324 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



replaced by another fauna; here the mammals of the high 

 mountains and table-lands are merely modified forms of 

 the mammals of the adjacent lowlands, which have grad- 

 ually crept up the slopes, changing in the process. High 

 on Mount Kenia, for instance, are hyraxes, living among 

 the snow fields, much bigger than their brethren of the 

 forests and rocky hills below; and light-colored mole rats, 

 also much bigger than those of the lower country. More- 

 over, the lack of seasonal change is probably accountable 

 for differences in the way that the tree zones are delimited. 

 The mountain conifers of America are huge trees on the 

 middle slopes, but higher up gradually dwindle into a thick, 

 low scrub, composed of sprawling, dwarfed individuals of the 

 same species. On Mount Kenia the tree zone ceases much 

 more abruptly and with much less individual change 

 among the different kinds of trees. Above this zone are the 

 wet, cold downs and moors, with a very peculiar vegeta- 

 tion, plants which we know only as small flowering things 

 having become trees. The giant groundsell, for instance, 

 reaches a height of twenty feet, with very thick trunk and 

 limbs which, though hollow, make good firewood ; and this 

 is only one example of the kind. 



At Nairobi we learned, as usual, of incident after inci- 

 dent, which had happened among our friends and ac- 

 quaintances, of exactly the type which would occur were 

 it possible in North America or Europe suddenly to mix 

 among existing conditions the men and animals that died 

 out some hundreds of thousands of years ago. In a previ- 

 ous chapter I mentioned on one occasion meeting at dinner 

 three men, all of whom had been mauled by lions; one be- 

 ing our host, Mr. F. A. Ward, who had served as a captain 



