ROOSEVELT HUNTING GROUNDS. 
29 
William N. McMillan, of St. Louis, Missouri, United States of America? 
The last named, one of the expert hunters of Africa, is proprietor of a plan¬ 
tation of 20,000 acres in the great Athi plains, twenty-two- miles east of 
Nairobi, his vast estate of big game being modestly called Juja Farm. All of 
these gallant landlords, with their ladies and others, were proud to entertain 
the ex-President and point his party in the right directions for game, and, 
of all men, Theodore Roosevelt was the most ready to be thoroughly pleased 
with their kindness and helpfulness. Mr. McMillan is the special patron 
(saint) of the American sportsman, and, as one of his guests has put the 
matter: “At the African home of my American host, all East African game 
is abundant except rhinoceros and elephant, sable, roan antelope and oryx; 
but the last are to be had by a journey of from two to five days (to the Mount 
Kenia region). Hundreds of game animals are nearly always in sight from 
the veranda of the house. I have lighted a cigarette in my room at daylight, 
gone forth and killed a big wildebeest bull before the cigarette was con* 
sumed. In fact, the 20,000 acres of Juja Farm so swarm with game after 
the rains that before the dry season is half over the grass is eaten as short as 
on an overcrowded cattle range; and all from the overflow of the great 
game reserves north and south of us. Notwithstanding their great numbers, 
it takes marksmanship to get game on the Athi plains; for they are bare of 
cover and it is unusual to get a shot at anything except lion or hippopotamus 
short of from three to six hundred yards.” Further east toward and beyond 
the Tana rivers and around Mount Kenia are to be found the other kinds of 
game which were hunted and shot by the Roosevelt party—the elephant, dur¬ 
ing the dry season in the dense mountain thickets and, during .the rains, in 
the bush and long grass country; hippopotami in the rivers in the daytime, 
or along the banks from dusk to morning; rhinoceros in every unexpected 
place; antelope generally on the open plains; little dik-dik, leaping through 
the long grass; leopards everywhere, but as elusive as snakes; reedbuck in the 
scrub of steep rocky hills; lions prowling wherever their game abounds, seek¬ 
ing especially the zebra and all the equine kind; and the buffalo, in dark 
swamps and forests, or concealed in high elephant grass. With these de¬ 
scriptions, the reader should be able to form a mind picture of the hunting 
grounds over which Roosevelt ranged for several months, with the sportsmen 
and naturalists of his party, under the general and skillful guidance of Mr. 
Cunninghame. At this point in the narrative it seems desirable to describe, 
somewhat in detail, the beautiful and surprising gems of landscape to be seen 
in the Mount Kenia region, the eastern limits of the Roosevelt hunt. 
