ROOSEVELT HUNTS ANIMALS OF DARK CONTINENT 411 



of vision and its charge is a straightforward dash from which the 

 alert hunter can escape by a quick spring to one side. But while the 

 power of sight of the rhinoceros is poor, its scent is remarkably keen, 

 and it can only be approached in safety from the leeward side. 



Colonel Roosevelt had many experiences with this thick-skinned 

 brute. One of these we have described. Another worthy of mention, 

 as showing the alertness of this great beast, took place while he was 

 out hunting with Captain Slatter, the proprietor of an ostrich farm 

 in the vicinity of Mount Kilimakia. 



On this excursion our hunters found game in abundance and of 

 many kinds, the surly and grunting wart-hog being especially numer- 

 ous. An interesting feature of this country was the num.erous trails 

 that crossed it, made alike by animals and men, the tracks of the latter 

 being found everywhere, worn deep by thousands of feet during many 

 generations. The trails were never straight, bending aside to right or 

 left, doubtless to avoid somic obstacle that originally existed. The 

 fact that it has long disappeared never leads to a straightening of the 

 path, the blacks following undeviatingly in the steps of their fore- 

 fathers. 



As for the great beasts, these do not turn aside for minor obsta- 

 cles, but tramp straightforward through their muddy haunts, alike in 

 the open, in the sombre forest depths, thorny thickets, or reed- 

 covered marshes. The trail of the hippopotamus is an especially curi- 

 ous one. With an enormous body, borne on short, widely separated 

 legs, the paths followed by this great creature in its nightly food raids 

 on land consist of two deep muddy tracks with a grassy ridge between 

 them, high enough to be swept by the belly of the waddling brute. 

 An enormous appetite has the hippo, its yawning jaws sweeping in a 

 barrel full of grass and plants at a mouthful. As a result, a hippo 

 invasion of a plantation of the settlers is apt to be serious, and it is 

 no wonder that they look upon this hungry river-hog as a nuisance to 

 be eradicated. 



To return to the rhinoceros adventure from which these remarks 

 have led us astray, we must put ourselves on the trail of Colonel 

 Roosevelt and Captain Slatter in their hunt in the Mt. Kilimakia 

 country. The first important fruit of this hunt was a bull eland, a fine 



