412 ROOSEVELT HUNTS ANIMALS OF DARK CONTINENT 



example of Mr. Roosevelt's marksmanship, it being brought down at a 

 quarter mile range. It had hardly fallen when the hunters caught 

 sight of a large rhinoceros not far away and braced themselves for a 

 more perilous encounter. 



As the wind came from the direction of the brute its keen powers 

 of smell failed to warn it of the presence of man in its vicinity, while 

 its twinkling eyes caught no sight of its human foes. So oblivious, 

 indeed, was it of the presence of enemies that it actually lay down 

 when they were only a hundred yards away and they had come within 

 thirty yards before the recumbent brute became aware of their near- 

 ness. Then, with extraordinary lightness and quickness for so heavy 

 a creature, it sprang to its feet and turned upon its foes. 



At this critical moment Roosevelt pierced the leathery hide of the 

 great brute with a bullet from a Holland rifle, the heaviest piece in his 

 possession. With blood spurting from its nostrils, the maddened 

 animal charged in fury upon its foes. A second bullet pierced its heart, 

 but even this would not have stopped that mad rush had not Captain 

 Slatter pierced its neck veretebrae by a shot and toppled it over dead 

 when within thirteen paces. The day's hunt had thus brought the 

 hunters two valuable specimens, the eland and the rhinoceros, which 

 were duly skinned for museum purposes by Mr. Heller the next 

 morning. 



One cannot read of a hunting expedition to Africa without being 

 astounded by the vast multitude and great variety of animals in the 

 interior of that long-hidden continent. It is the true paradise of the 

 zoologist. There is nothing to match it anywhere else upon the earth. 

 And an interesting feature is that its animals differ from those to be 

 seen elsewhere. With the exception of the ele])hant, rhinoceros and 

 lion, which are found in Asia, there are few representatives of the 

 African fauna in any other lands. 



This fact appealed strongly to Colonel Roosevelt. He had hunted 

 in all parts of the United States and had been on the western plain 

 before the bullet had robbed it completely of its swarming herds of 

 buffaloes. His trusting rifle had brought down the grizzly bear, the 

 Rocky Mountain sheep, the prong-horn antelope, the great elk and 

 moose, and the graceful deer of the American hunting grounds. But 



