ROOSEVELT IN WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 403 



On this ranch J. H. Judd, a professional hunter, took part in tlie 

 Roosevelt raids, and helped him in a successful hunt, in which he 

 added to his record specimens of the stately waterbuck and the beau- 

 tiful impalla, one of the most graceful of antelopes. On this same 

 day's hunt game of a different character fell to Roosevelt's lot, for he 

 had the good fortune to kill a python, the great serpent of the African 

 forests. Some of these monsters of the snake family grow to the 

 length of twenty feet, with a girth in proportion. The one killed on 

 this occasion was twelve feet long and weighed about forty pounds. 



As seems to have been somewhat usual, Kermit had his adventure 

 on this occasion. He had put up a leopard, an animal which, despite 

 the fact that it is much smaller than the lion, surpassed it in courage 

 and ferocity, as the youthful hunter was to learn. The leopard had 

 taken to the bush and as Kermit approached it made a fierce charge 

 upon him, being less than twenty feet distant when he pulled trigger 

 and stopped its charge with a bullet. 



Taking to the bush again, the beast crouched growling and as a 

 beater came incautiously near made a sudden spring from its lair. 

 McMullen, who was close by, gave it a second wound, but the badly 

 hurt animal seized the beater and but for its weakened state and the 

 strength of the powerful black would have torn him badly with its 

 teeth and claws. 



Thrown off by the negro and hit again by McMullen, it took 

 refuge in the long grass. But the fight was not yet taken out of the 

 furious beast, and as Kermit drew near it charged him again. This 

 time his bullet went true and the ferocious creature fell dead. 



During his hunting on this ranch Roosevelt added to his record 

 some of the great beasts of the African wilds. On one of his outings 

 he went out with the purpose of seeking crocodiles and hippopotami in 

 the Athi River. He found traces of them, but was disturbed in his 

 hunt in an unexpected way. His first glimpse of a crocodile consisted 

 in the show of a snout, only the eyes and nostrils appearing above 

 the water. A hippopotamus next came into view, but while endeavor- 

 ing to get within rifle range of it there came a wild thrashing of the 

 nearby bushes and the huge hulk of a rhinoceros suddenly broke into 

 the open. 



