142 A BUFFAT.O HUNT [ch. vi 



It grows up the mahogo as a vine, and gradually, by 

 branching, and by the spreading of the branches, com- 

 pletely envelops the trunk, and also grows along each 

 limb, and sends out great limbs of its own. Every 

 stage can be seen, from that in which the big vine has 

 begun to grow up along the still flourishing mahogo, 

 through that in which the tree looks like a curious 

 composite, the limbs and thick foliage of the fig branch- 

 ing out among the limbs and scanty foliage of the still 

 living mahogo, to the stage in which the mahogo is 

 simply a dead skeleton seen here and there through the 

 trunk or the foliage of the fig. Finally nothing remains 

 but the fig, which grows to be a huge tree. 



Heatley's house was charming, with its vine-shaded 

 veranda, its summer-house and out-buildings, and the 

 great trees clustered round about. He was fond of 

 sport in the right way — that is, he treated it as sport 

 and not business, and did not allow it to interfere with 

 his prime work of being a successful farmer. He had 

 big stock-yards for his cattle and swine, and he was 

 growing all kinds of things of both the temperate and 

 the tropic zones — wheat and apples, coffee and sugar- 

 cane. The bread we ate and the coffee we drank were 

 made from what he had grown on his own farm. 

 There were roses in the garden and great bushes of 

 heliotrope by the veranda, and the drive to his place 

 was bordered by trees from Australia and beds of native 

 flowers. 



Next day we went into Nairobi, where we spent a 

 most busy week, especially the three naturalists ; for 

 the task of getting into shape for shipment, and then 

 shipping, the many hundreds of specimens — indeed, all 

 told, there were thousands of specimens — was of Hercu- 

 lean proportions. Governor Jackson — a devoted orni- 



