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 11,000 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 
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