AND THE RUDOLF BASIN 



31 



with a mingling of conifers, yews, witc-h-hazels, and some of the timher 

 and vegetation more characteristic of equatorial regions — a coml)ination, 

 in short, of tlie tro])ical forest with the temperate. In these extremely 

 dense woods, which it is impossible for a Euroijean to ])enetrate without 

 a pioneering party to cut a way, but which are nevertheless the 

 hunting-ground of the nomad Andorolx), the two most ciiaracteristie 

 creatures are the colobus monkey and a large species of trao-elaphus 

 antelope, which resembles in some res[)ects the nyala of South Africa, 

 and in others the broad-horned tragelaph of the Gaboon. The presence 

 of this tragelaphus is often made known by its peculiar bark, but, 

 although well known to the Andorobo, it has very seldom been seen by 

 Europeans. But the colobus monkey (which is found throughout the 

 Uganda Protectorate and much else of tropical Africa, wherever the forest 

 is dense enough, no matter whether it be cold of climate or always hot) 

 is a far more common sight. The Andorobo who lurk in these forests 

 live mainly on the tlesh of this creature, which they shoot from below 

 with poisoned arrows. Having satisfied tlieir hunger on its flesh, they 

 sell the skin with its long, silky, 

 black and white hair, and its 

 tail with the immense silky 

 plume at the end, to the Masai 

 or other warlike races, who make 

 it into head-dresses or capes ; 

 or else to the European or 

 Swahili trader. As the Andorol>o 

 are rapidly bringing the ex- 

 termination of the colobus within 

 view, its destruction and the 

 sale of its skin are now pro- 

 hibited, though it will lie a long 

 time before the prohibition is 

 understood and obeyed by these 

 wild men of the woods. 



The Eldama Kavine station 

 merits a few words of de- 

 scription. It is situated at an 

 altitude of about 7,400 feet, on 

 the broken slopes of the Nandi 

 Plateau, facing in one direction 

 the wooded Kamasia Hills, look- 

 ing towards the corner of Lake 

 Baringo in another, and gazing 



