398 ROOSEVELT IN WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 



rifle, and such would seem to be the case from many examples of skill 

 told of him in Africa. But he modestly disclaims any such powers, 

 and tells us that, while he sometimes shot fairly well, at others his aim 

 was very poor. He goes on to say that, as a rule, every head of game 

 won by him was at the cost of a goodly number of bullets. This was 

 especially the case when shooting at long range, or at the alert little 

 grass antelopes known as the steenbock and duiker, the habit of which 

 is to hide in the long grass until danger is very near, then to dart 

 from their coverts at such speed and with such quick twists and leaps 

 that it needs a marksman of unusual ability to hit them in flight. 



Such game as this did not long suffice our ardent hunter, whose 

 soul burned for encounters with the more dangerous creature for 

 which Africa is famed, the prowling and ferocious lion, the king of the 

 carnivora, or for such huge creatures as the rhinoceros, elephant and 

 hippopotamus. These, with the buffalo, the leopard, and the crocodile, 

 are animals which cannot be hunted without peril to the hunter, and 

 large numl)ers of whites, with multitudes of the natives, have been 

 killed by them since the opening of Africa. 



Which of these creatures is the most to be dreaded is a question 

 as yet unsettled. Some hunters give precedence to the rhinoceros, 

 some to the elephant, others to the buffalo, and still others to the lion. 

 In British East Africa the lion seems to have been the most destructive 

 to human life within recent years, and F. C. Selous, one of the most 

 famous of hunters, whose unerring rifle has brought down more than 

 three hundred lions and great numbers of the larger animals, and who 

 was for a time one of Roosevelt's companions in the African wilds, 

 is inclined to give the lion the palm as a man-killer. 



While the habit of the lion is to keep close in its lair by day, mak- 

 ing the night its hunting time, and is not apt to disturb man if left 

 alone, it is often very ferocious and dangerous when cornered, and 

 Africa is full of tales of perilous adventures wnth this great carniv- 

 orous beast. Its hereditary habit of crouching and creeping on its 

 prey has made it very cautious when on open ground, though bold 

 enough when there is cover ; but as it hunts for food rather than for 

 glory, it prefers to kill the antelope rather than attack prey better 

 able to defend itself. Thus it fears man, of whose powers as an 



