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MR. ROOSEVELT IN AFRICA IN HIS HUNTING COSTUME.

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Scribner's Magazine

VOL. XLVI OCTOBER, 1909 NO. 4

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

By Theodore Roosevelt

I.— A RAILROAD THROUGH THE PLEISTOCENE

HE great world movement
which began with the voy¬
ages of Columbus and Vasco
da Gama, and has gone on
with ever-increasing rapid¬
ity 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 resulted in bringing into sudden, vio¬
lent, and intimate contact phases of the
world’s life history which would be normally
separated by untold centuries of slow de¬
velopment. Again and again, in the conti¬
nents new to peoples of European stock, we
have seen the spectacle of a high civilization
all at once thrust into and superimposed
upon a wilderness6 of savage men and sav¬
age 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 under the
equator; and the hinterland, due west,
contains the huge Nyanza lakes, vast in¬
land 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 plateaus, and its

Special Notice.— Thes.

?s Sons, New York,

forests of deadly luxuriousness, 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 begin¬
ning of the second half of the nineteenth
century, just before Speke, Grant, and
Baker made their great trips of exploration
and adventure. Behind these explorers
came others; and then adventurous mis¬
sionaries, 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 wand¬
erers 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
4/ictoria 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 de¬
veloped a very primitive kind of semi¬
civilization. Over this people — for its good
fortune — Great Britain established a pro¬
tectorate; and ultimately, in order to get

copyright law in effect July ist, 1909, which imposes

■e penalty for infringen

Copyright, 1909, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. All rights 1

jmAA*3

Vol. XLVI.— 45

386

African Game Trails

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 paleo¬
lithic 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 ter¬
ror, and the mammoth and
the woolly rhinoceros pos¬
sible but most formidable

prey. ,

This region, this great frag¬
ment out of the long-bur¬
ied past of our race, is now
accessible by railroad to all
who care to go thither; and
no field more inviting offers
easy access to this new outpost of civiliza- itself to hunter or naturalist, while even
tion in the heart of the Dark Continent, the to the ordinary traveller it teems with
British Government built a

railroad from the old Arab
coast town of Mombasa
westward to Victoria Ny-
anza.

This railroad, the em¬
bodiment of the eager,
masterful, materialistic
civilization of to-day, wa.s
pushed through a region in
which nature, both as
gards wild man and
beast, did not and does not
differ materially from what
it was in Europe in the late
Pleistocene. The compar¬
ison 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, espe¬
cially of the hunting tribes,
substantially reproduced
the conditions of life in Eu¬
rope as it was led by our
ancestors ages before the
dawn of anything that
could be called civilization.
The great beasts that now
live’ in East Africa were in

OS!

African Game Trails

387

interest. On March 23, 1909, I sailed
thither from New York, in charge of a
scientific expedition sent out by the Smith¬
sonian, to collect birds, mammals, rep¬
tiles, and plants, but especially speci¬
mens of big game, for the National Mu¬
seum at Washington. In addition to my¬
self and my son Kermit (who had entered

the South African war; the former by birth
a Scotchman, and a Cambridge man, but
long a resident of Africa, and at one time
a professional elephant hunter.

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 trans-shipped to

Mr. Roosevelt saying good-by in the Mombasa station.

Harvard a few months previously), the
party consisted of three naturalists: Sur-
geon-Lieut. Col. Edgar A. Mearns, U. S. A.,
retired, Mr. Edmund Eleller, of California,
and Mr. J. Alden Loring, of Owego, N. Y.
My arrangements for the trip had been
chiefly made through two valued English
friends, Mr. Frederick Courtney Selous, the
greatest of the world’s big-game hunters,
and Mr. Edward North Buxton, also a
mighty hunter. On landing we were to be
met by Messrs. R. J. Cuninghame and
Leslie Tarleton, both famous hunters; the
latter an Australian, who served through

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 pre¬
dominant; in his place there were Italian
officiers going out to a desolate coast town
on the edge of Somaliland; missionaries,

German, English, and American; Portu¬
guese civil officials; traders of different
nationalities; and planters and military
and civil officers bound to German and
British East Africa. The Englishmen in¬
cluded planters, magistrates, forest offi¬
cials, 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 lifeworth liv¬
ing. They were a fine set,
these young Englishmen,
whether dashing army
officers or capable civil¬
ians; they reminded me
of our men who have re¬
flected such honor on the
American name, whether
in civil and military posi¬
tions in the Philippines
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

388

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 com¬
mand, white or native troops; men of evi¬
dent power and energy, seeing whom made
it easy to understand why German East
Africa has thriven apace. They are first-

From a photograph by J. Alden Boring.

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
of 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, de¬
sired specimens of both sexes of all the spe¬
cies 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 small mammals.

No other hunter alive has had the expe¬
rience of Selous; and, so far as I now recall,
no hunter of anything like his experience
has ever also possessed his gift of pene¬
trating observation joined to his power of
vivid and accurate narration. He has
389

The array of porters and

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 beau¬
tiful and picturesque harbor of Mombasa.
Many centuries before the Christian era,
dhows from Arabia, carrying seafarers of
Semitic races whose very names have per¬
ished, rounded the Lion’s Head at Guar-
dafui 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. They were men
of iron heart and supple conscience, who
fronted inconceivable danger and hard-
390

ship; they established trading stations for
gold and ivory and slaves; they turned
these trading stations into little cities and
sultanates, half Arab, half negro. Mom¬
basa was among them. In her time of brief
splendor Portugal seized the town; 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 foliage showed the town at its best.

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 good field naturalist
and a renowned big-game hunter; indeed I
could not too warmly express my apprecia¬
tion 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 inter¬
esting to meet the merchants and planters
of the town and the neighborhood as well
as the officials. The former included not

African Game Trails

391

only Englishmen but also Germans and of British East Africa are not suited for ex-
Italians; which is quite as it should be, for tensive white settlement; but the hinter-
at least part of the high inland region land is, and there everything should be
of British East Africa can be made one done to encourage such settlement. Non¬
kind of “white man’s country”; and to white aliens should not be encouraged to
achieve this white men should work heartily settle where they come into rivalry with

together, doing scrupulous justice to the
natives, but remembering that progress and
development in this particular kind of new
land depend exclusively upon the master¬
ful leadership of the whites, and that there¬
fore it is both a calamity and a crime to per¬
mit the whites to be riven in sunder by
hatreds and jealousies. The coast regions

the whites (exception being made as re¬
gards certain particular individuals and cer¬
tain particular occupations) ; but there are
large regions 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 labor, 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 na-

From a photograph

tive 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 con¬
querors, who were the first white men ever
seen by the natives of this coast. Accord¬
ingly 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

plain covered with brown and withered grass.— Page 401.
by Edmund Heller.

specifically as English, Germans, or the
like; just as in out-of-the-way nooks in the
far Northwest 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 colored man from
Jamaica; and we were shown much cour¬
tesy by a colored man from our own coun¬
try who was practising as a doctor. No

one could fail to be impressed with the im¬
mense advance these men represented as
compared with the native negro; and in¬
deed to an American, who must necessarily
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 community as one finds in

394

African Game Trails

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 Gov¬
ernment of the Congo Free State; and, at
a crisis in the fortunes of the State, when
the Arab slave-traders bid fair to get the
upper hand, he was one of the eight or ten
white men, representing half as many dis¬
tinct nationalities, who overthrew the sav¬
age soldiery of the slave-traders and shat¬
tered 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 im¬
partiality; 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 can¬
nibals in the hostile ranks, for, on which¬
ever side they fought, after every battle the
warriors of the man-eating tribes watched
their chance to butcher the wounded indis¬
criminately 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 engaged, some ten
or twelve years back, in building the Ugan¬
da 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 Eng¬
lishman must have fallen asleep, and the
lion, seeing him through the window, en¬
tered 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 inform¬
ant, hearing the disturbance, leaped out of
his bunk actually onto 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 undis¬
turbed but a couple of yards from the rail¬
way 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 his¬
tory, 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 utmost comfort
through a naturalist’s wonderland. All
civilized governments are now realizing
that it is their duty here and there to pre¬
serve unharmed tracts of wild nature, with
thereon the wild things the destruction of
which means the destruction of half the
charm of wild nature. The English Gov¬
ernment 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 ex¬
cept 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 discovered that intelligent game pres¬
ervation, carried out in good faith, and in a
spirit of common sense as far removed from
mushy sentimentality as from brutality, re¬
sults in adding one more to the State’s
natural resources of value; and in conse¬
quence 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 sports¬
men and tourists attracted to the State
adds very appreciably to the means of live¬
lihood of the citizen. Game reserves should
not be established where they are detrimen-

396

African Game Trails

tal to the interests of large bodies of set- enemies, the dangerous carnivores, were
tiers, nor yet should they be nominally es- killed, would by its simple increase crowd
tablished in regions so remote that the only man off the planet; and of the further fact
men really interfered with are those who that, far short of such increase, a time
respect the law, while a premium is thereby speedily comes when the existence of too

From a photograph by W. N. MacMillan.

put on the activity of the unscrupulous
persons who are eager to break it. Simi¬
larly, 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 every one above the in¬
tellectual level of those well-meaning per¬
sons who apparently think that all shooting
is wrong and that man could continue to
exist if all wild animals were allowed to in¬
crease unchecked. There must be recog¬
nition of the fact that almost any wild
animal of the defenceless type, if its multi¬
plication were unchecked while its natural

much game is incompatible with the inter¬
ests, or indeed the existence, of the culti¬
vator. As in most other matters, it is only
the happy mean which is healthy and ra¬
tional. There should be certain sanctu¬
aries and nurseries where game can live
and breed absolutely unmolested; and else¬
where the laws should so far as possible
provide for the continued existence of the
game in sufficient numbers to allow a rea¬
sonable amount of hunting on fair terms
to any hardy and vigorous man fond of the
sport, and yet not in sufficient numbers to
jeopard the interests of the actual settler,

African Game Trails

397

the tiller of the soil, the man whose well¬
being should be the prime object to be kept
in mind by every statesman. Game butch¬
ery is as objectionable as any other form of
wanton cruelty or barbarity ; but to protest
against all hunting of game is a sign of

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
necessitate further changes. But, speaking
generally, much wisdom, much foresight,

Porters and their tents.

softness of head, not of soundness of heart.

In the creation of the great game reserve
through which the Uganda Railway runs
the British Government 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 buffaloes and hippos 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
prevented 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

highly creditable to both Government and
people, has 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 comfortable seat across the cow¬
catcher, and on this, except at meal-time,
I spent most of the hours of daylight, usu¬
ally 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 scen¬
ery 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 franco-
lin, and occasionally bustard, rose near by;
brilliant rollers, sun-birds, bee-eaters, and
weaver-birds flew beside us, or sat unmoved

398

African Game Trails

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 continually mishaps such
as could only happen to a railroad in the
Pleistocene! 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 unpleas¬
ant excitement. Throughout East Africa
the lions continually take to man eating at
the expense of the native tribes, and white
hunters are continually being killed or crip¬
pled by them. At the lonely stations on the
railroad the two or three subordinate offi¬
cials often live in terror of some fearsome
brute that has taken to haunting the vicin¬
ity; and every few months, at some one of
these stations, a man is killed, or badly
hurt by, or narrowly escapes from, a prowl¬
ing lion. The stations at which the train
stopped were neat and attractive; and be¬
sides the Indian officials there were usually
natives from the neighborhood. 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 Mohammedan¬
ism. 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 powerless
in any way to improve. Some of the sav¬
ages we saw wore red blankets, and in def¬
erence to white prejudice draped them so as
to hide their nakedness. But others ap¬
peared — 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 locomotive 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 labor could inflict upon
themselves such crippling and pointless
punishment.

Next morning we were in the game coun¬
try, 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 waterbuck cows, their big ears thrown
forward, stared at us without moving until
we had passed. Hartebeests were every¬
where; one herd was on the track, and
when the engine whistled they bucked and
sprang with ungainly agility and galloped
clear of the danger. A long-tailed straw-
colored monkey ran from one tree to an¬
other. 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

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 civ¬
ilized man and domestic cattle, render this
great tract of country the home of all homes
for the wild 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” 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 mam¬
mals and birds — it was necessary to carry
399

400

African Game Trails

an elaborate apparatus of naturalists’ sup¬
plies; we had brought with us, for instance,
four tons of line salt, as to cure the skins of
the big beasts is a herculean labor under
the best conditions; we had hundreds of
traps for the small creatures; many boxes
of shot-gun cartridges in addition to the
ordinary rifle cartridges which alone would
be necessary on a hunting trip; and, in

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 skinning tent; while be¬
hind 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

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 Na¬
tional Museum in Washington and the
American Museum of Natural History in
New York. The modern naturalist must
realize that in some of its branches his pro¬
fession, 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.,

the men in two lines ; the first containing
the fifteen askaris, the second the porters
with their head men. The askaris were uni¬
formed, each in a red fez, a blue blouse,
and white knickerbockers, and each carry¬
ing 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 wagons, or pack trains of don¬
keys; but for a considerable 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 Mos-

A herd of zebra and hartebeest.

One of the interesting features of African wiknife is die close association and companionship so often seen between two totally

lem religion, together with a partially Ara-
bicized 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 Swahili
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 ex¬
plorers could not have been done; and it
was the Swahili porters themselves who
rendered this work itself possible. To this
day every hunter, trader, missionary, or
explorer must use either a Swahili safari or
one modelled on the Swahili basis. The
part played by the white-topped ox wagon
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, child-like savages, who have
borne the burdens of so many masters and
employers hither and thither, through and
across, the dark heart of the continent.

Vol. XLVI. — 46

Equatorial Africa is in most places none
too healthy 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 explor¬
ers, prospectors, and hunters, who always
roughed it, were as hardy as bears, and
lived to a hale old age, if Indians and ac¬
cidents permitted. But in tropic Africa
a lamentable proportion of the early ex¬
plorers paid in health or life for the hard¬
ships they endured; and throughout most
of the country no man can long rough it, in
the Western and Northern sense, with im¬
punity.

At Kapiti Plains our tents, our accommo¬
dations generally, seemed almost too com¬
fortable 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;

401

402

African Game Trails

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 negro,
was the chief of the two, and spoke some
English, while under him was “Bill,” a
speechless black boy; both of them faithful

beasts; one, a sorrel, I named Tranquillity,
and the other, a brown, had so much the
cob-like build of a zebra that we christened
him Zebra-shape. One of Kermit’s two
horses, by the way, was more romanti¬
cally named after Huandan, 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 with us on the train, and at the
station we met Tarleton, and also two set¬
tlers of the neighborhood, Sir Alfred Pease

My first “Tommy” (Thompson’s Gazelle).

and efficient. Two other Mohammedan
negroes, clad like the askaris, reported to
me as my gun-bearers, Muhamed and Ba-
kari; seemingly excellent men, loyal apd
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, Hamiri, must have
had in his veins much Galla 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.
Hamiri 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

and Mr. Clifford Hill. Hill was an Afri¬
cander. He and his cousin, Harold Hill,
after serving through the South African
war, had come to the new country of Brit¬
ish East Africa to settle, and they repre¬
sented 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, and neither had
Tarleton. It was exceedingly interesting
to meet these Australians and Africanders,
who typified in their lives and deeds the
greatness of the English Empire, and yet
had never seen England.

As for Sir Alfred, Kermit and I were to
be his guests for the next fortnight, and we
owe primarily to him, to his mastery of
hunting craft and his unvarying and gen¬
erous 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 respon¬
sible post in the Transvaal; he had jour¬
neyed and hunted and explored in the
northern Sahara, in the Soudan, in Somali¬
land, in Abyssinia, and now he was ranch¬
ing in East Africa. A singularly good rider
and one of the best game shots I have ever
seen, it would have been impossible to have
found a kinder host or a hunter better fitted
to teach us where 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 well-nigh naked savage.

For forty-eight hours we were busy ar¬
ranging the 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 pro¬
vision 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 leather, and
the legs buttoning tight from the knee to
below the ankle, to avoid the need of leg¬
gings; a khaki-colored 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 Win¬
chester 405; and a double-barrelled 500-
450 Holland, a beautiful weapon presented
to me by some English friends.

Kermit’s battery was of the same type,
except that instead of a Springfield he had
another Winchester shooting the army am¬
munition, and his double-barrel was a
Rigby. In addition I had a Fox No. 12
shot-gun; no better gun was ever made.

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 alumi¬
num and oilcloth case, which, with its con-
403

404

African Game Trails

tents, 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 a§ printed on page 406.
It represents in part Kermit’s taste, in part
mine; and, I need hardly say, it also repre-

I had a slicker for wet weather, an army
overcoat, and a mackinaw jacket for
cold, if I had to stay out over night in the
mountains. In my pockets I carried, of
course, a knife, a compass, and a water¬
proof matchbox. Finally, just before leav¬
ing home, I had been sent, for good luck,
a gold-mounted rabbit’s foot, by Mr. John

Head of the wildebeest bull, shot by Mr. Roosevelt.

sents 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 addi¬
tion, 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 inci¬
dentally I am out in my guess if this same
Irish hussar captain be not worth watching
should his country ever again be engaged
in war. I had a very ingenious beam or scale
for weighing game, designed and presented
to me by my friend, Mr. Thompson Seton.

L. Sullivan, at one time ring champion of
the world.

Our camp was on a bare, dry plain, cov¬
ered 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 pre¬
vent thoughtless or cruel people from shoot¬
ing as they went by in the train. There was
very little water; what we drank, by the
way, was carefully 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 even-

African Game Trails

405

ing the saises picked them by hundreds off
each horse ; and some of our party were at
times so bitten by the noisome little creat¬
ures that they could hardly sleep at night,
and in one or two cases the man was actu¬
ally 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 hunt¬
ing; 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
the ground began to rise here and there
into low hills, or koppies, 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
landscape 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 hartebeest and wildebeest, and smaller
parties of beautiful gazelles. The last
were of two kinds, named severally after
their discoverers, the explorers Grant and
Thompson; many of the creatures of this
region commemorate the men — Schilling,
Jackson, Neuman, Kirke, Chanter, Abbot
— who first saw and hunted them and
brought them to the notice of the scientific
world. The Thompson’s gazelles, or Tom¬
mies 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
underestimated the range. Then I shot,
Vol. XLVI.— 47

for the table, a good buck of the smaller
gazelle, at two hundred and twenty-five
yards; the bullet went a little high, break¬
ing his back above the shoulders.

But what I really wanted were two good
specimens, bull and cow, of the wildebeest.
These powerful, ungainly 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 me somewhat of
our bison, at a distance, but of course they
are much less bulky, an old bull in prime
condition rarely reaching a weight of five
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 in¬
teresting features of African wild life is the
close association and companionship so
often seen between two 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 danger¬
ous when in a wild state, any more than
moose or other deer can be called danger¬
ous; 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 ap¬
proach; and even a solitary bull will some¬
times 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 drop¬
ping to their knees before closing. At this
time, the end of April, there were little calves
with the herds of cows; but in equatorial
Africa the various species of antelopes seem
to have no settled rutting time or breeding
time; at least we saw calves of all ages.

Our hunt after wildebeest this afternoon
was successful; but though by velt law
each animal was mine, because I hit it first,
yet in reality the credit was communistic,
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

406

African Game Trails

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 meanwhile he had run into
view of Kermit; and Kermit — who is of an
age and build which better fit him for suc¬
cessful breakneck galloping over unknown
country dotted with holes and bits of rotten
ground — took up the chase with enthu¬
siasm. Yet it was sunset, and after a run
of six or eight miles, that 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 unac¬
companied 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 difficulty
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 sped after it.
By the time I had reached my horse Pease
was out of sight; but riding hard for some
miles I overtook 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 aston¬
ishing 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 tor¬
ment. 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.

BOOKS IN THE PIGSKIN LIBRARY

Bible.

Apocrypha.

Borrow: “Bible in Spain.”

“Zingali.”

“ WtoTwaies.”

“The Romany Rye.”

Shakespeare.

Spenser: “Faerie Queen.”

Marlowe.

Mahan: “Sea Power.”

Macaulay: History.

Essays.

Poems.

Homer: “Iliad.”

“ Odyssey.”

La Chanson de Roland.
“Nibelungenlied.”

Carlyle: “Frederick the Great.”

Shelley: Poems.

Bacon: Essays.

Lowell: Literary Essays.

“ Biglow Papers.”

Emerson : Poems.

Longfellow.

Tennyson.

Poe: Tales.

Poems.

Keats.

Milton: “Paradise Lost” (Books I and II.)

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.”

Mark Twain: “ Huckleberry Finn.”

“Tom Sawyer.”

Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress.”

Euripides (Murray’s translation.) “Hippolytus.’

“Bacchae.”

Scott: “ Legend of Montrose.”

“Guy Mannering.”

“ Waverley.”

“Rob Roy.”

“Antiquary.”

Cooper: “Pilot.”

■c, . . “Two Admirals.”

Froissart.

Percy’s Reliques.

Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” and “Pendennis.”
Dickens: “Mutual Friend.”

MR. ROOSEVELT, KERMIT ROOSEVELT, AND SIR ALFRED PEASE AT THE CARCASS OF
FIRST BIG LION.

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVI NOVEMBER, 1909 NO. 5

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

By Theodore Roosevelt

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt and other members

OF THE EXPEDITION

II.— ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH— LION-HUNTING ON THE
KAPITI PLAINS

giJHE house at which we were
staying stood on the beauti¬
ful Kitanga hills. They were
so named after an English¬
man, to whom the natives
had given the name of Ki¬
tanga; 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 hills 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 Kiliman¬
jaro turn crimson in the setting sun. The
twilights were not long; and when night
fell, stars new to northern eyes flashed glori¬
ous 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 that behind
a hill we could not see it. It is a dry coun-

* Copyright, 1909, by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York,
U. S. A. All rights reserved.

try, 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 plains of the West, where they
slope upward to the foothills of the Rock¬
ies. 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 chil¬
dren, 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 general landscape
struck me by its likeness to the cattle coun¬
try 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 just like
our Western buttes; the half -dry water¬
courses were fringed with trees, just as if
they had been the Sandy, or the Dry, or the
Beaver, 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,

l Notice.— Thes

Copyright, 1909, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. All rights re

VOL. XLVI.— 59

could see the possibilities 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 high¬
lands 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 in
similar parts of our own West, can do well
in East Africa; while 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
5M

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 cac¬
tus-like Euphorbias, shaped like candela-
bras, and named accordingly; and on the
higher hills 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 blos¬
soms. There were many flowers. On the
dry plains there were bushes of the color
and size of our own sagebrush, covered
with flowers like morning-glories. There
were also wild sweet-peas, on which the os¬
triches fed; as they did on another plant
with a lilac flower of a faint heliotrope fra¬
grance. Among the hills there were masses
of singularly fragrant flowers like pink jes¬
samines, growing on bushes sometimes fif¬
teen feet high or over. There were white

Mr. Roosevelt and Medlicott

. the

spot where we nooned on the first (unsuccessful) day of lion hunting in the
Lucania Donga.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

flowers that smelt like narcissus, blue flow- small and large, dull-colored and of the
ers, red lilies, orange tiger-lilies, and many most brilliant plumage. For the most part
others of many kinds and colors, while here they either had no names at all or names
and there in the pools of the rare rivers grew that meant nothing to us. There were glos-
the sweet-scented purple lotus-lily. sy starlings of many kinds; and scores of

There was an infinite variety of birds, species of weaver finches, some brilliantly

515

516

African Game Trails

colored, 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-colored
birds, almost like magpies, and with a
kestrel-like habit of hovering in the air over
one spot; others very small and prettily
colored. 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, rest¬
less, wonderfully colored plantain-eaters in
the woods; and hornbills, with strange
swollen beaks'. ' A truelark, colored like our
meadow-lark (to which it is in no way re¬
lated) sang from bushes; but the clapper-
lark made its curious clapping sounds (ap¬
parently with its wings, like a ruffed grouse)
while it zigzagged in the air. Little pipits
sang overhead like our Missouri sky-larks.
There were night-jars; and doves of vari¬
ous kinds, one of which uttered a series of
notes slightly resembling the call of our
whippoorwill or chuckwills widow. The

beautiful little sunbirds were the most gor¬
geous 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. The
naturalists caught shrews and mice in their
traps; mole rats with velvety fur, which
burrowed like our pocket gophers; rats
that lived in holes like those of our kanga¬
roo 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 woodchucks, 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 wildcats and things like a small mon¬
goose. But the most interesting mammal
we saw was a brilliantly colored yellow and
blue, or yellow and slate, bat, which we put
up one day while beating through a ravine.

African Game Trails

517

It had been hanging from a mimosa twig, the hills and on the plains still teeming with
and it flew well in the strong sunlight, look- game, the spirit of daring adventure every-
ing like some huge, parti-colored butterfly, where visible, the hope and the heartbreak-
It was a settled country, this in which we ing disappointment, the successes and the

Clifford Hill’s Kukuyu ostrich boys as they beat the tall grass for lion
hunting at Killima (Hill) Ugami, when we got two large and
The boys had their bows and arrows for protectit

did our first hunting, and for this reason all
the more interesting. The growth and de¬
velopment of East and Middle Africa are
phenomena of such absorbing interest, that
I was delighted at the chance to see the
parts where settlement has already begun
before plunging into the absolute wilder¬
ness. There was much to remind one of
conditions in Montana and Wyoming thirty
years ago ; the ranches planted down among

failures. But the problem offered by the
natives bore no resemblance to that once
offered by the presence of our tribes of
horse Indians, few in numbers and incred¬
ibly formidable in war. The natives of
East Africa are numerous, many of them
are agricultural — of pastoral people after
their own fashion, and even the bravest of
them, the warlike Masai, are in no way
formidable as our Indians were formidable

Heads of first two big lions shot by Mr. Roosevelt.
From a photograph by Kerrnit Roosevelt.

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 most 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 blan¬
kets in the neighborhoods 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 other¬
wise absolute nakedness of both sexes. Yet
these savages are cattle-keepers and cattle-
518

raisers, and the women do a good deal of
simple agricultural work; unfortunately,
they are wastefully destructive of the for¬
ests. The settlers evidently much prefer to
rely upon the natives for unskilled labor
rather than see coolies from Hindoostan
brought into the country. The chief of
each little village is recognized as the offi¬
cial headman by the British official, is given
support, and is required to help the author¬
ities keep peace and stamp out cattle dis¬
ease — the two most important functions of
government so far as the Wakamba them¬
selves are concerned. All the little 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 circu¬
lar 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 pro¬
longed drought and consequent failure of
crops, the foolish creatures die by the hun¬
dreds 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.

Many of the natives work for the settlers,
as cattle -keepers, as ostrich-keepers, or, af¬
ter a fashion, as laborers. At Sir Alfred
Pease’s ranch, as at most of the other farms
of the neighborhood, we found little Wa-
kamba settlements. Untold ages separated
employers and employed; yet those that I
saw seemed to get on well together. The Wa-
kamba are as yet not sufficiently advanced
to warrant their sharing in the smallest de¬
gree in the common government; the “just
consent of the governed” in their case, if
taken literally, Vvould mean idleness, famine,
519

520

African Game Trails

and endless internecine warfare. They can
not govern themselves from within; there¬
fore 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 Ki-
tanga 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,'

the time to do their full part in ensuring 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 Bondoni 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,

From a photograph by Lady Pease.

and cows; and the children, often the
merest toddlers, took naturally to guarding
the parties of pretty little calves, during the
day-time, 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
neighborhood — using “neighborhood” in
the large Western sense, for they were many
miles apart. The Hills, Clifford and Har¬
old, were Africanders; they knew the coun¬
try, and were working hard and doing well;
and in the midst of their work they spared

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 wagon 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, every one — behaved as
if each was my host and felt it peculiarly in¬
cumbent 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 Kilimakin, where he was run¬
ning 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 Klop-
per. We forgathered, of course, as I too
was of Dutch ancestry; they were strong,

522

African Game Trails

upstanding men, good mechanics, good
masons, and Prinsloo spoke English well.
I afterward stopped at the farm of Klop-
per’s father, and at the farm of another
Boer named Loijs; and I met other Boers
while out hunting — Erasmus, Botha, Jou-
bert, Meyer. They were descend¬
ants of the Voortrekkers 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
honorably known throughout the
world. There must of course be
many Boers who have gone back¬
ward under the stress of a hard
and semi-savage life ; just as in our
communities of the frontier, the
backwoods, and the lonely moun¬
tains there are shiftless “ poor
whites” and “mean whites” min¬
gled with the sturdy men and wom¬
en who have laid deep the founda¬
tions 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 any one 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
W est and some East ; those I met were among
the many hundreds, indeed thousands, who
travelled northward — a few overland, 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

Sir Alfred, Lady, and Miss Pease, on ranch steps with rhino and lion skulls and lion skins.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

British flag. They were being treated pre¬
cisely on an equality with the British set¬
tlers ; 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 re¬
spect, regard, and consideration such as that
which, for our inestimable goodfortune, now
knits closely together in our own land the
men who wore the blue and the men who
wore the gray 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 diffi¬
cult task of adding East Africa to the do¬
main 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 com¬
fortable; the floors were covered with the
skins of buck and zebra; the chairs were
home-made, as was most of the other furni¬
ture; the “rust bunks,” or couches, strong¬
ly and gracefully shaped, and filled with
plaited raw hide, were so attractive 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
S23

Tree with Wakamba beehives, Kitanga.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

in cultivation, for corn and vegetables; and
the wild velt 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 house¬
wives; 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 re¬
peated, so many, many times, to my chil¬
dren when they were little. It runs as fol¬
lows, by the way; but I have no idea how
the words are spelled, as I have no written
copy; it is supposed to be sung by the
father, who holds the little boy or little girl
524

on his knee, and tosses him or her up in the
air when he comes to the last line :

Trippe, troppa tronjes,

De vaarken’s en de bonjes,

De kuje’s en de klaver,

De paard’s en de hafer
De entje’s en de watter-plash !

So groot mein kleine (here insert the
little boy’s or little girl’s name) was!

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, while they
were all pleased and amused at my remem¬
bering and repeating it ; and we were speed¬
ily on a most friendly footing.

The essential identity of interest between
the Boer and British settlers was shown by
their attitude toward the district commis¬
sioner, Mr. Humphrey, 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 — I heard
praise of Humphrey, 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 with

African Game Trails

the settlers, and knowing and understanding farmer who sent over a basket of flowers,
their needs. A new country in which white now a box of apples from an English settler
pioneer settlers are struggling with the iron on the hills; now Prinsloo the Boer stopped
difficulties and hardships of frontier life is to dinner; now the MacMillans — American

Kermit Roosevelt and cheetah shot by him;

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 of terms with all
their neighbors, and their friendly interest
was returned; now it was the wife of a Boer

friends, of whose farm and my stay thereon
I shall speak later — rode over 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 daugh¬
ter had seen many strange lands and strange

526

African Game Trails

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
hill-sides 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 ani¬
mals of which I saw most while at Kitanga
and in the neighborhood, were the zebra,
wildebeest, hartebeest, Grant’s gazelle, and
“Tommies” or Thompson’s gazelle; the
zebra, and the hartebeest, usually known by
the Swahili name of kongoni, being by far
the most plentiful. Then there were im-
palla, mountain reedbuck, duyker, stein-
buck, and diminutive dikdik. As we trav¬
elled and hunted we were hardly ever out

of sight of game; and on Pease’s farm it¬
self 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 interest and enjoyment a
deer-forest or grouse-moor can afford.

Unless there was something special on, like
a lion- or rhinoceros-hunt, I usually rode
off followed only by my sais and gun-bear¬
ers. I cannot describe the beauty and the
unceasing interest of these rides, through
the teeming herds of game. It was like re¬
tracing the steps of time for sixty or seventy
years, and being back in the days of Corn¬
wallis Harris and Gordon Cumming, in
the palmy times of the giant fauna of South
Africa big game. 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 ex¬
ception of the wildebeest, most of them wrere
not shy, and I could have taken scores of
shots at a distance of a couple of hundred
yards or thereabout. Of course, I did not
shoot at anything unless we were out of
meat or needed the skin for the collection ;

The third male lion shot by Mr. Roosevelt.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

and when we took the skin we almost al¬
ways took the meat too, for the porters,
although they had their rations of rice, de¬
pended for much of their well-being on our
success with the rifle.

These rides through the wild, lovely
country, with only my silent black follow¬
ers, had a peculiar charm. When the sky
was overcast it was cool and pleasant, for
it is a high country; as soon as the sun ap¬
peared J:he 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 fig-trees, or flat-topped mimosas.
In many of these trees there were sure to
be native beehives; 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 of them sweet of smell ; and
birds of numerous kinds abounded. When
we left the hills and the wooded water¬
courses we might ride hour after hour across
the barren desolation of the flats, while
herds of zebra and hartebeests 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 at anything, vultures of several kinds,
and the tall, hideous marabout storks, gath¬
ered 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

527

528

African Game Trails

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, 2 20 yards, walking, behind shoulder.
Steinbuck, 180 yards, standing, behind
shoulder.” Generally each head of game
bagged cost me a goodly number of bul¬
lets; 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 shooting 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 dis¬
tances my proportion of misses was very
large indeed — and there were altogether
too many even at shorter ranges.

The so-called grass antelopes, the stein¬
buck and duyker, were the ones at which I
shot worst; they were quite plentiful, and
they got up close, seeking to escape obser¬
vation 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 well-nigh im¬
possible to hit them with the rifle. The
few I got were 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 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, 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
were wild savages impressed for the pur¬
pose from some neighboring tribe, carried
throwing-sticks, with which they were very
expert ; as indeed were some of the colonials,
like the Hills. Hares, looking and be¬
having much like small jack-rabbits, were
plentiful both on the plains and in the ra¬
vines, and dozens of these were knocked
over; while on several occasions I saw fran-
colins and spurfowl cut down on the wing
by a throwing-stick hurled from some un¬
usually dexterous hand.

The beats, with the noise and laughter of
the good-humored, excitable savages, and
the alert interest as to what would turn up
next, were great fun; but the days I en¬
joyed 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, be¬
fore 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 standing or lying drowsily in the
distance. As the shadows lengthened I
would again mount, and finally ride home¬
ward as the red sunset paled to amber and
opal, and all the vast, mysterious African
landscape grew to wonderful beauty in the
dying twilight.

African Game Trails

529

LION-HUNTING ON THE KAPITI PLAINS

The dangerous game of Africa are the
lion, buffalo, elephant, rhinoceros, and leop¬
ard. 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. The
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, fol¬
lowed 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 flinging 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 mo¬
ment when he felt he might conquer. Re¬
doubling his efforts, with knees and hand,
he actually choked and crushed the life 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 occa¬
sionally dangerous 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 leop¬
ards; 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 an¬
ger born of fear. The hippopotamus some¬
times 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
Vol. XLVI. — 60

dreaded were fang and sinew driven by a
beast with the cruel courage of the leopard.
But though the creature’s foul and evil fe¬
rocity 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-eat¬
ing after his 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 dis¬
ease 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 sleep¬
ing sickness, which has ravaged it as in the
Middle Ages the Black Death ravaged Eu¬
rope. 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 sleep¬
ing-sickness 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. Recov¬
ery 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 help¬
less prey. In 1 908 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 dy¬
ing people. To guard against them each
little group of huts was inclosed 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 full vigor were attacked.
One of Pease’s native hunters had been
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

530

African Game Trails

of Northwestern 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 wagon. 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
major was determined to get his assailant,
which he felt sure would soon return. Ac¬
cordingly, 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 uncertain 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 thresh¬
old 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 railroad.
A few months previously, while he was sit¬
ting, 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 re¬
membered that the house-cat had been
showing a marked and alert distrust of
the room in question — very probably the
leopard had gotten into the house while try¬
ing to catch her or one of the dogs. A
neighbor with a rifle was summoned, and
shot the leopard.

Hyenas not infrequently kill mules and
donkeys, tearing open their bellies, and eat¬
ing them while they are still alive. Yet
when themselves assailed they usually be¬
have 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, over¬
took it, and flew at it. The hyena made
no effective fight, although the dog — not a
third its weight — bit it severely, and de¬
layed its flight so that it was killed. Dur¬
ing 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 dis¬
tanced his pursuer; but at last, after cover¬
ing 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 I did not hear 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 sec¬
onds 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 — un¬
less they are previously killed in an en¬
counter with dangerous game like buffalo —
is to be killed and eaten by hyenas; but of
course a lion in full vigor 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 grewsome credit a long list of mighty
hunters slain or disabled. Among those
most competent to express judgment there
is the widest difference of opinion as to
the comparative danger in hunting the sev¬
eral 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 observa¬
tion and narration. 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 un-

African Game Trails

531

questionably first in point of ’formidable
capacity as a foe, the elephant equally un¬
questionably second, the lion third, and the
rhino last. Drummond, who wrote a capi¬
tal book on South African game, who was
for years a professional hunter like Selous,
who had fine opportunities for observation,
but who was a much less accurate observer
than Selous, put the rhino as unquestion¬
ably the most dangerous, with the lion
as second, and the buffalo and elephant
nearly on a level. Samuel Baker, a good ob¬
server, but with less experience of African
game than any one of the above, put the
elephant first, the rhino second, the buf¬
falo seemingly third, and the lion last.
The experts of greatest experience thus ab¬
solutely disagree among themselves; and
there is the same wide divergence of view
among good hunters and trained observers
whose opportunities have been less. Mr.
Abel Chapman, for instance, regards both
the elephant and the rhino as more danger¬
ous than the lion ; and most of the hunters
I met in East Africa seemed inclined to
rank the buffalo as more dangerous than
any other animal. A man who has shot
but a dozen or a score of these various ani¬
mals, all put together, is not entitled to ex¬
press 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 op¬
ponent of the hunter, under ordinary con¬
ditions. But we must ever keep in mind
the fact that the surrounding conditions,
the geographical locality, and the wide indi¬
vidual variation of temper within the ranks
of each species, must ‘all be taken into
account. Under 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 im¬
punity, 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 behavior.

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 and hurt by lions, buffa¬
loes, elephants, and rhinos; and the lions
have 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 previ¬
ously he had been badly mauled by a lion.
We met one gentleman who had been crip¬
pled 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 toward it;
instantly that his back was turned, the lion¬
ess, 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 off. One night we camped at
the very spot where, a score of years before,
a strange tragedy had happened. It was in
the early days of the opening of the coun¬
try, and an expedition was going toward
Uganda; one of the officials in charge was
sleeping in a tent with the flap open. There
was an askari on duty; yet a lion 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
darkness, killed and ate him. Not far from
the scene of this tragedy, another had oc¬
curred. An English officer named Stewart,
while endeavoring 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 follow¬
ing 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. Goldfinch 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 to death. Goldfinch, in spite of his

532

African Game Trails

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, ad ventures
in connection with lions. Sir Alfred had
shot many in different parts of Africa; some
had charged fiercely, but he always stopped
them. Captain Slatter had killed a big male
with a mane a few months previously. He
was hunting it in company with Mr. Hum¬
phrey, the District Commissioner of whom
I have already spoken, and it gave them
some exciting moments, for when hit it
charged savagely. Humphrey had a shot¬
gun loaded with buckshot, Slatter his rifle.
When wounded, the lion charged straight
home, hit Slatter, knocking him- flat and
rolling 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 spring¬
ing — and strike down the fugitive. Hum¬
phrey 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
his wounds, and was too sick to resume hos¬
tilities 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 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 ^s game officer a
Boer 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 boarhound 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 reed-
buck. Immediately afterward 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. Mean¬
while, 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 to look for the man.
Crippled though he was, the hunter man¬
aged to climb a small tree; and though the
lion might have gotten him out of it, the
dog interfered. 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 misunderstanding. He was riding
through a wet spot of ground, where the
grass was four feet high, when his horse
burst suddenly into a run and the next mo¬
ment a Hon had galloped almost alongside
of him. Probably the lion thought it was
a zebra, for when Percival, leaning over,
yelled in his face, the Hon stopped short.
But he at once came on again, and nearly
caught the horse. However, they were now
out of the tall grass, and the Hon gradually
drew up when they reached the open
country.

The two Hills, Clifford and Harold, were
running an ostrich farm. The Hons some¬
times killed their ostriches and stock; and

African Game Trails

533

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

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 fa¬
tal; and he walked slowly on along the

A zebra shot by Mr Roosevelt.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

at life, and especially the life of effort led by
the pioneer settler, from the same stand¬
point. They reminded me, at every mo¬
ment, of those Western ranchmen and home¬
makers with whom I have always felt a
special sense of companionship and with
whose ideals and aspirations I have al¬
ways felt a special sympathy. A couple of
months before my visit, Harold Hill had
met with a rather unpleasant adventure.
He was walking home across the lonely
plains, in the broad daylight, never dream¬
ing 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 hap¬
pened to be a place where the grass was
rather tall, and lions are always bold where
there is the slightest cover; whereas, unless
Vol. XLVI. — 61

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, alongside or a little be¬
hind 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 occasionally took the ostriches or
stock of the settlers, or ravaged the herds
and flocks of the natives, but not often;
for their favorite food was yielded by the
swarming herds of kongoni and zebras, on
which they could prey at will. Later we
found that they did not molest the buffalo,
even where they lived in the same reed-

534

African Game Trails

beds; and this though elsewhere they habit¬
ually prey on the buffalo. But where zebras
and hartebeests could be obtained without
effort, it was evidently not 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 twenty-
four 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.

leave some particularly difficult kill — 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. Be¬
sides Kermit and myself, there was a fellow
guest, a very good fellow, 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. Per-

The bones were all in place, and the skin
still on the lower legs and head. The ani¬
mal was lying on its belly, the legs spread
out, the neck vertebra 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 with¬
ers; 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 splin¬
tered 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

cival had with him a little mongrel bull¬
dog, and a Masai “ boy,” afine, bold-looking
savage, with a handsome head-dress and
the usual formidable spear; master, 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, hy¬
ena, or wild dog. Soon we came upon lion
spoor in the sandy bed; first the footprints
of a big male, then those of a lioness. We
walked cautiously along each side of the
donga, the horses following close behind so

Mrs. Percival with cheetah cub which we found and
From a photograph by' Kermit Roosevelt.

her.

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 coverage 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 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 harbor our
game, it seemed unlikely that we would
have another chance. Percival was on foot
and a long way from his house, so he start¬
ed 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 re¬
sult. Then we mounted our horses again,
and rode toward another patch a quarter
of a mile off. I was mounted on Tran¬
quillity, the stout and quiet sorrel.

535

536

African Game Trails

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 crashings
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.

I sprang to one side; and for a second or

it had merely been grazed, he might have
recovered, and then, even though dying, his
charge might have done mischief. So Ker-
mit, 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

two we waited uncertain whether we should
see the lions charging out ten yards distant,
or running away. Fortunately, they adopt¬
ed the latter course. Right in front of me,
thirty yards off, there appeared, from be¬
hind the bushes which had first screened
him from my eyes, the tawny, galloping
form of a big maneless 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 endeavored to turn
to face us. His back was broken ; but of this
we could not at the moment be sure, and if

three-quarters of a mile to a low crest or di¬
vide, and long before we got near him he
disappeared over this. Sir Alfred and Ker-
mit were tearing along in front and to the
right, and 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 ahead too far to the right.
Medlicott and I, however, 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 down¬
hill, 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

African Game Trails

537

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, Medli-
cott, and Miss Pease off to one side, and
slightly above him on the slope, while I was
on the level, nearly 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 includes rheumatism does not vault
lightly into the saddle ; as his sons, for in¬
stance, 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 mat¬
ters. I was not sure of the speed of Lady
Pease’s horse; and Simba was on foot
and it was or course out of the’ question
for me to leave him. So I said, “ Good,
Simba, how 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 could still not
see the lion when I knelt, but he was now
standing up, looking first at one group of
horses and then at the other, his tail lashing
J:o 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
Vol. XLVL— 62

and me on foot, he turned toward us, his
tail lashing quicker and quicker. Resting
my elbow on Simba’s bent shoulder, I took
steady aim and pressed the trigger; the
bullet went in between the neck and shoul¬
der, and the lion fell over on his side, one
foreleg in the air. He recovered in a mo¬
ment 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, es¬
pecially because we had performed the feat
alone, without any professional hunters
being present. “We were all amateurs,
only gentleman riders up,” 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 tropic 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 gen¬
erally, 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 repeti¬
tions make them grow 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 success¬
ful lion hunt. Our camp was pitched at a
water hole in a little stream called Potha,
by a hill of the same name. Pease, Medli-
cott, and both the Hills were with us, and
Heller came too; for he liked, when pos¬
sible, 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

538

African Game Trails

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 car¬
rying for arms little bows and arrows.

Before lunch we beat a long, low hill.
Harold Hill was with me; Medlicott and
Kermit were together. We placed our¬
selves, 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 posi¬
tion we heard the distant shouts of the beat¬
ers 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 be¬
fore resuming their march until the guns
had gone clear round and established them¬
selves at the base of the farther end of the
hill. This time Kermit, who was a couple
of hundred yards from me, killed a reed¬
buck and a steinbuck. Suddenly Hill said,
“Lion,” and endeavored to point it out to
me, as it crept cautiously among the rocks on
the steep hill-side, 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 bullet 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, how¬
ever, turning out to be a half -grown male.

We lunched under a tree, and then ar¬
ranged for another beat. There was a
long, wide valley, or rather a slight depres¬
sion 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 ad¬
venture with the lion that chased him. 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 off 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 ad¬
vancing 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 it 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, growling 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 with
a roar; the wound was fatal, but I was tak¬
ing 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 toward her through the long
grass, repressing the zeal of my two gun-
bearers, who were stanch, but who showed
a tendency to walk a little 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

African Game Trails

539

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 any one ; 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 run¬
ning up and pointed toward where he had
seen her, and we walked toward 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 sit¬
ting, her head bent down; but she still had
strength to do mischief. She saw us, but be¬
fore she could turn I sent a bullet through
her shoulders; down she went, and 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:

“Zon-zon-boule ma ja guntai; zon-zon-boule ma
ja guntai.”

Occasionally they would interrupt it by the
repetition in unison, at short intervals, of a
guttural ejaculation, sounding like “huz-
lem.” 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 min¬
ute or two’s vigorous dancing amid singing
and wild shouting. 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.

A CHARMED LIFE”

By Richard Harding Davis

Illustration by

loved him so much that
Len he went away to a
tie war in which his
rntry was interested she
aid not understand, nor
ite forgive.

As the correspondent of a newspaper,
Chesterton had looked on at other wars;
when the yellow races met, when the infidel
Turk spanked the Christian Greek; and
once he had watched from inside a British
square, where he was greatly alarmed lest
he should be trampled upon by terrified
camels. This had happened before he and
she had met. After they met, she told him
that what chances he had chosen to take
before he came into her life fell outside of
her jurisdiction. But now that his life be¬
longed to her, this talk of his standing up
to be shot at was wicked. It was worse
than wicked; it was absurd.

When the Maine sank in Havana harbor
and the word “war” was appearing hourly
in hysterical extras, Miss Armitage ex¬
plained her position.

“You mustn’t think,” she said, “that I
am one of those silly girls who would beg
you not to go to war.”

At the moment of speaking her cheek
happened to be resting against his, and his
arm was about her, so, he humbly bent his
head and kissed her, and whispered very
proudly and softly, “No, dearest.”

At which she withdrew from him frown¬
ing.

“No! I’m not a bit like those girls,”
she proclaimed. “I merely tell you you
can't go! My gracious!” she cried, help¬
lessly. She knew the words fell short of
expressing her distress, but her education
had not supplied her with exclamations of
greater violence.

“My goodness!” she cried. “How can
you frighten me so? It’s not like you,”
she reproached him. “You are so unsel¬
fish, so noble. You are always thinking of
other people. How can you talk of going
to war — to be killed — to me? And now,
now that you have made me love you so ? ”

The hands, that when she talked, seemed
540

F. Graham Cootes

to him like swallows darting and flashing
in the sunlight, clutched his sleeve. The
fingers, that he would rather kiss than the
lips of any other woman that ever lived,
clung to his arm. Their clasp reminded
him of that of a drowning child he had once
lifted from the surf.

“If you should die,” whispered Miss
Armitage. “What would I do. What
would I do!”

“But my dearest,” cried the young man.
“My dearest one! I’ve got to go. It’s
our own war. Everybody else will go,”
he pleaded. “Every man you know, and
they’re going to fight, too. I am going only
to look on. That’s bad enough, isn’t it,
without sitting at home? You should be
sorry I’m not going to fight.”

“Sorry!” exclaimed the girl. “If you
love me - ”

“ If I love you,” shouted the young man.
His voice suggested that he was about to
shake her. “How dare you?”

She abandoned that position and at¬
tacked him from one more logical.

“But why punish me?” she protested.
“Do I want the war? Do I want to free
Cuba? No! I want you, and if you go,
you are the one who is sure to be killed.
You are so big — and so brave, and you will
be rushing in wherever the fighting is, and
then — then you will die.” She raised her
eyes and looked at him as though seeing
him from a great distance. “And,” she
added fatefully, “I will die too, or may be,
I will have to live, to live without you for
years, for many miserable years.”

Fearfully, with great caution, as though
in his joy in her he might crush her in his
hands, the young man drew her to him and
held her close. After a silence he whis¬
pered. “But, you know that nothing can
happen to me. Not now, that God has let
me love you. He could not be so cruel. He
would not have given me such happiness
to take it from me. A man who loves you,
as I love you, cannot come to any harm.
And the man you love is immortal, immune.
He holds a charmed life. So long as you
love him, he must live.”

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

By Theodore Roosevelt

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt and other members

OF THE EXPEDITION

III.— ON SAFARI. RHINOS AND GIRAFFES.

|HEN 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, pa¬
tient, good-humored savages, with some¬
thing 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 firm¬
ness is even more necessary than kindness;
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 mis¬
deeds and shortcomings; sometimes for no
conceivable reason, at least from the white
man’s stand-point. 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 perform¬
ance of duty the lack of which they despise
as weakness. Any little change or excite¬
ment 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,

Special Notice. — These articles are fully protected
under the new copyright law in effect July ist, 1909, which
imposes a severe penalty for infringement.

652

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 exasperating be¬
cause they are against their own interest no
less than against the interest of their em¬
ployer. 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 repre¬
sents 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
expeditiously 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 Amer¬
ican 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 tomtoms; and at intervals this
would be renewed again and again through¬
out the march; or the men might suddenly
begin to chant, or merely to keep repeating
in unison some one word or one phrase
which, when we asked to have it translated,

To H. C. Bunner

651

I was sent to the Oak as your daysman, to
set you at one with Emmanuel, and to turn
your awful Yuletide into Christmas.”

“ Christmas — what is Christmas ? ” asked
Dunwallo.

“ Christmas is redeemed childhood,” an¬
swered the white-haired Caradoc. “ It was
the unknown touch of Christmas in my
heart that set you free from Taranis a score
of years ago” — and he told them the story
of the manger.

“Christmas is redeemed motherhood,”
the wise old evangelist went on, thinking of
the pitiful Myfanwy; and he pictured to
their minds the Virgin Mother.

“ Christmas is a redeemed world,” the
king continued; “and chiefly it is the re¬
demption of our joy. It turns our ugliness
to beauty, our slavery into sonship, and all
our outward sorrow to an innermost de¬
light. It takes the whole wide world and
makes it new again, with a gift like the
ministry of snow. There was that in your
old religion, faithful Coran, which it will
possess and transform. A Father takes the
place of Taranis, and Christ shall become
your Druid. There is never a truth or
beauty in the world but Christmas will wel¬
come them and mould them to itself with
fragrant freshness. So the coming centu¬
ries will cherish the sacrament of sacrifice,

though Christmas altars shall never feel the
stain of blood. Even your Oak” — and he
waved his hand lovingly upward — “will
surrender his sacred All-Heal, and the Yule
log will bum in the chimney, and the green¬
ery of forest gods will wave — not as signs
of dark and helpless fear, but to bid the
cheerful world a merry Christmas.”

And he told them how the trembling
shepherds heard the first Christmas words,
“Fear not!”

Coran was sobbing like a child whose
breast has been eased by the mother. The
four burly Britons let the salt tears roll
down their swarthy faces, unabashed. A
light shone in the eyes of Dunwallo.

“Listen!” whispered Caradoc:

“Hear ye not the sounds of heavenly
music?”

But it was only the wind in the woven
harp of the boughs of the ancient oak tree,
with a soft shy promise of snow. Six men
shouldered heavy burdens, Caradoc taking
that of Coran. The seven stole together
down the hill-side to their huts, through the
first falling flakes of Christmas weather.
In the morning all the world was wintry
white, and the dread of threatened plagues
had passed away. The White Christ had
come with Caradoc to Britain — Who covers
the sins of the world.

TO H. C. BUNNER

By Robert Louis Stevenson

You know the way to Arcady
Where I was born;

You have been there, and fain
Would there return.

Some that go thither bring with them
Red rose or jewelled diadem
As secrets of the secret king:

I, only what a child would bring.
Yet I do think my song is true;

For this is how the children do:

This is the tune to which they go
In sunny pastures high and low;

The treble pipes not otherwise
Sing daily under sunny skies
In Arcady the dear;

And you who have been there before,
And love that country evermore,

May not disdain to hear.

*** This poem, written about 1887, is now first published, by the permission of Mr. Bunner
of Mrs. Stevenson.

r’s family with the approval

might or might not prove to be entirely
meaningless. The headmen carried no bur¬
dens, and the tent boys hardly anything,
while the saises walked with the spare
dorses. In addition to the canonical and
required costume of blouse or jersey and
drawers, each porter wore a blanket, and
usually something else to which his soul in¬
clined. 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 midday 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 indi¬
vidual. Normally it was a red fez, a kind
of cap only used in hot climates, and ex¬
quisitely designed to be useless therein be¬
cause it gives absolutely no protection from
the sun. But one would wear a skin cap;

Vol. XLVI. — 76

another would suddenly put one or more
long feathers in his fez; and another,. dis¬
carding 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 stick¬
ing up and hanging down. Another con¬
sisted 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 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 noonday 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, lead¬
ing the porters, scattered through the line,
or walking alongside, were the askaris,
the rifle-bearing soldiers. They were not
653

654

African Game Trails

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 police 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

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,

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 shoul¬
ders, 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

flanked by those of the other white men and
by the dining tent. In the next line were
the cook tent, the provision tent, the store
tent, the skinning tent, and the like; 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

656

African Game Trails

nightfall the multitude of fires lit up the
darkness and showed the tents in shadowy
outline ; and around them squatted the por¬
ters, their faces flickering from dusk to
ruddy light, as they chatted together or sud¬
denly started some snatch of wild African
melody in which all their neighbors might
join. xAfter a while the talk and laughter
and singing would gradually die away, and

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 Potha I shot a wart-hog. It was
a good-sized sow, which, in company with

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 atten¬
tion — the yawning grunt of a questing lion.

If we wished to make an early start we
would breakfast by dawn, and then we
would usually return to camp for lunch.
Otherwise we might be absent all day, car¬
rying 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

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

The old bull giraffe and Heller’s Wkamba skinners.

A young bull giraffe, shot by Mr. Roosevelt at Kilimakiu.

658

African Game Trails

were grazing as if they had been ante¬
lope; her stomach contained nothing but
chopped green grass. Wart-hogs are com¬
mon throughout the country over which
we hunted. They are hideous beasts, with
strange protuberances on their cheeks; and
when alarmed they trot or gallop away, hold¬
ing the tail perfectly erect with the tassel
bent forward. Usually they are seen in
family parties, but a big boar will often be
alone. If the weather is cloudy or wet they
may be out all day long, but in hot, dry
weather we generally found them abroad
in the morning and evening. A pig is al¬
ways a comical animal; even more so than
is the case with a bear, which also impres¬
ses one with a sense of grotesque humor
— 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 char¬
acteristic 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 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 Kili-
makiu 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 recrossing, 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. Occasion¬
ally 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 imme¬
morial. The great beasts of the marsh and
the forest make thereon 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 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. Back of the camp, and
of the farm-house near which we were, rose
Kilimakiu Mountain, beautifully studded
with groves of trees of many kinds. On its
farther side lived a tribe of the Wkamba.
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 docu¬
ment 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 Wkamba 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.

660

African Game Trails

Their 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
water-courses. 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 ante¬
lope, being quite as
heavy as a fattened
ox. The herd I ap¬
proached consisted
of a dozen individ¬
uals, two of them
huge bulls, their
coats having turned
a slatey blue, their

great dewlaps hang- Masai Elmoran) m

ing down, and the Fr0m a Photograpi

legs looking almost

too small for the massive bodies. The red¬
dish colored 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 rest¬
ing, 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 unex¬
pected 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.

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 hun¬
dred yards distant,
they were such big
creatures and their
gait was so steady
that I felt warranted
in shooting. On the
dry plain I could
mark where my bul¬
lets fell, and though
I could not get a
good chance at the
bull I 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-bear¬
ers by the great carcass and sent a mes¬
senger in to Heller, on whom we depended
for preserving the skins of the big game.
Hardly had this been done when a Wkam-
ba man came running up to tell us that there
was a rhinoceros on the hill-side three-quart¬
ers of a mile away, and that he had left a
companion to watch it while he carried us
the news. Slatter and I immediately 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 hill-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 too 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 dis¬
tinctly see him 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 pres¬
ence 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 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 I put in
the right barrel, the bullet going through
both lungs. At the same moment he
wheeled, the blood spouting from his nos¬
trils, and galloped full on us. Before he
could get quite all the way round in his
headlong rush to reach us, I struck him
with my left-hand barrel, the bullet enter¬
ing between the neck and shoulder and
piercing his heart. At the same instant
Captain Slatter fired, his bullet entering the
neck vertebrae. 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 ut¬
most determination. It is not safe to gen¬
eralize from a few instances. J udging from
what I have heard, I am inclined to believe
that both lion and buffalo are more danger¬
ous game than rhino, yet the first two rhinos
I met both charged, whereas we killed our
first four lions and first four buffaloes
without any of them charging, though two
of each were stopped just as they were on
the point of charging. Moreover, our ex¬
perience with this bull rhino illustrates what
I have already said as to one animal being
more dangerous under certain conditions,
66 1

Wkamba at Kilimakiu.

From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

and another more dangerous under different The moon rose at eight and we started as
conditions. If it had been a lion instead of soon1 as she was above the horizon. We did
a rhino, my first bullet would, I believe, not take the horses, because there was no
have knocked all the charge out of it; but water where we were going, and further-
the vitality of the huge pachyderm was so more we did not like to expose them to a
great, its mere bulk counted for so much, possible attack by lions. The march out
that even such a hard-hitting rifle as my by moonlight was good fun, for though I
double Holland — than which I do not be- had been out all day, I had been riding, not
lieve there exists a better weapon for heavy walking, and so was not tired. A hundred
game — could not stop it outright, although porters went with us so as to enable us to do
either of the wounds inflicted would have the work quickly and bring back to camp
been fatal in a few seconds. the skins and all the meat needed, and these

Leaving a couple of men with the dead porters carried water, food for breakfast,
rhino, to protect it from the Wkamba by day and what little was necessary for a one-
and the lions by night, we rode straight to night camp. We tramped along in single
camp, which we reached at sunset. It was file under the moonlight, up and down the
necessary to get to work on the two dead hills, and through the scattered thorn forest,
beasts as soon as possible in order to be sure Kermit and Medlicott went first, and struck
of preserving their skins. Heller was the such a pace that after an hour we had to
man to be counted on for this task. He it halt them so as to let the tail end of the file
was who handled all the skin, who, in other of porters catch up. Then Captain Slatter
words, was making the expedition of per- and I set a more decorous pace, keeping the
manent value so far as big game was con- porters closed up in line behind us. In an-
cemed; and no work at any hour of the day other hour we began to go down a long
or night ever came amiss to him. He had slope toward a pin-point of light in the dis-
already trained eight Wkamba porters to tance which we knew was the fire by the
act as skinners under his supervision. On rhinoceros. The porters, like the big chil-
hearing of our success, he at once said that dren they were, felt in high feather, and
we ought to march out to the game that began to chant to an accompaniment of
night so as to get to work by daylight, whistling and horn-blowing as we tramped
Moreover, we were not comfortable at through the dry grass which was flooded
leaving only two men with each carcass, for with silver by the moon, now high in the
lions were both bold and plentiful. heavens.

662

African Game Trails

663

As soon as we reached the rhino, Heller
with his Wkamba skinners pushed forward
the three-quarters of a mile to the eland, re¬
turning 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

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 play¬
ing over them, now leaving them in dark¬
ness, now bringing them out into a red
relief. Our own tent was pitched under an-

A tribe of the Wkamba with their chief (in- khaki with a golf cap) that
came to present Mr. Roosevelt with a sheep near Kilimakiu.

From a photograph by Kennit Roosevelt.

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-
colored blankets, two or three big fires blaz¬
ing to keep off 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 car¬
cass what they regarded as titbits and what
we certainly did not grudge them. Between

other tree a hundred yards off, and when I
went to sleep, I could still hear the drum¬
ming 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 dis¬
appeared among the mimosas, at their
strange leisurely looking gallop. Of all

664

African Game Trails

the beasts in an African landscape none is
more striking than the giraffe. Usually it
is found in small parties or in herds of fif¬
teen or twenty or more individuals. Al¬
though it will drink regularly if occasion
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 — 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 extraor¬
dinary height enables it to bring into play
to the best possible advantage its note¬
worthy 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 stead¬
ily 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 ap¬
pear 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 outside of
the forelegs. The movements seem delib¬
erate 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 is thrust in advance. They are de¬
fenceless 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 thick foliage-spreading
tree. 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 country round about with our
glasses, and made out first a herd of elands,
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
over it. Half a mile from them we left the
horses in a thick belt of timber beside a dry
water-course, and went forward on foot.

There was no use in trying a stalk, for
that would merely have aroused the gi¬
raffes’ suspicion. But we knew they were
accustomed to the passing and repassing of
Wkamba men and women, whom they did
not fear if they kept at a reasonable dis¬
tance, 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 Win¬
chester loaded with full metal-patched bul¬
lets. 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 ^here I aimed; and away
went all three giraffes at their queer rock¬
ing-horse canter-.-. Running forward I emp¬
tied my magazine, firing at the big bull and
also at one of his smaller companions, and
then, slipping into the barrel what proved
to be a soft-nosed bullet, I fired at the latter
again. The giraffe was going straight away
and it was a long shot, at four or five hun¬
dred yards ; but by good luck the bullet broke
its back and down it came. The other bulls
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 neighboring 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.

666

African Game Trails

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, throwing
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 compan-

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 Wkamba turned up immediately after¬
ward, 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

The Percival family.

From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

ions 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. Scramb¬
ling 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 we flew after the wounded
bull. This time I made up my mind I
would get up close enough ; but T ranquillity
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 evident in
the landscape, it behooved him to be care¬
ful 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 coloring

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 Ker-
mit 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 al¬
though the giraffes had three-quarters of a
mile 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 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 suc¬
ceeded; but at this moment his horse put

a forefoot into a hole and turned a com¬
plete 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, fir¬
ing 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-dis¬
tance 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 Win¬
chester bullets both from Kermit’s giraffe
and from mine. I made a point of keeping
as many as possible of the bullets with
which tbe different animals were slain so as
to see just 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 morn¬
ing 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 trans¬
port, we decided that the safari should
march back to the Potha camp, and that
from thence we would send Percival’s ox
wagon 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 hav¬
ing an unpleasant adventure. He slept in
his own tent, and his Wkamba 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 Wkambas, who all cowered under their
blankets in perfect silence. But once he
had gone there was a great chattering, and
667

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

in a few minutes the fires were roaring, nor
were they again suffered to die down.

Heller’s skinners had grown to work very
well when under his eye. He had encoun¬
tered much difficulty in getting men who
would do the work, and had tried the repre¬
sentatives of various tribes, but without suc¬
cess until he struck the Wkamba. These
were real savages who filed their teeth and
delighted in raw flesh, and Heller’s explana¬
tion of their doing well was that their taste
for the raw flesh kept them thoroughly in¬
terested 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 Swa¬
hili title of Bwana (master) as a prefix.
Heller was the Bwana Who Skinned; Lor-
ing, who collected the small mammals, was
named merely descriptively the Mouse
Bwana.

From Potha the safari went in two days
to MacMillan’s place, Juja Farm, on the
•other side of the Athi. I stayed behind
as I desired to visit the American Mis¬
sion Station at Machakos. Accordngly, Sir
Alfred and I rode thither. Machakos has
668

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 by 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. Be¬
sides the natives there were a number of Ind¬
ian 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 en¬
gaged in cross-examining some neighboring
chiefs as to the cattle sickness. The Eng¬
lish rule in Africa has been of incalculable
benefit to Africans themselves, and indeed
this is true of the rule of most European
nations. Mistakes have been made, of
course, but they have proceeded at least as
often from an unwise effort to accomplish

African Game Trails

too much in the way of beneficence, as
from a desire to exploit the natives. Each
of the civilized nations that has taken pos¬
session of any part of Africa has had its own
peculiar good qualities and its own pecul¬
iar 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 in the other direction.
The effort has been to avoid wherever pos¬
sible 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 favor 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 ulti¬
mate 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 mission¬
aries. Mission work among savages offers
many difficulties, and often the wisest and
most earnest effort meets with dishearten-
ingly little reward ; while lack of common-
sense, and of course above all, lack of a firm
and resolute disinterestedness, insures the
worst kind of failure. There are mission¬
aries 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 govern¬

ment officials and settlers, are only too apt
to jump at the chance of criticising a mis¬
sionary for every alleged sin of either omis¬
sion or commission. Finally, zealous mis¬
sionaries, 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 move¬
ment, 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 favor 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 an eye single 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 alike great, and
the two should work hand in hand.

After returning from Machakos, I spent
the night at Sir Alfred’s, and next morn¬
ing said good-bye with most genuine re¬
gret to my host and his family. Then, fol¬
lowed by my gun-bearers and sais, I rode
off across the Athi plains. Through the
bright white air the sun beat down merci¬
lessly, and the heat haze wavered above the
endless flats of scorched grass. Hour after
hour we 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,
I crossed the river bed where it was water¬
less, and before evening fell I rode up to
Juja Farm.

Vol. XLVI.— 77

THE CLOWN AND THE COLUMBINE

By Molly Elliot Seawell

Illustrations by Lucius W. Hitchcock

nF laughter be the daughter of
sin, then Perinot must have
been the chief of sinners.
No man ever aroused more
unextinguishable laughter
than did Perinot, comedian
of the class called low. He had the true
clown’s physiognomy — a wide, sensitive
mouth capable of expressing everything and
nothing at all; a serious nose, and the low
comedian’s eye, melancholy and introspec¬
tive. Sombreness is the first characteristic
of the clown. Men will not tolerate a mer¬
ry clown. To be merry inside as well as
outside is more than envious human nature
can stand. The comedian must show his
kinship with the sad race of men by making
them see that while he commands their
laughter, he is no more happy than they.
Comedy must ever be weeping behind her
mask.

Do you know what a roulette is ? In gen¬
eral, it means a gypsy caravan, but its scope
has become enlarged and sometimes it
means a whole travelling theatrical com¬
pany. Some of the best comedians in the
whole world have been evolved from the
roulette. That was Perinot’s beginning.

His roulette consisted of three long cov¬
ered wagons. The rear wagon contained
such rude and trifling stage accessories as
Perinot’s plays demanded. But Perinot,
like Thespis in his cart, did not require
much scenery. In this last wagon rode the
Poillon brothers — very good actors, both of
them, and handy men besides. Henri was
tall and broad, while Gustave was so small,
beardless, and pretty, that he could do
women’s parts extremely well.

In the next wagon rode, with the bed¬
ding and trunks, that excellent woman,
Madame Toutant, with her husband and
her son, Auguste. Madame Toutant was
stout and large-waisted, but a capable ac¬
tress. The audiences laughed at her when
she waddled on the stage, but before long
her comic antics made them forget her
stout figure and double chin, and they saw
670 "

only her fine eyes and heard only her rich
voice. Toutant himself was a dull re¬
spectable man, and Auguste the son was as
near nothing as could be well imagined. He
was beautiful beyond expression, perfectly
obedient to Madame Toutant as indeed
was Toutant himself, and his beauty was an
excellent foil to the fascinating ugliness of
Perinot.

In the first wagon rode in state Perinot,
the proprietor of the whole outfit. With
him rode Columbine. She had another
name, but it was generally forgotten by
everybody including herself. Columbine
was picked up on. the roadside one summer
morning when she was sixteen years old.
She was in rags and her toes were peeping
through her shoes, and she was weeping
vociferously as she watched a regiment
marching away to the next town..

Madame Toutant, the kindest creature
on earth, spoke to the girl. Columbine ad¬
mitted that she was weeping for a soldier in
the departing regiment. The regiment was
going by train, and the roulette was travel¬
ling in the same direction. So, when the
girl begged Madame Toutant to give her a
lift, Madame Toutant persuaded Perinot to
let the girl go with them.

“She is an ugly thing,” said Perinot, sur¬
veying at long range Columbine, with her
touselled red-brown hair, her swollen eyes,
her gawky figure.

“She would not be so bad-looking if she
had some clothes and shoes,” said Madame
Toutant.

The upshot of it was that the girl was
given a place in Perinot’s own wagon, where
she sobbed long and hard after her lover, a
young blacksmith, who was glad to get rid
of her. Perinot only meant to give her a
lift for a few miles, and at the end of six
years Columbine was still sitting by his
side, driving old Blanc, the stout Normandy
nag who drew the cart. Nobody could com¬
plain then that Columbine was ugly. She
had developed a vivid irregular beauty that
made her exceedingly dangerous. This she

Scribner's Magazine

VOL. XLVII JANUARY, 1910 NO. 1

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt, W. N. McMillan, and other

MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION

IV.— JUJA FARM; HIPPO AND LEOPARD.

SIT Juja Farm we were wel¬
comed with the most gen¬
erous hospitality by my fel¬
low-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 junc¬
tion of the Nairobi and Rewero Rivers. The
house, like almost all East African houses,
was of one story, a broad, vine-shaded ve¬
randa running around it. There were nu¬
merous out-buildings of every kind; there
were flocks and herds, cornfields, a vege¬
table garden, and, immediately in front of
the house, a very pretty flower garden, care¬
fully tended by unsmiling Kikuyu savages.
All day long these odd creatures worked at
the grass and among the flower beds; ac¬
cording to the custom of their tribe their
ears were slit so as to enable them to stretch
the lobes to an almost unbelievable extent,
and in these apertures they wore fantas¬
tically carved native ornaments. One of
them had been attracted by the shining sur-

* Copyright, ipoo, by -Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York, U. S. A. _ Alf rights reserved^including that of trans¬

face of an empty tobacco can, and he wore
this in one ear to match the curiously carved
wooden drum he carried in the other. An¬
other, whose arms and legs 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 Somalis
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 So¬
malis 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

Special Notice. — These articles are fully protected under the new copyright law in effect July ist, 1909, which imposes
a severe penalty for infringement.

Copyright, 1909, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. All rights reserved.

VOL. XLVII.— I

2

African Game Trails

type. They looked carefully 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

Mr. Bulpett, were not merely mighty hunt¬
ers who had bagged every important variety
of large and dangerous game, but were also
explorers of note, whose travels had materi¬
ally helped in widening the area of our knowl¬
edge of what was once the dark continent.

Many birds sang in the garden, bulbuls,

Masai warriors near McMillan’s ranch on the Mua hills.

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-shaded veranda, everything
was so comfortable that it was hard to re¬
alize 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,

thrushes, and warblers; and from the nar¬
row 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 is -said to insist upon
leading any man it sees to honey, so that he
may rob the hive and give it a share —
though we were not ourselves fortunate
enough to witness anything noteworthy in
its actions.

Game came right around the house.
Hartebeests, wildebeests, and zebras grazed
in sight on the open plain. The hippo-

The house at Juja Farm.

From a photograph by J. Alden Loring.

potami that lived close by in the river came the dew-drenched grass. On every side
out at night into the garden. A couple of game stood to watch us, herds of harte-
years before a rhino had come down into beests and zebras, and now and then a
the same garden in broad daylight, and herd of wildebeests or a few straggling old
quite wantonly attacked one of the Kikuyu wildebeest bulls. Sometimes the zebras
laborers, tossing him and breaking his thigh, and kongoni were very shy, and took fright
It had then passed by the house out to the when we were yet a long way off; at other
plain, where it saw an ox cart, which it im- times they would stand motionless and per-
mediately attacked and broke, cannoning mit us to come within fair gunshot, and
off after its charge and passing up through after we had passed we could still see them
the span of oxen, breaking all the yokes but regarding us without their having moved,
fortunately not killing an animal. Then it The wildebeests were warier; usually when
met one of the men of the house on horse- we were still a quarter of a mile or so dis-
back, immediately assailed him, and was tant, the herd, which had been standing
killed for its pains. with heads up, their short, shaggy necks

My host was about to go on safari for a * and heavy withers giving the animals an
couple of months with Selous, and to man- unmistakable look, would take fright, and,
age their safari they had one of the most with heavy curvets, and occasional running
noted professional hunters of East Africa, in semicircles, would make off, heads held
Mr. H. Judd; and Judd was kind enough down and long tails lashing the air.
to take me out hunting almost every day In the open woods which marked the bor-
that we were at Juja. We would breakfast der between the barren plains and the for-
at dawn and leave the farm about the time ested valley of the Athi, Kermit and I shot
that it grew light enough to see: ordinarily water-buck and impalla. The water-buck
our course was eastward, toward the Athi, is a stately antelope with long, coarse gray
a few miles distant. These morning rides hair and fine carriage of the head and neck;
were very beautiful. In our front was the the male alone carries horns. We found
mountain mass of Donyo Sabuk, and the them usually in parties of ten or a dozen,
sun rose behind it, flooding the heavens both of bulls and cows; but sometimes a
with gold and crimson. The morning air party of cows would go alone, or three or
blew fresh in our faces, and the unshod feet four bulls might be found together. In spite
of our horses made no sound as they trod of its name, we did not find it much given

3

African Game Trails

to going in the water, although it would ant-hills. In a few minutes we saw an im-
cross the river fearlessly whenever it de- palla buck, and I crept up behind an ant-
sired; it was, however, always found not hill and obtained a shot at about two hun-
very far from water. It liked the woods dred and fifty yards. The buck dropped,
and did not go many miles from the streams, and as I was putting in another cartridge I
yet we frequently saw it said to Judd that I did-

on the open plains a mile n’t like to see an animal

or two from trees, feed- drop like that, so instan-

ing in the vicinity of the
zebra and the harte-
beest. This was, how¬
ever, 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.

taneously, 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 di¬
rection toward which its
head had been pointed,
and Judd ascended an
ant-hill to scan the sur¬
rounding country with
his glasses. He did so,
and after a minute re¬
marked that he could
not see the wounded im¬
palla; .when a sudden
movement caused him
to look down, and there

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

v-buck bull shot by
Roosevelt.

the most graceful movements of any animal it was, lying at his very feet, on the side of the
I know, and it is extraordinary to see a herd ant-hill, unable to rise. I had been using a
start off when frightened, making bounds sharp-pointed bullet in the Springfield, and
clear over large-sized bushes. Usually a this makes a big hole. The bullet had gone
single old buck will be found with a large too far back, penetrating the hips. I should
company of does and fawns; the other not have wondered at all if the animal had
bucks go singly or in small parties. It was failed to get up, but I did not understand-
in the middle of May, and we saw fawns of why, if recovered enough from the shock to
all ages. When in the open, where, like the be able to get up at all, it had not continued
water-buck, it often went in the morning to travel, instead of falling after going one
and evening, the impalla was very shy, but hundred yards. Indeed, I am inclined to
I did not find it particularly so among the think that a deer or prong-buck, hit in the
woods. In connection with shooting two same fashion, would have gone off and
of the impalla, there are little incidents would have given a long chase before being
which are perhaps worthy of mention. overtaken. Judging from what others have
In one case I had just killed a water- said, I have no doubt that African game
buck cow, hitting it at a considerable dis- is very tough and succumbs less easily to
tance and by a lucky fluke, after a good wounds than is the case with animals of the
deal of bad shooting. We started the por- northern temperate zone; but in my own
ters in with the water-buck, and then rode limited experience, I three times saw Afri-
west through an open country, dotted here can antelopes succumb to wounds quicker
and there with trees and with occasional than the average northern animal would

have succumbed to the 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 hobbling away on three legs;
yet in spite of hard struggles the eland was
wholly unable to regain her feet. The im¬
palla thus shot, by the way, although in fine
condition and the 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 dis¬
tance of a few feet they gave the appear¬
ance 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 endeavoring
to get a water-buck bull, and as the day was
growing hot I was riding homeward, scan¬
ning 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 bot¬
tom, 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 the steep descent which led 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 toward the plain, when one of
my gun-bearers whistled to us and said he
had seen the wounded animal cross the bot¬
tom 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

Judd permanganating the beater who was mauled by the leopard.

a few yards off, coiled up in the long grass
under a small tree, was a python. I could
not see it distinctly, and using a solid bul¬
let 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 glid¬
ing rapidly in our direction. I do not think
it was charging; I think it was merely try¬
ing to escape. But Judd, who was utterly
unmoved by lion, leopard, or rhino, evi¬
dently 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 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, weighing about forty
pounds. We tied it to a long stick and
sent it in by two porters.

Another day we beat for lions, but with¬
out 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 ac¬
companied 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 morn¬
ing 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 with 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 dis¬
turbance and rouse the game, and they were
cautioned on no account to get into danger.

Kermit Roosevelt and the leopard.
From a photograph by W. N. McMillan.

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 forepart of the body; the leop¬
ard turned, and as he galloped back Kermit
hit him again, crippling 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, wor¬
rying him with teeth and claws; but it was
weak because of its wounds, and the power¬
ful 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, the leopard, on its own initia¬
tive, 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 fear¬
less and resolute temper. It was an old fe¬
male, but small, its weight being a little
short of seventy pounds. The smallest fe¬
male 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 dan¬
gerous foe. 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,

African Game Trails

contained hippopotami and crocodiles in the trampling of heavy feet and of a big
the deep pools. I was particularly anxious body being shoved through a dense mass of
to get one of the former, and early one morn- tropical bush. My companions called to me
ing Judd and I rode off across the plains, in loud whispers that it was a rhinoceros
through the herds of grazing game seen coming at us, and to “ Shoot, shoot.” In
dimly in the dawn, to the Athi. We reached another moment the rhinoceros appeared,
the river, and, leaving our horses, went standing twitching its tail and tossing and
down into the wooded bottom, soon after twisting its head from side to side. It did
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 ; ofi our way we saw a
bushbuck, but of course
did not dare to shoot at it,
for hippopotami are wary,
except in very unfrequent¬
ed 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 nostrils
visible. The bank was
covered with a dense
growth of trees, festooned
with' vines; among the
branches sat herons;
little cormorant dived into
the water; and a very
and brilliantly colored
kingfisher, with a red beak

not seem to have very good
horns, and I would much
rather not have killed it;
but there hardly seemed
any alternative, for it cer¬
tainly showed every symp¬
tom of being bent on mis¬
chief. My first shot, at
under forty yards, pro¬
duced no effect whatever,
except to hasten its ap¬
proach. I was using the
Winchester, with full-
jacketed bullets; my sec¬
ond 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
and large turquoise crest, perched unheed- handling, and as quietly as possible we
ingly within a few feet of us. Here and walked through the open forest along the
there a dense growth of the tall and singu- edge of the dense thicket into which the
larly graceful papyrus rose out of the water, animal had returned. The thicket was a
the feathery heads which crowned the long tangle of thorn bushes, reeds, and small,
draped green stems waving gently to and fro. low-branching trees; it was impossible to
We scanned the waters carefully, and see ten feet through it, and a man could
could see no sign of hippos, and, still pro- only penetrate it with the utmost slowness
ceeding with the utmost caution, we moved and difficulty, whereas the movements of
a hundred yards farther down to another the rhino were very little impeded. At the
lookout. Here the Masai detected a hippo far end of the thicket we . examined the
head a long way off on the other side of the grass to see if the rhino had passed out,
pool ; and we again drew back and started and sure enough there was the spoor, with
cautiously forward to reach the point oppo- so much blood along both sides that it was
site which he had seen the head. evident the animal was badly hit. It led

But we were not destined to get that hip- across this space and into another thicket
po. Just as we had about reached the of the same character as the first; and
point at which we had intended to turn in again: we stole cautiously along the edge
toward the pool, there was a succession some ten yards out. I had' taken the heavy
of snorts in our front and the sound of Holland double-barrel, and with the safety

catch pressed forward under my thumb, I
trod gingerly through the grass, peering into
the thicket and expectant 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 be¬
hind 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 un¬
der 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 small¬
er 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 clus¬
tered 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

wagon and brought it in to the house, where
we weighed it. It was a little over two
thousand two hundred pounds. It had evi¬
dently been in the neighborhood in which
we found it for a considerable time, for
a few hundred yards away we found its
stamping ground, a circular spot where the
earth had been all trampled up and kicked
about, according to the custom of rhinoc¬
eroses; 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 threat¬
ening 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 symp-

10

African Game Trails

tom of meaning mischief, and at a shorter
range I could not have been sure of stop¬
ping it in time. Often under such circum¬
stances the rhino does not mean to charge
at all, and is acting in a spirit of truculent
and dull curiosity; but often, when its mo¬
tions and actions are indistinguishable from
those of an animal which does not mean
mischief, it turns out that a given rhino does

will take too many chances when face to
face with a creature whose actions are
threatening and whose intentions it is
absolutely impossible to divine. In fact, I
do not see how the rhinoceros can be per¬
manently 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

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 order
to prevent mischief. Under such circum¬
stances it is not to be expected that men

hunter, and, indeed, very many eager old
hunters; and the beast’s stupidity, curi¬
osity, and truculence make up a combina¬
tion of qualities which inevitably tend to
insure its destruction.

As we brought home the whole body of
this rhinoceros, and as I had put into it
eight bullets, five 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 Win¬
chester 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

Landing the hippo.

12

African Game Trails

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 Winchester
did admirably with lions, giraffes, elands,
and smaller game, and, as will be seen, with
hippos. For heavy game like rhinoceroses
and buffaloes, I found that for me personally
the heavy Holland was unquestionably 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 matter of personal idiosyncrasy
as the choice of a friend. The above must
be taken as merely the expression of my per¬
sonal preferences. It will doubtless arouse
as much objection among the ultra cham¬
pions 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 up¬
stream a couple of miles; I missed a wart-
hog on the way. 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 gang 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 bul¬
let 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 and does not
rise to the surface for several hours. Ac¬
cordingly, 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 Cuninghame, Judd, and I
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 convenient 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 Re¬
wero continually entered McMillan’s gar¬
den . Where they are num erous they some¬
times 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 enor¬
mous jaws sweep in quantities of plants, or
lush grass, or corn or vegetables, at a mouth¬
ful, 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 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 unmistak-

14

African Game Trails

able 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 cen¬
tre. 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 ver¬
tebra.

At Juja Farm many
animals were kept in
cages. They included
a fairly friendly leop¬
ard, and five lions, two
of which were anything
but friendly. There
were three cheetahs,
nearly full-grown;
these were continually
taken out on leashes,

Mrs. McMillan stroll¬
ing about 1 with them
and leading them to the
summer-house. . They
were good-tempered,
but they did not lead
well. Cheetahs are in¬
teresting 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 fero¬
cious, 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, they are the swif¬
test 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. 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 domesti¬
cated than most other cats, but, as with all
highly developed wild creatures, they show
great individual variability 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 be¬
fore 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. Fi¬
nally, there was a young
Tommy buck and a
Grant’s gazelle doe,
both of which were on
good terms with every
one and needed aston¬
ishingly little looking
after to prevent their
straying. When I was
returning to the house
on the morning I killed
the rhinoceros, I met
the string of porters
and the ox wagon '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
ime Grant's gazelle at juja been intrusted for that

aThoto^aph Hal LoriX 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 like wild war-cries and brand¬
ishing his spear. They formed a really ab¬
surd couple, the little doe slowly and deco¬
rously walking back to the farm, quite
unmoved by the clamor’and threats, while
her guardian, the very image of what a sav¬
age warrior should look like when on the
war-path, walked close behind, waving his
spear and uttering deep-toned shouts, with
what seemed a ludicrous disproportion of
effort to the result needed.

Antelopes speedily become very tame and
recognize clearly their friends. Leslie Tarl-
ton’s brother was keeping a couple of young
kongoni and a partly grown Grant on his
f arm j ust ou tside Nairobi . (The game comes

Mrs. McMillan and cheetah, j ,
From a photograph. by W. N. McMillan.

right to the outskirts of Nairobi; one morn¬
ing Kermit walked out from the Mc¬
Millans’ town-house, where we were stay¬
ing, in company with Percival, the game
ranger, and got photographs of zebras, kon-
goni, and Kavirondo cranes; and a leop¬
ard sometimes came up through the garden
on to the veranda of the house itself.) Tarl-
ton’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 ante¬
lopes 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
neighboring 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 attrac¬
tive for visitors. 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 there 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 Mombassa to
Nairobi and on to the Victoria Nyanza.

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVII FEBRUARY, 1910 NO. 2

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt and other members

OF THE EXPEDITION

V.— A BUFFALO-HUNT BY THE KAMITI.

EATLEY’S RANCH com¬
prises 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 as beautiful bits of
natural scenery 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 cat¬
tle, 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 ourtentclose beside the Kamiti.

The Karm ti is a queer little stream, run¬
ning 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. T en yards from the edge, when with¬
in 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. Under-

* Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York,
U. S. A. i! rights reserved, including that of translation
into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.

foot, the mud and water are hip-deep. This
swamp was the home of a herd of buffalo
numbering perhaps a hundred individuals.
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, w’here 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 Ka¬
miti, 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

Special Notice. — Thes

in effect July 1st, 1909, which imposes

Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. All rights reserved.

VOL. XLVII. — 16

130

African Game Trails

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 lit¬
tle distance below and
made our way toward
them, beside the brawl¬
ing, rock-choked torrent.
Great trees towered over¬
head, and among their
tops the monkeys chat¬
tered 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, con¬
sisted of immense rolling
plains, and on these the
game swarmed in almost
incredible numbers.
There were Grant’s and Thompson’s ga¬
zelles, of which we shot one or two for the

grow to a height of over twenty feet.

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 sun¬
light, 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 color; 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
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

Heatley with two leopard cubs he caught.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

African Game Trails

131

table. There was a small
herd of blue wildebeest,
and among them one un¬
usually large bull with an
unusually fine head ; Ker-
mit finally killed him.
There were plenty of wart-
hogs, which were to be
found feeding right out in
the open, both in the morn¬
ing and the evening. One
day Kermit got a really
noteworthysow 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 near¬
ly alongside, holding his
rifle as the old buffalo-run¬
ners used to hold theirs,
that is, not bringing it to
his shoulder. I killed two
or three half-grown pigs
for the table, but I am sor¬
ry to say that I missed sev¬
eral 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
Springfield I put the bul¬
let through both shoulders,
and he was dead when we

came up.

B ut 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 dis¬
tance 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 Cuning-
hame and I rode out to get it. Within half
a mile \ye came upon big herds both of harte-
bees.t and zebra. They stood to give me
long-range shots at about three hundred
yards., I missed once and then wounded a
zebra, after which Cuninghame rode. While
he was off, I killed first a zebra and then a

Falls on the Rewero River.

hartebeest, and shortly afterward a cloud of
dust announced that Cuninghame was bring¬
ing a herd of game toward me. I knelt mo¬
tionless, 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 I 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 further I bagged a tommy at two

132

African Game Trails

hundred yards — his meat was for our own
table, the kongoni and the zebra being for
the .safari.

On another day, when Heatley and I were

a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

out together, he stationed me among some
thin thorn-bushes on a little 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 cer¬
tainly 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 like 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 in¬
terested to see that many
of the kongoni ran with
their mouths open. This
is an attitude which we
usually associate with ex¬
haustion, but such can¬
not have been the case
with the kongoni — they
had merely cantered fora
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 ze¬
bra, all stallions, by the
way, kept their mouths
open throughout the time
they were neighing, and
their ears pricked for¬
ward; 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
Kamiti. need to harm the beauti¬

ful creatures. They
passed so close by that I
could mark every slight movement, and the
ripple of the muscles under the skin. The
very young fawns of the kongoni seemed to
have little fear of a horseman, if he ap¬
proached 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 clangor. But the most
interesting birds we saw were the black why-
dah finches. The female is a dull-colored,

African Game Trails

133

ordinary-looking bird, somewhat like a fe¬
male 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 down¬
ward 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 feeding 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 favorite 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 arti¬
ficially made dancing-rings. For a mile and
a half beyond our camp, down the course of
the Kamiti, the grassland at the edge of the
papyrus was thickly strewn with these dan¬

cing-rings. Each was about two feet in di¬
ameter, 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 sur¬
face of the ring. The cock
bird would then alight in the
ring and hop up to a height
of a couple of feet, wings
spread and motionless, tail
drooping, and the head usu¬
ally 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 lim¬
ited territory, the effect was
rather striking when a large
number of birds were dan¬
cing 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

134

African Game Trails

jump in a tin tray by tapping on it. The
favorite 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 buf¬
falo that haunted the papyrus swamp. As
I have said before, the buffalo is by many

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 hun¬
dreds 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.

Third buffalo bull shot in the swamp.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

hunters esteemed the most dangerous of
African game. It is an enormously power¬
ful 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 bosses some¬
times meeting in old age so as to coyer the
forehead with a frontlet of horn. Their
habits vary much in different places. Where
they are much persecuted, 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.

Probably when the moon was full the buf¬
falo 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, sometimes in the late even¬
ing,' but quite as often in the bright day¬
light. We saw herds come out to graze at
ten o’clock in the morning, and again at
three in the afternoon. They usually re¬
mained 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 perch¬
ing on their backs; and occasionally the
whereabouts of the herd in the papyrus
swamp could be determined by seeing the

13G

African Game Trails

flock of herons perched on the papyrus tops.
We did not see any of the red-billed tick-
birds on the buffalo; indeed, the only ones
that we saw happened to be on domestic
cattle. 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. Usu¬
ally 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 neighborhood of the
papyrus swamp, for there had been one or
two narrow escapes from unprovoked at¬
tacks 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 under certain circum¬
stances buffalo, in addition to showing
themselves exceedingly dangerous oppo¬
nents when wounded by hunters, become
truculent and inclined to
take the offensive them¬
selves. 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 dam¬
age to the native planta¬
tions, 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 na¬
tives are of constant oc¬
currence.

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 swamp. Thewhydah
birds were continually
ipyrus' grass. bobbing up and down in

same may be only five fronf- Qf ug ag J-Jjgy r0ge

and fell on their dancing-
places, while the Kavi-
rondo 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 with projections and indenta¬
tions, and by following it closely and cut¬
ting cautiously across the points, the oppor¬
tunity 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

138

African Game Trails

had our double-barrels, with the Winches¬
ters as spare guns, while Cuninghame car¬
ried 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 open, and
then the big bull I 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. Aiming well be¬
fore one bull, 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 pene¬
trate to the brain, and merely stunned him
for the moment. All the time we kept run¬
ning 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 I 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, ad¬
vancing 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 loud¬
ly as ever. Heatley now mounted his trained
shooting-pony and rode toward the place,
while we covered him with our rifles, his
plan being to run right across our front if
the bull charged. The bull was past charg¬
ing, 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 confidence 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. F ortun-ately the head proved to be in
less good condition than any of the others, as
one horn was broken off about half-way 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 fore¬
head 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 differ¬
ences 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 divi¬
sion adopted in the pamphlet in question,
the three bulls we had shot would have
represented certainly two and possibly three
different species.

Cuninghame, Kermit, Mr. Roosevelt.. Heller, and Heatley at Buffalo Camp.

Heller jail soon on the ground with his
skinning-tent and skinners, and the Boer
farmer went back to fetch the ox-wagon on
which the skins and meat were brought in
to camp. Laymen can hardly realize, and
I certainly did not realize, what an immense
amount of work is involved in getting and
preparing the skins of large animals such as
buffalo, rhino, hippo, and above all ele¬
phant, in hot climates. On this first five-
weeks’ trip we got some seventy skins, in¬
cluding twenty-two species ranging in size
from a dikdik to a rhino, and all of these
Heller prepared and sent to the Smithso¬
nian. Mearns and Loring were just as busy
shooting birds and trapping small mam¬
mals. 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 any¬
where. Dr. Mearns, in addition to birds and
plants, never let pass the opportunity to col¬
lect anything else from reptiles and fishes to
land shells. Moreover, he was the best shot
in our party. He killed two great bustards
with the rifle, and occasionally shot birds
like vultures on the' wing with a rifle. I
do not believe that three better men than

140

African Game Trails

Meams, Heller, and Loring, for such an ex¬
pedition as ours, could be found anywhere.

It was three days later before we were
again successful with buffalo. On this oc¬
casion we started about eight in the morn¬
ing, having come to the conclusion that the
herd was more apt to leave the papyrus late
than early. Our special object was to get a
cow. We 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 four miles ran in a course gener¬
ally parallel to the swamp, and at a dis¬
tance which varied, but averaged perhaps a
quarter of a mile. When we reached the
beginning of this water-course, we left our
horses and walked along it. Like all such
water-courses, it wound in curves. The
banks were four or five feet high, the bot¬
tom was sometimes dry and sometimes con¬
tained 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 seen several,
and believed that the 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 water-course
until about opposite the buffalo, which were
now lying down. Cuninghame peered cau¬
tiously 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 ap¬
proach 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 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 wound¬
ed 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 grunt 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 both
Cuninghame and Heatley caught a glimpse
of it. Down it went to their shots, and in a
minute we heard the moaning bellow which
a wounded buffalo often gives before dy¬
ing. Immediately afterward we could hear
the dogs worrying it, whileit 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 Win¬
chester. 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 sev¬
eral different animals we wanted. In the
afternoon I returned, having a vaguely un¬
comfortable feeling that as it grew dusk the
buffalo might possibly make their appear-

ance 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 glasses
I could see that their attention was at¬
tracted to us. They gazed at us for quite
a time, and then walked slowly in our direc¬
tion 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
142

charge. But it was only curiosity on their
part, and after having gazed their fill, they
sauntered back to the swamp and disap¬
peared. There was no chance to get at them,
and moreover darkness was rapidly falling.

Next morning we broke camp. The por¬
ters, strapping grown-up children that they
were, felt as much pleasure 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 tom-toms. Then off they strode in a long
line with their burdens, following one an¬
other in Indian file, each greeting me with
a smile and a deep “ Yambo, Bwana!” as
he passed. I had grown attached to them,

African Game Trails

143

and of course especially 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.

Ivermit 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 re¬
semble what one would naturally expect in
equatorial Africa. On the contrary it re¬
minded me of the beautiful rolling wooded
country of middle Wisconsin. But of course
everything 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
colored 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 musi¬
cal 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 Africa. It grows up the mahogo as a
vine and gradually, by branching, and by the
spreading of the branches, completely en¬
velops 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 com¬
posite, the limbs and thick foliage of the fig
branching out among the limbs and scanty
foliage of the still living mahogo, to the stage
in which the mahogo is simply a dead skele¬
ton 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 clus¬
tered 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 in¬
terfere with his prime work of being a suc¬
cessful 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 ta
his place was bordered by trees from Aus¬
tralia and beds of native flowers.

Next day we went in to 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 herculean proportions. Governor
Jackson — a devoted ornithologist and prob¬
ably the best living authority on East African
birds, taking into account the stand-points,
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 interesting, with its large native quar¬
ter 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 isolated, each by itself,,
and each usually bowered in trees, with
vines shading the verandas, and pretty
flower-gardens round about. Not only da
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.

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVII MARCH, 1910 NO. 3

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

VI.— TREKKING THROUGH THE THIRST TO THE SOTIK.

O’

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

The preceding Sunday,
at Nairobi, I had visited
the excellent French
Catholic Mission, had
been most courteously re¬
ceived by the fathers, had
gone over their planta¬
tions 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,
s an on uty. even the Goanese) , and
ph0t0LOTmgby J‘ A1<len had been keenly inter¬
ested in their account
of their work and of the obstacles with
which they met.

At Kijabe I spent several exceedingly in-

* Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York,

Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scr

teresting 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 combines to a
marked degree broad sanity and common
sense with disinterested fervor. Of course,
such work, under the conditions which
necessarily obtain in East Africa, can only
show gradual progress; but I am sure that
missionary 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 founda¬
tion stone hr 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 un¬
derstanding, count immeasurably. There
is further recognition of the fact that in such
a country the missionary should either al¬
ready 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, use¬
ful, and physically and morally cleanly life,

he new copyright law in effect July 1st, 1909, which imposes
ner’s Sons. All rights reserved.

Vol. XLVII.— 28

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 con¬
scious or uncon¬
scious missionary
for good.

At lunch, in ad¬
dition to the mis¬
sionaries and their
wives and children,
there were half a
dozen of the neigh¬
boring settlers, with
their families. It is
always a good thing
to see the mission¬
ary and the settler
working shoulder to
shoulder. Many
parts of East Africa
can, and I believe
will, be made into a
White Man’s coun¬
try; and the process
will be helped, not
hindered, by treat¬
ing the black man

well. At Kijabe, Mr' h^si

nearly under the From a photograph 1

258

equator, the beautiful scenery was almost
northern in type; at night we needed blaz¬
ing 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. Hurl-
burt had not been
out of the country
for eight years, and
showed no ill effects
whatever; on the
contrary, I quite be¬
lieved Mrs. Hurl-
burt 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
i?n^lMon5ItrKij[be.head l°°k of the place

Kermit Kooseveit. was enhanced by

African Game Trails

259

the fact that the forests contained junipers;
but they also contained monkeys, a small
green monkey, and the big guerza, with its
long silky hair and bold black-and-white
coloring. Kermit, Heller, and Loring shot
several. There were rhinoceros and buffalo
in the neighborhood. 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

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 transporta¬
tion for the water for the safari; and we
had hired four ox-wagons. They were un¬
der the lead of a fine young Colonial Eng¬
lishman named Ulyate, whose great-grand¬
father had come to South Africa in 1820, as
part of the most important English emigra¬
tion that ever went thither. His father and

Mr. Roosevelt after luncheon with the head missionary
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 killed 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 apt to be called by an
Africander, is about sixty miles, by the road.
On our horses we could have ridden it in a

sisters had lunched with us at the mission¬
aries’ 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-wagons, the wives and daughters
as valiant as the men ; one of the two
daughters I met had driven one of the ox-
wagons 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 was to take. For those who, like our-

selves, followed the path they had thus
blazed, there was no danger to the men, and
merely discomfort 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 set¬
tled on a big farm, but also carried on the

business of “ transport riding,” as freight¬
ing with wagons is called in Africa; and
they did it admirably.

With Ulyate were three other white
wagon-drivers, all colonials; two of them
English, the third Dutch, or Boer. There
was also a Cape boy, a Kaffir wagon-driver;

photograph by R. J. Cuaingham

African Game Trails

261

utterly different from any of the East Afri¬
can 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 wagon-driver, with
his long whip, stalked to and fro beside the
line of oxen, or rode in the wagon. The
huge wagons, with their white tops or
“sails,” were larger than those our own

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 pos¬
sible. I took nothing but my army over-

watering the oxen. Taking their last drink for three days.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 por¬
ters, in addition to the askaris, tent-boys,
gun-bearers, and saises. The management
of such a safari is a work of difficulty; but
probably no better man for the purpose
than Cuninghame could befound anywhere,
and he had chosen his headmen well. In
the thirst, the march goes on by day and

coat, rifle and cartridges, and three can¬
teens of water. Kermit did the same.

The wagons 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, followed by the long line
of burdened porters, left at half -past twelve,
and in a couple of hours overtook the wag¬
ons. 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 extraor¬
dinary kind of native harp and after their
loads were allotted
they marched out of
camp singing and
blowing their horns
and whistles. Three
askaris brought up
the rear to look af¬
terlaggards, and see
that no weak or sick
man fell out without
our knowing or be¬
ing 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
therewith low, scan¬
tily leaved thorn-
trees, from three to
eight feet high.

Hour after hour we Every one rested under th
drew slowly ahead through

under the shimmer- From a photograph

ing moonlight. 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 wagons, 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 shad¬
ows lengthened; the
light waned, the
glare of the white,
dusty plain was soft¬
ened, and the bold
outlines of the dis¬
tant mountains grew
dim. Just before
nightfall we halted
on the further side
of a dry water-

e fl - tent at noon in the trek COUrSe. The Safari
the5 Thirst n0°n m came up singing and

by Kermit Roosevelt. whistling, and the

men put down their
loads, lit fires, and with chatter and laugh¬
ter prepared their food. The crossing was
not good, the sides of the watercourse being
steep; and each wagon was brought through
by a double span, the whips cracking lustily
as an accompaniment to the shouts of the

on the march,
by Edmund Heller.

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.
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. Sometimes 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 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 por¬
ters received their water and food, and lay
down to sleep, some directly in the open,
others rigging little sun shelters under the
scattering thorn-bushes. The horses were
fed, were given half a pail of water apiece,
and were turned loose to feed 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 excel¬
lent breakfast, like our supper the night be-
•e, and then slept as well as we could.
Noon came, and soon afterward we

The porter-harper and his native harp.
From a photograph by J. Alden Loring.

Masai huts from centre of kraal.

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 in¬
dependent 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 wagons 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
byitself, while the ox-wagons followed later.
At nine, before the moon struggled above
the hill-crests to our left, we were off. Soon
we passed the wagons, drawn up abreast, a
lantern high on a pole, while the tired oxen
lay in their yokes, attached to the trek tow.

African Game Trails

265

An hour after¬
ward we left the
safari behind,
and rode ahead,
with only our
saises and gun-
bearers. Gusts of
rain blew in our
faces, and grad¬

ually 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’ 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 readyfor imme¬
diate action, but the lions did not come.
The native boys built fires, and lay close to
them, relieving one another, and us, as sen¬
tinels. Kermit and I had our army over¬
coats, which are warm and practically
water-proof; 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 ra¬
vines 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 ac¬
companiment of chanting and horn-blow¬
ing; and, to their loudly expressed satisfac¬
tion, 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 wagons did
not get in until ten the fol¬
lowing morning. By that
time the oxen had been near¬
ly three days without water,
so, by dawn, they were un¬
yoked and driven down to
drink before the drift was
attempted, the wagons being
left a mile or two back.
The approaches to the drift
were steep and difficult,
and, with two spans to each,
the wagons swayed and
plunged over the twisted
bowlder-choked trails, down
into the river-bed, crossed
it, and, with lurching and
straining, men shouting and

266

African Game Trails

whips cracking, drew slowly up the op¬
posite 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 prefer¬
ence, 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 car¬
ried off and the terrified man escaped;
and they killed a cow and a calf. Uly-
ate’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 his
horses, which were killed although with¬
in a boma. One night lions came within
threatening neighborhood of our ox-
wagons; 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,

African Game Trails

267

the porters would all stand ranged by
their loads; then Tarlton would whistle,
and a chorus of whistles, horns, and
tomtoms 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 marching 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 : Cun-
inghame. 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 Philippine forests; Lor-
ing and Heller of hunting and collecting
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 rev¬
elled in the teeming bird life, with its
wealth of beauty and color — nor was
the beauty only of color 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 zebras, big cane-rats, dormice, and
tiny shrews. Meercats, things akin to
a small mongoose, lived out in the open
plains, burrowing in companies like
prairie dogs, 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 rab¬
bit. 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, and after missing it
standing, breaking it down with a bullet
through the hips, and it galloped across
my front at three hundred yards. Ker-
mit killed our first topi, a bull; a beau¬
tiful animal, the size of a hartebeest,
its glossy coat with a satin sheen, vary¬
ing from brown to silver and purple.

By the Guaso Nyero w;e 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 mam-

African Game Trails

mals while the rest of us pushed wherever
we wished after the big game. The tents
were pitched, and the ox-wagons 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 com¬
mon tree looking exactly like a giant sage¬
brush, thirty feet high ; and there were tall
aloes and cactus and flat-topped mimosa.

for the gaudy flowers of the tall mint which
grew close to the river. We got a small co¬
bra, less than eighteen inches long; it had
swallowed another snake almost as big as
itself; unfortunately the head of the swal¬
lowed snake was digested, but the body
looked like that of a young puff-adder.

The day after reaching this camp I rode
off for a hunt, accompanied by my two gun-
bearers and with a dozen porters following,
to handle whatever I killed. One of my
original gun-bearers, Mahomet, though a

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 naturalists,
and so we let him go. Birds abounded.
One kind of cuckoo called like a whippoor¬
will in the early morning and late evening,
and after nightfall. Among our friendly vis¬
itors were the pretty, rather strikingly col¬
ored little chats — Livingstone’s wheatear —
which showed real curiosity in coming into
camp. They were nesting in burrows on
the open plains round about. Mearns got
a white egg and a nest at the end of a little
burrow two feet long; wounded, the birds
ran into holes or burrows. They sang at¬
tractively on the wing, often at night. The
plover-like coursers, very pretty birds, con¬
tinually circled round us with querulous
clamor. Gorgeously colored, diminutive
sunbirds, of many different kinds, were
abundant; they had an especial fondness

good man in the field, had proved in other
respects so unsatisfactory that he had been
replaced by another, a Wkamba heathen
named Gouvinali — I could never remember
his name until, as a mnemonic aid, Kermit
suggested that I think of Gouverneur Mor¬
ris, the old Federalist statesman, whose life I
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 delicious 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, harte-
beest, 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 ahead and to our left.
The ground was too open to admit of the
possibility of a stalk; but leaving my horse

African Game Trails

269

Ulyate and eland calf brought in by Masai.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 mo¬
tioned 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 bull, 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 com¬
position.

I was much pleased with my two prizes,
for the National Museum particularly de¬
sired 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, loojced
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, and, rather to my sur¬
prise, aloe leaves.

We had two canvas cloths with us, which
Heller had instructed me to put over any¬
thing 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-wagon 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 Masai, who own a wealth of
live stock. Each herd of cattle and don¬
keys or flock of sheep was guarded by its
herdsmen; bands of stalwart, picturesque
warriors, with their huge spears and ox-

270

African Game Trails

hide shields, occasionally strolled by us ; and
we passed many bomas, the kraals where
the stock is gathered at night, with the 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
anthills to get a clearer view of me, and
sometimes standing on them motionless for
a considerable time, as sentries to scan the
country around.

At last we spied a herd of topi, distin¬
guishable from the hartebeest at a very
long distance by their
dark coloring, the pur¬
ples and browns giving
the coat a heavy shading
which when far off, in cer¬
tain lights, looks almost
black. Topi, hartebeest,
and wildebeest belong to
the same group, and are
specialized, and their pe¬
culiar physical and men¬
tal traits developed, in
the order named. The
wildebeest is the least
normal and most gro¬
tesque and odd-looking
of the three, and his idio¬
syncrasies of temper are
also the most marked.

The hartebeest comes
next, with his very high
withers, long 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 resemblance to his more ordinary
kinsfolk. In the same way, though it will
now and then buck and plunge when it be¬
gins to run after being startled, its de¬
meanor is less pronounced in this respect.
The topi’s power of leaping 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 neighboring zebra and harte¬
beest. 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 dis¬
tances 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 hand¬
some cow, weighing two hundred and sixty
pounds; for topi are somewhat smaller than
kongoni. The beauty of its coat, in texture
and coloring, 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 occa¬
sions that the “pigskin
library” proved itself in¬
deed a blessing. In ad¬
dition to the original
books we had picked up
one or two old favorites
on the way: Alice’s Ad¬
ventures, for instance,
and Fitzgerald — I say
Fitzgerald, because read¬
ing other versions of
Omar Khayyam always
leaves me with the feel¬
ing that Fitzgerald is the
major partner in the book we really like.
Then there was a book I had not read,
Dumas’s“ LeslouvesdeMachecoul.” This
was presented to me at Port Said by M.
Jusserand, the brother of an old and valued
friend, the French ambassador at Washing¬
ton — the vice-president of the “Tennis
Cabinet.” We had been speaking of Bal¬
zac, and I mentioned regretfully that I did
not at heart care for his longer novels ex¬
cepting the “ Chouans”; and, as John Hay
once told me, in the eyes of all true Balzac -
ians, to like the “ Chouans” merely aggra¬
vates the offence of not liking the novels
which theydeem 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
I 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, tak¬
ing 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 chee¬
tahs together. Kermit, who was with T arl-
ton, 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 afterward shot another, a female, who
was lying on a stone koppie. 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; 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.

271

272

African Game Trails

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 de¬
scribing, 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, T arlton
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
grassland, sometimes treeless, some¬
times 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 bor¬
dering it, and perhaps some one
pool of thick greenish water. There
was game always in view, and about noon
we sighted three rhinos, a bull, a cow, and
a big calf, nearly a mile ahead of us. We
were travelling downwind, and they scented
us, but did not charge, making off in a
semicircle and halting when abreast of us.
We examined them carefully through the
glasses. The cow was bigger than the bull,
and had fair horns, but nothing extraor¬
dinary; 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 at¬
tention 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

Kermit and his big lion.

shoot it, and therefore desired to avoid a
charge ; and so we passed three or four hun¬
dred 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
distance, no matter how short, without
carrying one of the repeating rifles; and
when on a hunt my two gun-bearers car-
Vol. XLVII. — 29

ried, one the other magazine rifle, and
one the double-barrelled Holland. [See
page 277.]

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. The dis¬
tance was just three hundred and fifty long
paces. As soon as I had pulled trigger I
wheeled to watch the rhino. It started
273

274

African Game Trails

round at the shot and gazed toward us
with its ears cocked forward, but made no
movement to advance. Two porters car¬
ried the hyena to camp. While they were
dressing it, I could not help laughing at
finding that we were the centre of a
thoroughly African circle of deeply inter¬
ested 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. Wildebeest — their heavy forequar¬
ters and the carriage of their heads making
them look like bison — and hartebeest were
somewhat nearer, in a ring all round us,
intent upon our proceedings. Four topi
became so much interested that they ap¬
proached within two hundred and fifty
yards and stood motionless. A buck tom¬
my 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 rep¬
tilian 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 disap¬
pointed. A serval-cat jumped up ahead
of us in the tall grass, but I missed it.
Then, trotting on foot, I got ahead of two
warthog boars, and killed the biggest;
making a bad initial miss and then empty¬
ing -my magazine at it as it ran. We sent
it in to camp, and went on, following a
donga, or small watercourse, 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 anthill, toward which we walked
after dismounting. Some buck were graz¬
ing 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. Mount¬
ing 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

photograph by Kerjpit Roosevelt.

The big lion shot by Kermit.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 ourselvesfrom our horses, and walked
toward where the man was pointing. Tarl-
ton 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 don¬
ga, and just before she went round a clump
of trees, eighty yards off, I fired. The
bullet hit her fair, and going forward in¬
jured her spine. Over she rolled, growling
savagely, and dragged herself into the
watercourse; and running forward I fin¬
ished 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 con¬
siderably over three hundred pounds.

The light was growing dim, and 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 lion
began to moan hungrily half a mile away.
Then we started; there was no moon, but
the night was clear and we could guide our¬
selves 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 neighbor¬
hood. Again and again we beard 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
T arlton 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 crowded small
bomas in the centre. The fires gleamed
here and there within, and as we approached
we heard the talking and laughing of men
275

276

African Game Trails

and women, and the lowing and bleating pounds weight. The features of the men
of the pent-up herds and flocks. We hailed were bold and clear-cut, and their bearing
loudly, explaining our needs. At first they warlike and self-reliant; as the flame of the
were very suspicious. They told us we fire glanced over them, and brought their
could not bring the lion within, because it faces and bronze figures into lurid relief
would frighten the cattle, but after some against the darkness, the likeness was strik-
parley consented to our building a fire out- ing, not to the West Coast negroes, but to
side, and skinning the animal. They passed the engravings on the tombs, temples, and
two brands over the thorn fence, and our palaces of ancient Egypt; they might have
men speedily kindled a blaze, and drew the been soldiers in the armies of Thothmes or

An impalla ram.

lioness beside it. By this time the Masai
were reassured, and a score of their war¬
riors, 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 humor. They
showed a tendency to chaff our porters.
One, the humorist of the crowd, excited
much merriment by describing, with pan¬
tomimic accompaniment of gestures, how
when the white man shot a lion 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 ex¬
cept for a blanket worn, not round the
loins, but over the shoulders; their ears
were slit, and from them bone and wooden
ornaments hung; they wore metal brace¬
lets 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

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 be¬
fore sitting down to a supper of eland veni¬
son and broiled spur-fowl; 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, both for scientific pur¬
poses and for food ; the skin of every animal
I shot was preserved for the National
Museum. The bag included fourteen ani¬
mals, of ten different species: one lioness,
one hyena, one warthog boar, two zebra,

African Game Trails

277

two eland, one wildebeest, two topi, two
impalla, one Roberts’ gazelle, one Thom¬
son’s gazelle. Except the lioness and one
impalla (both of which we shot running),
all were shot at rather long ranges; seven
were shot standing, two walking, five run¬
ning. 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 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 stand¬
ing 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.

***As I have mentioned, this beautiful double-barrelled Holland rifle was presented to me by
certain English friends; Mr. E. N. Buxton having taken 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-Gen. 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 Rt. Hon. Lord .Curzon of Kedleston,
G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.

St. George Littledale, Esq.

Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, F.R.S., F.Z.S.

(Secretary of the Zoological Soc.)

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

F. C. Selous, Esq. (“ A Hunter’s Wanderings,”

etc.)

Count Blucher.

Lieut.-Col. C. Delme Radcliffe, C.M.G.,
M.V.O.

Maurice Egerton, Esq.

Lord Desborough, C.V.O.

Captain M. McNeill.

Claude H. Tritton, Esq.

J. Turner-Turner, Esq.

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

Rt. Hon. Sir E. Grey, Bart., M.P. (Foreign
Secretary and author of “Dry Fly Fishing.”)
Sir M. de C. Findlay, C.M.G. (British Min¬
ister at Dresden.)

C. Phillipps-Wolley, Esq., F.R.G.S. (“Sport
in the Caucasus.”)

Rt. Hon. Sir G. O. Trevelyan, Bart., D.C.L.

(“The American Revolution.”)

Warburton Pike, Esq.

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

His Grace the Duke of Bedford, K.G. (“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.)

Vol.' XLVII.— 30

Rhys Williams, Esq.

Major-Gen. A. A. A. Kinloch, C.B. (‘ Large
Game in Thibet.”)

Sir Wm. Lee-Warner, K.C.S.I. (“The Pro¬
tected Princes of India.”)

The Rt. Rev. the Lord Bishop, of Lon¬
don.

Major-Gen. Dalrymple White.

Colonel Claude Cane.

Rt. Hon. Sydney Buxton, M.P. (Postmaster
General, “Fishing 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 Protectorate.”)

Abel Chapman, Esq. (“Wild Spain.”)

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

E. Lort-Phillips, Esq. (Author of ornitho¬

logical works.)

R. Kearton, Esq., F.Z.S. (“Wild Nature’s
Ways.”)

J. H. Gurney, Esq., F.Z.S. (Works on ornith¬
ology).

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

East African Protectorate. (“Big
Game,” Badminton Library.)

Col. Sir F. Lugard, K.C.M.G., C.B., D.S.O.
Lady Lugard. (“A Tropical Dependency.”)
Sir Clement L. Hill, K.C.B. , M.P. (Late
Head of the African Department; Foreign O.
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. Living¬
stone’s companion, 1858-64.)

Moreton Frewen, Esq.

The Earl of Warwick.

P. L. Sclater, Esq., D.Sc., Ph.D. (Late Sec.
Zool. Soc.)

Col. J. H. Patterson, D.S.O. (“The Tsavo
Lion.”)

TALES OF MEN

THE LEGEND

By Edith Wharton

I

RTHUR BERNALD could
never afterward recall just
when the first conjecture
flashed on him: oddly
enough, there was no record
of it in the agitated jottings
of his diary. But, as it seemed to him in
retrospect, he had always felt that the
queer man at the Wades’ must be John
Pellerin, if only for the negative reason
that he couldn’t imaginably be any one
else. It was impossible, in the confused
pattern of the century’s intellectual life, to
fit the stranger in anywhere, save in the
big gap which, some five and twenty years
earlier, had been left by Pellerin’s unac¬
countable disappearance; and conversely,
such a man as the Wades’ visitor couldn’t
have lived for sixty years without filling,
somewhere in space, a nearly equivalent
void.

At all events, it was certainly not to Doc¬
tor Wade or to his mother that Bernald
owed the hint: the good unconscious Wades,
one of whose chief charms in the young
man’s eyes was that they remained so ro¬
bustly untainted by Pellerinism, in spite
of the fact that Doctor Wade’s younger
brother, Howland, was among its most irrt-
pudently flourishing high-priests.

The incident had begun by Bernald’s
running across Doctor Robert Wade one
hot summer night at the University Club,
and by Wade’s saying, in the tone of un¬
professional laxity which the shadowy still¬
ness of the place invited : “ I got hold of a
queer fish at St. Martin’s the other day —
case of heat-prostration picked up in Cen¬
tral Park. When we’d patched him up I
found he had nowhere to go, and not a dol¬
lar in his pocket, and I sent him down to
our place at Portchester to re-build.”

The opening roused his hearer’s attention.
Bob Wade had an odd unformulated sense
of values that Bernald had learned to trust.

278

“What sort of chap? Young or old?”

“Oh, every age — full of years, and yet
with a lot left. He called himself sixty on
the books.”

“Sixty’s a good age for some kinds of
living. And age is of course purely sub¬
jective. How has he used his sixty years ?”

“ Well — part of them in educating him¬
self, apparently. He’s a scholar — human¬
ities, languages, and so forth.”

“ Oh — decayed gentleman,” Bernald
murmured, disappointed.

“Decayed? Not much!” cried the doc¬
tor with his accustomed literalness. “ I
only mentioned that side of Winterman —
his name’s Winterman — because it was the
side my mother noticed first. I suppose
women generally do. But it’s only a part —
a small part. The man’s the big thing.”

“Really big?”

“Well — there again. . . . When I took
him down to the country, looking rather
like a tramp from a ‘ Shelter,’ with an un¬
trimmed beard, and a suit of reach-me-
downs he’d slept round the Park in for a
week, I felt sure my mother’d carry the sil¬
ver up to her room, and send for the gar¬
dener’s dog to sleep in the hall the first
night. But she didn’t.”

“I see. ‘Women and children love
him.’ Oh, Wade!” Bernald groaned.

“ Not a bit of it! You’re out again. We
don’t love him, either of us. But we feel
him — the air’s charged with him. You’ll
see.”

And Bernald agreed that he would see,
the following Sunday. Wade’s inarticulate
attempts to characterize the stranger had
struck his friend. The human revelation
had for Bernald a poignant and ever-re-
neWed interest," which his trade, as the dra¬
matic critic of a daily paper, had hitherto
failed to discourage. And he knew that
Bob Wade, simple and undefiled by litera¬
ture — Bernald’s specific affliction — had a
free and personal way of judging men, and
the diviner’s knack of reaching their hidden

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVII APRIL, 1910 NO. 4

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

) OTHER MEMBERS

VII.— HUNTING IN THE SOTIK

UR next camp was in the to our left some objects which scrutiny-
middle of the vast plains, by showed to be giraffe. After coming within
some limestone springs, at a mile the others halted and I rode ahead
one end of a line of dark on the tranquil sorrel, heading for a point
acacias. There were rocky toward which the giraffe were walking;
koppies two or three miles stalking was an impossibility, and I was
off on either hand. From the tents, and prepared either to manoeuvre for a shot
white-topped wagons, we could see the game on foot, or to ride them, as circumstances
grazing on the open flats, or among the might determine. I carried the little
scattered wizened thorns. The skies were Springfield, being desirous of testing the
overcast, and the nights cool; in the even- small, solid, sharp-pointed army bullet on
ings the camp fires blazed in front of the the big beasts. As I rode, a wildebeest
tents, and after supper we gathered round bull played around me within two hundred
them, talking, or sitting silently, or listen- yards, prancing, flourishing his tail, tossing
ing to Kermit strumming on his mandolin, his head and uttering his grunting bellow;

The day after reaching this camp we rode it almost seemed as if he knew I would not
out, hoping to get either rhino or giraffe; shoot at him, or as if for the moment he had
we needed additional specimens of both for been infected with the absurd tameness
the naturalists, who especially wanted cow which the giraffe showed,
giraffes. It was cloudy and cool, and the There were seven giraffes, a medium-
common game was shy; though we needed sized bull, four cows, and two young ones;
meat, I could not get within fair range of and, funnily enough, the young ones were
the wildebeest, hartebeest, topi, or big ga- by far the shyest and most suspicious. I
zelle ; however I killed a couple of tommies, did not want to kill a bull unless it was ex-
one by a good shot, the other running, af- ceptionally large; whereas I did want two
ter I had missed him in rather scandalous cows and a young one, for the Museum,
fashion while he was standing. When quarter of a mile away I dismounted,

An hour or two after leaving the tents we threw the reins over Tranquillity’s head —
made out on the sky line a couple of miles whereat the good placid old fellow at once

IT* Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, began grazing - and Walked diagonally tOW-

into foreign languagesrindudm^the'sfandLaviln"8 a“°n ard the biggest COW, which WaS ahead of
Special Notice. — These articles are fully protected under the new copyright law in effect July ist, 1909, which imposes
a severe penalty for infringement.

Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. All rights reserved.

Vol. XLVII.— 41

African Game Trails

387

the others. The tall, handsome 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 curl¬
ing her tail. The bullet struck fair and
she was off at a hurried, clumsy gallop. I
gave her another bullet, but it was not neces-

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 Ker-
mit a chance to do something much bet¬
ter 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

Mr. Roosevelt’s rhino.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

sary, 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 bullets pene¬
trating 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

a number of pictures of the giraffe, getting
within fifty yards of the bull.

Nor were the giraffe the only animals
that showed a tameness bordering on stu¬
pidity. Soon afterward we made out three
rhino, a mile away. They were out in the
bare plain, alternately grazing and enjoy¬
ing a noontide 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, uncertain

e at home.— Page 387.
□graphs by Kennit Roosevelt.

Giraffe

African Game Trails

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 advanced toward him in distinctly bel¬
licose style; then she recognized him, her
calf trotted up, and the three animals stood
together, tossing their heads, and evidently
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 neighborhood,
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; 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 ab¬
solutely bare plains. They drank at the
small shallow rain pools, seemingly once
every twenty-four hours; and I saw one
going to water at noon, and others just at
dark; and their hours for feeding and rest¬
ing 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, dur-

Rhino and young.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

ing which they paid no heed whatever to the
sun. Their sight is very 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 I 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 inexplica¬
ble differences in this respect among the
animals of the same species. One day I
wished to get a doe tommy for the Mu¬
seum; 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 hard¬
ly any heed to me. Another time I walked
for five minutes alongside a big party of
Roberts’ gazelles, within a hundred and
fifty yards, trying in vain to pick out a buck

African Game Trails

391

worth shooting; half an hour afterward I
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 invariably seen around
the base of a small hill a couple of miles
south-west of us. The latter was usually in

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, wilde¬
beest 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 ten¬
acious of life, and the hartebeest and topi
only less so. After wounded individuals of
all three kinds I more than once had sharp
runs on horseback. On one occasion I

Rhino surveying the safari.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

the company of a mixed herd of Roberts’
and Thomson’s gazelles. Here, as every¬
where, we found the different species of
game associating freely with one another.
One little party interested us much. It con¬
sisted of two Roberts’ bucks, two Roberts’
does, and one Thomson’s doe, which was
evidently a maitresse femme, of strongly in¬
dividualized character. The four big ga¬
zelles 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

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 dis¬
appeared in one direction my game disap¬
peared 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 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 gray mass on the plain, and a glance

392

African Game Trails

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 tow¬
ard him, our horses following a hundred
yards behind. He was waked by the tick

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 per¬
formance. This time he wheeled and
faced round, evidently with the intention of
charging, but a bullet straight in his chest

Rliii

o and young,
aph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 charg¬
ing, he whipped round and was off at a gal¬
lop, 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

took all the fight out of him, and he con¬
tinued his flight. But his race was evi¬
dently run, and when I next overtook him I
brought him down. I had put nine bullets
in him; and though they had done their
work well, and I was pleased to have killed
the huge brute with the little sharp-pointed
bullets of the Springfield, 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.

Wildebeest at home.

Two bulls may suddenly drop to their knees and for a moment or two
From photographs by Kermit Roosevelt.

394

African Game Trails

We sent a porter to bring out Heller, and
an ox-wagon 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 wilde¬
beest 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
standing shots at from three
hundred to five hundred yards.

I hit him seven 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 be¬
cause 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, sev¬
eral 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 hand¬
ling a large safari in the wild¬
erness, Cuninghame was also
a good field naturalist and tax¬
idermist; 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. Accord¬
ingly Kermit and I generally
went off by ourselves, either
together or separately. Once
however Kermit went with
Tarlton, and was as usual
lucky with cheetahs, killing
two. Tarlton was an accom¬
plished 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 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

African Game Trails

395

bull they overhauled at once, but saw that around, and off he gallops, plunging, kick-
his horns were poor and left him. Then ing, and shaking his head. He may go
they followed a fine cow with an unusually straight away, he may circle round, or even
good head. She started at a rattling pace, approach nearer to, the intruder; and then
and once leaped clear over another cow that he halts again to stare motionless, and per-
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 trot¬
ting 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.

A cheetah with a good start
can only be overtaken by
hard running. This one be¬
haved just as did the others
they ran down. For quarter
of a mile no animal in the
world has a cheetah’s speed;
but he cannot last. When
chased these cheetahs did not
sprint, but contented them¬
selves with galloping ahead
of the horses; at first they
could easily keep their dis¬
tance, but after a mile or
two their strength and wind
gave out, and then they al¬
ways crouched flat to the
earth, and were shot with¬
out their making any at¬
tempt 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 these cheetahs Ker¬
mit put up two old wildebeest bulls, and
they joined in the procession, 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 inter¬
esting, of all antelope. 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 quarter of a mile off; then down
goes his head, his tail is lashed up and

Tarlton with a cobra.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

haps to utter his grunt of alarm and de¬
fiance. 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, tear¬
ing at full speed in one direction, then sud¬
denly 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

From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

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

After getting the bull rhino, Heller need¬
ed 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 gray 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 dis¬
mounted 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 thir¬
teen inches respectively. Accordingly we

proceeded, making as littlenoise 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 mor¬
tally 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, al¬
most 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, sending in a messenger to bring
Cuninghame, Heller, and an ox-wagon 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

African Game Trails

397

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 their face. For years most South
African hunters, and most naturalists, be¬
lieved in the existence
of two species of pre¬
hensile-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 conclusively
that the difference was
purely imaginary. Now,
the curious thing is that
these experienced hunters
usually attributed entirely
different temperaments to
these two imaginary spe¬
cies. The first kind, that
with the long front horn,
they described as a mira¬
cle of dangerous ferocity,
and the second as compar¬
atively mild and inoffen¬
sive; and these veterans
(Drummond is an in¬
stance) persuaded them¬
selves that this was true,
although they were writ¬
ing in each case of iden¬
tically the same animal!

After leaving the dead
rhinos we rode for several
miles, over a plain dotted
with the 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
zebra filed past on the hor¬
izon. Ostriches fled while
we were yet f ar off . Topi ,
hartebeest, wildebeest, and gazelle gazed at
us as we rode by, the sunlight throwing
their shapes and colors 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 moun¬
tains.

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 be¬
fore breakfast, with the game as usual on

every hand. Some of the game showed
tameness, some wildness, the difference be¬
ing 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 coloring of the animals. Cock os¬
triches always show jet black, and are vis¬
ible 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 wilde¬
beest, 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. Wilde¬
beest are warier than most other game.
Round this camp the topi were as tame as
the hartebeest; they look very dark in
most lights, only less dark than the wilde¬
beest, and so are also conspicuous. The
398

hartebeest 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 stems
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 usu¬
ally show as sandy colored, and are there¬
fore rather less conspicuous than the others
when still ; but they are constantly in mo¬
tion, and in some fights show up as almost
white. When they are far off the sun rays
may make any of these animals look very
dark or very fight. 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; and 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 sensi¬
tive 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 same kind of game flee in mad
fright when twice the distance to windward.
Sometimes there are inexplicable variations
between the conduct of beasts in one local¬
ity 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 but 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 comer 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 stamp¬
ing 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 per¬
haps 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 overcast. The darken¬
ing 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
splendor of gold and murky crimson.

At this camp the pretty little Living-
399

400

African Game Trails

stone’s wheat-ears or chats were very famil¬
iar, flitting within a few yards of the tents.
They were the earliest birds to sing. Just
before our eyes could distinguish the first
faint streak of dawn first one and then an¬
other of them would begin to sing, appar¬
ently either on the ground or in the air, un¬
til 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 apt to get what we wanted
in the evening or indeed at high noon.

The last day at this camp Kermit, Tarl-

ton, and I spent on a twelve-hours’ 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 gotten. Early in the after¬
noon we reached our objective, 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 continually 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

Mr, Roosevelt, Tarlton, and the big lion shot' by Mr. Roosevelt.— Page 405.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

A rhino “coming on.”

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 immediately found fresh beds of
lions, and one regular 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 op¬
posite, the last and biggest; and up it we
climbed. On the very summit was a mass
of cleft and broken bowlders, 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 to find 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
Vol. XLVII. — 42

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 look¬
ing 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 be¬
tween 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 bowlders at the top. Peering over the
one on which I had climbed there was the
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 her 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;

401

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 rhinoceros leaving the pool. It was
already too dusk for good shooting, and we
were rather relieved when, after some in¬
spection, they trotted off 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 puff
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 concluded not to
charge. So, with the lion skin swinging
behind between two porters, a moribund
puff adder in my saddle pocket, and three
402

rhinos threatening us in the darkness to one
side, we marched campward through the
African night.

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 candelabra 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 mag¬
nificent 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 unless 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 no¬
ticed them until they were within a hundred

African Game Trails

403

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 tak¬
ing her noonday rest near a kongoni she had
killed; 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 in¬
deed of our two other companions, Cuning-
hame 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;

404

African Game Trails

Tarlton,Kermit,and I sallied forth accord¬
ingly. The country was very dry, and the
game in our immediate neighborhood was
not plentiful and was rather shy. I killed
three kongoni out of a herd, at from 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

It was now mid-day, and the heat waves
quivered above the brown plain. The mi¬
rage hung in the middle distance, and be¬
yond 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

Loading rhino skin into the ox-wagon.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

other two had killed a kongoni and five of
the big gazelles; wherever possible the
game being hal-lalled in orthodox fashion
by the Mahometans among our attend¬
ants, so as to fit it for use by their co¬
religionists among the porters. Then we
saw some giraffes, and galloped them to see
if there was a really big bull in the lot.
They had a long start, but Kermit andTarl-
ton overtook them after a couple of miles,
while I pounded along in the rear. How¬
ever there was no really good bull, Kermit
and Tarlton pulled up, and we jogged along
toward the koppies where two days before
I had shot the lioness. I killed a big bus¬
tard, a very handsome, striking-looking
bird, larger than a turkey, by a rather good
shot at two hundred and thirty yards.

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. Im¬
mediately 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 min¬
utes Tarlton pointed out the lion, a splen¬
did 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

African Game Trails

405

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; jumping 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 wentafter him ;
Tarlton lost sight of him, but I marked him
lying down behind a low grassy ant hill.
Again we dismounted at a distance of two
hundred yards ; T arlton telling me that now
he was sure to charge. In all East Africa
there is no man, not even Cuninghame him¬
self, whom I would rather have by me than
Tarlton,' if in difficulties with a charging
lion; 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 near¬
er 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 grey¬
hound. T arlton 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 sight¬
ing carefully, from my knee, and I knew I
had the lion all right; for though he gal¬
loped at a great pace, he came on steadily
—ears laid back, and uttering terrific cough¬
ing 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 cen¬
tre of his chest as - 1 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 Win¬
chester bullet had gone straight through the
chest cavity, smashing the lungs and the big
blood-vessels of the heart. Painfully he re¬
covered his feet, and tried to come on, his
Vol. XLVII. — 43

ferocious courage holding out to the last;
but he staggered, and turned from side to
side, unable to stand firmly, still less to ad¬
vance 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, prob¬
ably 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 imag¬
ined 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 thunder-storm 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 form¬
less plain, the half moon hung high over¬
head, strange stars shone in the brilliant
heavens, and the Southern Cross lay radi¬
ant above the sky line.

Our next camp was pitched on a stony
plain, by a winding stream bed still con¬
taining an occasional- rush-fringed pool of
muddy water, fouled by the herds and
flocks of the numerous Masai. Game was
plentiful 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 “ Keit-
loa” type; the fore horn twenty-two inches
long, the rear over seventeen. The day I
killed mine I used all three of my rifles. We
all went out together, as Kermit was desir¬
ous 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-wagon, 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

40 G

African Game Trails

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-cov¬
ered 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 steinbuck and a lesser bustard. Then
we came out on the vast rolling brown
plains. With the Winchester I shot two
zebra stallions, 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 Springfield, 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 mid¬
dle of the absolutely bare plain, and w:
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 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; butit needed two more bullets before
it died, screaming like an engine whistle.
Before I fired my last shot I had walked up
directly beside the rhino; and just then
Tarlton pointed me out 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 moonlight. 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 low, ground-creep¬
ing euphorbia.

At this camp we killed five poisonous
snakes: a light-colored tree snake, two puff
adders, and two seven-foot cobras. One of
the latter three times “spat” or ejected its
poison at its assailants, 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; appar¬
ently they were disregarded by their slug¬
gish and deadly host. Heller trapped
some jackals, two species, and two striped
hyenas; the first we had seen; apparently
more timid and less noisy beasts than their
bigger spotted brothers.

One day Kermit had a curious experi¬
ence with a honey bird; a smallish bird,
with its beak like a grosbeak’s and its toes
like a wood-pecker’s, whose extraordinary
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 at¬
tention to the calling of the honey bird 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 con¬
tinued 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 miy mind no more interesting incident
occurred at this camp.

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVII MAY, 1910 NO. 5

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt and other members

OF THE EXPEDITION

VIII.— TO LAKE NAIVASHA.

flROM this camp we turned
d north toward Lake Nai-
| vasha.

The Sotik country through
I 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 occa¬
sional muddy pools, and grazed their neigh¬
borhood bare of pasturage. It was an un¬
ceasing 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,
showed comparatively little timidity about
drinking, and came boldly down to the
water’s edge, sometimes in broad daylight,
sometimes in darkness. But where the
pools were few they never approached one
without feeling panic dread of their great
enemy the lion, who, they knew well, liked
to lurk around their drinking places. At
such a pool I once saw a herd of zebras
come to water at nightfall. They stood
motionless some distance off; then they

* Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York,

slowly approached, and 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 ofE 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.
A lion will eat a zebra (beginning at the
hind quarters, by the way, and sometimes
having, and sometimes not having, pre¬
viously 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 probably, if left
alive, have accounted for seven or eight
hundred buck, pig, and zebra within the
next year. Our hunting was a net advan¬
tage to the harmless game.

The zebras were the noisiest of the game.
After them came the wildebeeste, 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 hartebeeste a some¬
what similar sound. TheC so-called ~Rob-
erts’ gazelle was merely the Grant’s gazelle

SPEC.AL Not.ce. -These articles are fuUy protected under the new copyright law in effect July xst, x9o9, which imposes

The rhino stood looking at us with his big ears cocked forward. — Page 519.

of the Athi, with the lyrate shape of the
horns tending to be carried to an extreme
of spread and backward bend. The tom¬
my 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 tom¬
mies was the incessant switching of their
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 antelope fought much among them¬
selves. The gazelle bucks of both species
would face one another, their heads be¬
tween the forelegs and the horns level with
the ground, and each would punch his op¬
ponent 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 elim¬
inate the intensity of terror felt by his an¬
cestors 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
516

civilized countries now undergoes the hid¬
eous horror which was the regular and
frequent portion of his ages-vanished fore¬
fathers, and which is still an everyday inci¬
dent in the lives of most wild creatures.
But the dread is short-lived, and its horror
vanishes with instantaneous 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 being evident that none of
the lion’s victims, not even the truculent
wildebeeste or huge eland, had been able to
make any fight against him. The game is
ever on the alert against this greatest of
foes, and every herd, almost every indi¬
vidual, 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 them¬
selves. Two bucks will do battle the
minute the herd has stopped running from
the foe that has seized one of its number,
and a buck resumes his love making with
ardor, in the brief interval between the first

African Game Trails

517

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 end-

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 or¬
dinary accompaniments of life. If Matthew
Arnold, when he expressed the wish to know
the thoughts of Earth’s “vigorous, primi-

Xhe waterhole

struck after having made a dry camp on our trek to Lake Naivasha.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

ings of the stately and beautiful creatures of
the wilderness. The sentimentalists who
prattle about the peaceful life 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 even¬
ing. Life is hard and cruel for all the
lower creatures, and for man also in what
the sentimentalists call a “state of nature.”

tive ” tribes of the past, had really desired an
answer to his question, he would have done
well to visit the homes of the existing repre¬
sentatives of his “ vigorous, primitive ’ ’ ances¬
tors, 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 won¬
derment to notice the difference in the be¬
havior of different individuals of the same
species, and in the behavior of the same in¬
dividual 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 hartebeeste
straw colored, 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 gray, and the hartebeeste 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
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 wildebeeste bull, its
horns thick and battered, its knees bare and
5i8

African Game Trails

519

calloused from its habit of going down on
them when fighting or threatening fight.

Our march was northward, 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 cocked forward; but
he did nothing more, and we left him stand¬
ing, 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 hun¬
dred 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 watercourse, with here and there a deep
muddy pool. The ground was impreg¬
nated 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 heron, the hammer¬
head, had built big nests of sticks in the tall
acacias. Bush cuckoos gurgled in the un¬
derbrush by night and day. Brilliant roll¬
ers flitted through the trees. There was
much sweet bird music in the morning.
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 dik-
diks, 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 yel¬
low-blossomed vines. Around the pools
the ground was bare, and the game trails

520

African Game Trails

toward the rhinos, well to leeward. But
the wind shifted every which way; and sud¬
denly 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 rush¬
ing 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, evi¬
dently much wrought up. 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-
beeste galloping by renewed their alarm ; it

leading to the water were deeply rutted by
the hooves of the wild creatures that had
travelled them for countless generations.

The day after reaching this camp, Cun-
inghame and I hunted on the plains. Be¬
fore noon we made out with our glasses two
rhino lying down, a mile off. As usual
with these sluggish creatures we made our
preparations in leisurely style, and with
scant regard to the animal itself. More¬
over we did not intend to kill any rhino un¬
less its horns were out of the common. I
first stalked and shot a buck Roberts ga¬
zelle with a good head. Then we off sad¬
dled 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 trage¬
dies, which the great tree must
have witnessed during the centuries
since it was a seedling.

Lunch over, I looked to the load¬
ing of the heavy rifle, and we started

African Game Trails

521

was curious to see them sweeping the collected hundreds of birds and small mam-
ground with their long, ugly heads, en- mals, among them several new species,
deavoring to catch the scent. A mile’s We had already heard that a Mr. Williams,
rapid walk brought us within two hundred whom we had met at McMillan’s ranch,
yards, and we dared not
risk the effort for a closer
approach lest they should
break and run. The cow
turned broadside to, 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 eventu¬
ally have proved fatal;
but both beasts went off
at a gallop, the cow now
and then turning from
side to side in high dud¬
geon, trying to catch the
wind of her foe. We
mounted our horses, and
after a couple of miles’
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 Masai man and wife,

a hundred yards, and I From a photograph by J. Alden Loring.

killed the cow. But we

were now much puzzled by the young one, had been rather badly mauled by a lion,
which refused to leave; we did not wish to which he had mortally wounded, but which
kill it, for it was big enough to shift for it- managed to charge home. Now we found
self; but it was also big enough to kill that Dr. Mearns had been quite busily en-
either of us. We drew back, hoping it gaged in attending to cases of men who
would go away; but it did not. So when were hurt by lions. Loring nearly got in
the gun bearers arrived we advanced and the category. He killed his lioness with a
tried to frighten it; but this plan also failed, light automatic rifle, utterly unfit for use
It threatened to charge, but could not quite against African game. Though he actually
make up its mind. Watching my chance I put a bullet right through the beast’s heart,
then creased its stern with a bullet from the the shock from the blow was so slight that
little Springfield, and after some wild cir- she was not stopped even for a second; he
cular galloping it finally decided to leave, hit her four times in all, each shot being
Kermit, about this time, killed a heavy mortal — for he was an excellent marksman,
boar from horseback after a three-miles run. — and she died nearly at his feet, her charge
The boar charged twice, causing the horse carrying her several yards by him. Mearns
to buck and shy. Finally, just as he was had galloped into a herd of wildebeest and
going into his burrow backward, Kermit killed the big bull of the herd, after first
raced by and shot him, firing his rifle from running clean through a mob of zebras,
the saddle after the manner of the old-time which, as he passed, skinned their long yel-
Western buffalo runners. low teeth threateningly at him, but made no

We now rejoined Mearns and Loring on attempt actually to attack him.
the banks of the Guaso Nyero. They had A settler had come down to trade with

“ mynyata ” (village of huts) we passed on return to Lake Naivasha.

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 mal¬
treated 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;
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 rep¬
utation with the tribe; when the case was
serious the patient’s kinsfolk would usually
present him with a sheep or war-spear, or
522

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 exclusively
on milk, blood, and flesh ; and are remark¬
ably 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. With¬
in 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 curi¬
ous soup sticks, each a rod with one of the
vertebra of some animal stuck on the end,

African Game Trails

523

and 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 after¬
noons to pitch camp comfortably; here the

wagons left us with their loads of hides and
horns 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

velt and Cuninghame discussing the ne
beest shot by Mr. Ro
From a photograph by Kerm

Wilde-

Camp at Lake Naivasha.

and sinewy as panthers; they helped us; which it was hard to place with exactness,
but Cuninghame had to do most of the We had seen that each porter had his water
pathfinding himself. It was a difficult bottle full before starting ; but, though will-
country, passable only at certain points, ing, good-humored fellows, strong as bulls.

me has to shoot at when after hippo on water.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

What

African Game Trails

525

in forethought they are of the grasshopper
type ; and all but a few exhausted their sup¬
ply by mid-afternoon. At this time we were
among bold mountain ridges, and here we
struck the kraal of some Masai, who wa¬
tered 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

into what looked like rivers; the thick
grass grew waist high. It looked like a
well- watered country ; but it was of porous,
volcanic nature, and the soil was a sieve.
After nightfall 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

Mr. Roosevelt’s hippo charging open-mouthed.— Page 531.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

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 colors; 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 par¬
allel to the high ridge. On our left the tree-
clad mountain side hung above us ; ravines,
with mimosas clustering in them, sundered
the foot-hills, and wound until they joined

to give any water for drinking. It was
eight o’clock before the last of the weary,
thirsty burden-carriers stumbled through
the black, bowlder-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 por¬
ters, as there was another long and exhaust¬
ing day’s march ahead. Before sunrise we

526

African Game Trails

started; and four hours later, in the bottom they improvised long chants in my honor,
of a deep ravine, Cuninghame found a and feasted royally.

pool of green water in a scooped-out cavity We spent one entire day with the row-
in the rock. It was a pleasant sight to see boat in a series of lagoons near camp, which
the thirsty porters drink. Then they sat marked an inlet of the lake. We did not
down, built fires and boiled their food; and get any hippo, but it was a most interesting
went on in good heart. day. A broad belt of papyrus fringed the

Two or three times we crossed singularly lagoons and jutted out between them. The
beautiful ravines, the trail winding through straight green stalks with their feathery
narrow clefts heads rose high

Naivasha. It wearisome after

ed by hills and ful, for each reed

mountains, the . . . . - * . js slender,

shores broken . . _. ^ graceful, with

, , Rhino shot from Salt-marsh Camp, of, the “Keitloa type with rear ? . ’ _

by rocky prom- hom longer than front horn.— Page 520. J ltS pale flower-

ontories, and in- From a photograph by Edmund Heiier. ing crown ; and

dented by papy- they are typical

rus-fringed bays. Next morning we shifted of the tropics, and their mere sight suggests
camp four miles to a place on the farm, and a vertical sun and hot, steaming swamps,
near the house, of the Messrs. Attenborough, where great marsh beasts feed and wallow
settlers on the shores of the lake, who treated and bellow, amidst a teeming reptilian life,
us with the most generous courtesy and hos- A fringe of papyrus here and there adds
pitality — as, indeed, did all the settlers we much to the beauty of a lake, and also to the
met. They were two brothers; one had lived beauty of the river pools, where clumps of
twenty years on the Pacific Coast, mining in them grow under the shade of the vine-
the Sierras, and the other had just retired tangled tropical trees,
from the British navy, with the rank of com- The open waters of the lagoons were
mander; they were able to turn their hands covered with water-lilies, bearing purple
to anything, and were just the men for work or sometimes pink flowers. Across the
in a new country — for a new country is a broad lily pads ran the curious “lily trot-
poor place for the weak and incompetent, ters,” or jacanas, richly colored birds, with
whether of body or mind. They had a toes so long and slender that the lily pads
steam launch and a big heavy row-boat, and would support them without sinking. They
they most kindly and generously put both were not shy, and their varied coloring — a
at our disposal for hippo hunting. bright chestnut being the most conspicuous

At this camp I presented the porters with hue — and singular habits made them very
twenty-five sheep, as a recognition of their conspicuous. There was a wealth of bird
good conduct and hard work; whereupon life in the lagoons. Small gulls, somewhat

528

African Game Trails

like our black-headed gull, but with their
hoods gray, flew screaming around us.
Black and white kingfishers, tiny red¬
billed kingfishers, with colors 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 clamored as they circled over¬
head 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

its edge; toward evening they 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 after¬
noon, 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

Goliath, flew up at our approach; and
there were many smaller herons and egrets,
white or particolored. There were small,
dark cormorants, and larger ones with
white throats; and African ruddy ducks,
and teal and big yellow-billed ducks, some¬
what 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 papillae 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 of water in
a shallow, eating the water-lilies. They
seemed to spend the fore part of the day
sleeping or resting in the papyrus or near

molested, and the natives are timid, they
not only do great damage to the gardens
and crops, trampling them down and shov¬
elling basketfuls into their huge mouths,
but also become dangerous to human be¬
ings, 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 mishandled by some bigger
bull, came ashore in the daytime and act¬
ually attacked the cattle, and was promptly
shot in consequence. They are astonish¬
ingly quick in their movements for such
shapeless-looking, short-legged things. Of
course they cannot swim in deep water with
anything like the speed of the real swim¬
ming mammals, nor move on shore with the
agility and speed of the true denizens of

530

African Game Trails

the land; nevertheless, by sheer muscular
power and in spite of their shape, they
move at an unexpected 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. Or¬
dinarily 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 up, from firm
ground, there is no sport whatever in killing
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 oppor¬
tunity 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 be¬
tween the eyes; the water was smooth, and
I braced my legs well and fired offhand. I
hit him, but was confident that I 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 un¬
fortunately 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 un¬
fortunately 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
every one 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 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 por¬
poise, going as fast as it could toward the
papyrus. After it we went, full speed, for
once in the papyrus we could not have fol¬
lowed it; arid 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-like
legs, and towed it back forthwith.

There were others 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 others ; it
was rather interesting, as giving one of the
explanations of the stories that always ap¬
pear 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, Cuning¬

hame, Kermit, and I got into the row-boat;
Cuninghame steered, Kermit carried his
camera, and I steadied myself in the bow
with the little 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 shoul¬
der, 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, floun¬
dering 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 in¬
stead 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
S3i

532

African Game Trails

I struck it between neck and shoulder;
once, as it rushed forward with its huge
jaws stretched to their threatening utmost,
1 fired right between them, whereat it
closed them with the clash of a sprung bear
trap; and then, when under the punish¬
ment 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,

trich feathers. The two Kikins were un¬
consciously entertaining companions. With¬
out any warning they would suddenly start
a song or chant, usually an impromptu re¬
citative of whatever at the moment inter¬
ested them. They chanted for half an hour
over the feat of the “B’wana Makuba”
(great master, or chief — my name) in kill¬
ing the hippo; laying especial stress upon
the quantity of excellent meat it would fur-

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 slightly 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 Ind¬
ian Moslem. The fireman and the steers¬
man were two half-naked and much-orna¬
mented Kikins. 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 os-

nish, 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 noteworthy was a handsome gray
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

534

African Game Trails

puzzled me, as I thought they must be
made by some beast. The bulbuls 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

Heller trapped various beasts; beauti¬
fully 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 Amer-

caused them superficially to resemble Amer¬
ican animals with which they had no real
kinship. The sand rats that burrowed in
the dry plains were in shape, in color, eyes,
tail, and paws strikingly like our pocket
gophers, which have similar habits. So the
long- tailed gerbilles, or gerbille-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, re¬
sembled nothing of ours; and there were
tree rats and spiny mice. There were gray
monkeys in the trees around camp, which
the naturalists shot.

ica we use for coons, skunks, foxes, and
perhaps bobcats and coyotes. In the morn¬
ing 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 endeavored to catch a
glimpse of the animal. He could see noth¬
ing, 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

African Game Trails

535

into it, and back it went, only again to come
out and to receive another bullet; and he
killed it. It was an old male, in good con¬
dition, 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 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 any¬
thing 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 porcu¬
pines are terrestrial animals, living in bur¬
rows to which they keep during the day¬
time. 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 aggres¬
sive 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 him¬
self 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 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 ter¬
riers could themselves kill a full-grown

warthog boar; an almost unheard-of feat.
They backed one another up with equal
courage and adroitness, their aim being for
two to seize the hind legs; then the third,
watching his chance, would get one foreleg,
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 incom¬
plete. Save in exceptional cases I do not
think hippo hunting, after the first one has
been obtained, a very attractive sport, be¬
cause usually one has to wait an hour be¬
fore 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 usu¬
ally 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 in¬
sures the animal’s escape, this means that
two or three hippo may be killed, quite un¬
avoidably, before the right specimen is se¬
cured. Still there may be interesting and
536

exciting incidents in a hippo hunt. Cun-
inghame, 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 in¬
lets, all fringed by a broad belt of impene¬
trable papyrus, while the beautiful purple
lilies, with their leathery-tough stems and
broad surface-floating leaves, filled the shal¬
lows. At the mouth of the main bay we
passed a floating island, a mass of papy¬
rus 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 sunshine the shallow flats were alive
with bird life. Gulls, both the gray-hooded
and the black-backed, screamed harshly
overhead. The chestnut-colored lily trot-

African Game Trails

537

ters 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 flamin¬
goes 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 solilo¬
quy, consisting of a succession 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 Cun-
inghame, while of course unable to be cer¬
tain, 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 bigger
ones dove and began to work their way past
us toward deep water. We could trace
their course by the twisting of the lily 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 disappeared. It sank
out of sight without a splash, almost with¬
out 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
Vol. XL VII. — 56

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 shallow,
muddy water boiled, as the huge beasts,
above and below the surface, scattered
every which way. Their eyes starting, the
two rowers began to back water out of the
dangerous neighborhood, 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 opportu¬
nity 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 disappeared 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 van¬
ished, 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

538

African Game Trails

shot the latter if it could have been avoided;
but under the circumstances I do not see
how it was possible to help it. The meat was
not wasted; on the contrary it was a god¬
send, 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 un¬
til after dark to get the bull out of the diffi¬
cult 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
overcast; 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-colored ant-eating wheatear sang
sweetly from trees and bushes, and even
from the roofs of the settlers’ houses. The
tri-colored starlings — black, white, and
chestnut — sang in the air, as well as when
perched on twigs. Stopping at the govern¬
ment farm (which is most interesting; the
results obtained in improving the native
sheep, goats, and cattle by the use of im¬
ported thoroughbred bulls and rams have
been astonishingly successful) we saw the
little long-tailed, red-billed, black and white

whydahs flitting around the out-buildings
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, beauti¬
ful white spoonbills, darters, cormorants,
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
little 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 jump¬
ing hares, which abounded in the neigh¬
borhood. These big, burrowing animals,
which progress by jumping like kangaroos,
are strictly nocturnal, 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 fran-
colin, shown itself an exceptionally hard¬
hitting and close-shooting weapon, and col¬
lected various water birds for the natural¬
ists; 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 news¬
paper which any of us ever saw was the
Owego T imes, which Loring, in a fine spirit
of neighborhood loyalty, always had sent to
him in his 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 be¬
lieved that there never had been its equal as
a magazine, whether for old or young; even
though the Plancus of our golden consul¬
ship was the not wholly happy Andrew
Johnson.

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVII JUNE, 1910 NO. 6

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt and other members
of the expedition

IX— ELEPHANT HUNTING ON MOUNT KENIA.

ON July 24th, in order to ship our
fresh accumulations of specimens
and trophies, we again, 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. I 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 re¬
turned from a two months’ safari with Mc¬
Millan, Williams, and Judd. Their experi¬
ence shows how large the element of luck
is in lion hunting. Selous was particularly
anxious to kill a good lion ; there is nowhere

Copyright, 1910, by Charles Scribner’s Sons. .All rij

VOL. XLVII.— 66

642

African Game Trails

to be found a more skilful or more hard- her eye; his horse jumped and swerved at
working hunter; yet he never even got a the shot, throwing him off, and he found
shot. Williams, on the other hand, came himself sitting -on the ground, not three
across three. Two he killed easily. The yards from the dead lioness. Nothing
third charged him. He was carrying a more was seen of the other,
double-barrelled .450, but failed to stop the . Continually I met men with experiences
beast; it seized him by the leg, and his life Bin their past lives which showed how close
was saved by his Swahili gun-bearer, who / the country was to those primitive condi-

Mr. Roosevelt laying the corner-stone at Kijabe Mission.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

gave the lion a fatal shot as it stood over
him. He came within an ace of dying; but
when I saw him, at the hospital, he was
well on the road to recovery. One day
Selous while on horseback saw a couple of
lionesses, 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

tions 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 whatever; 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 because of the ravages of a man-eating lion,
government had just been obliged to close which carried men away from the camps,
one of the trade routes to native caravans A safari which had come in from the north

Heller.

African Game Trails

645

had been charged by a rhino, and one of the
porters tossed and killed, the horn being
driven clean through his loins. At Heat-
ley’s farm three buffalo (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 Government House, I met a
government official who had once succeeded
in driving into a corral seventy zebras, in-

ing beautifully; the bulbuls were the most
noticeable singers, but there were many
others. The dark ant-eating chats haunted
the dusty roads on the outskirts of the town,
and were interesting birds ; they were usu¬
ally 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 night¬
fall, but in the bright afternoons. Shrikes

West side of Kenia’s peak, taken at an altitude of 15,000 feet.
From a photograph by J. Alden Loring.

eluding more stallions than mares; their
misfortune 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
a wealth of flowers. Birds abounded, sing¬

spitted insects on the spines of the imported
cactus in the gardens. Striped squirrels the
size of chipmunks lived in the trees.

It was race week, and the races, in some
of which Kermit rode, were capital fun.
The white people — army officers, govern¬
ment officials, farmers from the country
roundabout, and their wives — rode to the
races on ponies or even on. camels, or drove
up in rickshaws, 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

Elephant trail in bamboo.

From a photograph by J. Alden Loring.

were Parsees, and Goanese dressed just
like the Europeans. There were many
other Indians, their picturesque women-
kind gaudy in crimson, blue, and saffron.
The constabulary, Indian and native,
were in neat uniforms and well set up,
though often barefooted. Straight, slen¬
der Somalis with clear-cut features were
in attendance on the horses. Native ne¬
groes, of many different tribes, flocked
to the race-course and its neighborhood.
The Swahilis, and those among the others
who aspired toward civilization, were well
clad, the men in half European costume,
the women in flowing, parti-colored robes.
But most of them were clad, or unclad,
just as they always had been. Wkamba,
with filed teeth, crouched in circles on the
ground. Kikuyu 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 somewhere round them, while now
and then an unmarried girl would have
her face painted with ochre and vermil¬
ion. 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 Kavirondo, stark naked,

Creek on slopes of Kenia near first elephant camp.

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 Australian poet Pat¬
terson could adequately write of them.

On August 4th I returned to Lake Nai-
vasha, 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 springhaas 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 creat¬
ures can be killed. Springhaas live in big
burrows, a number of them dwelling to¬
gether 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 mak¬
ing long hops or jumps, they often run al¬
most like an ordinary rat or rabbit. They
are pretty creatures, fawn-colored above,

Tree-ferns on slopes of Kenia near first elephant camp.

648

African Game Trails

and white beneath, with the terminal half crouched on all-fours or raised itself on its
of the tail very dark. In hunting them we hind legs. I shot half a dozen, all that the
simply walked over the flats for a couple of naturalists wanted. Then I tried to shoot
hours, flashing the bull’s-eye lantern on all a fox; but the moon had risen from behind

a cloud bank; I had to take a
long shot and missed.

While waiting for the safari
to get ready, Kermit went off

From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

sides, until we saw the light reflected back
by a springhaas’s eyes. Then I would ap¬
proach to within range, 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 number 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

on a camping trip and shot
two bushbuck, while I spent a
couple of days trying for sing
sing waterbuck on the edge of
the papyrus. I did not shoot
well, and among other feats I
missed one bull, and wounded
another which I did not get, as
well as missing a serval as it
bounded off in the tall grass.
This was all the more exas¬
perating 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 hun¬
dred and eighty, with the little
Springfield rifle. The water-
buck spent the daytime out¬
side, but near the edge of the
papyrus ; I found them grazing
or resting, in the open, at all
times between early morning
and late afternoon. Some of
them spent most of the day in
the papyrus, keeping to the
watery trails made by the hip¬
pos and by themselves; but this
was not the general habit, un¬
less they had been persecuted. When fright¬
ened they often ran into the papyrus, smash¬
ing the dead reeds and splashing the water
in their rush. They are noble-looking an¬
telope, with long, shaggy hair, and their
chosen haunts beside the lakes were very
attractive. Clumps of thorn trees and flow¬
ering 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

African Game Trails

649

their bloom. The climbing morning-glories
sometimes completely covered a tree with
their pale purple flowers; and other blos¬
soming vines spangled the green over which
their sprays were flung with
masses of bright yellow.

Four days’ march from Nai-
vasha, where we again left
Mearns and Loring, took us
to Neri. Our line of march
lay across the high plateaus
and mountain chains of the
Aberdare range. The steep,
twisting trail was slippery with
mud. Our last camp, at an
altitude of about ten thou¬
sand feet, was so cold that
the water froze in the basins,
and the shivering porters slept
in numbed discomfort. 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 all of it moved abroad
by night. One frosty evening
we killed a dyker by shining
its eyes. We saw old ele¬
phant 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 gar¬
dens ; geraniums and red-hot-pokers, which
in places turned the glades to a fire color.
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 masses of small red or large white
flowers shaped somewhat like columbines,
or like the garden balsam; the red flower

650

African Game Trails

bushes 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 tree ferns and
strange dragon trees with lily-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 moun¬
tain 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 cor¬
responds to the chorus
that during May and
June moves northward
from the Gulf States
and southern Califor¬
nia to Maine, Minne¬
sota, and Oregon, to
Ontario and Saskat¬
chewan; when there
comes the great ver¬
nal burst of bloom
and song; when the
may-flower, bloodroot,
wake-robin, anemone,
adder’s tongue, liver¬
wort, shadblow, dog¬
wood, redbud glad¬
den the woods; when
mocking-birds and
cardinals sing in the
magnolia groves of the
South, and
hermit
thrushes,
winter
wrens, and
sweetheart

Suliman Na Meru, one of the elephant guides.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

sparrows
in the

spruce and hemlock forests of the North;
when bobolinks in the East and meadow¬
larks East and West sing in the fields; and
water ousels by the cold streams of the
Rockies, and canyon wrens in their sheer
gorges; when from the Atlantic sea-board
to the Pacific wood thrushes, veeries, rufous-
backed thrushes, robins, bluebirds, 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 gar¬
dens 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 na¬
tives. I had been much inclined 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 honor. Two thou¬
sand 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
colored 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
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

The porters exult over the death of the bull.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

and swung in a pan-
ther-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
into fits of berserker
frenzy, and were dis¬
armed at once to pre¬
vent mischief. Some
of the tribesmen held
wilder dances still in
the evening, by the
light of fires that
blazed in a grove
where their thatched
huts stood.

The second day
after reaching Neri
the clouds lifted 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 beautiful, 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 Cuninghame, 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 oc¬
casional plantations of bananas, touched
one another in almost uninterrupted suc¬
cession. 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 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

Camping after death of the first bull.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

tangled forest, the forest of the tropical
mountain sides.

The trees, strange of kind and endless
in variety, grew tall and close, laced to¬
gether by vine and creeper, while under¬
brush crowded the space between their
mossy trunks, and covered the leafy mould
beneath. Toward dusk crested ibis flew
overhead, with harsh clamor, to seek their
night roosts; parrots chattered, and a curi¬
ously homelike touch was given by the
presence of a thrush in color and shape al¬
most 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 culti¬
vated 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 neighborhood
their habit is to live high up in the moun¬
tains, 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 hav¬
ing, 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, mak¬
ing 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 un¬
flagging interest round
the camp-fires of African
hunters and in the native
villages of the African

The ’Ndorobo who had hysterics
on the elephant.

From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

654

African Game Trails

wilderness, as the elephant. Indeed the ele¬
phant 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 creat¬
ures and the wild life of nature, the most in¬
teresting 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 contemporaries of early man in Europe
and North America. The carvings of our
palaeolithic forefathers, etched on bone by
cavern dwellers, from whom we are sun¬
dered by ages which stretch into an imme¬
morial 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 sculpt¬
ured records of the kings of Egypt, Baby¬
lon, and Nineveh show the immense im¬
portance 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 the elephant plays a dis¬
tinguished part.

The elephant is unique among the beasts
of great bulk in the fact that his growth in
size has been accompanied 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 retrogres¬
sion. The rhinoceros, 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 terrestrial animals. Seemingly the
ancestors of the two creatures, in that pe¬
riod, separated from us by uncounted hun¬
dreds of thousands of years, which we may
conveniently designate as late miocene or
early pliocene, were substantially equal in
brain development. But in one case in¬
crease in bulk seems to have induced leth¬
argy 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 conse¬
quence the elephant outlasts the rhino,
although he is the largest, carries infinite¬
ly more valuable spoils, and is far more
eagerly and persistently hunted. Both ani¬
mals wandered freely over the open country
of East Africa thirty years ago. But the
elephant learns by experience infinitely
more readily than the rhinoceros. The
former no longer lies in the open plains,
and now even crosses them if possible at
night. But those rhinoceros which former¬
ly dwelt in the plains for the most part con¬
tinue to dwell there until killed out. Not
the most foolish elephant would under sim¬
ilar conditions behave as the rhinos that
we studied and hunted by Kilimakin and
in the Sotik behaved. No elephant, in
regions which have been hunted, would
habitually spend its days lying or standing
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 neigh¬
borhood. The elephant’s sight is bad, as
is that of the rhinoceros; but a very brief
experience with rifle-bearing man 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 ous over nearly the whole continent south
company; very rarely are as many as half of the Sahara, and as it was given to such
a dozen found together. Moreover, it is extensive occasional wanderings, it is prob-
coiriparatively stationary in its habits, and able that the examination of a sufficient
as a general thing stays permanently in one series of specimens would show that on
neighborhood, not shifting its position for their confines these races grade into one
very many miles unless for grave reasons, another. In its essentials the beast is al-
The African elephant has recently been most everywhere the same, although, of
divided into a number of sub-species; but course, there must be variation of habits
as within a century its range was continu- with any animal which exists throughout so

Kikuyu village near first elephant camp.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

wide and diversified 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 them¬
selves. 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. Sometimes, 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 elephant rest,
and wander about at all times of the day
and night, and feed without much regard

656

to fixed hours, morning or evening, noon or
midnight, the herd may be on the move, or
its members may be resting ; but during the
hot noon they rarely or never feed, and or¬
dinarily stand almost still, resting — for ele¬
phant almost never lie down unless sick.
Where they are afraid of man, their only
enemy, they come out to feed in thinly
forested plains, or cultivated fields, when
they do so at all, only at night, and before
daybreak move back into the forest to rest.
Where we were, 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 for¬
est, feeding by day or night on the branches
they tore off the trees, or, occasionally, 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 up¬
rooted and overturned.

The African elephant has never, like his
Indian kinsman, been trained to man’s use.
There is still hope that the feat may be per¬
formed; 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 labor. 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 well nigh
to bring about the mighty beast’s utter ex¬
termination. Ivory hunters and ivory trad¬
ers 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 its process
Vol. XLVII. — 67

has been immensely accelerated, until now
there are but one or two out-of-the-way
nooks of the Dark Continent to the neigh¬
borhood of which hunter and trader have
not penetrated. Fortunately the civilized
powers which now divide dominion over
Africa have waked up in time, and there is
at present no danger of the extermination
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 en¬
tirely safe life. Furthermore, over great
tracts of territory outside the reserves regu¬
lations have been promulgated which, if en¬
forced as they are now enforced, will pre¬
vent any excessive diminution of the herds.
In British East Africa, for instance, no cows
are allowed to be shot save for special pur¬
poses, as for preservation in a museum, or
to safeguard life and property; and no bulls
657

with 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 the
governments and the individuals who have
brought about this happy result. It would
be a veritable and most tragic calamity if
the lordly elephant, the giant among exist¬
ing four-footed creatures, should be per¬
mitted to vanish from the face of the earth.

But of course protection is not perma¬
nently possible over the greater part of the
country, which is well fitted for settlement ;
nor anywhere, if the herds grow too numer¬
ous. 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 pro¬
tection has been extended to hippopotamus
or buffalo, rhinoceros or elephant, it has
658

been found necessary to withdraw it be¬
cause the protected animals did such dam¬
age to property, or became such menaces to
human life. Among all four species cows
with calves often attack men without prov¬
ocation, and old bulls are at any time likely
to become infected by a spirit of wanton and
ferocious mischief and apt to become man
killers. I know settlers who tried to pre¬
serve the rhinoceros 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 wan¬
ton attacks on human beings by the latter.
Where we were by Neri, a year or two be¬
fore our visit, the rhinos had become so
dangerous, killing one white man and sev¬
eral 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 hippopotamus
has in places been wholly withdrawn be¬
cause of the damage done by the beasts to
the crops of the natives, or because of their

African Game Trails

659

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 pro¬
tected, 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 neighbor¬
hood where I was
hunting at Kenia,
but six weeks before

dered down into the
plains and run
amuck, had at¬
tacked two villages,
had killed a man
and a boy, and had
then been mobbed
to death by the
spearmen. Ele¬
phant, when in
numbers, and when
not possessed of the
fear of man, are
more impossible
neighbors than hip¬
po, rhino, or buffalo ;
but they are so ea¬
gerly sought after
by ivory hunters that
it is only rarely that
they get the chance
to become really

dangerOUS tO life, 1-rom a photograph

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 Cuning-
hame and Tarlton, men of wide experience,
ranked elephant hunting, in point of dan¬
ger, as nearly on the level with lion hunt¬
ing, 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 sport1;
though far greater demands are made by
elephant hunting on the qualities of per¬
sonal endurance and hardihood and reso¬
lute perseverance in the face of disappoint¬
ment 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 unexpected fash¬
ion, being far more
prone to such ag¬
gression than are
any of the others —
man-eating lions al¬
ways excepted.

Very few of the
native tribes in
Africa hunt the ele¬
phant systematical¬
ly. But the ’Ndo-
robo, the wild bush
people of East
Africa, sometimes
catch young 'ele¬
phants in the pits
they dig with slow
labor, and very rare-
eiephant. ly they kill one with

by r. j. cuniughame. 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 wandering families
happen to live; and they grade into the lat¬
ter, by speech and through individuals who
seem to stand half-way 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 Cuning-
hame’s tent. Cuninghame gave them two

660

African Game Trails

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 ! 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 cov¬
ered the river bottoms and hillsides of the
adjoining open country, and who were, in¬
deed, merely outlying, forest-dwelling mem¬
bers of the lowland tribes. In the deep
woods we met one old Derobo, who had
no connection with any more advanced
tribe, whose sole belongings were his spear,
skin cloak, and fire stick, and who lived
purely on honey and game ; unlike the bas¬
tard ’Ndorobo, he was ornamented with
neither paint nor grease. But the ’Ndo¬
robo who were our guides stood farther up
in the social scale. The men passed most
of their time in the forest, but up the moun¬
tain sides they had squalid huts on little
clearings, with shambas, where their wives
raised scanty 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 head¬
dresses 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 hunt¬
er 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 fair¬
ly 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 with his spear, his blanket round his
shoulders, and a little bundle of corn and
sweet potato. Then came Cuninghame,
followed by his gun-bearer. Then I came,
clad in khaki-colored flannel shirt and kha¬
ki trousers buttoning down the legs, with
hob-nailed shoes and a thick slouch hat ; I
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 Derobo 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, interlacing 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 ele¬
phants in the forest is that it is impossible
to travel, except very slowly and with much
noise, off these trails, so that it is some¬
times very difficult to take advantage of the
wind; and although the sight of the ele¬
phant is dull, both its sense of hearing and
its sense of smell are exceedingly acute.

Hour after hour we worked our way on¬
ward through tangled forest and matted

jungle. There was little sign of bird or
animal life, and 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
neighboring branches, bearing sparse clus¬
ters of large frondage. In places the forest
was low, the trees thirty or forty feet high,
the bushes that choked the ground between,
66 1

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 but¬
tressed 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 re¬
doubled their caution. They would mi¬
nutely examine the fresh dung ; and above
all they continually tested the wind, scan¬
ning 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
almost 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 elephant paths led up hill and down
— for the beasts are wonderful climbers —
662

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 ra¬
vine, and dined ravenously on bread, mut¬
ton, 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 prog¬
ress 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, scanning 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

African Game Trails

663

for several hours, and had left this sleep¬
ing 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 owh way through the jungle, so as to
get the wind more favorable; but our prog¬
ress was too slow and noisy, and we re¬
turned to the path the elephants had beaten.
Then the T-Idorobo went ahead, travelling

parallel thereto. It was about noon. The
elephants moved slowly, and we listened
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 pos¬
sible, as I followed the trail, I stepped in
the huge footprints of the elephant, for

A waterbuck.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

noiselessly and at speed. One of them was
clad in a white blanket, and another in a
red one, which were 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

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, be¬
cause of the extreme denseness of the cover,
but always hearing first one and then an¬
other 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 clam¬
or, 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 gray and massive
head of an elephant resting his tusks on the

Mr. Roosevelt’s anil Kermit’s camp near which they got the rhino and elephant.

branches of a young tree — elephants hard¬
ly ever feed at noon. A couple of minutes
passed before, by cautious scrutiny, we were
able to tell whether the animal we could see
was a cow or a bull, and whether, if a bull,
it carried heavy enough horns. 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 I
aimed, but the head of an elephant is enor¬
mous and the brain small, and the bullet
missed it. However, the shock momenta¬
rily stunned the beast. He stumbled for¬
ward, 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,
664

the thick bushes parted immediately 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. I leaped to one side and dodged
behind a tree trunk, opening the rifle, throw¬
ing out the empty shells, and slipping in two
cartridges. Meanwhile Cuninghame fired
right and left, at the same time throwing
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 cov¬
er. We ran forward, but the forest had
closed over his wake. We heard him trum¬
pet shrilly, and then all 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

African Game Trails •

665

on 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
unnecessary 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 twenty
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 Cuning-
hame had predicted, the old Masai Derobo,
from pure delight, proceeded to have hys¬
terics 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 laborer
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 ele¬
phant. The night 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, gleam¬
ing eyes, and flashing teeth. When they
did sleep, two of the ’Ndorobo slept so
close to the fire as to bum themselves; an
VOL. XLVII. — 68

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 off on the trail of Cuninghame’s ele¬
phant to see if it had fallen, but found that
it had travelled steadily, though its wounds
were probably mortal. There was no ob¬
ject in my staying, for Heller and Cuning¬
hame 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 Derobo 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 en¬
joyed 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 skins,
and carrying his war spear, came to con¬
gratulate me on killing the elephant and to
present me with a sheep. Early the follow¬
ing 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 fortnight 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. Horne, we were
given full information of the elephant in the
neighborhood. 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.

666

African Game Trails

We had, of course, no idea that elephant
would be found close at hand. But next
morning, about eleven, Horne came to our
camp with four of his black scouts, who re¬
ported that three elephants were in a patch
of thick jungle beside the shambas, not
three miles away. Horne said that the ele¬
phants were cows, that they had been in the
neighborhood 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 wished 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.
We followed foot-paths 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 af¬
forded 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 from behind the
bushes on a slight hill crest 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 favorite haunt, for the

sign was abundant, both old and new. In
the impenetrable cover it was quite impos¬
sible 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 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 Cuninghame re¬
fused, taking into his own hands the man¬
agement 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 it¬
self. 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 fall-
. en tree, and scrambling up, we found our¬
selves 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 pre¬
carious footing, it also offered the best look¬
out. Thither I balanced, and looking over
the heads of my companions I at once made
out the elephant. At first I could see noth¬
ing 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
motionless, and up went the biggest ele¬
phant’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

African Game Trails

667

'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 pre¬
viously warned every one 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 miss¬
ing 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 effect.

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. Or¬
dinarily, of course, a bull, and not a cow,
is what one desires, although on this occa¬
sion I needed a cow to complete the group
for the Museum. However, Heller and
Cuninghame spent the next few days in
preserving the skin, and I was too much
pleased with our luck to feel inclined to
grumble. We were back in camp five hours
after leaving it. Our gun-bearers usually
felt it incumbent on them to keep a digni¬
fied 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 campward, 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 further ahead, the more light-hearted
among them began to give way to their spir¬
its, and they came into camp frolicking, gam¬
bolling, 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 ele¬
phants was in the neighborhood. They
were off by dawn, and in a few hours came
on the herd. It consisted 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 .450 into
the tusker’s head, but without even stag¬
gering him; and as he walked off Tarlton
also fired both barrels into him, with no
more effect; then, as he slowly turned, Ker¬
mit 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;
and after standing stock still for a minute
or two, Kermit and T arlton 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 at least as good as any that
have ever 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 favorite
cover for elephant and rhinoceros, and is
well-nigh impenetrable to hunters. Fort¬
unately 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 shoulders, and as
he whipped round to charge, another bullet
on the point of his shoulders; although
mortally wounded, he showed no signs
whatever of being hurt, and came at the
hunters with great speed and savage desire
to do harm. Then an extraordinary thing
happened. T arlton fired, inflicting merely
a flesh wound in one shoulder, and the big,
fearsome brute, which had utterly disre-

668

African Game Trails

garded 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 sav¬
age 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 foot-hills. 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, fol¬
lowed 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 ele¬
phant. 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,
where the Meru women were tilling with
their adze-like hoes, and banana planta¬
tions, where among the banana trees other
trees had been planted, and the yarn 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 platforms, and
sometimes regular thatched huts, placed in
the trees; these were for the watchers, who
were to keep the elephants out of the sham¬
bas at night. Some of the natives wore
girdles of banana leaves, looking, as Kermit
said, much like the pictures oft savages in
Sunday-school books.

Early in the afternoon some of the scouts
returned with news that three bull ele¬
phants were in a piece of forest a couple of
miles distant, and thither we went. It was

an open grove of heavy thorn timber be¬
side a strip of swamp; among the trees
the grass grew tall, and there were many
thickets of arbutelon, a flowering shrub a
dozen feet high. On this the elephant were
feeding. Tarlton’s favorite sport was lion
hunting, but he was also a first-class ele¬
phant 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, 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 war¬
rant 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, 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, twist¬
ing to and fro in the air; evidently he could
not catch a clear scent; but in another mo¬
ment we saw the three great dark forms
moving gently off through the bush. As
rapidly as possible, following the trails al¬
ready tramped by the elephants, we walked
forward, and after a hundred yards Tarlton
pointed to a big bull with good tusks stand¬
ing 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 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 fin¬
ished him with a bullet in the brain from
the little Springfield. Although rather
younger than either of the bulls I had al¬
ready shot, it was even larger. In its
stomach were beans from the shambas, ar¬
butelon 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

African Game Trails

669

was done into a cue, we rode toward the
place. For most of the distance we fol¬
lowed old elephant trails, in some places
mere tracks beaten down through stiff
grass which stood above the head of a man
on horseback, in some 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 rhinoc¬
eros 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 be¬
neath. 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 shoot¬
ing. Then the biggest cow began to move
slowly forward, and we walked nearly par¬
allel to her, along an elephant trail, until
from a slight knoll I got a clear view of
her at a distance of eighty yards. As she
walked leisurely along, almost broadside to
me, I 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
neighborhood, the tusks weighing about
eighteen pounds apiece. She had been
ravaging the shambas over night — 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 calf hood, 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 wood¬
land that stretched down from the wonder¬
ful mountain forest lying higher on the
slopes. The trail was blind in many places
because elephant paths of every age con¬
tinually 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
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 wa¬
ter-lilies on its surface we saw the reflec¬
tion 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 bush buck,
but saw none. While 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 some¬
thing comic about it, like a pig, formidable
though it at times is. This one carried a
poor horn, and therefore we were pleased
when at last it trotted off without obliging
us to shoot it. We saw new kinds of why-
dah 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 sick, 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 with¬
out our ever getting a glimpse of the bull

670

African Game Trails

that was 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, al¬
though at the last we could hear it ahead of
us breaking the branches; and we made our
way back to camp through the darkness.

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 mid-day under the equator, mak¬
ing 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, rhinoc¬
eros, and buffalo. Each of these animals
frequents 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, it would have been practically impos¬
sible to traverse the thick and matted cover
in which they had made their abode.

We could not tell 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, dis¬
tracted 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 pro¬
nounced it a big bull, with good ivory. A
few more steps gave Kermit a chance at it's
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 Spring-
field .300 would do good work with ele¬
phants; although I kept to my belief that,
for such very heavy game, my Holland
.500-.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.

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVIII JULY, 1910 NO. 1

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

X.— THE GUASO NYERO; A RIVER OF THE EQUATORIAL DESERT

W1

THEN I reached Neri, after com¬
ing 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
word of their lanj

not speak a word of their language I got

a couple of young Scotch 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 northernmost tribes of Zulu blood, and
their two officers were of the best Kipling-

Copyright, 1910, by C

VOL. XLVIII.-

2

African Game Trails

If

An oryx bull.— Page 20.

From a photograph by Theodore Roosevelt.

soldier type. Then there was another sa¬
fari, that of Messrs. Kearton and Clark
who were taking some really extraordi¬
nary photographs of birds and game. Fi¬
nally, 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 na¬
tives, was held in his honor, 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 camp
“posho,” or food for the porters. He an¬
nounced that they were all in readiness in a
letter to Cuninghame, 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 as¬
sembled — they are not able
to carry the loads of regu¬
lar Swahili porters — and I
started that moment, though
it was too late in the after¬
noon 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 creat¬
ures 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
themselves. Once these
shelters were up, and a little
fire kindled at the entrance
of each, the moping, spirit¬
less wretches would speedily
become transformed into be¬
ings who had lost all remem¬
brance 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
“shanty 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 chant¬
ed in chorus by the whole party. This repe¬
tition of a short sentence or refrain is a
characteristic of many kinds of savage mu¬
sic; I have seen the Pawnees grow almost
maddened by then* triumph song, or victory
song, which consisted of nothing whatever
but the fierce, barking, wolf-like repetition
of the words, “In the morning the wolves
feasted.”

Our first afternoon’s march was unevent¬
ful ; but I was amused at one of our porters

African Game Trails

3

A good oryx cow.

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 painful bite.

In open spaces, as where
crossing a path, the column
makes a little sunken way
through which it streams un¬
interruptedly. Whenever we
came to such a safari ant col¬
umn, in its sunken way, cross¬
ing our path, the porter in
question laid two twigs on
the ground as a peace-offer¬
ing 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 over¬
head, 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, un-
fenced 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 harte-
beeste too far back, and failed in an effort to
ride it down.

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 Scotchmen 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 wom¬
en. 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 torren¬
tial 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 certain¬
ly seemed worth investigating, and I fol¬
lowed him outside where everybody was
looking at the “snake, ” which proved to be
a huge, funnel-shaped, whirling cloud, ca¬
reering 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 stein-
buck for the table. The country alternated
between bare plains and great stretches of
sparse, stunted thorns. We saw zebra, and
two or three bands of oryx ; big, handsome
4

antelope, strongly built and boldly colored,
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 water-buck, 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
N ational Museum. The little band included

African Game Trails

5

a big bull, a small bull, and two cows; at a
distance the big bull looked slaty blue. The
great, sleek, handsome creatures were feed¬
ing in the long grass just like cattle, switch¬
ing their long tails at the flies. The country
looked like a park, with clumps of thorn-
trees scattered over the grassy sward. Care¬
fully 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
I 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 accompan¬
ied him, and we
followed on the
blood spoor. Ba-
khari and Gouvi-
mali trotted fast
on the trail, and
in order to be
fresh for the shot
I mounted Tran¬
quillity. Sudden¬
ly out bounced
the wounded bull
from some bushes
close by, and the
horse nearly had
a fit ; I could
hardly get off in
time to empty my
magazine at long
range— fortunate¬
ly with effect. It
was a magnifi¬
cent 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 limbs
and beautiful
coat gave it a
Kikuyu warrior. thoroughly game

a photograph by Edmund Heller. look.

An oryx shot by Kermit Roosevelt.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

Oryx were now what I especially wished,
and we devoted all of 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,.! 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 position, I
thought I would surely kill if I hit it at all,
and both of 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

6

African Game Trails

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 stand¬
ing still, idly switching their tails, out in a
big flat. They saw me, and at four hun
dred yards I missed the shot. By this time
I felt rather desperate, and decided for

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 car¬
cass before the vultures lit on it; with them
were two marabou storks, one of which I
shot with a hard bullet from the Springfield.

Helping a donkey across the stream.

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
neck of a fine cow, at four hundred and fifty
yards. Six or seven hundred yards off the
survivors stopped, and the biggest bull, evi¬
dently much put out, uttered loud bawling

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 endeavor to stab a lion. If
wounded it must be approached with a cer¬
tain amount of caution. The eland, on the
other hand, in spite of its huge size, is singu¬
larly 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.

African Game Trails

“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 an¬
telopes, 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 bushbuck
is a wicked fighter, no other buck of its size
being as dangerous; which makes the help¬
lessness and timidity of its hugh relative all
the more striking.

I had kept four Kikuyu with me to ac¬
company 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 Gouvimali the gunbearers, Simba the
sais, and Kiboko the skinner, looked down
on their wild and totally uncivilized breth¬
ren. 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
afternoon in question.
Soon after we had started
camp-wards with the skin
and meat of the oryx, we
encountered a succession of
thunder-storms. The rain
came down in a deluge, so
that the water stood ankle
deep on the flats, the light¬
ning flashed continuously
on every side, and the ter¬
rific peals of thunder made
one continuous roll. At first
it maddened my horse; but
the uninterrupted blaze and
roar, just because uninter¬
rupted, ended by making
him feel that there was
nothing to be done, and he
plodded stolidly forward
through the driving storm.
My regular attendants ac¬
cepted it with an entire
philosophy, which was fi¬
nally copied by the Kikuyus,
who at first felt frightened.
One of them had an old um¬
brella 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 em¬
brace as they walked along under the bat¬
tered old umbrella.

In this desolate * and lonely land the
majesty of the storms impressed on the be¬
holder a sense of awe and solemn exalta¬
tion. 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
theTainbows were set in the sky; but always
they 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

African Game Trails

9

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-colored
glory was dimmed; for its
splendor 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 at¬
tached to my native follow¬
ers, who looked after my in¬
terest 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 fire¬
wood to keep their tents
dry and warm at night — for
cold, rainy weather is al¬
ways 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 Swa¬
hili; the curious, newly created language of
the descendants of the natives whom the
Arabs originally enslaved, and who them¬
selves 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 gener¬
ally 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 Shemlani were de¬
voted and efficient servitors. Bakhari the
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 tie 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! ” Gouvimali was a
Wkamba, 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, becom¬
ing “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 men¬
tion 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 Mo-

hammedans, were rather thinly veneered
with the religions they respectively pro¬
fessed.

When in the morning we started on our
hunt my gunbearers and sais, and the
skinners if any were along, walked silently
behind me, on the lookout for game. Re¬
turning, they were apt to get in front, to

pilot me back to camp. If, as at this time
was generally 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 Wkamba
might break into song; or they might all

it Meru.— Ps

African Game Trails

11

talk together in Swahili, recounting the ad¬
ventures of the day, and chaffing one an¬
other with uproarious laughter about any
small misadventure; a difference of opin¬
ion as to the direction of camp being always
a subject, first for earnest discussion, and
then for much mirth at the
expense of whomever the
event proved mistaken.

My two horses, when I did
not use them, grazed con¬
tentedly 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 corn and be put in
their own tent. When the
sun was hot they were tor¬
mented by biting flies; but
their work was easy, and
they were well treated and
throve. In the daytime vult¬
ures, 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 sigh¬
ing 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 N'januysi hut
me if there was any need. A ,

I easily kept the camp in
meat, as I had guessed 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 inter¬
est 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 a kind of
sneeze of alarm or curiosity, and stood
broadside 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 color of the oryx made them
less visible than hartebeeste 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

12

African Game Trails

my presence. Twice I 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 sa¬
fari, joined me, and I 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 foot-hills
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 associ¬
ate 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
Dulbs 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 ex¬
quisite in hue and form, the
sprays of delicate little leaves
being as fine as the daintiest
lace. On the foot-hills all these thorn-trees
vanished. We did not go as high as the
forest belt proper (here narrow, 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 lupines, 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 wilder-

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 natural¬
ists 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 keep¬
ing the same distance, and all the time ut¬
tering their musical call, while their great
wings flapped in measured beats. Wing
shooting 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 beautiful bird, black, white,
and chestnut, with an erect golden crest,
and long, lanceolate gray feathers on the
throat and breast.

There were water-buck 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
water-buck, with their young, and watched
as they fed and rested, quite unconscious of

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

14

African Game Trails

ness 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 twilights, but not nearly
as short as tropical twilights are often de¬
picted — came the cold, and each night the
frost was heavy. The country was unten¬
anted by man. In the afternoon of the
third day' we began to go downhill, 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
beautifully 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 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 firmness 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 like Somalis, 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 English rule;
but one of the results of the “Pax Eu-

African Game Trails

15

ropaica,” wherever it obtains in German,
French, or English Africa, is a great in¬
crease of intercourse, commercial and so¬
cial, among the different tribes, even where
widely separated. This caravan had been
followed by lions; and a day of two after¬
ward Kermit and Tarlton ran into what
were probably 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 Ker¬
mit and Tarlton 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 reach him; so that at
last they got between him and the ten lion¬
esses and cubs, the big lion coming first,
the horsemen next, and then the lesser
lions, all headed the same way. As the
horse-hooves 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 lion¬
esses 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 30-40 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 stand¬
ing 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, curi¬
ously enough, paid no heed to her. Tarl¬
ton 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

16

African Game Trails

and the wounded lioness, and Kermit killed
the latter; but they let the cubs go, feeling
it unsportsman-like 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.

Kermit also rode down and killed two
cheetahs and a serval, and got a bad tum¬
ble 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 horse¬
back, 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 bus-
terd 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
trustworthy 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 interpretation we need the
services, not of one man, but of many men,
who in addition to the gift of accurate ob¬
servation shall if possible possess the power
fully, accurately, and with vividness to write
about what they have observed.

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 close by across his
front, whereupon he leaped off his horse
for the shot; an ardwolf (a miniature hyena

African Game Trails

17

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 Gravy’s zebra,
as big as a small horse. Most of his hunt¬
ing 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, formid¬
able brute had in its belly sticks, stones,
the claws of a cheetah, the hoofs of an im-
palla, and the big bones of an eland, to¬
gether with the shell plates of one of the
large river- turtles; evidently it took toll in¬
differently from among its fellow-denizens
of the river, and from among the creatures
that came to drink, whether beasts of past¬
ure or the flesheaters 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 dan¬
gerous sport, because a hunted lion was far
more apt to charge than any other animal,
yet that when a buffalo bull did charge he
was more dangerous than a lion, because
harder to kill or turn. Where zebra and
other game are abundant, as on the Athi
plains, lion do not meddle with such for¬
midable quarry as buffalo; on Heatley’s
farm lions sometimes made their lairs in the
same papyrus swamp with the buffalo, but
never molested them. In many places,
however, the lion preys largely, and in some
places chiefly, on the buffalo. The hun-
' ters of wide experience with whom I con¬
versed, men like Tarlton, Cuninghame, and
Horne, were a unit in stating that where a
single lion killed a buffalo they had always
found that the buffalo was a sow or im¬
mature bull, and that whenever they had
found a full-grown bull thus killed, several
lions had been engaged in the job. Horne
had once found the carcass of a big bull
Vol. XLVIII. — 2

which had been killed and eaten by lions,
and near by a dead lioness 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 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 se¬
riously injured.

Twenty years ago the African buffalo
were smitten with one of these overwhelm¬
ing 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 pecu¬
liarly liable to cattle murrains. About the
year 1889, or shortly before, a virulent
form of rinderpest started among the do¬
mestic 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 Zambesi. It wrought
dreadful 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 well-
nigh exterminated the buffalo. In many
places the buffalo hjg-ds were absolutely
wiped out, the species being utterly de¬
stroyed throughout great tracts of territory,
notably in East Africa; in other places the
few survivors did not represent the hun¬
dredth 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 nu¬
merous. Their rapid recovery from a ca¬
lamity so terrific is interesting and instruc¬
tive.* Doubtless for many years after man,
in recognizably human form, appeared on
this planet, he played but a small part in
the destination 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

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

18

African Game Trails

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 fort¬
night hunting elephant and rhinoceros, as
described in the preceding chapter. While
camped by the boma white-necked vulturine
ravens and black and white crows came
familiarly around the tents. A young eland
bull, quite as tame as a domestic cow, was
picketed, now here, now there, about us.
Horne was breaking it to drive in a cart.

During our stay another District Com¬
missioner, Mr. Piggott, came over on a
short visit; it was he who the preceding
year, while at Neri, had been obliged 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. Horne 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
committed 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 ac¬
count in dealing with wild beasts. A
Masai chief, with two or three followers,
was sitting eating under a bush, when, ab¬
solutely without warning, a leopard sprang
on him, clawed him on the head and hand,
without biting him, and as instantly dis¬
appeared. Piggott attended to the wound¬
ed man.

In riding in the neighborhood, 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 attention if there
was a sound resembling that made by a
rattler. Tarlton, by the way, told me an
interesting anecdote of a white-tailed mon¬
goose and a snake. 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 mongoose
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 sav¬
age 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 never showed a sign
of having received any damage in the en¬
counter. I had always understood that the
mongoose owed its safety to its agility in
avoiding the snake’s stroke, and I can offer
no explanation of this particular incident.

There were eland on the high downs not
far from Meru, apparently as much at
home in the wet, cold climate as on the hot
plains. Their favorite gait is the trot. An
elephant moves at a walk or rather rack;
a giraffe has a very peculiar leisurely look¬
ing gallop, both hind legs coming forward
at the same time, outside the forelegs;
rhino and buffalo trot and run. Eland
when alarmed bound with astonishing agil¬
ity for such large beasts— a trait not shown
by other large antelope, like oryx — and

African Game Trails

19

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 es¬
sence 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 trot¬
ter 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 by native runners, telling me of
Peary’s wonderful feat in reaching the
North Pole. Of course we were all over¬
joyed, 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 noteworthy
achievement. A little more than a year
had passed since I said good-by 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 bo¬
real seas and the boreal winter, and had
then waved farewell to the tall, gaunt ex¬
plorer 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 Hanning-
ton, 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 speci¬
mens, to Nairobi.

As Cuninghame and I were to be nearly
four weeks in a country with no food sup¬
plies, 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, makes such an expedition as ours,
undertaken for scientific purposes, far more
cumbersome and unwieldy than a mere
hunting trip, or even than a voyage of ex¬
ploration, and trebles the labor.

* When I reached Neri I received from Peary the follow¬
ing cable:

Your farewell w'asi a royal mascot. The Po1<ms ours.(

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 compan¬
ions. At dusk the donkeys were driven to a
fire within the camp, and they stood pa¬
tiently round it in a circle throughout the
night, safe from lions and hyenas.

The day’s march brought us to another
small tributary of the Guaso Nyero, a little
stream twisting rapidly through the plain
between its 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 with 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, 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 candel¬
abra 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 leath¬
ery leaves, the place of foliage being taken
by the mass of poisonous-looking, fleshy
spines which, together with the ends of the

20

African Game Trails

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 toward the north, away from
the direction of the prevailing 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 campwards;
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 fairy-land. Then we would
ride back through the soft, warm beauty of
the tropic night, the stars blazing overhead
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
gingersnaps, 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 repre¬
sented the opposite extreme when com¬
pared 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 slimmer and lighter, and
in some respects seemed to tend toward the
Somaliland gazelles. I marked no differ¬

ence in the habits, except that these north¬
ern gazelle switched their tails more jerkily,
more like tommies, than was customary
with the true Grant’s gazelles. But the
difference may have been in my observa¬
tion. At any rate, the gazelles in this
neighborhood, 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 be¬
haved 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 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 color¬
ing of black, white, and dun gray, 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 accompanied 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
favorable, 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 neighborhood were all oryx

* Of course this represents only one man’s experience,
wish there were many such observations. On the Athi i
May I found newborn wildebeeste and hartebeeste calvt
and others several months old. In June in the Sotik I sa’
newborn eland calves and topi calves several months ole
In September on the Guaso Nyero all the oryx calves wei

African Game Trails

21

and zebra; and evidently the attack was
made in such fashion that the oryx had no
more chance to fight than the zebra.

The zebra were of both species, the
smaller or BurchelPs, and the Gravy’s,
which the porters called kangani. Each
animal 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 recog¬
nizable. The stripes are much narrower
and more numerous than those on the small
zebra, and in consequence cease to be dis¬
tinguishable at a shorter distance; the ani¬
mal then looks gray, like a wild ass. When
the two zebras are together the coloring 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 kan¬
gani 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 trot¬
ting 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 bull with
worn horns, and never saw me. On an¬
other occasion, while we were skinning a
big zebra, there were three rhinoceros, all in
different places, in sight at the same time.

There were also ostriches. I saw a par¬
ty of cocks, with wings spread and necks
curved backward, strutting and dancing.
Their mincing, springy run is far faster than
when the bird is near by, it seems. The neck

is held back in running, and when at speed
the stride is twenty-one feet. No game is
more wary or more difficult to approach.
I killed both a cock and a hen — which I
found the naturalists desired even more
than a cock. We got them by stumbling
on the nest, which contained 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 neighborhood 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 I 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 vege¬
table substance; the bright-green leaves
and twig lips of a shrub, a kind of rush
with jointed stem and tuberous root, bean
pods from different kinds of thorn-trees,
and the leaves and especially the seed ves¬
sels of a bush, the seed vessels being en¬
closed in cases or pods so thorny that they
pricked 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 beauti¬
ful 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 feath¬
ered foes alike. Seemingly trustworthy set¬
tlers have assured me that vultures break

22

African Game Trails

the tough shells with stones. The cock and
hen will try to draw their more formidable
foes away from the nest of the chicks by
lingering so near as to lure them into pur¬
suit; 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 back¬
bone of any ordinary animal, and in addi¬
tion 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 little
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 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 gi¬
raffe we had already obtained in the coun¬
try 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 color 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 distribu¬
tion, 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 dis¬
tinction proved sharp.

On the day in question we breakfasted
at six in the morning, and were off immedi¬
ately afterward; and we did not eat any¬
thing 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, any¬
thing like an elaborate or luxurious lunch
is utterly out of place if the man is more
than a parlor 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 in¬
numerable game trails leading hither and
thither, and, after the fashion of game
trails, usually fading out after a few hun¬
dred 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 grass¬
land, through thin bush, thorny and al¬
most 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 favor¬
ite 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 im¬
memorial. 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-struck in every direc¬
tion. 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 a little to abate,
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 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-

African Game Trails

23

grown young one; but Cuninghame, scan¬
ning 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 con¬
siderably; and when it finally turned and
went straight away I 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
nleat they could carry. They were in high
good-humor, for. an abundant supply of
fresh meat always means a season of re¬
joicing, and they started campwards sing¬
ing 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 un¬
til 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 the
column with full- jacketed bullets in my
rifle. However, 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 do¬
mestic animals, and another, the sleeping-
sickness fly, to man himself. They pro¬
duce 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 coun¬
tries, 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 direc¬
tion there were herds of scores or of hun¬
dreds. 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 little ridge of rocks, we saw a rhino
sixty yards off. To walk forward would
give it our wind ; I did not wish to kill it ;
and I was beginning to feel, about rhino, the
way Alice did in Looking Glass country,
when the elephants “did bother so.” Hav¬
ing 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 puz¬
zled it much ; with tail erect and head toss¬
ing 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 would sit out¬
side my tent and watch the full moon rising

24

African Game Trails

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, east¬
ward 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 kind we found a pale-colored, 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 wast¬
ed nearly a beltful of cartridges 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-colored
ring around the rump ; whereas the western
form, which I saw at Naivasha, has the
whole rump light-colored. They like the
neighborhood 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 wa¬
ter-buck has not the high withers which
mark the oryx, wildebeeste, andhartebeeste,
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 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-colored bats; they flew
freely in the glare of the sunlight, mind¬
ing 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 indifference
to thorns is commonplace compared to its
indifference to water. These particular
giraffe 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 sup¬
plied 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 in¬
terested, 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 1 have ever
seen.

Another day we went after the 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 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 v/ent, and 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, hav¬
ing left the porters hidden from sight. At
last we were within rather long range—
a buffalo’s eyesight is good, and cannot
be trifled with as if he were a rhino or
Vol. XLVI1I. — 3

elephant — and cautiously scrutinized the
herd through our glasses. There were only
cows and perhaps one or two young bulls
with horns no bigger than those of cows. I
would have liked 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 fel¬
lows, which was absolutely against orders.
They had come across a rhino, probably
the one I had frightened from our path, and
had endeavored 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 un wounded 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 lin¬
ing out of his sleeve for a bandage; and we
fixed the man up and left him with one
companion, while we sent another in to
camp to fetch out a dozen men with a
25

26

African Game Trails

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, Cuning-
hame, who was leading, stopped short. He
had seen the buffalo, which had halted,
made a half- bend backwards 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
another as the herd started to run. Leav¬
ing the skinners to take care of the dead
animal, a fine cow, Cuninghame 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 rhi¬
noceros. It was about sev¬
enty yards away, behind a
thorn-tree, and began to
move jerkily and abruptly
to and fro, gazing toward
us. “Oh, you malevolent
old idiot,” I muttered,
facing it with rifle cocked;
then, as it did not charge,
I added to Cuninghame,
“Well, I guess it will let us'
by, all right.” And let us
by it did. We were anx¬
ious not to shoot it, both
because in a country with
no settlers a rhino rarely
does harm, and I object to
anything like 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, reaching 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 ad¬
dition 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 negroes.

Near this camp was the remains of the
boma or home camp of Arthur Neuman,
once the most famous elephant hunter be¬
tween the Tana and Lake Rudolf. Neu¬
man, whose native name was Nyama
Yango, was a strange, moody man who

African Game Trails

27

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 na¬
tive. But, from the native
stand-point, 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 sung w;as:

“Since Nyama Yango
came, our sheep graze un¬
touched by the Samburu,”
and, rather curiously, the
Samburu sing a similar
song reciting how he saved
them from the fear of hav¬
ing their herds raided by the nomads far¬
ther 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, graceful
papyrus. The country roundabout 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 crocodiles. I shot
one on a sandbar in the river. The man
the rhino had wounded was carried along
on a litter with the safari.

Sometimes I left camp with my sais and
gunbearer before dawn, starting in the light
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 water-buck, impalla, or gazelle.

Ivory-nut palms on the Guaso Nyero.

From a photograph by Theodore Roosevelt.

On another occasion Cuninghame and I
spent the day hunting in the" waterless
country, back of the river, where the heat
at mid-day 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 the
tents were under trees up which huge rub¬
ber vines had climbed, and their massive
dead-white trunks and branches glimmered
pale and ghostly in the darkness.

Twice my gunbearers 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 noonday 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 little except herds of zebra, of both kinds,
trail wandered among and through the occasional oryx and eland, and a few gi-
heavy thickets under the trees on the river raffe. A stallion of the big kangani zebra
banks; here I walked beside the tracker which I shot stood fourteen hands high at
with my rifle at full cock, for we could not the withers and weighed about eight hun-
tell what instant we might be charged, dred and thirty pounds, according to the
But his trail finally crossed the river, and Seton beam. I shot another kangani just
as he was going stronger and stronger we at nightfall, a mile or so from camp, as it
had to abandon the chase. In the water- drank in a wild, tree-clad gorge of the river,
less country, away from the river, we found I was alone, strolling quietly through the

dusk, along the mar¬
gin of the high banks
by the stream, and
saw a mixed herd of
zebras coming down
to a well-worn drink¬
ing-place, evidently
much used by game,
on the opposite side
of the river. They
were alert and ner¬
vous, 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;
I have rarely taken
a shot among more

A Masai donkey, loaded with their worldly goods. picturesque SUr-

From a photograph by Kennit Roosevelt rOUndingS.

At our final camp on the river, before
leaving it on our week’s steady trek south¬
ward to Neri, we found a spot in which
game abounded. It was about ten miles
back from the river, a stretch of plains
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
were fantastically carved and channelled
by the weathering of ages in that dry cli¬
mate. It was a harsh, unlovely spot in
the glare of the hot daylight; but at sun¬
set 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 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 im¬
mediate attendants — enough of the game
being hallalled to provide for the Moham¬
medans 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 partic¬
ular 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
29

Pool in gorge.— Page 33.

From a photograph from R. J. Cuninghame.

yards and I could not even keep them in long way off and stalked to within a couple
sight. Another day we got a glimpse of two of hundred yards before we could make out
lions, quarter of a mile off, gliding away her sex. She was standing under some
among the thorns. They went straight to thorn-trees,- occasionally shifting her posi-
the river and swam across it. More sur- tion for a few yards, and then again stand-
prising was the fact that a monkey, which ing motionless with her head thrust in
lost its head when we surprised it in a tree among the branches. She was indulging
by the river, actually sprang plump into the in a series of noon naps. At last, when she
stream, and swam, easily and strongly, stood and went to sleep again, I walked up
across it. to her, Cuninghame and our two gunbear-

One day we had a most interesting ex- ers, Bakhari and Kongoni, following a hun-
perience with a cow giraffe. We saw her a dred yards behind. When I was within

30

African Game Trails

31

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 ten feet of her. Nearer I did not
care to venture, as giraffe
strike and kick very hard
with their hooves, and,
moreover, occasionally
strike with the head, the
blow seemingly not be¬
ing delivered 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, of course, falling
short. I laughed and
leaped back, and the
other men ran up shout¬
ing. But the giraffe
would not run away.

She stood within twenty
feet of us, looking at us
peevishly, and occasion¬
ally moving 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 would 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 laugh¬
ing and talking all the
time. Then we pelted
her with sticks and clods
of earth, and, after hav¬
ing thus stood within
twenty feet of us for three or four min¬
utes, she cantered slowly off for fifty yards,
and then walked away with leisurely un¬
concern. She was apparently in the best
of health and in perfect condition. She
did not get our wind, but her utter indif¬

ference 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, arid
did not return until eight or nine in the

evening, fairly well tired, and not a little torn
by the thorns into which we blundered dur-

detaiJs. ^All tl
hundred yards

A blue bull eland.

ing the final two hours’ walk in the dark¬
ness. 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 ac¬
companied us for some rods ; and a hedge¬
hog, 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 afternoon I sauntered up¬
stream a couple of miles to look for croco¬
diles. I saw none, but I was much inter¬
ested in some zebra and water-buck. 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 water-buck, also on the oppo¬
site bank, working their way toward the
32

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 color of the ground, and the water-buck
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 mo¬
tionless, 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 mouthfuls, between
times nervously raising its head and looking
in every direction, nostrils and ears twitch¬
ing. 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 re¬
turning to the water. The bull followed
with rather less caution, and before he had
finished drinking the cows scurried hur-

African Game Trails

33

riedly back to the thorn-trees and the open
country. We had plenty of meat in camp,
and I had completed my series of this spe¬
cies of water-buck for the museum; and I
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 at¬
tracted by the buzzing and twanging of the
harp ; there was the harper and two friends,
all three singing to his accompaniment. 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, Gouvimarli, who always acted as
shanty 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 jour¬
ney took us to a gorge riven in the dry
mountain. Half-way up it, in a side pock¬
et, was a deep pool, at the foot of a sloping
sheet of rock, down which a broad, shallow
dent showed where the torrents swept dur¬
ing 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
one grows gratefully to accept as water any-
[} thing that is next. Klipspringers and ba¬
boons were in the sheer 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 frequently saw them
on our journey, but always managed to
avoid wounding their susceptibilities, and
so escaped an encounter. Each day we
endeavored 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. Some¬
times 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 her¬
alded 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 bull. We needed the
skin for the museum, and as there was
water near by we camped where we were ; I
I had already shot a water-buck, and this
and the eland together gave the entire sa¬
fari a feast of meat.

On another occasion an eland herd af¬
forded 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. We came on a
herd of eland in an open plain; they were
directly in our path. We were in the coun¬
try where the ordinary, or Livingstone’s
eland, grades into the Patterson’s; and I
knew that the naturalists wished an addi¬
tional 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 century
ago. Eland are no faster than range cat¬
tle. 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 en¬
joyed the gallop.

From Neri we marched through mist and
rain, across the cold Aberdare table-lands;
and in the forenoon of October 20 we saw
from the top of the second Aberdare escarp¬
ment the blue waters of beautiful Lake
Naivasha. On the next day we reached
Nairobi.

Vol. XLVIII. — 4

THE TURNING POINT

By Kate Douglas Wiggin

OT far from the village of
Bonny Eagle, on the west
bank of the Saco, stood
two little low-roofed farm¬
houses; the only two that
had survived among all
those that had once dotted
the green brink of the river.

Long years before, in 1795 or there¬
abouts, there had been a cluster of log
houses on this very spot, known then as the
Dalton Right Settlement, and these in turn
had been succeeded at a later date by the
more comfortable frame-roof farmhouses
of the period. In the old days, before the
sound of the axe for the first time disturbed
the stillness of the forest, the otter swam in
the shadowy coves near the shore and the
beaver built his huts near by. The red deer
came down to dip his antlers and cool his
flanks in the still shallows. The speckled
34

grouse sat on her nest in the low pine boughs,
while her mate perched on the mossy logs
by the riverside unmolested.

The Sokokis built their bark wigwams
here and there on the bank, paddling their
birch canoes over the river’s smooth sur¬
face, or threading the foamy torrents farther
down its course.

Here was the wonderful spring that fed,
and still feeds, Aiint Judy’s Brook, the
most turbulent little stream in the county.
Many a moccasin track has been made in
the soft earth round the never-failing foun¬
tain, and many the wooden bucket lowered
into its crystal depths by the Dalton Right-
ers when in their turn they possessed the
land.

The day of the Indian was over now, and
the day of the farmer who succeeded him
was over, too. The crash of the loom and
the whirr of the spinning-wheel were heard

The Sentimentalists

Between your vision of Life’s aim, and theirs,

Who presently will question me, I cling
To theirs as light: and yours I deem a den
Where souls can have no growth.

Home. But when we touched

The point of hand-pressings, ’twas rightly time
To think of wedding ties?

Astrcea. Arden, adieu! (she rushes into the house).

SCENE VIII
Arden , Homeware.

Arden. Adieu! she said. With her that word is final.

Home. Strange! how young people blowing words like clouds
On winds, now fair, now foul, and as they please,

Should still attach the Fates to thefn.

Arden. She’s wounded:

Wounded to the. quick!

Home. The quicker our success: for short

Of that, these dames, who feel for everything,

Feel nothing.

Arden. Your intention has been kind,

Dear sir, but you have ruined me.

Home. Good-night (going).

Arden. Yet she said, we are lost, in her surprise.

Home. Good- morning (returning).

Arden. I suppose that I am bound

(If I could see for what I should be glad!)

To thank you, sir.

Home. Look hard but give no thanks.

I found my girl descending on the road
Of breakneck coquetry, and barred her way.

Either she leaps the bar, or she must back.

That means she marries you, or says good-bye (going again).
Arden. Now she’s among them (looking at window).

Home. 'Now she sees her mind.

Arden. It is my destiny she now decides!

Home. There’s now suspense on earth and round the spheres.
Arden. She’s mine now: mine! or I am doomed to go.

Home. The marriage ring, or the portmanteau now!

Arden. Laugh as you like, sir! I am not ashamed
To love and own it.

Home. So the symptoms show.

Rightly, young man, and proving a good breed.

To further it’s a duty to mankind
And I have lent my push. But recollect:

Old Ilion was not conquered in a day (he enters house).
Arden. Ten years! If I may win her at the end!

CURTAIN

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt 'and other members
OF THE EXPEDITION

XI.— A NANDI LION HUNT— UGANDA, AND THE
GREAT NYANZA LAKES

T Sergoi Lake there is a
store kept by Mr. Kirke,
a South African of Scotch
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. Cor¬
bett, had arranged for a party of Nandi
warriors to come over and show me how
they hunted the lion. Two Dutch farm¬
ers, Boers, from the neighborhood, had
also come; they were Messrs. Mouton and
Jordaan, fine fellows both, the former hav¬
ing served with DeWet during the war.
Mr. and Mrs. Corbett — who were hospi¬
tality 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 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 war¬
rior. 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 al¬
lowed the privilege. They stipulated, how¬
ever, that they should not be used merely as
beaters, but should kill the lion themselves,
and refused to come unless with this under¬
standing.

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, Captain 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 overtake him.
We intended to beat the country toward
some shallow, swampy valleys twelve miles
distant.

In an hour we overtook the Nandi war¬
riors, who were advancing across the roll¬
ing, grassy plains in a long line, with in¬
tervals of six or eight yards between the
men. They were splendid savages, stark
naked, lithe as panthers, the muscles rip¬
pling under their smooth dark skins; all their
lives they had lived on nothing but animal

Notice. These articles are fully protec te^^nder the new copyright law in effect July rst, ,909, which imposes

African Game Trails

143

food, milk, blood, and flesh, and they were
fit for any fatigue or danger. Their faces
were proud, 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 quar¬
ters. 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 ad¬
vance 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 sav¬
age 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, but who rode fore¬
most, was almost on him; he halted and
turned under a low thorn-tree, and we gal¬
loped 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 held 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, in¬
tent, 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 be¬
gan. With shields held steady, and quiver¬
ing 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
man in front. The warrior threw his spear;
it drove deep into the life, 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 in¬
stant 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 tremen¬
dous 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

144

African Game Trails

seconds! The first half dozen spears had
done the work. Three of the spear blades
had gone clear 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 anti¬
septic was painful, and so, while the opera¬
tion 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
ended a scene of as fierce interest and ex¬
citement as I ever hope to see.

The Nandi marched back by themselves,
carrying the two wounded men on their
shields. We rode to camp by a round¬
about 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.

When we left Nairobi it was with real
regret that we said good-by to the many
friends who had been so kind to us; offi¬
cials, private citizens, almost every one 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 neighborhood gathered on
the platform 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 in¬
dustrious. 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 the trees, was espe-'
dally interesting.

At noon we embarked in a smart little
steamer, to cross' the lake. Twenty-four
hours later we landed at Entebbe, the seatof
the English Governor of Uganda. Through¬
out 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 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 thenceforth our course lay
northward. We passed by many islands,
green with meadow and forest, beautiful in
the bright sunshine, but empty with the
emptiness 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 people who dwelt beside the Vic¬
torian 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 forest, 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 tor¬
ment, 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 spread¬
ing into fresh districts. But it has proved
possible to keep . it within limits in the
regions already affected; yet only by ab¬
solutely abandoning certain districts, and
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 de¬
port 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 mon¬
strous 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 brood¬
ed so near. In green luxuriance the earth
lay under a cloudless sky, yielding her in¬
crease 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. En-
Vol. XLVIII. — 16

tebbe is a pretty little town of English
residents, chiefly officials; with well-kept
roads, a golf course, 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, purple, yel¬
low, 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 sul¬
tanates 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 direc¬
tion. 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 sav¬
ages of the Upper Nile region, who prided
themselves on the nakedness of their men
as a proof of manliness; they were unu-
usally intelligent and ceremoniously cour¬
teous; and, most singular of all, although
the monarch was a cruel despot, of the
i45

146

African Game Trails

usual African (whether Mohammedan or
heathen) type, there were certain excellent
governmental customs, of binding obser¬
vance, 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 acces¬
sible to Christian teaching, so that the creed
of Christianity is now dominant among
them. For their good fortune, England

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 es-

has established a protectorate over them.
Most wisely the English Government offi¬
cials, and as a rule the missionaries, have
bent their energies to developing them
along their own lines, in government, dress,
and ways of life ; constantly striving to bet¬
ter them and bring them forward, but not
twisting them aside from their natural line
of development, nor wrenching them loose
from what was good in their past, by at¬
tempting the impossible task of turning an
entire native population into black English¬
men 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

sentially a black man’s country, and the
chief task of the officials of the intrusive
and masterful race must be to bring for-,
ward 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 peo¬
ple 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 ex¬
ercise for their benefit, with justice, sym¬
pathy, and firmness, the governing ability
which' as yet they themselves lack. The

The lion as it fell.

widely spread rule of a strong European
race in lands like Africa gives, as one in¬
cident thereof, the chance for nascent cult¬
ures, nascent semi-civilizations, to de¬
velop without fear of being overwhelmed
in the surrounding gulfs of savagery ; and
this aside from the direct stimulus to de¬
velopment 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 neighboring masses
of pure savagery ; and therefore progress
is often immensely accelerated by out¬
side 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 com¬
plain of or rail at missionary work in
Africa, and who confine themselves to
pointing out the undoubtedly too nu¬
merous 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
gray it has at least dispelled a worse
than Stygian darkness. As soon as na¬
tive African religions — practically none

The spears that did the trick.
~rom a photograph by Edmund Heller.

From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

Protestant or Catholic; and
many thousands among them
are sincerely Christian and
show their Christianity in
practical fashion by putting
conduct above ceremonial
and dogma. Most fortun¬
ately, Protestant and Cath¬
olic seem now to be growing
to work in charity together,
and to show rivalry only in
healthy effort against the
common foe; there is cer¬

of which have hitherto evolved any sub¬
stantial 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 rit¬
ual 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 in¬
telligent and the missionaries unite disin¬
terestedness and zeal with common sense,
the result is astounding. The majority of
the people of Uganda are now Christian,

tainly enough evil in the
world to offer a target at
which all good men can
direct their shafts, with¬
out expending them on one another.

We visited the Church of England Mis¬
sion, where we were received by Bishop
Tucker, and the two Catholic Missions,
where we were received by Bishops Han¬
lon and Streicher; we went through the
churches and saw the schools with the pu¬
pils actually at work. In all the missions
we were received with American and Brit¬
ish flags and listened to the children sing¬
ing “The Star-spangled Banner.” The
Church of England Mission had 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 interesting chapters in all recent

148

African Game Trails

149

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 as¬
sistance in either money or labor. At din¬
ner at Mr. Knowles’s, Bishop Tucker gave
us exceedingly interesting details of his past
experiences in Uganda, and of the prog¬
ress 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 ex¬
pression seems so nat¬
ural that I had never
even realized that it
was an Americanism.

At Bishop Hanlon’s
Mission, where I
lunched with the bish¬
op, there was a friend,

Mother Paul, an Amer¬

ican; before I left America I had promised
that I would surely see her, and look into
the work which she, and the sisters associ¬
ated with her, were doing. It was delight¬
ful seeing her; she not merely spoke my
language but my neighborhood dialect.
She informed me that she had just received
a message of good will for me in a letter
from two of “the finest” — of course I felt
at home when in mid-Africa, under the
equator, I received in such fashion a mes¬
sage from two of the men who had served
under me in the New York police.* She
had been teaching her pupils to sing some
lines of “The Star-spangled Banner,” in
English, in my especial honor; and of
course had been obliged, 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 nseii laiti

(O say can you see by the morn’s (sic) early light)
Wati so pulauli wi eli adi twayi laiti
(What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s
silasi giremi”
last gleaming.)

After having taught the children the first
verse in this manner Mother Paul said that
she stopped to avoid brain fever.

In addition to scholastic exercises Moth¬
er Paul and her associates were training

* For the benefit of those who do not live in the neighbor¬
hood 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 Ger¬
man descent he is usually a man bom out West of New
England parentage.

their school children in all kinds of indus¬
trial 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 Han¬
lon’s mission, and at Bishop Streicher’s,
the Mission of the White Fathers — orig¬
inally a French organization, which has
established churches and schools in al¬
most all parts of Africa — the fathers were
teaching the native men to cultivate cof¬
fee, and various fruits and vegetables.

I 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 greeted by the council, sub¬
stantial looking men, well dressed in the
native fashion, and representing all the
districts of the kingdom. When we visited
the king it was after dark, and we were
received by smart looking
black soldiers in ordinary
khaki uniform, while accom¬
panying 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 tat¬
too. The king, and all other
people of consequence, white,
Indian, or native, went round
in rickshaws, one man pull¬
ing 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 shanty-
man, while the three behind
repeated in chorus every sec¬
ond or two a kind of clang¬
ing note; and this went on
without a break, hour after

African Game Trails

151

hour. The natives looked well and were
dressed well ; the men in long flowing gar¬
ments 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 tastefully
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

a riot of lush growing plants. Every day
there were terrific thunder-storms. 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 huge
zigzag mark being left across his body, and
the links of his gold watch chain being
fused; it was many months before he com¬
pletely recovered.

Knowles arranged a situtunga hunt for

Cow herons and Angola ox on the bank of Lake Victoria Nyanza.

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 in¬
cense trees, the sweet-scented gum oozing
through wounds in the bark; and 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. Beau¬
tiful Kavirondo cranes came familiarly
round the houses. It was all strange and
attractive. Birds sang everywhere. The
air was heavy with the fragrance of flow¬
ers of many colors; the whole place was

us. The situtunga is closely related to the
bushbuck 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 exceed¬
ingly shy, so that very few white men have
shot, or even seen, it. Its long hoofs en¬
able 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 papy¬
rus, 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, Ker-
mit caught a glimpse of half a dozen feeding
in the open, kneedeep in water, long after

152

African Game Trails

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 iong 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 along¬
side of the marshes.

The day after this hunt our safari started
on its march north-westward to Lake Al¬
bert 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 con¬
stabulary, and widely different races were
represented among them, but all had been
drilled into soldierly uniformity. The por¬
ters were well-clad, well-behaved, fine-
looking men, and did their work better than
the “shenzis,” the wild Meru or Kikiu

tribesmen, whom we had occasionally em¬
ployed in East Africa; but they were not
the equals of the regular East African por¬
ters. I think this was largely because of
their inferior food, for they ate chiefly
yams and plantains; in other words in¬
ferior 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 carried noth¬
ing 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
wicker-work booths in which native huck¬
sters disposed of their wares by the road¬
side.

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 feat¬
ures, guarding their herds of huge-horned
Angola cattle.

All greeted us most courteously, fre¬
quently 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 kitch¬
en, one, which was always
decked with flowers, as a rest
house for ourselves; the latter
with open sides, the roof up¬
held by cane pillars, so that
it was cool and comfortable,
and afforded a welcome shel¬
ls. ter, 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 Kam-
palla, and night after night it lent a half
unearthly beauty to the tropical landscape.

Sometimes in the evenings the mosqui¬
toes bothered us ; more often they did not ;
but in any event we slept well under our
nettings. Usually at each camp we found

Colonel Roosevelt at Mother Paul's Mission.
Mother Paul is standing between her two native women,
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

either the head chief of the district, or a
sub-chief, with presents: eggs, chickens,
sheep, once or twice a bullock, always
pineapples and bananas. The chief was
always well dressed in flowing robes, and
usually welcomed us with dignity and
courtesy (sometimes, however, permitting
the courtesy to assume the form of servil¬
ity); and We would have him in to tea,
where he was sure to enjoy the bread
and jam. Sometimes he came in a rick¬
shaw, 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 camping grounds,
because of the spirillum tick. This danger¬
ous 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.
Then for two or three days we passed over
low hills and through swampy valleys, the
whole landscape covered by a sea of ele¬
phant 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,
i53

r

Colonel Roosevelt at the Mission of the White Fathers.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt

and gray parrots with red tails; and many
colored butterflies. Once or twice we saw
the handsome, fierce, short-tailed eagle, the
bateleur eagle, and scared one from a reed-
buck fawn it had killed. Among the com¬
mon birds there were black drongos, and
musical bush shrikes ; small black magpies
with brown tails; whiteheaded kites and
slate-colored sparrow-hawks; palm swifts,
big hornbills; blue and mottled king-fish-
ers, which never went near the water, and
had their upper mandibles red and their
under ones black; barbets, with swollen,
sawtoothed 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 Moun¬
tain chipmunk or Say’s chipmunk, but with
smaller ears and a longer tail.

Christmas day we passed on the march.
There is not much use in trying to cele¬
brate 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 break¬
fast to wait in hopping expectancy until
their elders throw open the doors of the
i54

room in which the big presents are ar¬
ranged, those for each child on a separate
table.

Forty miles from the coast the elephant
grass began to disappear. The hills be¬
came 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 usu¬
ally got two or three hours’ hunting each
day. We killed singsing waterbuck, bush-
buck, and bohor reedbuck. The reedbuck
differed slightly from those of East Africa;
in places they were plentiful, and they were
not wary. We also killed several harte-
beests; a variety of the Jackson’s harte-
beest being more highly colored, with black
markings. I killed a very handsome har¬
nessed bushbuck ram. It was rather bigger
than a good-sized whitetail buck, its bril¬
liant red coat beautifully marked with rows
of white spots, its twisted black horns sharp
and polished. It seemed to stand about
half way between the dark-colored bush-
buck rams of East and South Africa and

African Game Trails

155

the beautifully marked harnessed antelope
rams of the west coast forests. The ewes
and young rams showed the harness mark¬
ings 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 spent the
daytime.

At the bushbuck
camp we met a num¬
ber of porters return¬
ing from the Congo,
where they had been
with an elephant
poacher named Bus-
herri — 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 Kam-
palla we had met
an elephant hunter
named Quin who had
recently lost his right
arm in an encounter
with a wounded tusk¬
er. Near one camp
the head chief pointed
out two places, now
overgrown with jun¬
gle, where little vil¬
lages had stood less J°hari with £

than a year before. From a p,10t0"raPh

In each case elephants
had taken to feeding at night in the sham-
bas, 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 wilder¬
ness.

We were soon to meet elephant 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 afterward 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,
accompanied by Cun-
inghame, who could
not go with us as he
was recovering from
a bout of fever.

In half an hour we
came on fresh sign,
and began to work
cautiously along it.
Our guide, a wild¬
looking savage with a
blunt spear, went
first, followed by my
gun-bearer Kongoni,
who is excellent on
spoor; then I came,
followed by Kermit,
and by the other gun-
bearers. The coun¬
try was covered with
tall grass, and stud¬
ded 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
1 Uganda kob. greenery. It was diffi-

by Kermit Roosevelt. CUlt 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 gray,
shadowy bulks, but only for a second at
a time, and never with sufficent distinct¬
ness to shoot. The elephants were feed¬
ing, tearing down the branches of a rather

African Game Trails

157

large-leafed tree with bark like that of a
scrub oak and big pods containing beans;
evidently these beans were a favorite food.
They fed in circles and zigzags, but tow¬
ard camp, until they were not much more
than half a mile from it, and the noise
made by the porters in talking and gather¬
ing wood was plainly
audible; but the ele¬
phants paid no heed to
it, being evidently too
much accustomed to the
natives to have much
fear of man. We con¬
tinually 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 coun¬
try; and we followed
faster in the big foot¬
prints of the bull we
had selected. Suddenly
in an open glade Kon-
goni crouched and beck¬
oned to me, and through
a bush I caught the loom
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 of¬
fensive. With his huge
ears cocked at right an¬
gles to his head, and his
trunk hanging down, he
charged full tilt at us,
coming steadily, silently,
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 disappeared. There
were not many minutes of daylight left,
and we followed hard on his trail, Kon-
goni leading. At first there was only an
occasional gout of dark blood; but soon
we found the 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 gathering
gloom, Kongoni leading and I close behind,
with the rifle ready for instant action; for
though his strength was evidently fast fail¬
ing, he was also evidently in a savage tem¬
per, 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 for¬
ward 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 instant; 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 hunt¬
er’s heart, as he lay in the twilight, a giant
in death.

At once we trotted back to camp, reach¬

ing it as darkness fell; and next morning
all of us came out to 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 recog¬
nizable 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 smelled

a herd of hartebeest, when the wind was
blowing strongly from them, although they
were out of sight over a gentle rise. Water-
buck 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 jour¬
neyed through country for the most part
covered with an open forest growth. The
trees were chiefly acacias. Among them
were interspersed huge candelabra euphor¬
bias, 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 com¬
posed 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 everywhere three or
four feet high ; here and there were patches
of the cane-like elephant grass, fifteen feet
high.

It was pleasant to stride along the road
in the early mornings, followed by the

Elephant grass along the Uganda trail.
From a photograph by J. Alden Loring.

safari, and we saw many a glorious sunrise, and his elders were usually drawn up to
But as noon approached it grew very hot, receive me at the gate, bowing, clapping
under the glare of the brazen equatorial their hands, and uttering their long-drawn
sun, and we were always glad when we ap- e-h-h-s; and often banana saplings or
proached our new camp, with its grass- branches would be stuck in the ground to
strewn ground, its wickerwork fence, and form avenues of approach, and the fence
cool, open rest house. The local sub-chief and rest house might be decorated with

flowers of many. kinds.
Sometimes we were met
with music, on instru¬
ments of one string, of
three strings, of ten
strings — rudimentary
fiddles and harps; and
there was a much more
complicated instrument,
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 jun¬
gles, native paths, the
earth beaten brown and
hard by countless bare
feet; and these, crossing
and recrossing in a net-

African Game Trails

161

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,

iridescent green and purple, which looked
like our grackles, but were kin to the bul¬
buls; and another bird, related to the
shrikes, with bristly feathers on the rump,
which was colored like a red- winged black¬
bird, black with red shoulders. Vultures
were not plentiful, but the yellow-billed
kites, true camp scavengers, were com¬
mon and tame, screaming as they cir¬
cled 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

or with two or three guinea fowl, or with
nothing.

There were a good many poisonous
snakes; I killed a big puff-adder with thir¬
teen eggs inside it; and we also killed a
squat, short-tailed viper, beautifully mot¬
tled, 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, appar¬
ently 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, where-
ever 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 color
Vol. XLVIII. — iy

kin to the species we had already obtained
in East Africa, but in most cases there was
a fairly well-marked difference; the jer-
billes 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 like
big gray bells, in the trees. Near the lake,
by the way, there were Goliath beetles, as
large as small rats.

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

162

African Game Trails

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 Episco¬
palian and Roman Catholic missionaries.
The king, accompanied by his prime min¬
ister 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

the jackals wailed with shrill woe among
the gardens.

From Hoima we entered a country cov¬
ered with the tall, rank elephant grass. It
was traversed by papyrus-bordered streams
and broken by patches of forest. The date
palms grew tall, and among the trees were
some with orange-red flowers like trumpet
flowers, growing in grape-shaped clusters;

The dead tusker.

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, confiding little wagtails
crossed the threshold of the rest house in
which we sat. Black and white crows and
vultures came around camp; and hand¬
some, 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

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 shoot¬
ing. 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

African Game Trails

163

elephant fashion, plucking a
big tuft, waving it noncha¬
lantly 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 5th,

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 splendor as
the sun went down.

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, hav¬
ing most kindly decided to take charge of
our flotilla himself. Captain Hutchinson
was a mighty hunter, and had met with one
most extraordinary experience while ele¬
phant 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 fol¬
lowed 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 ele¬
phant 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 forelegs he pulled himself be¬
tween them in time to avoid the blow; and

The launch “Kenia” a^ Butiaba.

photograph by Edmund Heller.

164

Old Builders and New

as it rose he managed to seize a hind leg and
clung 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.

OLD BUILDERS AND NEW

By Georgia Wood Pangborn

Yawning, they said: “What we leave incomplete
Our children do to-morrow; or, if not,

Hands will be born a hundred years from now,

Or other hundreds. Therefore hasten not,

O Brothers, for the world is very old

And men are brief as grass. But if one stone

You place upon another, do it well,

That the Unborn may know who passed this way
And built in hope these shrines to Unknown Gods
Against the time when Unknown shall be Known:
Or, if not so, at least the temple stands
To its own Beauty. Wherefore, build it well.”

II

“Now hasten, Brothers, for the world decays
Beneath our fingers; so build swift and high.

Build to the stars before that other flood
Can lift its silence to our eager mouths.

The thing dreamed yesterday, that do to-day-^-
To-morrow is to-morrow’s. After us
The deluge — well! But in this solid Now
Let the dream tower. To-morrow if it falls,

It falls with broken sunsets and dead dreams
That shone when Babylon the Great was born.”

Scribner’s Magazine

VOL. XLVIII SEPTEMBER, 1910 NO. 3

AFRICAN GAME TRAILS*

AN ACCOUNT OF THE AFRICAN WANDERINGS OF AN AMERICAN
HUNTER-NATURALIST

BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Illustrations from photographs by Kermit Roosevelt and other members

OF THE EXPEDITION

XII.— THE GREAT RHINOCEROS OF THE LADO

HE region of which I speak northward, its waters stretched behind us
is a dreary region in Lib- beyond the ken of vision, to where they
ya, by the borders of the were fed by streams from the Mountains of
river Zaire. And there is the Moon. On our left hand rose the
no quiet there nor silence, frowning ranges on the other side of
The waters of the river which the Congo forest lies like a shroud
have a saffron hue, and for many miles on over the land. On our right we passed
either side of the river’s oozy ’bed is a pale the mouth of the Victorian Nile, alive
desert of gigantic water-lilies . . . and I with monstrous crocodiles, and its banks
stood in the morass among the tall lilies barren of human life because of the swarms
and the lilies sighed one unto the other in of the fly whose bite brings the torment
the solemnity of their desolation. And all which ends in death. As night fell we
at once the moon arose through the thin entered the White Nile, and steamed and
ghastly mist, and was crimson in color, drifted down the mighty stream. Its cur-
. . . And the man looked out upon the rent swirled in long curves between end-
dreary river Zaire, and upon the yellow less ranks of plumed papyrus. White, and
ghastly waters, and upon the pale legions blue, and red the floating water-lilies cov-
of the water-lilies. . . . Then I went down ered the lagoons and the still inlets among
into the recess of the morass, and waded the reeds; and here and there the lotus
afar in among the wilderness of the lilies, lifted its leaves and flowers stiffly above the
and called unto the hippopotami which surface. The brilliant tropic stars made
dwelt among the fens in the recesses of lanes of light on the lapping water as we
the morass.” I was reading Poe, on the ran on through the night. The river
banks of the Upper Nile; and surely his horses roared from the reed beds, and
“fable” does deserve to rank with the snorted and plunged beside the boat, and
“tales in the volumes of the Magi — in crocodiles slipped' sullenly into the river
the ironbound, melancholy volumes of the as we glided by. Toward morning a mist
Magi.” arose and through it the crescent of the

We had come down through the second dying moon shone red and lurid. Then
of the great Nyanza lakes. As we sailed the sun flamed aloft and soon the Afri-
*c°pyright 191°, t>y charies Scribner’s s°ns,NewYork, can landscape, vast, lonely, mysterious,
into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian. stretched on every side in a shimmering

Special Notice. — These articles are fully protected under the new copyright law in effect July ist, 1909, which imposes
a severe penalty for infringement.

Copyright, 1910, by Charles .Scribner’s Sons. All rights reserved.

Vol. XLVIII.— 25

258

African Game Trails

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 sta¬
tion of Koba, where we were warmly re¬
ceived by the district commissioner, and
where we met half a dozen of the profession¬
al 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-bit set, these elephant poachers;

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

Sail-boat at Wadelai Landing.

there are few careers more adventurous, or
fraught with more peril, or which make
heavier demands upon the daring, the en¬
durance, and the physical hardihood of
those who follow them. 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 out¬
posts 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 permanency
of occupation. The natives whom we saw

we were joined by an elephant hunter,.
Quentin Grogan, who was to show us the
haunts of the great square mouthed rhinoc¬
eros, 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 Govern¬
ment, for which I was sincerely grateful.

After leaving Wadelai we again went
down stream. The river flowed through
immense beds of papyrus. Beyond these on.
either side were rolling plains gradually ris¬
ing in the distance into hills or low moun¬
tains. The plains were covered with high
grass, dry and withered; and the smoke
here and there showed that the natives, ac¬
cording to their custom, were now burning
it. There was no forest; but scattered over

CObSeNo:

Fish eagle.

260

African Game Trails

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 Ny-
anza, 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 grass 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 necessitat¬
ing our putting on head nets and gloves in
the evenings, and they would have made
sleep impossible if we had not had mos¬
quito biers. Nevertheless it was a very
pleasarit 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
foot-loose.

There was an abundance of animal life,
big and little, about our camp. In the
reeds, and 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 pur¬
ple ibis, saddle-billed storks, and lily trot¬
ters which ran lightly over the lily pads.
There 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 chest¬
nut. 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
colored; 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 fly¬
catchers 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 extraor¬
dinary birds were the nightjars; the cocks
carried in each wing one very long, waving
plume, the pliable 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 in¬
teresting 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, lighter 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 very abundant, hanging in the
thinly leaved acacias around the tents, and,
as everywhere else, were crepuscular, in¬
deed to a large extent actually diurnal, in
habit. They saw well and flew well by day¬
light, 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 phoebe 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 im¬
mediate neighborhood, and the game was
not shy. There were many buck: water-
buck, kob, hartebeest, bushbuck, reedbuck,
oribi, and duiker. Every day or two Kermit
or I would shoot a buck for the camp. We

262

African Game Trails

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 com¬
monest 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

whole it has not much diminished, some
species have actually increased, and none
is in danger of immediate extinction, unless
it be the white rhinoceros. During the
last decade, for instance, the buffalo have
been recovering their lost ground through¬
out 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

Male square-nosed rhino, shot by Kermit Roosevelt.
From a photograph by Edmund Heller.

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
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 settle¬
ment, there has been no such reckless,
wholesale slaughter of big game as that
which had brought the once wonderful big
game fauna of South Africa to the verge of
extinction. In certain small .areas of mid¬
dle Africa, of course, it has gone; but as a

much reduced; indeed the reproductive
capacity of the herds has probably been
very little impaired, the energies of the
hunters having been almost exclusively di¬
rected to the killing of the bulls with tusks
weighing over thirty pounds apiece; and
the really big tuskers, which are most ea¬
gerly 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 some¬
times 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 problems for inquiry in the discon¬
tinuity of their distribution. The most ex¬
traordinary instance of this discontinuity

African Game Trails

263

is that offered by the distribution of the in this neighborhood, the rhinoceros seemed
square-mouthed rhinoceros. It is almost to spend the heat of the day in sleep, and
as if our bison had never been known within to feed in the morning and evening, and
historic times except in Texas and Ecuador, perhaps .throughout the night; and to drink
This great rhinoceros
v/as formerly plentiful in
South Africa south of the
Zambesi, where it has
been completely exter¬
minated except for a
score or so of individ¬
uals on a game reserve.

North of the Zambesi it
was and is utterly un¬
known, 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 rhinoc¬
eros is found only in cer¬
tain localities, and al¬
though 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 been3
made as to its numbers
and exact distribution.

It is a curious animal,
on the average distinctly
larger than, and utterly
different from, the ordi¬
nary African rhinoceros.

The spinal processes of
the dorsal vertebrae are
so developed as to make

a Very prominent hump Rhino of the usual type with prehensile lip, shot in the Sotik by Mr. Roosevelt
over the withers, while (The differences of the two types are shown in the above photographs.)

forward of this is a still I’rom a Ph°tograPh bv Kemut Roosevelt,

higher and more prom¬
inent fleshy hump on the neck. The huge, in the evening and morning, usually at
misshapen head differs in all respects as some bay or inlet of the river. In the
widely from the head of the common or morning they walked away from the water
so-called black rhinoceros as the head of for an hour or two, until they came to a
a moose differs from that of a wapiti. place which suited them for the day’s sleep.

The morning after making camp we Unlike the ordinary rhinoceros, the square-
started on a rhinoceros hunt. At this time mouthed rhinoceros feeds exclusively on

264

African Game Trails

grass. Its dung is very different ; we only
Occasionally saw it deposited in heaps, ac¬
cording 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,

saw rather dimly through the long grass a
big gray 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 forelegs,
in a sitting posture, the big ears thrown for¬
ward. 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

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, sunbaked
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 foot¬
prints which those of us who were in front
had passed over. Immediately 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

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 calf’s mother.
As the rhino rose I was struck by their like¬
ness 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-

* 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.

From a photograph, copyright by Kermil Rodsevelf.

The cow and calf under the tree after being disturbed by the click of the camera.— Page 277.

2G6

African Game Trails

mouthed head added to the dissimilarity.
The common rhino is in color a very dark
slate gray; these were a rather lighter slate
gray ; but this was probably a mere individ¬
ual peculiarity, for the best observers say
that they are of the same hue. The muzzle
is broad and square, and the upper lip with¬
out a vestige of the curved, prehensile de¬
velopment which makes the upper lip of a
common rhino look like the hook of a tur¬
tle’s beak. The stomachs contained noth-

with tents, food, and water, and Heller
cared for the skins on the spot, taking thir¬
ty-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 roar¬
ing. The tall, thick grass was like tinder;

The calf, which was old enough to shift for itself, refused to leave the body.— Page 277.

ing 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 ele¬
phants, the cow heron, but 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-bear¬
ers at once began skinning the animals, lest
they should spoil; and that afternoon Cun-
inghame and Heller came out from camp

and if we let the fires reach camp we were
certain to lose everything we had. So Lo-
ring, 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
every one 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 prac¬
tically over. Shortly afterward one of the

African Game Trails

267

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 lines of leaping, wavering flames
advance toward one another. An hour of
two passed before they met, half a mile from
camp. Wherever they came together there

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

Mr. Roosevelt with kob, shot at rhino camp.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

would be a moment’s spurt of roaring,
crackling 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 neigh¬
borhood for a couple of days. Finally one
evening the great beds of papyrus across
the bay caught fire. After nightfall it was

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 succession of
roars which grew louder and louder until
they fairly thundered, and then died gradu¬
ally 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

Our back fire meeting the main fire.

From a photograph by J. Alden Loring.

edge of the flames to pick up the insects herons, which stalked sedately through the
which were driven out. There were mara- grass, and now and then turned a small tree
bou storks, kites, hawks, ground hornbills, nearly white by all perching in it. The
and flocks of beautiful egrets and cow little bank swallows came in myriads; ex-

Rhiiio

camp, Lado Enclave,
jtograph by Edmund Heller.

African Game Trails

269

actly 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, varied with brilliant blue and green.
The fires seemed to bother the bigger ani¬
mals hardly at all. The game did not shift
their haunts, or do more than move in quite

fly, and one or two of us were bitten, but,
seemingly, the fly were not infected, al¬
though at this very time eight men were dy¬
ing of sleeping sickness at Wadelai where
we had stopped. There were also some
ordinary tsetse fly, which caused us un¬
easiness 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

leisurely fashion out of the line of advance
of the flames. I saw two oribi which had
found a patch of short grass that split 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, prob¬
ably 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

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
gotten 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 thither and was criss-crossed by
others; but Kongoni and Kassitura grad¬
ually untangled the maze, found where the

African Game Trails

271

beasts had drunk 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 be¬
loved Winchester. He galloped full speed
toward us, not charging, but in a mad
panic of terror and bewilderment; 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

very much bigger than the common pre¬
hensile-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 com¬
mon kind in size and horn development
as much as we had been led to expect;
although on an average they were un¬
doubtedly larger, and with bigger horns,
yet there was in both respects overlapping,
the bigger prehensile-lipped rhinos equal-

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 with 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 vertebrae,
but just forward of them, on the neck itself,
and has no connection with the spinal col¬
umn. The square-mouthed rhinoceros of
South Africa is always described as being

ling 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 gunbearers were 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 be¬
lief; but they at once recognized the dung
as being different; and when the first ani¬
mal 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 occasions 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
272

beast, has less fortitude under pain than a
hyena. Heller tracked it up in the morn¬
ing, and shot it as, hampered by the trap
and drag, it charged the porters.

On the ashes of the fresh burn the foot¬
prints of the game showed almost as dis¬
tinctly 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 back of our camp at
night. Always beside these night trails we
found withered remnants of water cabbage

African Game Trails

273

and other aquatic plants which they had
carried inland with them; I suppose acci¬
dentally 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, be¬
longs with 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 nu¬
merously represented than the other in the
world of to-day.

As the hippos grew familiar with the
camp they became bolder and more vent¬
uresome 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 chorus,
we heard the roaring of lions and the trum¬
peting 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 prep¬
aration, 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 movements of a big flock of cow
herons in front of us, and then watching
sharply we caught a glimpse of some ele¬
phants, about four hundred yards off. We
now climbed an ant-hill ourselves, and in¬
spected 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
Vol. XLVIII. — 26

marching across a patch of burnt ground
ahead of us, accompanied 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, es¬
pecially a very comical little pink fellow
which accompanied the leading cow.
Meanwhile a few of the white herons rode
on their backs, but most of the flock stalked
sedately alongside through the burnt grass,
catching the grasshoppers which were dis¬
turbed 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 be¬
side a clump of bushes; and there they
stood, the white birds clustered on their
dark bodies. At the time we could dis¬
tinctly 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 uncon¬
cernedly in the grass.

A couple of hours later, as we followed
an elephant path, we came to where it was
crossed by the spoor of two rhino. Our
gunbearers 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 perpet¬
ually 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 were not lingering slowly
toward extinction; and, lest this should be

274

African Game Trails

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 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, how¬
ever. The rhinos saw us before either Ker¬
mit 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 trucu¬
lent 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 after¬
noon.

Meanwhile our own gunbearers followed
the bloody spoor of the rhino I had hit, Ker¬
mit 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 burned ground. The
scattered trees bore such scanty foliage as
to cast hardly any shade. The rhino gal¬
loped 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 gunbearer, pointed toward a small
thorn-tree; and beside it I saw the rhino
standing with drooping head. It had been
fatally hit, and if undisturbed would prob¬
ably 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 bringing in of the head and feet, and
slabs of hide. Meanwhile Kermit and I,
with our gunbearers, went off with a “ shen-
zi,” 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 waterbuck
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 impos¬
sible to photograph him. However, Ker¬
mit tried to get his picture from an ant-hill
fifty yards distant, and then, Kermit with
his camera and I with my rifle, we 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 bring¬
ing out his enormous bulk, he was indeed
a fine sight. I waited a moment for Ker¬
mit 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 color 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 gunbearers (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 ele¬
phants, still 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 con¬
ventional 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 — fol¬
lows a profession as full of hazard and in¬
terest as that of the explorer or of the big-

African Game Trails

275

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 en¬
countering all kinds of risks, and to grap¬
pling with every conceivable emergency.
In consequence he is exceedingly compe¬
tent, 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. Numer¬
ous 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-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 Na¬
tional Museum at Washington, and for the
American Museum in New York; and
Kermit was to shoot this. Accordingly he
and I 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 generations of huge feet
that had tramped it; for it led from the dry
inland to a favorite drinking place on the
Nile. Along this we walked until Kassi-
tura 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 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 Ker¬
mit overtook them, and brought down the
cow. The younger one then trotted threat¬
eningly toward him. He let it get within
ten yards, trying to scare it; as it kept com¬
ing 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, turn¬
ing, 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
color 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, un¬
inhabited country, and for meat we de¬
pended 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 be¬
ing 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 cou¬
ple 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 and Grogan went off for the day to
see if they could not get some live rhino
photos. Cuninghame started to join Heller
at the temporary camp which we had made
beside the dead rhino, in order to help him

276

African Ga'ftie Trails

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 gunbearers, the little
mule with its well-meaning and utterly ig¬
norant 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 was
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 winding channels and
lagoons grew vast water-fields of papyrus,
their sheets and bands of dark green break¬
ing the burnished silver of the sunlit waters.
Beyond the further bank rose steep, sharply
peaked hills. The tricolored fish eagles,
striking to the eye because of their snow-
white heads and breasts, screamed continu¬
ally, a wild eerie sound. Cormorants and
snake birds were perched on trees overhang¬
ing 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 scan¬
tily 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 por¬
ters back to camp to bring out enough men
to carry the brute in bodily. It was a fe¬
male, 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. Evi¬
dently 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-colored 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
dismounted, shot him through the base of
the neck, and remounted. Then Kongoni
pointed out, some distance ahead, a bush-
buck ram, of the harnessed kind found in
this part of the Nile Valley. Hastily dis¬
mounting, 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 con¬
siderable distance. So far I had been
shooting well; now, pride had a fall. Im¬
mediately 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 gal¬
lop. The bushbuck, which had halted with
its head down, started off and 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 aca¬
cias. 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 willing com¬
rades would be told off for the needed work.
So Cuninghame determined to make each
readily identifiable; and one day I found

African Game Trails

277

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 gunbearers and Grogan. They had
hunted steadily for nearly two days 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 gunbearer carrying
his rifle, while he himself carried his “natur¬
alist’s graphlex” camera, he got up to with¬
in fifty or sixty yards of the dull-witted
beasts, and spent an hour cautiously ma¬
noeuvring and taking photos. He got sev¬
eral 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 pict¬
ures Kermit edged in, so as to get better
ones. Gradually the cow grew alarmed.
She raised her head, as these animals al¬
ways 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 threat¬
ened a charge, but thought better of it.
Then she began to move off; but suddenly
wheeled and charged, this time bent on mis¬
chief. She came on at a slashing trot, grad¬
ually 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 ad¬
ditional bullets as she went off. 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, re¬
fused to leave the body, although Kermit
and Grogan pelted it with sticks and clods.
Finally a shot through the flesh of the but¬
tocks sent it off in frantic haste. Kermit
had only killed the cow because it was abso¬
lutely necessary in order to avoid an acci¬
dent, and he was sorry for the necessity;
but I was not, for it was a very fine speci¬
men, with the front horn thirty-one inches
long; being longer than any other we had
gotten. The second horn was compressed
laterally, exactly as with many black rhi¬
nos (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, forward 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
colored, when we came across them stand¬
ing 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 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 measure¬
ments 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 conse¬
quence 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 be¬
cause of the foolish obsession for “record”

278

African Game Trails

heads which seems to completely 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 ex¬
ceptional height. But a comparison of
these wholly 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 sportsmanlike
and proper. But to let the desire for “rec¬
ord ” heads, to the exclusion of all else, be¬
come 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 all 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 auto¬
graphs, is an entirely legitimate amusement,
and may be more than a mere amusement;
it is only when the student or collector al¬
lows himself utterly to misestimate the im¬
portance of his pursuit that it becomes ridic¬
ulous.

Cuninghame, Grogan, Heller, Kermit,
and I now went off on a week’s safari in¬
land, 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 ex¬
cept 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 lips 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 for¬
est, each little, well-nigh leafless tree, stand¬
ing a dozen rods or so distant from its near¬
est 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 be¬
tween two and three degrees north of the
equator. The moon, the hot J anuary moon
of the midtropics, was at the full, and the
nights were very lovely; the little sheet of
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
off, 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 neighborhood, 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 nearby
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 sun-
birds; and buck of the ordinary kinds
drank at it. A dyker which I shot for the
table had been feeding on grass tips and on
the stems and leaves of a small, low-grow¬
ing plant.

African Game Trails

279

After giving up the quest for the lion
Grogan and I, with our gunbearers, spent
the day walking over the great dry flats of
burnt grass land and sparse, withered for¬
est. The heat grew intense as the sun rose
higher and higher. Hour after hour we
plodded on across vast level stretches, or up
or down inclines so slight as hardly to be
noticeable. The black dust of the burn
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 gray 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 rhinoc¬
eros had travelled their trails, and also buf¬
falo 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 carry¬
ing 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 her¬
ons 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 gray bulks
lying down under a tree. I walked cau¬
tiously 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 continually
overcoming an uneasiness which never grew
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 dis¬
tance of a hundred yards. Then our shenzi
guide mentioned that there were other

rhinos close by, and we walked off to in¬
spect 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 whereabouts, 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 can¬
tered, 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. Watching 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 por¬
ters that had followed us. All the time we
were thus engaged the two rhinos, only a
hundred yards off, were intently gazing in
our direction, with foolish and bewildered
solemnity; and there we left them, survi¬
vors from a long vanished world, standing
alone in the parched desolation of the wil¬
derness.

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 hap¬
pened. When alarmed they failed to make
out where the danger lay, and after running
away a short distance they returned to a

280

African Game Trails

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 rhi¬
no, 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 north¬
ern 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 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 buf¬
falo 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
was just past the full, these particular buf¬
falo 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 volun¬
teered to bring me information about them
on the morrow. Sure enough, shortly be¬
fore 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, accom¬
panied by our gunbearers. The country
was just such as that in which we had hith¬
erto 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 hun¬
dred yards in advance. At last we made
out the bull, on his feet and feeding, al¬
though it was high noon. He was stern
toward us, and while we were stealing tow¬
ard him a puff of wind gave him our scent.
At once he whipped around, gazed at us
for a moment with outstretched 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 thermom¬
eter registered 102° in the shade. Fort¬
unately 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 bull never moved from
where he had stood. He was an old bull,
as big as an East African buffalo bull; 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 ex¬
claimed with delight that it was a “duck”
— Kongoni’s invariable method of pro¬
nouncing “buck,” the term he used to de-

scribe anything male, from a lion or an ele¬
phant 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
formidable 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 gunbearers. After walking five
or six miles I saw a big rhino, three-quarters
of a mile off. At this point the country was
Vol. XLVIII. — 27

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 gray 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 asKermit’s best; and approach¬
ing 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 moni¬
tor 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 sometimes even climbing trees, but tak¬
ing to the water when alarmed. They feed
on mice and rats, other lizards, eggs, and
fish ; the stomachs of those we caught gener¬
ally contained fish, for they are expert swim¬
mers. 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
281

282

African Game Trails

in rather shallow fashion, so that the moni¬
tor 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 min¬
utes it returned, took another egg, and

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 afternocn
I spent in the boat. The papyrus along the
channel rose like a forest, thirty feet high,

Mr. Roosevelt with the Belaeniceps rex or whale-billed stork- at Lake No.
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt.

walked off into the bushes, where it broke
the shell, swallowed the yolk, and at once
returned to the nest for another egg. Lor¬
ing took me out to see the feat repeated,
replenishing 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,

the close-growing stems knit together by
vines. As we drifted down, the green wall
was continually 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

284

African Game Trails

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 coloring; 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

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 es¬
cape danger by flight over the ground, in
the scrub. Kermit found 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-

still further 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 de¬
scended 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

trees. Kermit also shot a twelve-foot croco¬
dile 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 ac¬
companied them. From an ant-hill to lee¬
ward 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 car¬
rion 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
spur-wings 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 favorite perches.

Once I saw one plunge into the water,
but it failed to catch anything. Another
time, suddenly, and seemingly in mere mis¬
chief, 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 day¬
time only under the tunnels of earth which
they build over the surface of the box, or
whatever else it is, that they are devour¬
ing; 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 day-light. On another occasion, where
285

286

African Game Trails

a steamboat was moored close to a bank, an other
ant column entered the boat after nightfall, more
and kept complete possession of
it for forty-eight hours. Fires,
and boiling water, offer the only
effectual means of resistance.

The bees are at times as formid¬
able; when their nests are dis¬
turbed they will attack every one
in sight, driving all the crew of a
boat overboard or scattering a
safari, and not infrequently kill¬
ing 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 far¬
ther on our journey, we shot
about a dozen buck, to give the
porters and sailors a feast, which
they 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 pictu¬
resque to see the rows of big an¬
telope — hartebeest, kob, water-
buck — stretched in front of the
flaring fires, and the dark faces
of the waiting negroes, each de¬
puted by some particular group
of gunbearers, porters, or sailors
to bring back its share.

Next morning we embarked,
and steamed and drifted down

le Nile; ourselves,
ur men, our belong-
lgs, and the spoils
f the chase all hud-
led together under
le torrid sun. Two
r three times we
rounded on sand
ars; but no dam-
ge was done, and
i twenty-six hours
re reached Nimule.
Ve were no longer
i healthy East Af-
ica. Kermit and I
ad been in robust
.. ealth throughout
the time we were in
Uganda and the
Lado; but all the
white men of the party had suffered
or less from dysentery, fever, and

African Game Trails

287

sun prostration while in the
Lado; some of the gun-
bearers had been down with
fever, one of them dying
while we were in Uganda;
and four of the porters who
had marched from Koba to
Nimule had died of dysen¬
tery — they were burying one
when we arrived.

At Nimule we were as
usual greeted with hospita¬
ble heartiness by the English
officials, as well as by two or
three elephant hunters. One
of the latter, three days be¬
fore, 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 gunbearer, and
made its escape into the forest. In the for¬
lorn 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 literally dismembered him, tear¬
ing his arms from his body. In the Afri¬
can wilderness, when a man dies, his com¬
panion usually brings in something to show
that he is dead, or some remnant of what¬
ever it is that has destroyed 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 gunbearer marched
back to Nimule carrying an arm of his
dead master, and deposited his grewsome
burden in the office of the district com¬
missioner.

On February 17 th 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 grass, and scat¬
tered, 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 1120 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 quarter of 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 gray east changed
to opal and amber and amethyst, the red
splendor 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, ac¬
cording to the distance from waterhole to
waterhole.

Occasionally in the afternoons, and once

288

African Game Trails

when we halted for a day to rest the porters,
Kermit and I would kill buck for the table
— hartebeest, reedbuck, and oribi. I also
killed a big red ground monkey, with ba-
boon-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 en¬
durance in run¬
ning. Kermit
killed a bull and
a cow roan an¬
telope. These
so-called horse
antelope are fine
beasts, light roan
in color, with
high withers,
rather short
curved horns,
huge ears, and
bold face mark¬
ings. Usually we
found them shy,
but occasionally
very tame. They
are the most tru¬
culent and dan¬
gerous of all an¬
telope; this bull,
when seemingly
on the point of
death, rose like a
flash when Ker-

mit approached Arab Sheiks came . from ,
and charged him to report on the

full tilt; Kermit From a photograph I

had to fire from

the hip, luckily breaking the animal’s neck.

At Gondokoro we met the boat which the
Sirdar, Major General Sir Reginald Win¬
gate, had sent to take us down the Nile to
Khartoum; for he, and all the Soudan
officials— including especially Colonel Asser,
Colonel Owen, Slatin Pasha, and Butler
Bey — treated us with a courtesy for which
I cannot too strongly express my apprecia¬
tion. 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 comfort¬
able kind of yachting trip ; and everything
was done for us by Captain Middleton,
the Scotch 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 Com¬
mandant 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.

On the last day
of February we
started down the
Nile, slipping
easily along on
the rapid cur¬
rent, which
wound and
twisted through
stretches of reeds
and marsh grass
and papyrus.
We halted at the
attractive station
of Lado for a
good-by break¬
fast with our
kind Belgian
friends, and that
evening we dined
French trouble. at Mongalla with

y Kermit Roosevelt. Colonel Owen,

the Chief of the
southernmost section of the Soudan. I
was greatly interested in the Egyptian and
Soudanese soldiers, and their service med¬
als. Many of these medals showed that
their owners had been in a dozen cam¬
paigns; some of the native officers and
men (and also the Reis or native cap¬
tain of our boat, by the way) had served
in the battles which broke forever 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 after¬
noon I witnessed a native dance, and was

African Game Trails

289

struck by the lack of men of middle age;
all the tribes who were touched by the
blight of the Mahdist tyranny, with its ac¬
companiments of unspeakable horror, suf¬
fered 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 astound-
ingly successful and beneficial from every
stand-point.*

We steamed onward down the Nile;
sometimes tying up to the bank at night¬
fall, sometimes steaming steadily through
the night. We reached the Sud, the vast
papyrus marsh once so formidable a bar¬
rier to all who would journey along the
river ; and sunrise and sunset wdre beauti¬
ful 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 hip¬
pos and crocodiles and a few water birds;
and now and then passed native villages,
the tall, lean men and women stark
naked, and their bodies daubed with
mud, grease, and ashes to keep off the
mosquitoes.

We stopped at the mouth of the Sobat
to visit the American Mission, and were
most warmly and hospitably received by
the missionaries, and were genuinely im¬
pressed 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 treat¬
ment, who had come from distances vary¬
ing 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

*The des
European bl<

tarists ” and
feeble best tc

potism of Mahdist rule was so revolting, so
nd hideous, that the worst despotism by men of

self-styled “ apostles of peace ” who did their
) prevent the destruction of this infamy.

VOL. XLVIII. — 28

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 sav¬
ages, 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, 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 spur¬
wing plover, black and white kingfishers,
hoopoos, green bee-eaters, black and white
chats, desert larks, and trumpeter bull¬
finches.

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. The unseen birds of the
marsh and the night called to one an¬
other in strange voices. Often there were
grass fires, burning, leaping lines of red,
the lurid glare in the sky above them
making even more sombre the surround¬
ing 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 bor¬
dered 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 im¬
proved; 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 14th, 1910, and Kermit and I
parted from our comrades of the trip with
real regret; during the year we spent to¬
gether there had not been a jar, and my
respect and liking for them had grown

290

African Game Trails

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 to be once more
with those who were dear to me, and to
turn my face toward my own home and my
own people.