400 
African Game Trails 
an elaborate apparatus of naturalists’ sup¬ 
plies; we had brought with us, for instance, 
four tons of line salt, as to cure the skins of 
the big beasts is a herculean labor under 
the best conditions; we had hundreds of 
traps for the small creatures; many boxes 
of shot-gun cartridges in addition to the 
ordinary rifle cartridges which alone would 
be necessary on a hunting trip; and, in 
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 skinning tent; while be¬ 
hind 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 
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 Na¬ 
tional 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 pro¬ 
fession, 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., 
the men in two lines; the first containing 
the fifteen askaris, the second the porters 
with their head men. The askaris were uni¬ 
formed, each in a red fez, a blue blouse, 
and white knickerbockers, and each carry¬ 
ing his rifle and belt. The porters were 
chosen from several different tribes or races 
to minimize the danger of combination in 
the event of mutiny. 
Here and there in East Africa one can 
utilize ox wagons, or pack trains of don¬ 
keys; but for a considerable expedition it 
is still best to use a safari of native porters, 
of the type by which the commerce and ex¬ 
ploration of the country have always been 
carried on. The backbone of such a safari 
is generally composed of Swahili, the coast 
men, negroes who have acquired the Mos- 
