TO THE UASIN GISHU 323 



dying beast at close quarters and killed it just as it was 

 gathering itself to spring at him. 



Thence they went to Nakuru, where Kermit killed two 

 Neuman's hartebeest. They were scarce and wild, and 

 Kermit obtained his two animals by long shots after fol- 

 lowing them for hours; following them until, as he ex- 

 pressed it, they got used to him, became a little less quick 

 to leave, and gave him his chance. 



While on this trip Kermit passed his twentieth birth- 

 day. While still nineteen he had killed all the kinds of 

 African dangerous game lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, 

 and rhino. 



Heller also rejoined us, entirely recovered. He had 

 visited Mearns and Loring at their camp high up on Mount 

 Kenia, where they had made a thoroughly biological sur- 

 vey of the mountain. He had gone to the line of perpetual 

 snow, where the rock peak rises abruptly from the swelling 

 downs, and had camped near a little glacial lake whose waters 

 froze every night. The zones of plant and animal life were 

 well marked; but there are some curious differences between 

 the zones on these equatorial African snow mountains and 

 those on similar mountains in the northern hemisphere, 

 especially America. In the high mountains of North Amer- 

 ica the mammals are apt to be, at least in part, of totally 

 different kinds from those found in the adjacent warm 

 or hot plains, because they represent a fauna which was 

 once spread over the land, but which has retreated north- 

 ward, leaving faunal islands on the summits of the taller 

 mountains. In this part of Africa, however, there has been 

 no faunal retreat of this type, no survivals on the peaks of 

 an ancient fauna which in the plains and valleys has been 



