My kind friend and hospitable host Dr. (now Sir) John Kirk,
who did the geography and natural history for the lamentable Zambeze
expedition, met it close to the Victoria Falls. Burton also sent home a
specimen from the Gold Coast east of Accra.
Mr. MacLennan gave me sundry beetles, but insisted on retaining one which
is the largest I ever saw. The hunting-dog must scour the bush in packs,
for the voice is exactly that of hounds. The laugh of the hyaena and the
scream of the buzzard are commonly heard. The track of a 'bush-cow' once
crossed my path: the halves of the spoor were some five inches long by
three wide, and the hoofs knuckled backwards so as to show false hoofs of
almost equal size. I was unable to procure for Dr. Guenther a specimen of
the 'bush-dog,' as the Kruboys call it: last year I was bringing home a
live one in the s.s. _Nubia_; but one day the fellow in charge reported
that it was dead and had been thrown overboard. I hold it to be a tailless
lemur, the _galago_ of the East Coast. The French name is _orson_, the
popular idea being that it is an ursine. The Fanti peoples, whose
'folk-lore' is extensive, and who have some tale about every bird, beast,
and fish, thus account for the loud cries which we heard at night in every
'bush.
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