332 OFF FOR THE SOTIK DISTRICT. 



actually pulling down their prey, while the other three were waiting 

 close at hand. After being driven off, the neck of the giraffe was 

 found to be bitten through by the cruel teeth of the assailants. 



When the lion kills an eland and does not happen to be very 

 ravenously hungry, he feeds daintily on the heart and other viscera, 

 not often touching the remainder of the flesh. In so doing, he rips 

 open the abdomen with his powerful claws, and tearing out his 

 favorite morsels, devours them. Sometimes, after satisfying his 

 hunger, he will leave the eland lying on the ground apparently un- 

 injured, the only visible wound being that which he has made by 

 tearing the animal open. 



Owing to the uniform tawny color of the lion's coat, he is hardly 

 distinguishable from surrounding objects even in broad daylight, 

 and by night he walks secure. Even the practised eyes of an accom- 

 plished hunter have been unable to detect the bodies of lions which 

 were lapping water at some twenty yards' distance, betraying their 

 vicinity by the sound, but so blended in form with the landscape that 

 they afforded no mark for the rifle even at that short distance. 



Is it much wonder then, that the coming of the Roosevelt expe- 

 dition was hailed wath delight by the natives, since their reputation 

 as marksmen gave assurance of ridding them of a large number of 

 their dangerous foes? 



Colonel Roosevelt had remarkable luck, and his bag includes 

 a fine specimen of lioness, four big rhinoceroses, which abound 

 along the banks of this lake, and a plentiful variety of antelope and 

 wilder beasts. 



The natives with the party declared they never packed for a 

 more skillful or untiring hunter, and that Colonel Roosevelt rarely 

 uses more than one shot on any beast of prey. 



Young Kermit, too, had been doing a fine lot of shooting, both 

 with an express rifle and a camera. He added to his already large 

 list of fine lionesses an extremely rare bull eland which is an ox- 

 like antelope, only a few of which remain in Africa, and many 

 smaller animals. His work as official photographer for the party, 

 it is said, has progressed to a stage where the authorities of the 

 Smithsonian Institute who are with the party are highly elated. 



