184 
IN AFRICA 
however, rarely reaches that weight and conse¬ 
quently the bulls are the ones the hunters are after 
and the ones that have gradually been so greatly 
reduced in numbers. The elephants of this district 
roam the slopes of the mountains and often make 
long swinging trips out in the broad stretches of 
the Guas Ngishu Plateau to the eastward, in all a 
district probably fifty miles wide by sixty or seventy 
miles long. 
The hunters who invade this section usually 
march north from the railroad at a point near Vic¬ 
toria Nyanza, turn westward at a little settlement 
called Sergoi, and continue in that direction until 
they reach the Nzoia River. Naturally, these 
names will mean nothing to one not familiar with 
the country, but perhaps by saying that the trip 
means at least ten days of steady marching in a 
remote and unsettled country, far from sources of 
supplies, I will be able to convey a faint idea of how 
hard it is to reach the elephant country. 
Our purpose in making this long trip of ten 
weeks or more was to try for black-maned lion on 
the high plateau and to collect elephants for the 
group that Mr. Akeley is preparing for the Amer¬ 
ican Museum of Natural History. The govern¬ 
ment gave him a special permit to collect such ele¬ 
phants as he would require, two cows, a calf, a 
young bull, and, if possible, two large bulls. One 
or more of these were to be killed by Colonel Roose¬ 
velt and one by myself. It seemed promising that 
the cows, calf, and young bull could be got on 
