FIELD NATURALISTS 
17 
CH. i] 
being the term employed throughout East Africa to 
denote both the caravan with which one makes an 
expedition and the expedition itself. Our aim being to 
cure and send home specimens of all the common big 
game—in addition to as large a series as possible of the 
small mammals and birds—it was necessary to carry 
an elaborate apparatus of naturalists’ supplies. We had 
brought with us, for instance, four tons of fine salt, as 
to cure the skins of the big beasts is a Herculean labour 
under the best conditions. We had hundreds of traps 
for the small creatures; many boxes of shot-gun car¬ 
tridges, in addition to the ordinary rifle cartridges which 
alone would be necessary on a hunting trip; and, in 
short, all the many impedimenta needed if scientific 
work is to be properly done under modern conditions. 
Few laymen have any idea of the expense and pains 
which must be undergone in order to provide groups of 
mounted big animals from far-off lands, such as we see 
in museums like the National Museum in Washington 
and the American Museum of Natural History in New 
York. The modern naturalist must realize that in some 
of its branches his profession, while more than ever a 
science, has also become an art. So our preparations 
were necessarily on a very large scale ; and as we drew 
up at the station the array of porters and of tents 
looked as if some small military expedition was about 
to start. As a compliment, which I much appreciated, 
a large American flag was floating over my own tent; 
and in the front line, flanking this tent on either hand, 
were other big tents for the members of the party, with 
a dining tent and a skinning tent; while behind were 
the tents of the two hundred porters, the gun-bearers, the 
tent-boys, the askaris, or native soldiers, and the horse¬ 
boys, or saises. In front of the tents stood the men in two 
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