324 TO T HE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 



tussocks of rank, thick-growing grass, alternating with 

 stretches of forest ; and the chief trees of the forest 

 were stately cedars, yews, and tall laiu'el-leaved olives. 

 All this was, at least in superficial aspect, northern 

 enough ; but now and then we came to patches of the 

 thoroughly tropical bamboo, which in East Africa, how- 

 ever, one soon grows to associate with cold, rainy 

 weather, for it only grows at high altitudes. In this 

 country, high, cold, rainy, there were several kinds of 

 buck, but none in any numbers. The most interesting 

 were the roan antelope, which went in herds. Their 

 trails led everywhere, across the high, rolling hill 

 pastures of coarse gi'ass, and through the tangled tree 

 groves and the still, lifeless bamboo jungle. They were 

 found in herds and lived in the open, feeding on the 

 bare hill-sides and in the wet ^ alleys at all hours ; but 

 they took cover freely, and when the merciless gales 

 blew they sought shelter in woodland and jungle. 

 Usually they grazed, but once I saw one browsing. 

 Both on our way in and on our way back, through this 

 hill country, we shot se\'eral roan, for, though tlieir 

 horns are poor, they form a distinct sub-species, peculiar 

 to the region. The roan is a big antelope, nearly as tall, 

 although by no means as bulky, as an eland, with 

 curved scimitar-like horns, huge ears, and face markings 

 as sharply defined as those of an oryx. It is found here 

 and there, in isolated localities throughout Africa soutli 

 of the Sahara, and is of bold, fierce temper. One of 

 those which Kermit shot was only crippled by the first 

 bullet, and charged the gun-bearers, squealing savagely, 

 in addition to using its horns ; an angry roan, like a 

 sable, is said sometimes to bite with its teeth. Kermit 

 also killed a ratel, or honey badger, in a bamboo thicket ; 



