X CROCODILE ATTACKS RHINOCEROS 201 



crocodiles would tackle a rhinoceros. But you may 

 remember in Samuel Baker's Wi/d Beasts and Their 

 Ways that he speaks of seeing crocodiles in Africa 

 with the girth of a hippopotamus. In any event I send 

 you the letter. 



The other day, in reading Big Game, in the 

 Badminton Library, I noticed that Oswell, the South 

 African hunter, speaks of trying to cut off a cheetah, 

 and that the latter distanced his horse with the utmost 

 ease. This tends to confirm me in the opinion that the 

 cheetah for a half mile or so can readily distance a horse, 

 and that when pursued by you the two animals you 

 overtook at first simply tried to keep ahead of you, not 

 trying to exert themselves, and that after a half mile 

 was passed their wind was gone and then they gave out. 



When do you think you will publish your book ? 



Sincerely yours, 



Theodore Roosevelt. 



Mr. Frederick C. Selous, 

 Heatherside, Worplesdon, 

 Surrey, England. 



Cincinnati, September 23, 1907. 



My dear Mr. President — I take pleasure in sending 

 you under separate cover to-day, as per your request, the 

 enlarged photographs of the encounter between a rhino- 

 ceros and crocodiles in the Tana river, British East 

 Africa ; also another photograph showing a large herd of 

 hippopotami in the Tana river, which I believe may prove 

 of interest to you. 



I shall also undertake to give you a brief description 

 of the attack of the crocodile upon the rhino, which 

 resulted in the latter's death. While encamped on the 

 Thika river, about one hundred yards above its junction 

 with the Tana, the attention of the members of our hunt- 

 ing party was called to the loud cries of the porters. A 

 moment later " Ali," the Somali headman, came running 



