the Nzoia River. Naturally, these names will mean nothing to one
not familiar with the country, but perhaps by saying that the trip means
at least ten days of steady marching in a remote and unsettled country,
far from sources of supplies, I will be able to convey a faint idea of
how hard it is to reach the elephant country.

Our purpose in making this long trip of ten weeks or more was to try for
black-maned lion on the high plateau and to collect elephants for the
group that Mr. Akeley is preparing for the American Museum of Natural
History. The government gave him a special permit to collect such
elephants as he would require, two cows, a calf, a young bull, and, if
possible, two large bulls. One or more of these were to be killed by
Colonel Roosevelt and one by myself. It seemed promising that the cows,
calf, and young bull could be got on Mount Elgon, but the likelihood of
getting the big bulls was far from encouraging. Lieutenant-Governor
Jackson thought we might be successful if we directed our efforts to the
southeastern slopes of the mountain and avoided the northeastern slopes
along the River Turkwel, which had been hunted a good deal by sportsmen
and poachers. If we were unable to get the big bulls on Elgon it might
be necessary to make a special trip into Uganda for them. However, we
determined to try, and try we did, through eight weeks of hard work and
wonderful experiences in that remote district.

[Photograph: A Kikuyu Spearman]

[Photograph: The Porters Like Elephant Meat]

[Photograph: My Masai Sais and Gunbearers]

At Sergoi, the very outpost of crude civilization, we were warned not to
go up the southern side of the mountain on account of the natives that
live there. We were told that they were inclined to be troublesome. We
met Captain Ashton and Captain Black coming out after six weeks on the
northern slopes. They reported seeing big herds, but mostly cows and
calves. At Sergoi we also received word from Colonel Roosevelt and at
once marched to the Nzoia River, where we met him.

During our march we saw no elephants, but as we neared the river there
were fresh signs of elephant along the trail. It is strikingly
indicative of the "Roosevelt luck" that he saw, on the morning we met
him, the only elephants that he had seen in the district, and that
within twenty-four hours from that time he had killed three elephants
and Kermit one. Of this number two cows killed by Colonel Roosevelt were
satisf