In Wildest Africa -^ 



in captivity, though seemingly so robust. We have not 

 yet succeeded in bringing an elephant from German or 

 British East Africa to Europe, or indeed any of the 

 other animals, such as giraffes and buffaloes and antelopes, 

 which live in the same districts. It appears that it is 

 just these interesting wild animals which are the most 

 difficult to accustom to captivity and to keep alive. The 

 attempt to bring home alive a couple of the wonderful 

 Kilimanjaro Colobus apes {Colobus caudaius, Thos.) resulted 

 in one of the monkeys dying a few days after my arrival ; 

 the other lived for two years only, and was the sole 

 specimen of its kind ever seen in Europe. Every 

 zoologist and lover of animals who goes into the 

 colonies has a wide field of activity open before him in 

 this respect. If only more people could be made to 

 take an interest in these things we might buoy ourselves 

 up with the hope of obtaining and keeping some of the 

 best and rarest specimens of African animal life, perhaps 

 even a full-grown gorilla from the West Coast- — perhaps 

 even an Okapi ! 



I was only able to keep my little menagerie together 

 for a few weeks at a time, as I had to be constantly 

 setting out on fresh expeditions. On these occasions I 

 was accustomed to leave the animals in some village 

 under the care of trustworthy blacks, so that I could 

 take them again on my return journey to the coast. 

 The weeks and months I spent in camp with my animals 

 were a great source of pleasure to me. At night-time 

 there were occasions when "rhinos" and "hippos" paid 

 us visits, as could be plainly seen by the tracks found 



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