404 
African Game Trails 
Tarlton,Kermit,and I sallied forth accord¬ 
ingly. The country was very dry, and the 
game in our immediate neighborhood was 
not plentiful and was rather shy. I killed 
three kongoni out of a herd, at from two 
hundred and fifty to three, hundred and 
ninety paces; one topi at three hundred and 
thirty paces, and a Roberts’ gazelle at two 
hundred and seventy. Meanwhile the 
It was now mid-day, and the heat waves 
quivered above the brown plain. The mi¬ 
rage hung in the middle distance, and be¬ 
yond it the bold hills rose like mountains 
from a lake. 
In mid-afternoon we stopped at a little 
pool, to give the men and horses water; and 
here Kermit’s horse suddenly went dead 
lame, and we started it back to camp with a 
Loading rhino skin into the ox-wagon. 
From a photograph by Kermit Roosevelt. 
other two had killed a kongoni and five of 
the big gazelles; wherever possible the 
game being hal-lalled in orthodox fashion 
by the Mahometans among our attend¬ 
ants, so as to fit it for use by their co¬ 
religionists among the porters. Then we 
saw some giraffes, and galloped them to see 
if there was a really big bull in the lot. 
They had a long start, but Kermit andTarl- 
ton overtook them after a couple of miles, 
while I pounded along in the rear. How¬ 
ever there was no really good bull, Kermit 
and Tarlton pulled up, and we jogged along 
toward the koppies where two days before 
I had shot the lioness. I killed a big bus¬ 
tard, a very handsome, striking-looking 
bird, larger than a turkey, by a rather good 
shot at two hundred and thirty yards. 
couple of men, while Kermit went forward 
with us on foot, as we rode round the base 
of the first koppies. After we had gone a 
mile loud shouts called our attention to one 
of the men who had left with the lame 
horse. He was running back to tell us that 
they had just seen a big maned lion walking 
along in the open plain toward the body of 
a zebra he had killed the night before. Im¬ 
mediately Tarlton and I galloped in the 
direction indicated, while the heart-broken 
Kermit ran after us on foot, so as not to 
miss the fun; the gun bearers and saises 
stringing out behind him. In a few min¬ 
utes Tarlton pointed out the lion, a splen¬ 
did old fellow, a heavy male with a yellow 
and black mane; and after him we went. 
There was no need to go fast; he was too 
