COLONEL ROOSEVELT A REMARKABLE HUNTER. 
173 
had been planned in his honor, but which was abandoned, owing to 
his expressed desire to spend the time as quietly as possible in order 
to do a little writing. 
The special train bearing Ex-President Roosevelt and party 
arrived at Kijabe in the afternoon. All the porters of the expedi¬ 
tion, who had preceded Col. Roosevelt to this point, were lined up 
on the station platform and cheered Col. Roosevelt when the train 
pulled in. The journey of forty-four miles occupied four days. 
ROOSEVELT RODE ON A LOCOMOTIVE COW-CATCHER. 
Col. Roosevelt rode half the distance on the locomotive cow¬ 
catcher with Major Mearns. They perched themselves on the 
engine's front at Kikuyu and stayed there until the train reached 
Escarpment, a distance of twenty-two miles. A hyena that got 
on the track was nearly run down. 
The scenery along the road delighted Col. Roosevelt, especially 
the Rift Valley. The country between Nairobi and Kijabe is for 
the most part thickly wooded and high. 
The highest point of the Kikuyu escarpment is 7,830 feet. 
From this point there is a magnificent view down 2,000 feet into 
the great Rift Valley. Elephants are plentiful in these forests, but 
are fairly safe from the hunter, as the thickness of the growth 
renders pursuit very difficult. 
The American missionaries, whose field and work the Ex- 
President has come to look over, were at the station, too. They 
invited him to dinner, but the invitation was declined. 
The party slept in tents pitched near the railway. The follow¬ 
ing day Col. Roosevelt visited the mission at Kijabe, an American 
organization called the African Inland Mission. It is independent 
and self-controlling in the field, although represented by home coun¬ 
cils in Philadelphia and London. The headquarters are at Kijabe, 
where schools are conducted for missionaries’ children and for the 
industrial training of natives. 
Col. Roosevelt spent some time shooting monkeys, particularly 
the colobus. Edmund Heller bagged three of the colobus species 
and a green-faced monkey, and Kermit Roosevelt killed two large 
