280 BR. E. EAY LANKESTEK ON OKAPIA. 



TjieutPiiant Meuva knew a good deal about the Okapi, though he still believed it to 

 be a kind of horse. Unfortunately he died soon afterwards of black-water fever. His 

 second in command at Fort Mbeni, on the border of the Semliki Forest, was Karl 

 Eriksson, who had been a non-commissioned officer in the Swedish Army and had 

 become an officer in the service of the Congo Free State. After my fruitless search 

 through the nearer parts of the Semliki Forest, in which I only got one more strip of 

 skin from a native, I was obliged to leave the forest owing to the absolute collapse of 

 my caravan, all the Negro porters having gone down with violent forms of fever. So 

 completely collapsed were they, in fact, that the Belgians had to turn out all their 

 soldiers and station-labourers to carry ray loads back to British territory. To console 

 me for my disappointment, Meura promised to use his best endeavours to get a complete 

 skin. After his death, which took place soon afterwards, Eriksson most generously 

 carried out that promise. 1 must have sent home the bandoliers to Sclater in October 

 1900, as I was a long while getting back to my headquarters. 



" The complete skin sent by Eriksson was probably despatched from the Congo Free 



State about February 1901, and arrived in Entebbe in March, reaching me at the end 



of that month at the Eldama Ravine, in the eastern part of the Protectorate. In the 



original note (which, unfortunately, I cannot at this moment find) that Eriksson sent 



accompanying the skin he refers distinctly to the hoofs as though they were on the 



skin, describing them as bluish black and like those of an antelope, his point being, of 



course, his surprise at discovering the creature not to be a soliped but cloven-hoofed. 



"When Jackson opened the skin at Entebbe the horny hoofs had apparently disappeared. 



At first we thought that they had been eaten by rats, but Doggett (my taxidermist) 



suggests that they simply fell off the bones. In other cases we found it constantly 



happened, after the foot of a hoofed mammal had become dry, that the horny sheath 



fell off the bone. When the skin reached me the lower jaw of the bigger skull was 



still attached to it. Eriksson also in his letter said, ' I send you a skin and skull of 



the Okapi,' &c., and a little later on, ' also another skull.' As the bigger skull 



supposed to belong to the skin exactly fits the mandible which actually was attached 



to the skin when it reached me, I assume that the larger of the two skulls belongs to 



the skin. That is all I know with regard to this mysterious animal. After I left the 



Congo Free State I discussed this question with natives of the little territory of Mboga, 



which happens to be British, and is actually part of the Semliki Forest. They all knew 



the creature, and declared that it was fairly common in their country. Nevertheless, 



although these people have brought us in young elephants, chimpanzees, and all sorts 



of other creatures, they have failed hitherto to bring another specimen of the Okapi." 



The strips of skin referred to in this letter as " bandoliers " were covered with 



hair, coloured dark brown and white in alternate bands. They were received in 



London in November 1900, and were exhibited by Dr. Sclater at the Meeting of this 



Society on December 18th (see P. Z. S. 1900, p. 950). They were again exhibited and 



