CHAPTER VI
ALONG THE TRAIL
The land teems with the beasts of the chase,
infinite in number and incredible in variety.
It holds the fiercest beasts of ravin, and the
fleetest and most timid of those beings that live in
undying fear of talon and fang. It holds the largest
and the smallest of hoofed animals. It holds the
mightiest creatures that tread the earth or swim in
its rivers; it also holds distant kinsfolk of these same
creatures, no bigger than woodchucks, which dwell in
crannies of the rocks and in tree tops. There are
antelope smaller than hares and antelope larger than
oxen. There are creatures which are the embodiments
of grace, and others whose huge ungainliness
is like that of a shape in a nightmare. The plains
are alive with droves of strange and beautiful animals
whose like is not known elsewhere; and with others
even stranger that show both in form and temper
something of the fantastic and the grotesque."
So Theodore Roosevelt, in that vivid word picture of jungle sights and sounds, the foreword of "African Game Trails," suggests the vast variety of animal acquaintances the hunter may make in Africa. I have sought out or happened upon many others besides my particular friends, the elephants and gorillas.
