1*>4 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



Heller was soon on the ground with his skinning-tent 

 and skinners, and the Boer farmer went back to fetch the 

 ox wagon on which the skins and meat were brought in 

 to camp. Laymen can hardly realize, and I certainly did 

 not realize, what an immense amount of work is involved 

 in preparing the skins of large animals such as buffalo, 

 rhino, hippo, and above all elephant, in hot climates. On 

 this first five weeks' trip we got over seventy skins, includ- 

 ing twenty-two species ranging in size from a dikdik to a 

 rhino, and all of these Heller prepared and sent to the Smith- 

 sonian. Mearns and Loring were just as busy shooting birds 

 and trapping small mammals. Often while Heller would be 

 off for a few days with Kermit and myself, Mearns and Loring 

 would be camped elsewhere, in a region better suited for the 

 things they were after. While at Juja Farm they went down 

 the Nairobi in a boat to shoot water birds, and saw many 

 more crocodiles and hippo than I did. Loring is a remark- 

 ably successful trapper of small mammals. I do not believe 

 there is a better collector anywhere. Dr. Mearns, in addition 

 to birds and plants, never let pass the opportunity to collect 

 anything else from reptiles and fishes to land shells. More- 

 over, he was the best shot in our party. He killed two great 

 bustards with the rifle, and occasionally shot birds like 

 vultures on the wing with a rifle. I do not believe that 

 three better men than Mearns, Heller, and Loring, for such 

 an expedition as ours, could be found anywhere. 



It was three days later before we were again successful 

 with buffalo. On this occasion we started about eight in 

 the morning, having come to the conclusion that the herd 

 was more apt to leave the papyrus late than early. Our 

 special object was to get a cow. We intended to take ad- 

 vantage of a small half-dried watercourse, an affluent of 

 the Kamiti, which began a mile beyond where we had 

 killed our bulls, and for three or four miles ran in a course 

 generally parallel to the swamp, and at a distance which 

 varied, but averaged perhaps a quarter of a mile. When 

 we reached the beginning of this watercourse, we left our 



