COLONEL ROOSEVELT A REMARKABLE HUNTER. 
169 
barren waste toward that line which is both unwatered and unin¬ 
habited. After riding slowly for a time he realized that he had lost 
his bearings and instinctively turned backward. 
He rode very slowly for hours, taking the direction from his 
pocket compass and with the dawn located the Kiu Station. He 
was then 20 miles south of the Machakos camp and rode in just as 
an expedition was getting ready to go in search of him. 
ROOSEVELT FOLLOWED A LION INTO A THICKET. 
Theodore Roosevelt kills his first elephant. It was a big 
'dusker,'’ and the former President picked it out of a herd of about 
a dozen. A baby elephant about two months old was roped and 
taken alive, and it was sent as a gift from Col. Roosevelt to the New 
York Zoological Gardens. 
Col. Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and F. C. Selous had a narrow 
escape from the elephant which fell a prize. The men were out 
before daybreak for lions near Machakos, and there had been no 
report of elephants in the district. They wounded a lion returning 
to its lair, and the animal led them on a chase of several miles. 
Selous advised against following the lion into a thicket, but 
Roosevelt went in, taking the lead, and at times moving on hands 
and knees, with his rifle stuck out in front of him. Selous insisted 
on following close behind Col. Roosevelt, Kermit bringing up the 
rear. 
Col. Roosevelt reached a fringe of grass at an open spot, and 
instantly brought his rifle to his shoulder. Selous rose until he was 
almost standing upright, and saw that the former President was 
aiming at the leader in a herd of elephants. 
His whispered command came just in time to keep Col. Roose¬ 
velt from firing at a range of about 20 feet. Selous insisted upon a 
retreat, and warned Col. Roosevelt that to fire on the herd would 
be to invite death in a charge. 
Roosevelt reluctantly moved back along the trail, and followed 
Selous in a wide detour. The Englishman had marked down the 
herd. He kept safely to leeward, and finally directed Roosevelt and 
Kermit to climb a tree. All three men went into the branches, and 
