KENYA (I!) 299 
It was a great moment when we arrived at the London docks, 
for there on the quayside stood Dr. Vevers and his wife whom I 
had not seen since 1939—over six years previously—when I said 
good-by on leaving for an anticipated four months’ trip to Mada- 
gascar. 
There was quite a procession as the animals were driven 
through the East End in lorries and low-loaders. There had been 
no elephants in London during the war, so that London children 
up to eight years old or more had not seen one or could not re- 
member seeing one. Thus the look of astonishment on children’s 
faces was grand to behold as the low-loader passed and they saw 
Dicksi waving her trunk out of the back. I was following close 
behind Dicksi in a car and so heard most of the comments. When 
I heard the first of these—“Blimey, helephant!” as a small boy 
pointed excitedly—I knew without doubt what part of the world 
I was in. 
About two months after my arrival the Crawshay’s Tree 
Hyraxes produced an infant, which was an interesting event. The 
pair had been presented to me by Captain Ritchie of Nairobi, 
who had kept them for some years at liberty in his house. They 
had perfect freedom to wander at will but chose to live in a loft, 
from where they made excursions for food in the way of leaves, 
and to sunbathe. 
I saw the baby a few hours after it was born and it was then 
seven inches long, that is, about half the length of its mother. It 
was even then almost as agile as its parents and had well-de- 
veloped lower incisors. 
The hyrax is remarkable for its long gestation period—about 
two hundred and twenty-five days—and appears to have no rival 
of similar size in this respect. It is about the same period as that 
of the hippopotamus. This represents an extreme in nature, for 
here the young one is born in such an advanced state of develop- 
ment that it can flee from danger and look after itself almost 
from birth. The other extreme is found in the non-placental ani- 
mals—the marsupials—where, if we take an animal of similar size 
to the hyrax, such as the Virginian Opossum, the gestation period 
is from eight to thirteen days. As in all marsupials, the young in 
