African Game Trails 
391 
worth shooting; half an hour afterward I 
came on another party .which contained 
such a buck, but they would not let me get 
within a quarter of a mile. 
Wildebeest are usually the shyest of all 
game. Each herd has its own recognized 
beat, to which it ordinarily keeps. Near 
this camp, there was a herd almost always 
to be found somewhere near the southern 
end of a big hill two miles east of us; while 
a solitary bull was invariably seen around 
the base of a small hill a couple of miles 
south-west of us. The latter was usually in 
contentedly. Around this camp the topi 
were as common as hartebeest; they 
might be found singly, or in small parties, 
perhaps merely of a bull, a cow, and a calf; 
or they might be mixed with zebra, wilde¬ 
beest and hartebeest. Like the hartebeest, 
but less frequently, they would mount ant¬ 
hills to get a better look over the country. 
The wildebeest were extraordinarily ten¬ 
acious of life, and the hartebeest and topi 
only less so. After wounded individuals of 
all three kinds I more than once had sharp 
runs on horseback. On one occasion I 
Rhino surveying the safari. 
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt. 
the company of a mixed herd of Roberts’ 
and Thomson’s gazelles. Here, as every¬ 
where, we found the different species of 
game associating freely with one another. 
One little party interested us much. It con¬ 
sisted of two Roberts’ bucks, two Roberts’ 
does, and one Thomson’s doe, which was 
evidently a maitresse femme, of strongly in¬ 
dividualized character. The four big ga¬ 
zelles had completely surrendered their 
judgment to that of the little tommy 
doe. She was the acknowledged leader; 
when she started they started and followed 
in whatever direction she led; when she 
stopped they stopped; if she found a given 
piece of pasture good, upon it they grazed 
wounded a wildebeest bull a couple of miles 
from camp; I was riding my zebra-shaped 
brown pony, who galloped well; and after 
a sharp run through the bush I overhauled 
the wildebeest; but when I jumped off, 
the pony bolted for camp, and as he dis¬ 
appeared in one direction my game disap¬ 
peared in the other. 
At last a day came when I saw a rhino 
with a big body and a good horn. We had 
been riding for a couple of hours; the game 
was all around us. Two giraffes stared at 
us with silly curiosity rather than alarm; 
twice I was within range of the bigger one. 
At last Bakhari, the gun bearer, pointed to 
a gray mass on the plain, and a glance 
