CHAPTER XXI 



Roosevelt Hunts on Lake Naivasha — Adds a Bull Hippopota- 

 mus TO His Collection — Ammunition Used by Colonel 

 Roosevelt in Africa — Exciting Combat with Hippo- 

 potamus. 



COLONEL ROOSEVELT inaugurated a novelty in big game 

 hunting when in pursuit of elephant and rhinoceros in Africa, 

 armed with an American repeating rifle of far lighter bore than the 

 weapons with which British sportsmen pursue the same animals. 

 Although the rhino is considered about as dangerous game as can 

 be found on the Dark Continent, due to his habit of blindly charging 

 at top speed any object he deems hostile, the former President used 

 a rifle of only .405 caliber in the chase. 



This rifle is better known by the American term of '' forty " 

 caliber, and it would have been considered little short of suicide 

 fifteen years ago to attempt the hunting of such big game with such 

 a caliber. Improvements in high pressure, smokeless powder and 

 the development of the steel jacketed bullet have increased the 

 efficiency of the arm many times since then, however. With the steel 

 bullet he used the arm when encountering the African buffalo, which 

 is said to be a far more dangerous customer than his American 

 namesake used to be. 



This same gun with soft-pointed bullets was used on such game 

 as lions. It has terrific " smashing " power, as it has tremendous 

 velocity, and the bullet spreads or mushrooms on impact, thus tear- 

 ing a hole through soft tissue and the lighter bones through which 

 the hand could be thrust. To penetrate the tough hide of a rhino, 

 however, the steel bullet is used. 



For lighter game, such as the African species of deer, and for 

 long-range shooting the Colonel carried two .303 caliber repeaters, 

 popularly known as " thirties." 



For feathered game he used two twelve-gauge repeating shot- 



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