his more or less undignified fashion it
was carried by eight strong porters to Fort Hall, two marches away,
where it lived only a week or ten days and then, to our sorrow and
regret, succumbed from lack of proper nourishment.

[Drawing: _Retiring in Favor of Rhino_]

Sometimes, when the _safari_ is marching through bush country, the rhino
becomes an element of considerable anxiety; An armed party must precede
the caravan and clear the route of rhinos, otherwise the porters are
likely to be scattered by threatened charges. It is no uncommon sight to
see a crowd of heavily laden porters drop their loads and shin up the
nearest tree in record time. Consequently, strong protective measures
are always demanded when a long train of unarmed natives is moving
through bush or scrub country where there are many rhinos.

[Drawing: _Favorite Way of Being Photographed_]

The lower Tana River country is admirably adapted to the life habits of
the rhinos. Formerly the district was well settled by natives, but now,
owing to the fever conditions prevailing there, the natives have all
moved away to more wholesome places and only the forlorn remains of
deserted villages mark where former prosperity reigned. The country has
been abandoned to game, with the result that it has been enormously
increasing during the last few years. In addition to the great numbers
of rhinos there are big herds of buffalo, enormous numbers of hippo in
the river, and many small droves of eland. Waterbuck, bushbuck,
steinbuck, impalla, hartebeest and zebra dwell in comparative immunity
from danger and may be seen in hundreds, grazing on the hills or in the
woods that fringe the river. It is a sportsman's paradise, if he manages
to escape the fever, and we enjoyed it tremendously, even though we shot
only a hundredth part of what we might easily have shot. The charm of
hunting in such a region lies in what one sees rather than in what one
kills.

CHAPTER VIII

MEETING COLONEL ROOSEVELT IN THE UTTERMOST OUTPOST OF SEMI-CIVILIZATION.
HE TALKS OF MANY THINGS, HEARS THAT HE HAS BEEN REPORTED DEAD, AND
PROMPTLY PLANS AN ELEPHANT HUNT

After one has been in British East Africa two months he begins to
readjust his preconceived ideas to fit real conditions. He discovers
that nothing is really as bad as he feared it would be, and that
distance, as usual, has magnified the terrors of a far-away land. In
spite of the fact that he is in the heart of a primitiv