Monday's Times contained an announcement of the greatest interest to
all naturalists and sportsmen. The Alexander- Gosling Expedition, which is exploring the northern territory of the Congo Free State, reports that it has secured a specimen of the okapi in the district of Angu or on the River Welle, and that its members have seen the animal alive. Since Sir Harry Johnston sent the original skin to the British Museum in 1901, several skins have been obtained from hunters in the Congo Forest, but no white man has seen the animal. The okapi has been, like the diplodocus, an intelligent deduction from certain remains. The expedi- tion's specimen was secured by their Portuguese hunter, Jose Lopez, who trapped it in a deep pit. They are found, apparently, in marshy ground beside small streams,. and live chiefly on a marsh plant, on which they feed iE the night. They are very shy, very quick of bearing, and lie close in the bush, like the bushbnck. They are far from common, but the expedition reports that on the hunting- ground of one village there were five or six.
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