l86 THE GAME OF BRITISH EAST AFRICA. 



forested. These hills, on which the trees have been left, are sacred groves in which 

 the Kikuyu offer sacrifices for rain, etc. The uniformity with which these little forest- 

 clad hills spring up the whole way across this cultivated region leads one to suppose 

 that once upon a time, before the Kikuyu came with axe and fire to devastate 

 the land, the whole of this region was covered with a vast forest extending from 

 Kenya to the Aberdares. 



A curious circumstance is that on a few of these isolated hills colobus are found, 

 left as it were on a little island, presumably at some time past cut off from the 

 main forests by the inroads of plantations in all directions. 



The little patches of forest left to them probably dwindled year by year, till now 

 they have only a space limited to the summit of sacred hills to inhabit. Finding 

 themselves unmolested they have probably preferred to remain where they were 

 rather than make a trek of perhaps ten or twenty miles to the nearest part of the 

 forest. Moreover, I doubt very much if a colobus would be able to perform such 

 a journey on terra firma, for they practically never leave the branches of trees 

 as do other monkeys. The above circumstances, to my mind, afford sufficient 

 proof that Kenya and the Aberdares were at one time connected by either a strip 

 or a wide stretch of forest. Colobus are not very common either in the Aberdares 

 or Kenya. In the escarpment forests, however, they are found in vast quantities. 



On Kilimanjaro there is a great belt of forest land containing elephants, colobus > 

 and other forest animals. The scaly manis is said to be found there, also the 

 Zanzibar suni. 



Above Loldiani (Londiani), Lumbwa, and Fort Ternan on the railway line are 

 great forests stretching into the Nandi country, and bordering on the Guas Ngishu 

 to the northwards, and stretching into the Lumbwa and Sotik country southwards. 

 Also about the Ravine and northwards towards the Kamasia the country is thickly 

 forested. In all these parts forest-hog, bongo, bushbuck, and colobus are plentiful, 

 but elephants are scarce. 



Nearly all the administrated portion of British East Africa is poor in elephants. 

 Northwards, outside the administrated area herds are more numerous. Such 

 unadministrated parts are the bush-country of Saragoi, Elgon, Karamoja, and the 

 Turkana country, and (at certain seasons) the Lorian swamp, also parts of Tanaland 

 and Jubaland. 



