4 io ROOSEVELT HUNTS ANIMALS OF DARK CONTINENT 
wound, and when close to the tree went down with a crash on his 
knees. One more shot from the magazine gun and the huge brute 
rolled over dead. The remainder of the herd, terror stricken by the 
fall of their leader, broke and fled wildly through the bushes, heedless 
of the rain of balls which Kermit sent after them. Thus ended in 
safety one of the most perilous moments in Theodore Roosevelt’s life. 
Had that first reckless shot left his gun the chance was great that not 
one of the party would have left that thicket alive. Providence, in the 
form of the hunter Selous, saved him from the imminent peril invited 
by his nervous and reckless haste. 
This was not the only event of that day’s hunt. An hour later the 
party had the luck to meet a baby elephant, about two months old, a 
tiny creature which had probably been left behind in the wild flight 
of the herd and had since been blindly wandering over the open plain. 
A rope in the hands of a party of natives made it prisoner and it was 
brought alive into camp, its captor proposing to send it as a gift to the 
Zoological Garden of New York. For this purpose it was taken to 
Nairobi by a band of natives, to be sent thence to the seashore by rail. 
As for the fallen giant, it gave its hide and tusks to the cause of 
science. 
Such was one exciting example of Colonel Roosevelt’s various 
encounters with the elephant, the monarch of animals alike for size 
and inborn intelligence. Capable of thought as this huge beast has 
proved itself to be in captivity, in its wild state and before the man 
with the rifle it has but two resources, flight from or a charge upon its 
foe. The latter is always a serious matter for the hunters, many of 
whom have been crushed under the feet or killed by the trunk of the 
elephant when infuriated by a wound. Such would probably have been 
Roosevelt’s fate on the occasion in question but for the warning of the 
trained hunter at his elbow. 
In hunting the rhinoceros the danger is equally great—greater, 
in fact, for this dull-brained but irate monster frequently does not 
wait for provocation, but is apt to break into blind rage at the sight of 
a man in its vicinity and charge upon him in sudden and sullen fury. 
Huge and clumsy as it appears, its speed of movement is never to be 
despised. Fortunately for the hunter, its little eyes have a short range 
