324 
TO THE UASIN GISHU [ch. xii 
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, how¬ 
ever, 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 everywhere, 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 region. 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; 
