CH. i] FIELD NATURALISTS 17 



being the term employed throughout East Africa to 

 denote both the caravan with which one makes an 

 expedition and the expedition itself. Our aim being to 

 cure and send home specimens of all the common big 

 game — in addition to as large a series as possible of the 

 small mammals and birds — it was necessary to carry 

 an elaborate apparatus of naturalists' supplies. We had 

 brought with us, for instance, four tons of fine salt, as 

 to cure the skins of the big beasts is a Herculean labour 

 under the best conditions. We had hundreds of traps 

 for the small creatures ; many boxes of shot-gun car- 

 tridges, in addition to the ordinary rifle cartridges which 

 alone would be necessary on a hunting trip ; and, in 

 short, all the many impedimenta needed if scientific 

 work is to be properly done under modern conditions. 

 Few laymen have any idea of the expense and pains 

 which must be undergone in order to provide groups of 

 mounted big animals from far-off' lands, such as we see 

 in museums like the National Museum in Washington 

 and the American Museum of Natural History in New 

 York. The modern naturalist must realize that in some 

 of its branches his profession, while more than ever a 

 science, has also become an art. So our preparations 

 were necessarily on a very large scale ; and as we drew 

 up at the station the array of porters and of tents 

 looked as if some small military expedition was about 

 to start. As a compliment, which I much appreciated, 

 I a large American flag was floating over my own tent ; 

 I and in the front line, flanking this tent on either hand, 

 were other big tents for the members of the party, with 

 ' a dining tent and a skinning tent ; while behind were 

 I the tents of the two hundred porters, the gun-bearers, the 

 ' tent-boys, the askaris, or native soldiers, and the horse- 

 j boys, or saises. In front of the tents stood the men in two 



