during this final part of the journey gave them all the noisy honor that they could get out of their brass instruments and Indian drums.

Shouts of welcome from natives and citizens hailed the entrance of the Americans, awaiting whom on the Bahr-el-Jebel (as the Nile is here called) was the launch of General Sir Reginald Wingate, the Sirdar of the Egyptian Army, who had sent it for the convenience of the coming distinguished traveler. At its mast-head flew the Stars and Stripes, and on entering its cabin Colonel Roosevelt was gratified to find there a large amount of mail, which had been forwarded to await his arrival. After a brief rest, he plunged into his mass of correspondence. In the town itself, which, in addition to the ivory traders, had a few shops belonging to Greek and Hindu storekeepers, a brick house had been set aside for his convenience during his stay in that frontier town.

The journey to Khartum was to be made in the Sirdar's launch, but before setting out the party decided on having a final week's hunting, and on the 18th three of the party, Roosevelt, Kermit and Heller, set out with the purpose of shooting such game as might be found along the river banks. The remaining members of the party stayed behind to pack the specimens they had recently gathered in their Nile journey and pay off and dismiss the porters who had so long been their faithful companions and helpers.

The day promised to be one of adventures. Before their start word came that a native had fallen into the river and been drowned. On learning of this accident Kermit and Mr. Loring dove into the river in an effort to recover the body, heedless of the peril from crocodiles and from the swift current. Fortunately no harm came to them. Meanwhile from Lado, a few miles north of Gondokoro and the extreme northeast station of the Congo Free State, the Belgian Commandant and other officials called on the guest of honor and presented their congratulations upon the success of his African hunting excursion, with a request that he should visit their town.

The shooting expedition also opened with an adventure, the small boat in which it set out beginning its record by landing its crew on a sand bank. It was soon afloat, however, and, reaching the Congo side of the stream, the party began its hunt, its native attendants carrying

the American flag, the first seen in the Congo Free State since the days of Stanley. As for the Congo natives, they greeted Roosevelt with the same names they had given Stanley and seemed to think the party similar to that led by the famous explorer.

The events of this excursion resembled those of former hunting trips, its most important prizes being a giant bull eland shot by Roosevelt and a bull and a cow brought down by Kermit. They had spent from twelve to fourteen hours daily in the chase, and returned to Gondokoro on the 26th, looking wonderfully well and in the best of spirits. They brought with them the skins and skeletons of the elands, the only specimens contributed by the Congo State.

With this week's shooting Colonel Roosevelt proposed to close his hunting experience in Africa unless an opportunity should arise lower down the Nile to obtain some specimens of rare animals they had so far failed to get. From Gondokoro the route lay down the Nile to Khartum, nearly a thousand miles to the north. At this outpost of Egyptian civilization in the Soudan he expected to meet Mrs. Roosevelt and their daughter, Ethel, who had left New York on February 15th, hoping to reach Khartum and meet the returning traveler by the 14th of March.

It is fitting here to state succinctly the general results of the expedition. In all about five hundred specimens of large mammals were obtained, including the following of special interest:

Seventeen lions, eleven elephants, ten buffaloes, ten black rhinoceroses, nine white rhinoceroses, nine hippopotami, nine giraffes, three leopards, seven cheetahs, three giant elands, three sables, one sitatunga and two bongos.

From the point of scientific importance, which has been kept throughout in view, the most highly-prized game may be rated as follows: First, the giant elands, the first complete specimens of which family were now being taken from the country; second, the white rhinoceros; third, the bongos, the first to be stalked and killed by a white man, and, fourth, the sitatunga, a rare species of antelope.

The naturalists secured a remarkable collection, including many thousands of birds and small mammals, the whole enbracing more than thirteen thousand specimens. The results in this line were most gratifying, and science was enriched by several new species.

