292 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



cows and younger bulls gradually also drop back into the trot. 

 In fact, their gaits are in essence those of the wapiti, which 

 also prefer the trot, although wapiti never make the bounds 

 that eland do at the start. The moose, however, is more 

 essentially a trotter than either eland or wapiti; a very old 

 and heavy moose never, when at speed, goes at any other 

 gait than a trot, except that under the pressure of great and 

 sudden danger it may perhaps make a few bounds.* 



While at Meru boma I received a cable, forwarded by 

 native runners, telling me of Peary's wonderful feat in 

 reaching the North Pole. Of course we were all over- 

 joyed, and in particular we Americans could not but feel 

 a special pride in the fact that it was a fellow-countryman 

 who had performed the great and noteworthy achievement. 

 A little more than a year had passed since I said good-by 

 to Peary as he started on his Arctic quest; after leaving 

 New York in the Roosevelt, he had put into Oyster Bay 

 to see us, and we had gone aboard the Roosevelt, had ex- 

 amined with keen interest how she was fitted for the boreal 

 seas and the boreal winter, and had then waved farewell 

 to the tall, gaunt explorer, as he stood looking toward us 

 over the side of the stout little ship.f 



On September 21, Kermit and Tarlton started south- 

 west, toward Lake Hannington, and Cuninghame and I 



* A perfectly trustworthy Maine hunter informed me that in the spring he had 

 once seen in the snow where a bear had sprung at two big moose, and they had 

 bounded for several rods before settling into the tremendous trot which is their 

 normal gait when startled. I have myself seen signs that showed where a young 

 moose had galloped for some rods under similar circumstances; and I have seen big 

 moose calves, or half -grown moose, in captivity gallop a few yards in play, although 

 rarely. But the normal, and under ordinary circumstances the only, gait of the moose 

 is the trot. 



| When I reached Neri I received from Peary the following cable: 

 "Your farewell was a royal mascot. The Pole is ours. PEARY." 



