CH. VI] OUR NATURALISTS 137 



Heller was soon on the ground with his skinning-tent 

 and skinners, and the Boer farmer went haek to fetch 

 the ox-waggon, on which the skins and meat were 

 brought into camp. Laymen can hardly realize, and I 

 certainly did not, what an inmiense amount of work is 

 involved in preparing tlie skins of large animals, such 

 as buffalo, rhino, hippo, and above all elephant, in hot 

 climates. On this first five weeks' trip we got over 

 seventy skins, including twenty-two species, ranging in 

 size from a dikdik to a rhino, and all of these Heller 

 prepared and sent to the Smithsonian. Mearns and 

 Loring were just as busy shooting birds and trapping 

 small mammals. Often, while Heller would be off for 

 a few days with Kermit and myself, Mearns and Loring 

 would be camped elsewhere, in a region better suited 

 ^i for the things they were after. While at Juja Farm 

 they went down the Nairobi in a boat to shoot water- 

 birds, and saw many more crocodiles and hippo than I 

 did. Loring is a remarkably successful trapper of small 

 mammals. I do not believe there is a better collector 

 anywhere. Dr. Mearns, in addition to birds and 

 plants, never let pass the opportunity to collect any- 

 thing else, from reptiles and fishes to land shells. More- 

 over, he M^as 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 Mearns, Heller, and 

 Loring, could be found anywhere for such an expedition 

 as ours. 



Three days passed before we were again successful 

 with buffalo. On this occasion we started about eight 

 in the morning, having come to the conclusion that 

 the herd was more likely to leave the papyrus late 

 than early. Our special object was to get a cow. We 



