4-40 TRIUMPHANT CLOSE OF A THRILLING HUNT. 



sionaries stationed at that point had undergone as a result of these 

 snakes, furnished an interesting chapter, he said, in the history of 



the enterprise. 



According to Dr. Watson, the Doleib Hill mission was founded 

 in 1 90 1. It is in the heart of a wild and unsettled section of the 

 country. Previous to the conquest of the Soudan by Lord Kitchener 

 and the Egyptian forces, two years previous, tlie country that far 

 North along the Nile was impenetrable for missionaries and other 

 white men. 



The mission is in charge of seven Americans, including two 

 industrial missionaries, one ordained missionary and a medical mis- 

 sionary. The work at this station has moved chiefly along indus- 

 trial lines, and extensive experiments have been made in discovering 

 what trees, plants and vegetables can be successfully grown in that 

 section of the country. 



THE NATIVES VERY PEACEABLE TO THE MISSION. 



The utter isolation of the American missionaries at this point is 

 attested by the fact that the nearest station to it is Khartoum, more 

 than five hundred miles away. Communications between the two 

 places is limited to a small steamer which reaches Doleib Hill once 

 every two or three weeks. The region is sparsely populated, there 

 being only 500,000 in the entire Soudanese province. They have 

 proved unexpectedly peaceable towards the missionaries, though it is 

 almost impossible to persuade them to give up their savage customs. 



Colonel Roosevelt's visit to the mission was made at the invi- 

 tation of the Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board previous to sailing 

 for Africa, according to Dr. Watson. 



" When we learned that Mr. Roosevelt intended to traverse 

 the entire course of the Nile from Lake Victoria Nyanza to Alex- 

 andria, on the Mediterranean," said Dr. Watson, " we asked him 

 to visit our station along the route. He gave us no definite promise, 

 but said he Avould visit as many as circumstances would permit." 



Speeding down the White Nile the government steamer Dal, 

 with Colonel Roosevelt and his son, Kermit, on March 12, was at a 

 point little more than 200 miles south of Khartoum, the capital of 



