840 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



nearly at the same time, outside the forelegs; rhino and 

 buffalo trot and run. Eland when alarmed bound with as- 

 tonishing agility for such large beasts a trait not shown by 

 other large antelope, like oryx and then gallop for a short 

 distance; but the big bulls speedily begin to trot, and the 

 cows and younger bulls gradually also drop back into the 

 trot. In fact, their gaits are in essence those of the wapiti, 

 which also prefer the trot, although wapiti never make the 

 bounds that eland do at the start. The moose, however, 

 is more essentially a trotter than either eland or wapiti; 

 a very old and heavy moose never, when at speed, goes 

 at any other gait than a trot, except that under the press- 

 ure of great and sudden danger it may perhaps make a few 

 bounds.* 



While at Meru boma I received a cable, forwarded by 

 native runners, telling me of Peary's wonderful feat in 

 reaching the North Pole. Of course we were all over- 

 joyed, and in particular we Americans could not but feel 

 a special pride in the fact that it was a fellow-countryman 

 who had performed the great and noteworthy achievement. 

 A little more than a year had passed since I said good-by 

 to Peary as he started on his Arctic quest; after leaving 

 New York in the Roosevelt, he had put into Oyster Bay 

 to see us, and we had gone aboard the Roosevelt, had ex- 

 amined with keen interest how she was fitted for the boreal 

 seas and the boreal winter, and had then waved farewell 

 to the tall, gaunt explorer, as he stood looking toward us 

 over the side of the stout little ship.f 



On September 21, Kermit and Tarlton started south- 



*A perfectly trustworthy Maine hunter informed me that in the spring he had 

 once seen in the snow where a bear had sprung at two big moose, and they had 

 bounded for several rods before settling into the tremendous trot which is their 

 normal gait when startled. I have myself seen signs that showed where a young 

 moose had galloped for some rods under similar circumstances; and I have seen big 

 moose calves, or half-grown moose, in captivity gallop a few yards in play, although 

 rarely. But the normal, and under ordinary circumstances the only, gait of the moose 

 is the trot. 



t When I reached Xeri I received from Peary the following cable: "Your fare- 

 well was a roval mascot. The Pole is ours. PEARY." 



