FOREWORD 
IX 
land. To his mind come memories of the lion's charge; 
of the gray bulk of the elephant, close at hand in the som¬ 
bre woodland; of the buffalo, his sullen eyes lowering from 
under his helmet of horn; of the rhinoceros, truculent and 
stupid, standing in the bright sunlight on the empty plain. 
These things can be told. But there are no words that 
can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal 
its mystery, its melancholy, and its charm. There is de¬ 
light in the hardy life of the open, in long rides rifle in hand, 
in the thrill of the fight with dangerous game. Apart from 
this, yet mingled with it, is the strong attraction of the silent 
places, of the large tropic moons, and the splendor of the 
new stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of sun¬ 
rise and sunset in the wide waste spaces of the earth, unworn 
of man, and changed only by the slow changes of the ages 
from time everlasting. 
Theodore Roosevelt. 
Khartoum, March 15, 1910. 
