A JOURNEY UNDER DIFFICULTIES. 
381 
for some time secure from the enraged animal, which, after search¬ 
ing for him in vain, scampered off in another direction; nor could 
his companion, who was galloping up to his assistance, conceive 
what had become of him, until he saw, to his great satisfaction, 
his head cautiously emerging from the bowels of the earth. 
Theodore Roosevelt, who was hunting big game on the south 
shore of Lake Naivasha from the ranch of Captain Richard Atten¬ 
borough, succeeded in bringing down a big hippopotamus and a 
zebra. The hippopotamus is estimated to weigh three tons. 
Colonel Roosevelt, to judge from a letter received from him 
by a friend in Washington, was having quite as successful and 
interesting a trip as he anticipated. This letter was dated Nairobi, 
Africa, and among its striking passages was one referring to Ker- 
mit Roosevelt’s hunting. 
KERMIT IS RECKLESS. 
Kermit, it seems, showed more enthusiasm than caution in the 
pursuit of African big game. Some of his encounters had been of 
a nature to excite remark from his father, and it inferred that they 
must have been little short of reckless to have been considered out 
of the ordinary by so competent an authority as the former 
President. Though enjoying his stay in Africa, Colonel Roosevelt 
apparently had a touch of nostalgia now and then. 
Leslie A. Tarlton, of Nairobi, who accompanied the Roosevelt 
expedition to the Sotik country, was chased into town by five lions, 
the district having been invaded by many of these animals. 
Tarlton arrived at Naivasha on horseback, after as thrilling a 
night journey as man ever took, and one, he says, he does not care 
to repeat for worlds. While making an all-night journey Tarlton 
was chased for many miles by five fierce man-eating lions. He put 
spurs to his horse, and managed to elude the man-eaters, though 
they followed him to the very outskirts of Naivasha. 
'' There were five of the big black maned man-eaters in the 
pack,” said Tarlton in describing his experience, '' and the persis¬ 
tent manner in which they tracked me to the very edge of Naivasha 
showed their fierceness. It was a close call.” 
