  habits  of  the  fish,  and  of  their  chief  enemies,  human  and  others.  .  .  .  Even  the  expert 
may  find  much  instructive  matter  in  this  most  readable  volume." — Outlook. 

".  .  .  A  very  delightful  book.  .  .  .  A  great  portion  of  the  letters  deal  with  purely 
practical  matters,  and  the  author's  sons  are  lucky  indeed  to  have  such  a  mentor."— World. 


A    MARINER   OF   ENGLAND.      An  Account  of 

the   Career  of  William  Richardson,  from   Cabin-Boy  in  the  Merchant 

Service  to  Warrant  Officer  in  the  Royal  Navy  (1780-1817),  told  in  his 

own  words.       Edited   by   Colonel   Spencer  Childers,  R,E.,  C.B. 

Demy  8vo.     los.  6d.  net. 

"  Worth  a  dozen  of  the  ordinary  memoirs  with  which  the  market  is  flooded.  For 
It  is  a  genuine  'human  document,'  a  revelation  of  the  thoughts  and  doings  of  a  typical 
English  sailorman  during  the  most  stirring  years  in  our  naval  history.  .  .  We  have 
found  the  book  delightful  reading." — Upectator. 

"...  Such  excellent  stuff,  and  in  such  racy,  straightforward  English.  .  .  .  Un- 
commonly good  reading.  It  makes  us  think  of  some  of  Captain  Marryat's  pictures 
of  what  they  did  at  sea  in  the  brave  days  of  old."— Standard. 

ROUND   ABOUT   THE    NORTH    POLE.      By 

W.    J,    Gordon.      With  many  Woodcuts  and  other  Illustrations  by 

Edward  Whymper.     Medium  8vo.     15s.  net. 

"  The  illustrations  are  excellent,  and  so  are  the  maps.  We  do  not  know  of  any 
book  covering  so  wide  a  range  of  exploration  equally  well.  Not  only  is  this  volume 
full  of  attractive  information,  but  also  of  stirring  adventure,  some  stories  of  triumph, 
but  more  of  failure  and  dLnp&ir."— Sheffield  Independent. 

A   WOMAN'S   WAY   THROUGH   UNKNOWN 

LABRADOR.     By  Mrs.  Leonidas  Hubbard,  Junior.    With  Map, 

Portraits,  and  other  Illustrations.     Demy  Svo.     los.  6d.  net. 

"  Graphic  narrative  and  descriptive  power  and  close  observation  illuminate  its 
pages.  It  is  distinguished,  moreover,  by  the  fact  that  Mrs.  Hubbard  pursued  and 
achieved,  with  rare  tenacity,  courage,  and  singleness  of  purpose,  a  definite  objec- 
tive."—f'wMjV;^  Standard. 

FROM   PEKING  TO   MANDALAY.     A  Journey 

from  North  China  to  Burma  through  Tibetan  Ssuch'uan  and  Yunnan. 

By  R.  F.  Johnston,  M.A.,  F.R.G.S.,  District  Officer  and  Magistrate, 

Wei-hai-wei.      With    numerous    Illustrations    and    Map.      Demy  8vo. 

15s.  net. 

"No  praise  is  too  high.  .  .  .  Written  with  learning,  authority,  and  enthusiasm. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Johnston's  work  is  one  in  a  thousand,  and  however  many  others  may  b« 
disregarded,  this  should  be  read,  at  least  by  those  who  care  for  the  judgments  of  a 
man  who  has  brought  to  bear  in  remote  parts  of  the  Chinese  Empire  a  full  knowledge 
of  Chinese  characters  and  the  Chinese  language." — Spectator. 

FROM     PEKING     TO    SIKKIM  :    Through    the 

Ordos,  the  Gobi  Desert,  and  Tibet.     By  Count  De  Lesdain.     With 

Map  and  Illustrations  based  on  the  Author's  Surveys  and  Photographs. 

Demy  8vo.     12s.  net. 

"  He  gives  us  an  account  of  the  most  extraordinary  hone3rmoon  the  world  has 
ever  known,  and  the  modesty  of  the  hardened  traveller,  combined  with  the  lucid  and 
picturesque  style,  makes  it  one  of  the  most  absorbingly  interesting  liooks  of  travel 
published  for  a  long  time.'' — Evening  Standard. 

THE  INNER  LIFE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

By   Monsignor    Count   Vay   de   Vaya  and    Luskod,   Author    of 

•'Empires  and  Emperors."     Demy  8vo.     12s.  net. 

