TO THE UASIN GISHU 383 



fornia rather than any tropical country. Some of the hills 

 were bald, others wooded to the top; there were wet 

 meadows, and hill-sides covered with tussocks of rank, thick- 

 growing grass, alternating with stretches of forest; and the 

 chief trees of the forest were stately cedars, yews, and. tall 

 laurel-leaved olives. All this was, at least in superficial 

 aspect, northern enough; but now and then we came to 

 patches of the thoroughly tropical bamboo, which in East 

 Africa, however, one soon grows to associate with cold, 

 rainy weather, for it only grows at high altitudes. In this 

 country, high, cold, rainy, there were several kinds of buck, 

 but none in any numbers. The most interesting were the 

 roan antelope, which went in herds. Their trails led every- 

 where, across the high, rolling hill pastures of coarse grass, 

 and through the tangled tree groves and the still, lifeless 

 bamboo jungle. They were found in herds and lived in the 

 open, feeding on the bare hill-sides and in the wet valleys 

 at all hours; but they took cover freely, and when the 

 merciless gales blew they sought shelter in woodland and 

 jungle. Usually they grazed, but once I saw one browsing. 

 Both on our way in and on our way back, through this hill 

 country, we shot several roan, for, though their horns are 

 poor, they form a distinct sub-species, peculiar to the re- 

 gion. The roan is a big antelope, nearly as tall, although 

 by no means as bulky, as an eland, with curved scimitar- 

 like horns, huge ears, and face markings as sharply defined 

 as those of an oryx. It is found here and there, in isolated 

 localities, throughout Africa south of the Sahara, and is of 

 bold, fierce temper. One of those which Kermit shot was 

 only crippled by the first bullet, and charged the gun- 

 bearers, squealing savagely, in addition to using its horns; 

 an angry roan, like a sable, is said sometimes to bite with 

 its teeth. Kermit also killed a ratel or honey badger, in a 

 bamboo thicket; an interesting beast; its back snow white 

 and the rest of its body jet black. 



As on the Aberdares and the slopes of Kenia, the nights 

 among these mountains were cold; sometimes so cold that 



