292 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



realised that the success of the Expedition would depend on 

 the work as a whole, and so it was that he would often un- 

 selfishly make the best of it when we came, to a place that 

 was good for birds, while it gave no opportunity for his game 

 collecting. 



It was undoubtedly in the pursuit of the okapi, upon the 

 capture of which he had set his heart, that he got his death. 

 The long days and nights in the dripping, fever -laden forest 

 were more than even his fine constitution could , stand ; 

 and then he was so unused to illness that he set himself to 

 fight on the first signs of fever when other men less strong 

 would have yielded and so escaped. So that it might only 

 too truly be said, his weakness lay in his strength. 



It will always be a satisfaction for me to remember that 

 not long before he died, when we were coming down the 

 Guruba river after a pleasant day, he said suddenly in an 

 enthusiastic tone : " I shall never regret this Expedition." 

 The remark impressed me at the time, for Gosling was a man 

 of few words. 



Deep in his strong nature there was a charming tenderness 

 which showed in his remarkable love of animals, as the 

 reader will have discovered for himself in the accounts of his 

 pets and his solicitude for them. But by a strange fatahty 

 all his pets came to an unhappy end, and only the day after I 

 had left Niangara " Pasi," his little antelope, fell very sick, 

 losing the power of his legs. I at once sent Jagoba and 

 another man back with him to Niangara, but all Doctor 

 Cammermeyer's efforts to save him were fruitless and he 

 died the next day. 



"When all has been said of Gosling the explorer and 



