Fourteen hundred miles lay behind me in my camels’ tracks, and all of the months of a year but one since the day I left home.
Assuredly, and perhaps I may be forgiven for thinking so, it was good to be back on British soil, good to hear my own tongue spoken, and good to look on the broad grin on John’s face. “Kano is sweet past Zinder,” he had said long ago, and boarding the steamer at Lagos a few days later, while honest John stood by with tears in his eyes and repeated injunctions that “master” was to hurry to return, I said to him: “Yes, John, what you mean is: ‘Home is sweet past anywhere else on earth—and you are right!’” And I stepped on board, followed by John’s parting cry ringing in my ears: “Sai wata rana” (Farewell till another day).
APPENDIX
NEW SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES DISCOVERED DURING THE EXPEDITION
NEW SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES OF MAMMALS (OTHER THAN RUMINANTS)
Described by Messrs. Oldfield Thomas and Martin A. C. Hinton of the British Museum (Natural History). (The complete collection is fully described by Messrs. Thomas and Hinton in Novitates Zoologicæ, the Journal of the Tring Museum, vol. xxviii., pp. 1-13, 1921.)
| Locality taken | |
| Wild cat: Felis haussa sp. nov. | Kano and Damagarim. |
| Caracal (Lynx): Caracal caracal poecilotis subsp. nov. | Baguezan Mts. |
| Pale sand-coloured fox: Vulpes pallida harterti subsp. nov. | Damergou and Aïr. |
| Silver-grey fox: Vulpes rüppelli cæsia subsp. nov. | Aïr. |
| Striped weasel: Poecilictis rothschildi sp. nov. | Kano. |
| Ground Squirrel: Euxerus erythropus agadius subsp. nov. | Aïr. |
| Naked-soled gerbil: Taterillus gracilis angelus subsp. nov. | Kano. |
| Nigerian hairy-soled gerbil: Gerbillus nigeriæ sp. nov. | Kano and Damagarim. |
| Dwarf gerbil: Desmodilliscus buchanani sp. nov. | Kano. |
| Fat-tailed mouse: Steatomys cuppedius sp. nov. | Kano. |
| Giant rat: Cricetomys buchanani sp. nov. | Kano. |
| Dwarf mouse: Leggada haussa sp. nov. | Kano and Damagarim. |
| Spiney rock mouse: Acomys airensis sp. nov. | Aïr. |
| Striped bush mouse: Lemniscomys olga sp. nov. | Damergou. |
| Jerboa: Jaculus jaculus airensis subsp. nov. | Damergou and Aïr. |
| Gundi: Massoutiera rothschildi sp. nov. | Aïr. |
| Short-eared hare: Lepus canopus sp. nov. | Kano. |
| Rock dassie: Procavia buchanani sp. nov. | Aïr. |
With regard to the entire collection of mammals (other than Ruminants), in which is contained the above species and subspecies which are new, the British Museum paper, in the foreword makes the following appreciative statements:
“Thanks to the kindness of Lord Rothschild we are now able to give a list of the complete collection made by Captain Buchanan, both of such further mammals as he obtained in the Kano region and of those which he got northwards to Aïr itself, which he explored most successfully.
As this is a country which has been hitherto entirely out of the ken of mammalogists, we were prepared to expect a considerable number of new forms to be discovered, but we certainly never expected that so very high a proportion of the species would be new. Indeed we believe it may safely be said that in the history of mammalogy no collection containing so high a proportion of novelties has ever come to Europe from a continental locality.