APPENDIX D 



Du. Mearks, accompanied by Loring, spent from the middle of 

 September to after the middle of October, 1909, in a biolo<^ical 

 survey of Mount Kenia. I take the following account from his 

 notes. In them he treats the mountain proper as beginning at an 

 altitude of 7,500 feet. 



Mount Kenia is the only snow-capped mountain lying exactly 

 on the equator. Its altitude is about 17,200 feet. The mountain 

 is supposed to support fifteen glaciers ; those that Mearns and 

 Loring examined resembled vast snow-banks rather than clear 

 ice-glaciers. The permanent snow-line begins at the edge of the 

 glacial lakes at 15,000 feet ; on October 18 there was a heavy 

 snow-storm as low down as 11,000 feet. For some distance below 

 the snow-line the slopes were of broken rock, bare earth, and 

 gravel, Avith a scanty and insignificant vegetable growth in the 

 crannies between the rocks. These grasses and Alpine plants, 

 including giant groundsels and lobelias, cover the soil. At 

 13,000 feet timber line is reached. 



The Kenia forest belt, separating this treeless Alpine region from 

 the surrounding open plains, is from six to nine miles wide. The 

 forest zone is only imperfectly divided into successive belts of trees 

 of the same species ; for the species vary on different sides of the 

 mountain. Even the bamboo zone is interrupted. On the west 

 side the zones may be divided into : 



1. A cedar zone from 7,000 or 7,500 to 8,500 feet. The cedars 



are mixed with many hardwood trees. 



2. A belt composed mainly of bamboo and yellow-wood (African 



yew) from 8,500 to 10,700 feet. Here the true timber 

 zone ends. 



3. A zone of giant heath, mixed with giant groundsels and 



shrubs, extending to 1 '3,000 feet. The heaths may be 30 

 feet high, and can be used as fuel. In this zone are many 

 boggy meadows. 



Loring and Meanis occupied five collecting camps in the forest 

 zone and one above it, at 13,700 feet. One day Mearns followed 



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