46 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



the extensive dispersal of forest animals. By using the 

 shelter of riparian tree growth it is possible for an animal 

 to travel within the forest from eastern Kenia westward 

 to the Congo watershed. By this route several West Africa 

 game animals, notably the bongo, giant pig, red duiker, 

 and Abbott duiker, have reached the coast drainage of 

 East Africa. Formerly this forest was much more extensive 

 between the Aberdare Range and Mount Kenia, where large 

 areas of the intermediate region have been deforested by 

 the Kikuyu tribe in order to give them new soil for cultiva- 

 tion. Similarly destructive agricultural methods have sep- 

 arated portions of the Elgon and Nandi forests, which were 

 formerly continuous. Isolated patches of this forest area oc- 

 cur in remote regions like the Taita Hills in the coast nyika. 

 To the north of Kenia isolated patches of forest again occur 

 on Lololokwi, Uarages, and many other peaks of the Mathew 

 Range as far northward as Lake Rudolf. In the extreme 

 southeast lie Kilimanjaro and Usambara on the German 

 border, covered by an extensive forest area which is isolated 

 by many miles of desert from the highland forest of Kenia. 

 Westward in Uganda on the elevated slopes of the Ruwen- 

 zori Range the same type of forest exists above six thousand 

 feet altitude. Ruwenzori is surrounded by, or rather its 

 snow-crowned peaks are set in, a wide belt of highland for- 

 est. All of the highland forest is in the volcanic area and is 

 underlain by lavas, chiefly trachytes and phonolites. Within 

 the forest the soil is a black leaf-mould, but when this is 

 removed a red clay soil is exposed, which is somewhat dif- 

 ferent in composition from that so universal in the nyika. 

 Owing to the great quantity of ferric oxide in the soil, 

 weathering converts it into a hard iron pan formation 



