404 ROOSEVELT IN WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 



This was not to their taste. They were out for hippos, not for 

 rhinos, and had no wish to kill this unlooked-for visitor. [But a 

 rhino is an ugly customer to deal with and will often charge the hunter 

 without waiting for cause or provocation. This was the case with the 

 present vicious brute. It rushed in mad fury upon the hunters and 

 was not checked until two bullets had torn through its thick hide. 

 Several other shots followed and the wounded brute sought refuge in 

 a neighboring thorn thicket. 



Not wishing to leave the wounded animal to die in misery they 

 followed it, tracing it by its blood, though they found the passage 

 of the thicket slow work. Their hunt was ended by another furious 

 charge from the wounded brute, but two more heavy bullets finished 

 the work and the rhino fell dead. It was one of the most vicious met 

 with in the Roosevelt hunts. 



The rhinoceros disposed of, the sportsmen returned to their 

 hippo hunt, and succeeded in hitting one of which only the head was 

 visible above the water. It vanished when struck, but on their return 

 the next day the huge body was found dead. 



The Roosevelt party remained guests of Mr. McMullen for ten 

 days, leaving the ranch for Nairobi on May 26th. On their last day's 

 hunt Roosevelt added a buffalo to his score, while Kermit brought 

 down a bull wildebeest. On their arrival at Nairobi they became 

 the guests of Lieutenant-Governor Jackson, who made every effort to 

 give them a pleasant recollection of the capital of British East Africa. 

 They had now spent about a month in the hunting fields and had as 

 relics of their skill the skins and skulls of eighty animals belonging to 

 twenty-two species. These had been carefully prepared by Mr. 

 Edmund Heller, the skilled naturalist of the expedition, preparatory 

 to shipping them to the Smithsonian Institution for scientific study and 

 display. 



During these days of hunting and the subsequent brief stays at 

 Nairobi, Colonel Roosevelt displayed the characteristics of energy and 

 activity for which he had become famous in his native land. He aston- 

 ished all those with whom he came in contact alike for his power of 

 endurance and his versatility. There was no subject with which he 

 did not seem familiar, almost as much so as if he had made it a special 