"An  exhaustive  study  of  national  qualities  and  characteristics,  and  represents 
'the  harvest  of  a  quiet  eye'  intent  on  studying  motor  forces  rather  than  their 
products.  .  .  .  Undoubtedly  an  authoritative  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
United  States  of  to-day."— Swurfoy  Times. 


THE  EAST  END  OF  EUROPE.  The  Report  of 
an  Unofficial  Mission  to  the  European  Provinces  of  Turkey 
on  the  Eve  of  the  Revolution.  By  Allen  Upward. 
"With  Preface  by  the  late  Sir  Edward  Law.  With 
Illustrations  and  Map.     Demy  8vo.     12s.  net. 

"The  best  book  on  the  Balkans  which  has  appeared  for  many  a  long 
day." — Morning  Post. 

"  A  book  which,  owing  to  its  charm  of  style,  deserves  not  only  to  be 
consulted  as  a  document  by  the  expert,  but  also  to  be  read  by  all  those  who 
desire  to  form  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  forces  that  will  continue  to 
influence  the  evolution  of  the  Balkan  Peninsula  in  the  future." — Outlook. 

FROM   RUWENZORI   TO   THE    CONGO.      A 

Naturalist's  Journey  across  Africa.   By  A.  F.  R.  "Wollaston. 
With  Maps  and  Illustrations,     Demy  8vo.     15s.  net. 

"  An  excellent  specimen  of  how  works  of  travel  should  be  written.  .  .  . 
Mr.  Wollaston  is  full  of  the  delight  and  romance  of  strange  sights.  He  never 
bores  the  reader  because  he  is  never  bored  himself.  Lightly  and  humorously 
he  discourses  of  his  hardships :  joyfully  and  copiously  he  expounds  the 
delights." — Spectator. 

PORTUGUESE  EAST  AFRICA.  The  History, 
Scenery,  and  Great  Game.  By  R.  C.  F.  Maugham, 
H.B.M.  Consul  for  the  Districts  of  Mozambique  and 
Zambezia,  and  for  the  Territory  of  Manica  and  Sofala. 
With  Map  and  32  full-page  Illustrations.  Demy  8vo. 
15s.  net. 

"The  pages  are  crowded  with  venturous  quests,  thrilling  encounters,  and 
hairbreadth  escapes." — Glasgow  Uerald. 

A  PLEASURE  PILGRIM  IN  SOUTH  AMERICA. 
By  C.  D.  Mackellar.  With  Illustrations  and  Map. 
Demy  8vo.     15s.  net. 

A    CHEAPER  EDITION 

JOHN   CHINAMAN   AND   A   FEW    OTHERS. 

By  E.  H.  Parker,  Author  of  "China  and  Religion,"  etc. 
Crown  8vo.     2S.  6d.  net. 

CANADIAN  CONSTITUTIONAL  DEVELOP- 
MENT. Shown  by  Selected  Speeches  and  Despatches, 
with  Introductions  and  Explanatory  Notes.  By  H.  E. 
Egerton,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  All  Souls'  College ;  Beit 
Professor  of  Colonial  History  at  Oxford,  and  W.  L. 
Grant,  M.A.,  Beit  Assistant  Lecturer  in  Colonial  History 
at  Oxford.     With  Maps.     Demy  Svo.     los.  6d.  net. 

"  Our  authors  are  sound  guides,  and  the  selection  of  state  papcis  made 
by  them  merits  the  highest  praise." — Athenaum. 

6 


MR.  A.   H.   HALLAM  MURRAY'S  BEAUTIFUL 
COLOUR  BOOKS 

THE  HIGH-ROAD  OF  EMPIRE.     With  Repro- 

ductions  in  Colour  of  47  Water-Colour  Drawings  and 
numerous  Pen  and  Ink  Sketches  made  in  India.  Medium 
8vo.  21S.  net.  Also  a  hmited  Edition  on  Large  Paper  at 
£2  2S.  net. 

ON  THE  OLD  ROAD  THROUGH  FRANCE 
TO  FLORENCE.  Reproductions  in  Colour  of  48  Water- 
Colour  Sketches.  With  Text  by  H.  W.  Nevinson  and 
Montgomery  CarmichaeL  Fourth  Edition.  Medium 
Bvo.     2IS.  net. 


INDIAN  JOTTINGS.  From  Ten  Years'  Ex- 
perience in  and  around  Poona  City.  By  the  Rev. 
Edward  F.  Elwin,  of  the  Society  of  St.  John  the 
Evangelist,  Cowley.  With  Illustrations.  Demy  8vo. 
los.  6d.  net. 

WITH  THE  BORDER  RUFFIANS.  Memories 
of  the  Far  West,  1852— 1868.  By  R.  H.  Williams, 
sometime  Lieutenant  in  the  Kansas  Rangers  and  after- 
wards Captain  in  the  Texan  Rangers,  Edited  by  E.  W. 
Williams.  With  Portrait  and  other  Illustrations.  Demy 
8vo.     I2S.  net. 

PLAGUES  AND  PLEASURES  OF  LIFE  IN 
BENGAL.  By  Lieut.-Colonel  D.  D.  Cunningham, 
C.I.E.,  F.R.S.,  Author  of  "Some  Indian  Friends  and 
Acquaintances."  With  Coloured  and  Half-Tone  Illustra- 
tions.    Square  Demy  8vo.     12s.  net. 

A  SOLDIER  OF  THE  LEGION.  An  English- 
man's Adventures  under  the  French  Flag  in  Algeria 
and  Tonquin,  By  George  Manington.  Edited  by 
^Villiam  B.  Slater  and  Arthur  J.  Sari.  With  Maps 
and  Illustrations.     Demy  8vo.     los.  6d.  net. 


BANCROFT  MEMOIRS,  Old  and  New.  By 
Sir  Squire  and  Lady  Bancroft.  With  Portraits  and 
Illustrations.     Demy  8vo.      15s.  net. 

CONTENTS:    i— girlhood.   2— boyhood.    3 — the  old  prince 

OF  WALES's  THEATRE.  4— ROBERTSON  AND  HIS  COMEDIES.  5 — SOME 
OLD  COMEDIES.  6— OTHER  PLAYS.  7 — FOUR  FAILURES.  8— SARDOU 
AND  HIS  PLAYS.  Q— THE  HAYMARKET  THEATRE.  lO— HOLIDAY  NOTES. 
II — REAPPEARANCE.  12 — HENRY  IRVING.  I3 — THE  *' CHRISTMAS  CAROL." 
14 — DEPARTED  GUESTS. 

THE  LIFE  AND  CORRESPONDENCE  OF 
JOHN  THADEUS  DELANE,  Editor  of  The  Times, 
1841 — 1877.  By  Arthur  Irwin  Dasent.  With  Portraits 
and  other  Illustrations.     2  Vols.     Demy  8vo.     32s.  net. 

THE    LIFE    OF    HENRY    PELHAM,    FIFTH 

DUKE  OF  NEWCASTLE,  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Colonies,  1852 — 1854  and  1859 — 1864,  and  Secretary  of  State 
for  War,  1852 — 1855.  By  John  Martineau.  With  Por- 
traits. Demy  8vo.  12s.  net. 
"  Among  the  most  interesting  and  absorbing  books  of  the  moment  may 
safely  be  named  *  The  Life  of  Henry  Pelham.' " —  M.A.P. 

"  Mr.  Martineau's  work  is  a  model  of  painstaking  research  and  lucid 
expression.  He  has  the  true  historian's  temperament,  his  perspective  and  his 
judgment  are  unimpeachable." — Western  Mail. 

THE    LIFE    OF    ADMIRAL    SIR    LEOPOLD 

M^CLINTOCK,  the  Great  Arctic  Explorer  and  Discoverer 
of  the  Fate  of  Franklin.  By  Sir  Clements  Markham, 
K.C.B.,  F.R.S.  With  an  Introductory  Note  by  the  Most 
Rev.  "William  Alexander,  D.D.,  Archbishop  of  Armagh. 
Demy  8vo.     15s.  net. 

NELSON'S  HARDY  :  His  Life,  Letters,  and  Friends. 
By  A.  M.  Broadley,  Joint-Author  of  "  Napoleon  and  the 
Invasion  of  England,"  and  "Dumouriez  and  the  Defence  of 
England  against  Napoleon,"  etc.,  and  Rev.  R.  G.  Bartelot, 
Vicar  of  St.  George's,  Fordington,  Dorchester.  Many  Illus- 
trations and  Portraits.     los.  6d.  net. 

OUR  FIRST  AMBASSADOR  TO  CHINA.     An 

Account  of  the  Life  of  George,  Earl  Macartney,  with 
Extracts  from  his  Letters  and  the  Narrative  of  his  Ex- 
periences in  China  as  told  by  Himself,  1737 — 1806.  By 
Mrs.  Helen  H.  Robbins.  With  Portraits  and  other 
Illustrations.     Demy  8vo.     i6s.  net. 

London:  JOHN   MURRAY,  Albemarle  Street,  W. 

8 


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