The cl

CHAPTER XXIX

The Great Game Animals of Africa

The Elephant.-First of all in point of interest comes the elephant, the giant pachyderm, as his family is known to science. Attaining the height of twelve feet at the shoulders and a length of eighteen or nineteen feet, it is indeed an impressive sight to meet even a single elephant in his native forest. His strength is enormous, and the spectacle of whole trees torn up by the roots and broken off close to the ground as a result of a playful moment is an awe-inspiring one.

The African elephant differs in some respects from the Asiatic species more commonly seen. His skin is black and nearly destitute of hair and the tail is short with a tufted end. The head is rounder, forehead more convex and ears much larger than in the Asiatic elephant. The latter are very flat, reaching to the legs, and overlapping each other on the top of the neck. Each foot has five toes. The tusks are arched, between eight and nine feet long and weighing about one hundred pounds. The female is upwards of eight feet high and usually provided with tusks about four feet long.

The weight of a full-grown bull elephant is really immense; it may be imagined how wonderfully powerful are the limbs which can carry that weight over the ground at a speed nearly equal to that of a horse.

But nature has taken very good care that these limbs shall not be too weak for their task. Indeed, they are like so many pillars, so massively are they formed, and so firmly planted upon the ground. And, if you take notice, the hind legs have not the peculiar "knee-" joint, as it is often but wrongly called, which we see in the horse, and which would take away very much from the strength of those limbs.

Now, I dare say you will be rather surprised when I tell you

that the elephant, large and heavy though he is, can yet move over the ground, and even through the thick forest, with so silent a tread that you would be quite unable to hear his footfall, even though you might be standing close beside him. Indeed, hunters who have shot many an elephant tell us that the only way in which one can hear the animal moving is by listening for the sound caused by the water

ELEPHANTS DRINKING BY MOONLIGHT

contained in his stomach, which makes a peculiar "swishing" sound as he walks along.

Now, how is this? Here is an immense animal, standing eleven or twelve feet in height, and weighing two or three tons, and yet walking with the silent and stealthy tread of a cat! Are his feet furnished with soft cushions upon the soles, like those of the lion or the tiger? Yes and no, their structure being, however, perfectly different, and yet equally wonderful.

If you could look carefully at the foot of an elephant, you would see that it is encased in a kind of hoof, which protects it from injury upon the ground. But this hoof has other purposes as well, for it must serve to break the shock of the footfall, which must of course result from every step of so heavy a body. And consequently it is formed of a vast number of elastic horny plates and india-rubber-like pads, so that, when the enormous animal treads, its footsteps are nearly as noiseless as those of a cat.

If you have ever ridden upon an elephant, you must have noticed two things. As the animal moves the legs of one side nearly together, the body sways from side to side at each double step. Also, though the elephant is so heavy, and the legs so apparently clumsy, the step is so soft, that the rider not only does not hear it, but actually feels no jar as the foot touches the ground.

This gentle movement is partly due to the elastic plates, which act something like our own steel carriage-springs, but in a different direction, and partly to the pads, which act just like the india-rubber tires of a bicycle-wheel.

Now, if we had never seen an elephant, or a picture of one, and had not even heard the animal described to us, we might very well wonder how so large and bulky an animal, with a neck so short that the mouth could not reach within several feet of the ground, could possibly supply itself with food and drink. If we had been asked to invent a way in which this could be done, we should certainly have failed, for, clever as man is, such a task would be quite beyond his powers.

But nature found no difficulty in doing so, for she modified the snout and the upper lip into a long trunk, or proboscis, which is so wonderfully useful that it can be employed for a great variety of purposes. As one writer has very well said, with its trunk the elephant can uproot or shake trees, lift a cannon, or pick up a pin; by its aid it can carry both food and water to the mouth, while, upon a hot day, it can turn the same organ into a shower-bath, and sprinkle its body with cool and refreshing water.

A wonderful organ, indeed, must be the trunk, which can fulfil so many purposes, and one gifted as much with a delicate sense of touch as with great and almost giant strength. And this is in very