14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 60 
Twenty-eight lions were secured during this time, and the expe- 
dition returned to Nairobi over the same route by which it had 
entered the district. After a short delay at Nairobi, the safari pro- 
ceeded northward to the desert region on the Abyssinian frontier. 
Only the northern edge of this desert could be explored owing to 
the lack of camels for transportation, as all these animals had been 
recently acquired by the government for military purposes. The 
route from Nairobi lay directly northward to Fort Hall, thence along 
the west slope of Mount Kenia to Nyeri. From this station the 
party traveled along the north slope of the great mountain for a few 
days and then struck directly northward into the low, dry, thorn 
brush desert. This desert extends several hundred miles northward 
to the Abyssinian Highlands, but only the southern part of it was 
visited. It is a very dry, hot region, of limited water supply, and 
long journeys are often necessary between waterholes or springs. 
Hunting operations were confined chiefly to the immediate vicinity 
of some of these waterholes since a fairly large per cent of the game 
animais inhabiting the district require water and visit the springs 
daily for their supply. The fauna here is identical with that of 
Somaliland in character, and very different from that of the East 
African highlands. Specimens of nearly all the species of mammals 
of this country were secured, including a cow elephant with record 
tusks. * 
Mr. Heller explored faunally two of the high mountains in the 
desert region. The highest of these was Mount Garguez which has 
an altitude of 8,000 feet, and is isolated by many miles of desert from 
its nearest neighbors. Its summit is covered by a dense forest similar 
to that found on Mt. Kenia. Previous to this trip the mountain had 
never been visited by a naturalist, and several new races of mammals 
were secured in the forest on its summit. Mr. Heller also visited 
another isolated mountain, Tololakin, a mountain somewhat lower 
and not so thickly forested, which showed a less specialized mammal 
fauna. After completing the survey of these two mountains, he 
proceeded to the Guaso Nyiro River and followed its course west- 
ward to the station of Nyeri, whence his route lay over the high 
plateau of the Aberdare Range and then down to Naivasha Station. 
Mr. Rainey, in the meantime, had trained a second pack of hounds 
and in two months bagged over forty lions, sixteen of which were ob- 
tained in one day. 
Mr. Heller then proceeded down the Uganda Railroad to Voi, 
which is the chief station in the Taita District, where he spent two 
weeks exploring the Taita Hills. Many rare mammals were secured 
