292 
AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 
cows and younger bulls gradually also drop back into the trot. 
In fact, their gaits are in essence those of the wapiti, which 
also prefer the trot, although wapiti never make the bounds 
that eland do at the start. The moose, however, is more 
essentially a trotter than either eland or wapiti; a very old 
and heavy moose never, when at speed, goes at any other 
gait than a trot, except that under the pressure of great and 
sudden danger it may perhaps make a few bounds.* 
While at Meru boma I received a cable, forwarded by 
native runners, telling me of Peary’s wonderful feat in 
reaching the North Pole. Of course we were all over¬ 
joyed, and in particular we Americans could not but feel 
a special pride in the fact that it was a fellow-countryman 
who had performed the great and noteworthy achievement. 
A little more than a year had passed since I said good-by 
to Peary as he started on his Arctic quest; after leaving 
New York in the Roosevelt, he had put into Oyster Bay 
to see us, and we had gone aboard the Roosevelt, had ex¬ 
amined with keen interest how she was fitted for the boreal 
seas and the boreal winter, and had then waved farewell 
to the tall, gaunt explorer, as he stood looking toward us 
over the side of the stout little ship.f 
On September 21, Kermit and Tarlton started south¬ 
west, toward Lake Hannington, and Cuninghame and I 
* A perfectly trustworthy Maine hunter informed me that in the spring he had 
once seen in the snow where a bear had sprung at two big moose, and they had 
bounded for several rods before settling into the tremendous trot which is their 
normal gait when startled. I have myself seen signs that showed where a young 
moose had galloped for some rods under similar circumstances; and I have seen big 
moose calves, or half-grown moose, in captivity gallop a few yards in play, although 
rarely. But the normal, and under ordinary circumstances the only, gait of the moose 
is the trot. 
t When I reached Neri I received from Peary the following cable: 
“Your farewell was a royal mascot. The Pole is ours.— Peary.” 
