The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-22


 March f. with his retirement as twenty peted over 25 years of public service, has decided to take rest and recreation in a two-years' trip abroad half of which will
 be spent in Africa under the British flag as a faunal naturalist and the other i half in Europe visiting at least three of the big capitals. At the head of a scientific expedition outfitted by the
 Smithsonian institution of Washington he
 will, with his son, Kermit and three American naturalsts of note-Maj. Edgar
 A. Mearns, J. Loring Alden and Ed
 mund Heller-make a collection of man. mals, birds reptiles, insects and botanical specimens of Central Africa, which will be deposited in the United States National museum at Washington.
 The party leave New York city about the middle of March, going by the Medi- terranean route to Gibraltar and Naples. At Naples the members of the expedition
 will board a steamer of the German East African line for Kilindini harbor, Mom- basa island. They will arrive at the East African port toward the end of April, proceed by the Uganda railroad to Nairobi, spend six months there, then continue by rail to Port Florence, Lake Victoria Nyanza making a total distance of 5S4 miles by rail. The expedition will cross Uganda by caravan, and finally pass down the whole length of the Nile,
 reaching Khartoum about April, 1910. Much of the hunting and specimen col lecting will be done in British East AT rica, where the Uganda railway Will be used as a means of ready transportation from Nairobi, which will be the base of supplies. , At Khartoum, 1t Is expected, the Presi- dent and his son will be joined by Mrs. Roosevelt, who will accompany them on their trip to Europe. The naturallsts of the party will proceed direct to the United States from Egypt. MT. Roosevelt probably will remain In continental Eu-
 rope and Great Britain about one year.
 having accepted invitations to deliver the Romanes lecture at Oxford university,
 an address at the Sorbonne in Paris and a lecture before the students or the Ohi- versity of Berlin.
 Long has it been the desire of MT Roosevelt to make hunting tour into the heart of Africa. He has made
 numerous trips in search of big game
 in every part of the United States where such animals make their abode. for years he has been an ardent hunter ana a writer of hunting stories Some of his books on the subject are Hunting
 Trips of a Ranchman," written from
 his experiences while on a North Dakota ranch, when he spent two years raising
 cattle; Ranch Life and Hunting Trail" "The Wilderness Hunter" "The Deer Family" Outdoor Pastimes of an Amer | ican Hunter" In the latter volume he | refers to the sport in these words: | "From the days of Nimrod to our own | there have been mighty hunters before | the Lord and most warlike and master | full races have taken kindly to the chase, 1 as chief among those rough pastimes l which appeal naturally to men with plen-
 ty of red blood in their veins"
 1 Statements have been made to the ef- l feet that the game preserves in British | East Africa under control of the British | colonial government are to be opened to 1 the President and his companions to shoot 1 at will No advantage of the offers will 1 be taken, Mir. Roosevelt having made up 1 his mind to decline to do any shooting on l government preserves where the hunting | is not open to all. The feeling of the l President on this matter of shooting on | government reservations he explains in | this way: A person taking advantage to l shoot on government reservations In Ar 1 rica would be exactly in the same posi- | tion of any foreigner who came to Amer | lea and was given permission by the Uni- | ted States government to shoot at will in 1 the government reservation at Yellow | stone park, where the American buffalo | to be found almost nowhere else, roams unmolested. The President declares that 1 such permission rightly would arouse re- | sentiment.
 | MT. Roosevelt shares with other sports
 men the feeling that the wild animals on
 
 utmost and that under no circumstances
 should permission be given to kill them, except, possibly, when predatory animals become too numerous for the safety of | other practically defenseless animals. Per | mission for one person to shoot on res ervation, MT. Roosevelt believes, would lead eventually to permission to others, and that in the end the game reservation
 would not be a reservation at all in its proper sense.
 It Is MT. Roosevelt's desire that his African hunting expedition shall not be looked upon as one with sport as main object A limited number of specimens of mammals and birds will be killed for
 the uses of the United States National
 Museum. Other killing will be confined to
 the limits of the necessary food supply of the camp. On his trip MT. Roosevelt hopes to secure for scientific purposes two adult specimens, one of each sex, and a speci- men of their young, of animals he is likely to meet on the dark continent. For the ordinary needs of the museum the Presi- dent and the naturalsts and director of the Smithsonian institution, whom he has i consulted think these will be sufficient. but whether they are sufficient or not these are all he has in mind to kill: no matter how plentiful the game may be. It Is the known wish of the President that the expedition intoNAfrica shall be made with the privacy that marks, or should mark, any other scientific expedi tion. MT. Roosevelt wants an outing and a chance to do a moderate amount of shoot ing, with a first view to getting results that will be of some benefit to science. While a number of the American news papers would like to send correspondents with MT Roosevelt, it is needless to say that no newspaper representatives will accompany the party.
 It was to Secretary Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution that MT. Roose welt first unfolded the tentative plans of his African trip. In a letter to the sec retary he made known his project of go- ing after his term of office expired, to Africa for the purpose of hunting and travelling in British and German East Africa, crossing Uganda and working down the Nile with side trips after ani- mas and birds. He declared then that he is mot in the least game butcher,' saying: 'I like to do a certain amount of hunting, but my real and main interest is the interest of a faunal naturalist"
 In his letter he expressed the opinion that this trip opened the best chance for the United States National Museum to get fine collection, not only of the big game beasts. but of the smaller man.