488 
THE STORY OF THE WAPL 
Rewrenzori range and heard from natives of the existence in the forest of 
a large quadruped, neither antelope nor zebra, and as large as a horse. 
It is to this region that Sir Harry Johnston, High Commissioner of 
Uganda, traveled in the autumn of 1900 in order to explore the confines of 
his protectorate before returning home. Sir Harry is an ardent naturalist, 
a really great collector, an observer, and an artist. Many a new bird, beast 
and plant from Kilimanjaro, Nyassaland and Uganda do men of science owe 
to him. On the present occasion he was eager to obtain new things and was 
well equipped for the purpose and well provided with men. He has sent 
rich collections to the Natural History Museum as a result of this journey. 
He was especially anxious to see and if possible secure the enigmatical 
quadruped which I had reported to exist in these forests. 
It must be borne in mind that the larger quadrupeds live in the open 
prairie or frequent only the borders of the African forests, and, further, 
that few of the natives excepting the peculiar dwarfs, the Akkas, penetrate 
far into the gloomy depths of these vast tree-grown regions. Sir Harry 
himself traveled for a week in the dark, steamy recesses of this equatorial 
forest. He describes the sense of nfystery and oppression with which the 
solemn gloom, the choking heat, and strange silence filled him as well-nigh 
overpowering. It is not to be wondered at that the blacks avoid these 
primeval fastnesses. 4 
It is among the trunks of these forests trees, whose foliage is densely 
woven overhead so as to exclude the light of day, that the strange animal 
of which Sir Harry was in search lives, coming here and there to “clear¬ 
ings” due to the decay and fall of the trees, in order to feed on'the foliage. 
It might well be that this dark vapor-laden forest had persisted from 
remote geologic ages, and that strange animals, survivors of pliocene and 
miocene times, still harbored there unknown to man, unchanged, cut off 
from the struggles of the outer world. 
Sir Harry failed to get a sight of the animal, but he obtained from na¬ 
tives two bands made from its skin, and learned that the animal was called 
by them “okapi.” The pieces of skin had the hair preserved, and this was 
colored very dark brown and white in alternate bands, like the pelt of a 
zebra. They were sent home and were considered by Dr. P. L. Sclater, the 
secretary of the Zoological Society of London, to indicate a new kind of 
zebra, to which he gave the name Equus Johnstoni. 
At a station of the Congo Free State, not far from the Semliki River, 
Sir Harry Johnston met the officer in charge, a Mr. Ericsson. This gentle- 
