African Game Trails 
387 
interest. On March 23 , 1909 , I sailed 
thither from New York, in charge of a 
scientific expedition sent out by the Smith¬ 
sonian, to collect birds, mammals, rep¬ 
tiles, and plants, but especially speci¬ 
mens of big game, for the National Mu¬ 
seum at Washington. In addition to my¬ 
self and my son Kermit (who had entered 
the South African war; the former by birth 
a Scotchman, and a Cambridge man, but 
long a resident of Africa, and at one time 
a professional elephant hunter. 
We sailed on the Hamburg from New 
York—what headway the Germans have 
made among those who go down to the sea 
in ships!—and at Naples trans-shipped to 
Mr. Roosevelt saying good-by in the Mombasa station. 
Harvard a few months previously), the 
party consisted of three naturalists: Sur- 
geon-Lieut. Col. Edgar A. Mearns, U. S. A., 
retired, Mr. Edmund Eleller, of California, 
and Mr. J. Alden Loring, of Owego, N. Y. 
My arrangements for the trip had been 
chiefly made through two valued English 
friends, Mr. Frederick Courtney Selous, the 
greatest of the world’s big-game hunters, 
and Mr. Edward North Buxton, also a 
mighty hunter. On landing we were to be 
met by Messrs. R. J. Cuninghame and 
Leslie Tarleton, both famous hunters; the 
latter an Australian, who served through 
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 pre¬ 
dominant; in his place there were Italian 
officiers going out to a desolate coast town 
on the edge of Somaliland; missionaries, 
