As there had been a deluge of rain during the night, the road, which for the greater part of the way formed a mere track across the yielding black alluvial soil, was very bad going, being in places indeed little better than lakes of mud, and almost everywhere cut up into deep ruts. Despite this (and the bad state of the track, as well as the condition of several of the wooden bridges, would have well-nigh broken the heart of an English coachman), with only a single change of horses, the journey of some fifty kilometres was safely accomplished in a little over four hours; and by half-past nine, that is to say, about sixty-one hours from London, we were heartily welcomed by our kind host and hostess and their family. It should be added that a metalled road is in course of construction, which, when completed, will render the journey from Schepetowka to Antoniny much easier. To adequately describe Antoniny would far exceed the limits at my disposal; while even if considerations of space were non-existent, it would be difficult to do justice to a domain of such magnificence. It must suffice, then, to state that the palace, which is admirably situated on rising ground, and looks on to a spacious courtyard, with the stables on the farther side, has been added to by successive owners till it has attained what may be truly termed regal proportions, while it is kept up in corresponding style and state; the owner flying his own flag when in residence, while when the Countess alone is at home her flag is substituted. As an indication of the owner’s sporting tastes, reference may be made to a fine series of trophies of African and Indian big game displayed on portions of the walls of the hall as well as on those of the galleries and corridors above. These trophies are the results of four separate hunting trips undertaken by the Count: to India, Ceylon, Somaliland, and the Blue Nile. The Somali and Ceylon trips have been respectively described in a couple of handsome and lavishly illustrated volumes, the former of which has been translated into English. Among the trophies on which the owner sets especial store may be mentioned the heads of a beisa oryx (_Oryx beisa_) and of a dibatag or Clarke’s gazelle (_Ammodorcas clarkei_), the horns of the latter approaching “record” measurements. Personally, however, I was more interested in the skins of a Somali lion and lioness which show the abundant brown-spotting of the limbs, underparts, and flanks, characteristic of this race (_Felis leo somalica_). The lion skin, which (as is proved by the skull) belonged to an adult animal, is further remarkable for the practical absence of mane. Spotting seems peculiar (except in the case of cubs) to East African lions, and attains its maximum development in the Masai lion (_F. leo masaica_) of German East Africa.