4 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



ers; the latter an Australian, who served through the South 

 African war; the former by birth a Scotchman, and a Cam- 

 bridge man, but long a resident of Africa, and at one time 

 a professional elephant hunter in addition to having been 

 a whaler in the Arctic Ocean, a hunter-naturalist in Lap- 

 land, a transport rider in South Africa, and a collector for 

 the British Museum in various odd corners of the earth. 



We sailed on the Hamburg from New York what head- 

 way the Germans have made among those who go down 

 to the sea in ships! and at Naples trans-shipped to the 

 Admiral, of another German line, the East African. On 

 both ships we were as comfortable as possible, and the voyage 

 was wholly devoid of incidents. Now and then, as at the 

 Azores, at Suez, and at Aden, the three naturalists landed, 

 and collected some dozens or scores of birds which next 

 day were skinned and prepared in my room, as the largest 

 and best fitted for the purpose. After reaching Suez the 

 ordinary tourist type of passenger ceased to be predomi- 

 nant; in his place there were Italian officers going out to a 

 desolate coast town on the edge of Somaliland; mission- 

 aries, German, English, and American; Portuguese civil 

 officials; traders of different nationalities; and planters 

 and military and civil officers bound to German and British 

 East Africa. The Englishmen included planters, magis- 

 trates, forest officials, army officers on leave from India, 

 and other army officers going out to take command of black 

 native levies in out-of-the-way regions where the English 

 flag stands for all that makes life worth living. They were 

 a fine set, these young Englishmen, whether dashing army 

 officers or capable civilians; they reminded me of our own 

 men who have reflected such honor on the American name, 

 whether in civil and military positions in the Philippines and 

 Porto Rico, working on the Canal Zone in Panama, taking 

 care of the custom-houses in San Domingo, or serving in 

 the army of occupation in Cuba. Moreover, I felt as if I 

 knew most of them already, for they might have walked out 

 of the pages of Kipling. But I was not as well prepared for 



