CHAPTER XXV 



The forests of Kenia are of hardwood. They grow 

 on the lower slopes of the mountains, extending up to 

 the 8,000-9,000 mark, where they are succeeded by the 

 bamboos. Therefore the surface of the country they 

 cover is hilly, consisting of long spur-like ridges or 

 hogsbacks with steep sides separated by deep canons 

 and short lateral ravines. The forest growth itself is 

 of three kinds: Imagine, first, the planting of single 

 great spreading trees at spaced intervals; trees in shape 

 like elms, maples, or beeches, but three or four times 

 their size. Fill in the spaces between them with a very 

 thick growth of smaller trees — one hundred feet high 

 and a foot or so through. Then below that a leafy 

 undergrowth, so dense as to be literally impenetrable 

 to either sight or locomotion. This undergrowth is of 

 many varieties. It puts out big leaves, small leaves; 

 grows on hard stems, watery soft stems; it stands a foot 

 high or forty — generally both. Vines of all sizes tie it 

 together; vines ranging in size from little tough ones as 

 small as a whipcord through which you think you can 

 push easily (you cannot !) up to big cables. Underfoot 

 are ferns. Along the slanting trunks of trees grow 

 other ferns and damp mosses. Streamers of moss de- 



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