ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1607 



THE YOUNG OWNER OF THE TYPICAL STRIPES 

 When walking he held his head even lower than shown he 



ucts of their chase for salt, tobacco, knives and 

 other articles of value to them. Some of the 

 officers and the native soldiery had enjoyed eat- 

 ing the flesh of the Okapi some ten years before 

 its discovery by science. It furnished excellent 

 meat, and excepting the elephant and buffalo, 

 was the biggest game. The striped portions of 

 the hide decorated their chairs and soldiers used 

 straps of it as bandoleers for their guns. 



Whoever penetrated here was, so to speak, 

 "on the wing." and wings beat doubly fast 

 across these inhospitable regions. The numer- 

 ous sportsmen who had visited nearly all parts 

 of Africa found no attraction in these forests. 

 Indeed the many pale, haggard faces that 

 emerged from the western half of equatorial 

 Africa were no incentive to pleasure-seeking 

 people. The immensity of the wilderness is ap- 

 palling; for over eighteen hundred miles with- 

 out a break it stretches more than half way 

 across the continent, from the coast of Guinea 

 to the Ruwenzori. In spite of tropical luxuri- 



ance, it is one of the most dismal spots on the 

 face of the globe, for the torrid sun burns above 

 miles of leafy expanse, and the unflagging heat 

 of about one hundred degrees day and night, 

 renders the moist atmosphere unbearable. Over 

 the whole area storms of tropical violence thun- 

 der and rage almost daily. Here natives have 

 become cannibals, and the graves of thousands 

 of white men are merely a remembrance of 

 where youthful energy and adventures came to 

 a sudden end. 



What a difference in the eastern half, where 

 Africa's three largest snow-capped mountains 

 greet the rising sun far above the equatorial 

 mists. Delightful valleys of exuberant green, 

 miles of park-like stretches, far extending plains 

 and lakes, large and small, compose the beauti- 

 ful landscape. Here lies the sportsman's para- 

 dise. Large herds of antelope have found a 

 land of plenty, zebras in immense troops, buf- 

 falos and elephants by the hundreds shift aim- 

 lessly and unhampered across the vast expanses.. 



