14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 60 



Twenty-eight lions were secured during this time, and the expe- 

 dition returned to Nairobi over the same route by which it had 

 entered the district. After a short delay at Nairobi, the safari pro- 

 ceeded northward to the desert region on the Abyssinian frontier. 

 Only the northern edge of this desert could be explored owing to 

 the lack of camels for transportation, as all these animals had been 

 recently acquired by the government for military purposes. The 

 route from Nairobi lay directly northward to Fort Hall, thence along 

 the west slope of Mount Kenia to Nyeri. From this station the 

 party traveled along the north slope of the great mountain for a few 

 days and then struck directly northward into the low, dry, thorn 

 brush desert. This desert extends several hundred miles northward 

 to the Abyssinian Highlands, but only the southern part of it was 

 visited. It is a very dry, hot region, of limited water supply, and 

 long journeys are often necessary between waterholes or springs. 

 Hunting operations were confined chiefly to the immediate vicinity 

 of some of these waterholes since a fairly large per cent of the game 

 animais inhabiting the district require water and visit the springs 

 daily for their supply. The fauna here is identical with that of 

 Somaliland in character, and very different from that of the East 

 African highlands. Specimens of nearly all the species of mammals 

 of this country were secured, including a cow elephant with record 

 tusks. 



Mr. Heller explored faunally two of the high mountains in the 

 desert region. The highest of these was Mount ( iarguez which has 

 an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is isolated by many miles of desert from 

 its nearest neighbors. Its summit is covered by a dense forest similar 

 to that found on Mt. Kenia. Previous to this trip the mountain had 

 never been visited by a naturalist, and several new races of mammals 

 were secured in the forest on its summit. Mr. Heller also visited 

 another isolated mountain, Tololakin, a mountain somewhat lower 

 and not so thickly forested, which showed a less specialized mammal 

 fauna. After completing the survey of these two mountains, he 

 proceeded to the Guaso Nyiro River and followed its course west- 

 ward to the station of Nyeri, whence his route lay over the high 

 plateau of the Aberdare Range and then down to Naivasha Station. 



Mr. Rainey, in the meantime, had trained a second pack of hounds 

 and in two months bagged over forty lions, sixteen of which were ob- 

 tained in one day. 



Mr. Heller then proceeded down the Uganda Railroad to Voi, 

 which is the chief station in the Taita District, where he spent two 

 weeks exploring the Taita Mills. Manx rare mammals were secured 



