WILD MAN AND WILD BEAST IN AFRICA 



7 



Photo by Kermit Roosevelt. Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons 

 PREPARING THE SKIN FOR SHIPMENT 



instance, when I was off by myself, with 

 a small safari of from 30 to 40 porters, 

 if there was a rain threatening and we 

 had a long march, I would have to 

 threaten personal violence, and some- 

 times resort to it, in order to make the 

 porters put up shelters for themselves 

 Ibefore the rain came. I had to watch 

 •over them just exactly as if they were 

 so many children. I was glad to do it, 

 and our personal followers took the ut- 

 most care of us in return and usually 

 showed a desire to look after our wel- 

 fare that was really touching. 



We did not stay on the coast belt for 

 more than a very short time. Dr. Mearns 

 made a short scientific trip there, and my 

 son made another trip after a species of 

 sable antelope which proved to be new. 

 But it is a very unhealthy country, and 

 we did not want to keep the expedition, 

 as such, there any longer than we could 



help. The highland region, where we 

 spent half of our time while in Africa, 

 is a region of country that in its external 

 features resembles not the Africa of the 

 geographic books, but part of our own 

 West. Most of the higher land of Brit- 

 ish East Africa, in the regions where we 

 were, reminded me rather of the eastern 

 portions of Wyoming and Colorado, and 

 of parts of New Mexico and Arizona, 

 than of what we are accustomed to think 

 of as the tropics. Of course, there was 

 an infinite difference in detail, but the 

 general effect was the same. It was a 

 region of light rainfall, and that rainfall 

 came in the shape of a violent rainy 

 season, so that there were periods when 

 the rivers would run as boiling torrents, 

 and then long periods when the rivers 

 would be totally dry or consist merely of 

 strings of shallow pools. Over most of 

 the plains there were scattered thorn 



