4 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
bridge man, but long a resident of Africa, and at one time 
a professional elephant hunter-—in addition to having been 
a whaler in the Arctic Ocean, a hunter-naturalist in Lap- 
land, a transport rider in South Africa, and a collector for 
the British Museum in various odd corners of the earth. 
We sailed on the Hamburg from New York—what head¬ 
way the Germans have made among those who go down 
to the sea in ships!—and at Naples trans-shipped to the 
Admiral, of another German line, the East African. On 
both ships we were as comfortable as possible, and the voyage 
was wholly devoid of incidents. Now and then, as at the 
Azores, at Suez, and at Aden, the three naturalists landed, 
and collected some dozens or scores of birds—which next 
day were skinned and prepared in my room, as the largest 
and best fitted for the purpose. After reaching Suez the 
ordinary tourist type of passenger ceased to be predomi¬ 
nant; in his place there were Italian officers going out to a 
desolate coast town on the edge of Somaliland; mission¬ 
aries, German, English, and American; Portuguese civil 
officials; traders of different nationalities; and planters 
and military and civil officers bound to German and British 
East Africa. The Englishmen included planters, magis¬ 
trates, forest officials, army officers on leave from India, 
and other army officers going out to take command of black 
native levies in out-of-the-way regions where the English 
flag stands for all that makes life worth living. They were 
a fine set, these young Englishmen, whether dashing army 
officers or capable civilians; they reminded me of our own 
men who have reflected such honor on the American name, 
whether in civil and military positions in the Philippines and 
Porto Rico, working on the Canal Zone in Panama, taking 
