4 THE PLEISTOCENE AGE [ch. i 



hunters, and Mr. Edward North Buxton, also a mighty 

 hunter. On landing, we were to be met by Messrs. 

 R. J. Cuninghame and Leslie Tarlton, both famous 

 hunters — the latter an Australian, who served through 

 the South African War ; the former by birth a Scots- 

 man and a Cambridge man, but long a resident of 

 Africa, and at one time a professional elephant-hunter, 

 in addition to havdng been a whaler in the Arctic 

 Ocean, a hunter- naturalist in Lapland, a transport rider 

 in South Africa, and a collector for the British Museum 

 in various odd corners of the earth. 



We sailed on the Hamburg from New York — what 

 headway the Germans have made among those who go 

 down to the sea in ships ! — and at Naples transhipped 

 to the Admiral, of another German line, the East 

 African. On both ships we were as comfortable as 

 possible, and the voyage was wholly devoid of incidents. 

 Now and then, as at the Azores, at Suez, and at Aden, 

 the three naturalists landed, and collected some dozens 

 or scores of birds, which next day were skinned and 

 prepared in my room, as the largest and best fitted for 

 the purpose. After reaching Suez the ordinary tourist 

 type of passenger ceased to be predominant ; in his 

 place there were Italian officers going out to a desolate 

 coast town on the edge of Somaliland ; missionaries, 

 German, English, and American ; Portuguese civil 

 officials ; traders of diffisrent nationalities ; and planters 

 and military and civil officers bound to German 

 and British East Africa. The Englishmen included 

 planters, magistrates, forest officials, army officers on 

 leave from India, and other army officers going out to 

 take command of black native levies in out-of-the-way 

 regions where the English flag stands for all that makes 

 life worth living. They were a fine set, these young 



