APPENDIX D 



DR. MEARNS, accompanied by Loring, spent from the middle of Sep- 

 tember to after the middle of October, 1909, in a biological survey of 

 Mount Kenia. I take the following account from his notes. In them 

 he treats the mountain proper as beginning at an altitude of 7,500 feet. 



Mount Kenia is the only snow-capped mountain lying exactly on 

 the equator. Its altitude is about 17,200 feet. The mountain is supposed 

 to support 15 glaciers; those that Mearns and Loring examined resembled 

 vast snow banks rather than clear ice-glaciers. The permanent snow line 

 begins at the edge of the glacial lakes at 15,000 feet; on October i8th there 

 was a heavy snow-storm as low down as n,ooo feet. For some distance 

 below the snow line the slopes were of broken rock, bare earth, and 

 gravel, with a scanty and insignificant vegetable growth in the crannies 

 between the rocks. These grasses and alpine plants, including giant 

 groundsells and lobelias, cover the soil. At 13,000 feet timber line is 

 reached. 



The Kenia forest belt, separating this treeless alpine region from 

 the surrounding open plains, is from 6 to 9 miles wide. The forest zone 

 is only imperfectly divided into successive belts of trees of the same species; 

 for the species vary on different sides of the mountain. Even the bamboo 

 zone is interrupted. On the west side the zones may be divided into: 



(1) A cedar zone from 7,000 or 7,500 to 8,500 feet. The cedars are 



mixed with many hardwood trees. 



(2) A belt composed mainly of bamboo and yellow-wood (African 



yew) from 8,500 to 10,700 feet. Here the true timber zone ends. 



(3) A zone of giant heath, mixed with giant groundsells and shrubs, 



extending to 13,000 feet. The heaths may be 30 feet high 

 and can be used as fuel. In this zone are many boggy 

 meadows. 



Loring and Mearns occupied five collecting camps in the forest zone 

 and one above it, at 13,700 feet. One day Mearns followed the snow 

 line for a mile without seeing any traces of large animals, although leop- 

 ards and smaller cats sometimes wander to this height. The grove- 

 toothed rat, otomys, was numerous in the grass bordering the glacial 

 lakes at a height of 15,000 feet; so were the big mountain hyrax; and 

 Mearns shot one of these animals at 15,500 feet, by a snow bank; it was 

 the highest point at which any mammal was collected. Various kinds of 

 rats and shrews were numerous about the 13,700 foot camp. Above 12,000 

 feet only three small birds were seen: a long-tailed sunbird, a stone 

 chat, and a fantail warbler. 



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