ROOSEVELT MUNTINC GROUNDS. 67 



William N. McMillan, of St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America? 

 The last named, one of the expert hunters of Africa, is proprietor of a plan- 

 tation of 20,000 acres in the great Athi plains, twenty-two miles east of 

 Nairobi, his vast estate of big- game being modestly called Juja Farm. All of 

 taese gallant landlords, wiuh their ladies and others, were proud to entertain 

 the ex-President and point his party in the right directions for game, and, 

 of all men, Theodore Roosevelt was the most ready to be thoroughly pleased 

 with their kindness and helpfulness. Mr. McMillan is the special patron 

 (saint) of the American sportsman, and, as one of his guests has put the 

 matter : "At the African home of my American host, all East African game 

 is abundant except rhinoceros and elephant, sable, roan antelope and oryx; 

 but the last are to be had by a joumey of from two to five days (to the Mount 

 Kenia region). Hundreds of game animals are nearly always in sight from 

 the veranda of the house. I have lighted a cigarette in my room at daylight, 

 gone forth and killed a big wildebeest bull before the cigarette was con- 

 sumed. In fact, the 20,000 acres of Juja Farm so swarm with game after 

 the rains that before the dry season is half over the grass is eaten as short as 

 on an overcrowded cattle range ; and all from the overflow of the great 

 game reserves north and south of us. Notwithstanding their great numbers, 

 it takes marksmanship to get game on the Athi plains; for they are bare of 

 cover and it is unusual to get a shot at anything except lion or hippopotamus 

 short of from three to six hundred yards." Further east toward and beyond 

 the Tana rivers and around Mount Kenia are to be found the other kinds of 

 game which were hunted and shot by the Roosevelt party — the elephant, dur- 

 ing the dry season in the dense mountain thickets and, during the rains, in 

 the bush and long grass country; hippopotami in the rivers in the daytime, 

 or along the banks from dusk to morning; rhinoceros in every unexpected 

 place; antelope generally on the open plains; little dik-dik, leaping through 

 the long grass ; leopards everywhere, but as elusive as snakes ; reedbuck in the 

 scrub of steep rocky hills; lions prowling wherever their game abounds, seek- 

 ing especially the zebra and all the equine kind; and the bufifalo, in dark 

 swamps and forests, or concealed in high elephant grass. With these de- 

 scriptions, the reader should be able to form a mind picture of the hunting 

 grounds over which Roosevelt ranged for several months, with the sportsmen 

 and naturalists of his party, under the general and skillful guidance of Mr. 

 Cunninghame. At this point in the narrative it seems desirable to describe, 

 somewhat in detail, the beautiful and surprising gems of landscape to be seen 

 in the Mount Kenia region, the eastern limits of the Roosevelt hunt. 



