398 ROOSEVELT IN WILDS OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA 
rifle, and such would seem to be the case from many examples of skill 
told of him in Africa. But he modestly disclaims any such powers, 
and tells us that, while he sometimes shot fairly well, at others his aim 
was very poor. He goes on to say that, as a rule, every head of game 
won by him was at the cost of a goodly number of bullets. This was 
especially the case when shooting at long range, or at the alert little 
grass antelopes known as the steenbock and duiker, the habit of which 
is to hide in the long grass until danger is very near, then to dart 
from their coverts at such speed and with such quick twists and leaps 
that it needs a marksman of unusual ability to hit them in flight. 
Such game as this did not long suffice our ardent hunter, whose 
soul burned for encounters with the more dangerous creature for 
which Africa is famed, the prowling and ferocious lion, the king of the 
carnivora, or for such huge creatures as the rhinoceros, elephant and 
hippopotamus. These, with the buffalo, the leopard, and the crocodile, 
are animals which cannot be hunted without peril to the hunter, and 
large numbers of whites, with multitudes of the natives, have been 
killed by them since the opening of Africa. 
Which of these creatures is the most to be dreaded is a question 
as yet unsettled. Some hunters give precedence to the rhinoceros, 
some to the elephant, others to the buffalo, and still others to the lion. 
In British East Africa the lion seems to have been the most destructive 
to human life within recent years, and F. C. Selous, one of the most 
famous of hunters, whose unerring rifle has brought down more than 
three hundred lions and great numbers of the larger animals, and who 
was for a time one of Roosevelt’s companions in the African wilds, 
is inclined to give the lion the palm as a man-killer. 
While the habit of the lion is to keep close in its lair by day, mak¬ 
ing the night its hunting time, and is not apt to disturb man if left 
alone, it is often very ferocious and dangerous when cornered, and 
Africa is full of tales of perilous adventures with this great carniv¬ 
orous beast. Its hereditary habit of crouching and creeping on its 
prey has made it very cautious when on open ground, though bold 
enough when there is cover; but as it hunts for food rather than for 
glory, it prefers to kill the antelope rather than attack prey better 
able to defend itself. Thus it fears man, of whose powers as an 
