414 CLOSING INCIDENTS. 



were killed in the interest of science and the specimens 'were distributed ac- 

 cordingly, the majority going to the Smithsonian Institution. Mr. Roosevelt 

 retained not more than six trophies for himself. 



The naturalists who followed the expedition obtained a remarkable se- 

 lection, including over 5,000 birds and mammals. The results in this line 

 were very gratifying, and science was enriched with several new species and 

 a large number of the smaller mammals of Africa. The game taken and the 

 collections made constitute a world's record for such a period of hunting and 

 scientific researsh in Africa, and the American museums have received the 

 greatest collection of African fauna in existence. Too much praise cannot 

 be accorded to R. J. Cunninghame, the Englishman whose management of the 

 expedition was declared as nearly perfect as could be conceived. 



Colonel Roosevelt devoted his time during his voyage down the Nile to 

 writing, including the preparation of addresses he later on delivered in Eu- 

 rope. 



The neighborhood of the Nile, north of Gondokora, and especially be- 

 tween Bor and Lake Wo, through which the Colonel passed on his way to 

 Khartum — a voyage which it took two weeks to accomplish — is one of the 

 strangest and most desolate countries in the world. The Bar-El- Jebel here 

 ceases to have banks at all, and spreads itself over large marshes, whose 

 extent is unknown, but amounts to many miles on each side. As far as can 

 be seen from the river, the country consists of a wooded plain, from which 

 occasional hills arise. The course of the river is represented by a narraw 

 and extremely tortuous channel, which sometimes widens out into lagoons, 

 but is generally confined between two walls of dark-green papyrus. Like the 

 locust or the potato-bug in the animal kingdom, the papyrus is an appalling ex- 

 ample of the power of mere numbers. Weak though the reed is in istelf, the 

 strength of the host is irresistible ; it invades, conquers, monopolizes, and, un- 

 like the locust, it does not go away. You may cut down a few million stalks 

 — millions and millions more remain, like the spears of a countless army, and 

 as soon as you have cut down, re-growth commences. It is for the water 

 what weed is for the land. Though each separate plumy shaft is a beauti- 

 ful object, the mass of vegetation, when seen extending for hundreds of miles, 

 has no grace of form or color, but is merely a dull stretch of green, unrespon- 

 sive to effects of light and shade. It seems uncongenial to animal life, at 

 least to the more cheerful forms. Crocodiles and fishes abound, likewise 



