154 TREKKING [ch. vii 



his horses, which were killed, although within a boma. 

 One night lions came within threatening proximity of 

 our ox-waggons ; 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, the porters 

 would all stand ranged by their loads ; then Tarlton 

 would whistle, and a chorus of whistles, horns, and tom- 

 toms 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 oif 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 — Cuninghame 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 Philip- 

 pine forests ; Loring and Heller of hunting and collect- 

 ing 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 revelled in the teeming bird life, with 

 its wealth of beauty and colour ; nor was the beauty 

 only of colour 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 

 jerboas, big cane-rats, dormice, and tiny shrews. Meer- 

 cats, things akin to a small mongoose, lived out in the 

 open plains, burrowing in companies like prairie-dogs, 



