THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
saplings by digging and levering up the roots with their massive horns. 
This they do, he says, in order to get at the leaves and bark. 
Although, as with all other antelopes, old male bongos often live by 
themselves, at any rate, at certain times of the year, there can be no doubt 
that these animals live in herds, which, however, probably seldom number 
more than eight or ten individuals. 
To successfully hunt the bongo, great patience and perseverance are 
required, and the only men I know of — although there may be some few 
others of whom I have not heard — who have tracked and shot one of these 
animals without the help of dogs are Captain Stigand, Mr Kermit Roose- 
velt, Mr Kincaid Smith and the late Mr George Gray. Describing his 
son’s successful hunt after bongo in “ African Game Trails,” Mr Theodore 
Roosevelt says: “ They (Mr Kermit Roosevelt and Mr Barclay Cole) took 
eight porters and went into the forest accompanied by four ’Ndorobo. 
They marched straight up to the bamboo and yellow-wood forest near 
the top of the Mau escarpment. They spent five days hunting. The proce- 
dure was simply to find the trail of a herd, to follow it through the tangled 
woods as rapidly and noiselessly as possible until it was overtaken, and 
then to try to get a shot at the first patch of reddish hide of which they got 
a glimpse — for they never saw more than such a patch, and then only for 
a moment. The first day Kermit, firing at such a patch, knocked over the 
animal, but it rose, and the tracks were so confused that even the keen 
eyes of the wild men could not pick out the right one. Next day they again 
got into a herd; this time Kermit was the first to see the game, all that 
was visible being a patch of reddish [hide] the size of a man’s two hands, 
with a white stripe across it. Firing, he killed the animal, but it proved 
to be only half grown. Even the ’Ndorobo now thought it useless to 
follow the herd; but Kermit took one of them and started in pursuit. After 
a couple of hours’ trailing, the herd was again overtaken, and again Kermit 
got a glimpse of the animals. He hit two, and, selecting the trail with most 
blood, they followed it for three or four miles, until Kermit overtook and 
finished off the wounded bongo, a fine cow.” 
The first complete specimens of the East African race of the bongo ever 
brought to Europe were obtained by Mr Frederick Isaac during the time 
that he was District Commissioner at Ravine Station, and this new species 
or geographical race was named by Mr Oldfield Thomas after its dis- 
coverer ( Boocercus euryceros isaaci). In January, 1903, I visited Mr Isaac 
at Ravine Station, and, standing outside his house, which was situated 
110 
