14 
African Game Trails 
ness of mountain ranges, barren and jagged. 
All that day and the next we journeyed 
eastward, almost on the equator. At noon 
the overhead sun burned with torrid heat; 
but with the twilight—short compared to 
the long northern twilights, but not nearly 
as short as tropical twilights are often de¬ 
picted—came the cold, and each night the 
frost was heavy. The country was unten¬ 
anted by man. In the afternoon of the 
third day'we began to go downhill, and 
hour by hour the flora changed. At last we 
came to a broad belt of woodland, where the 
strange trees of many kinds grew tall and 
thick. Among them were camphor-trees, 
and trees with gouty branch tips, bearing 
leaves like those of the black walnut, and 
panicles of lilac flowers, changing into 
brown seed vessels; and other trees, with 
clusters of purple flowers, and the seeds or 
nuts enclosed in hard pods or seed vessels 
like huge sausages. 
On the other side of the forest we came 
suddenly out on the cultivated fields of the 
Wa-Meru, who, like the Kikuyu, till the 
soil; and among them, farther down, was 
Meru Boma, its neat, picturesque buildings 
beautifully placed among green groves and 
irrigated fields, and looking out from its 
cool elevation over the hot valleys beneath. 
It is one of the prettiest spots in East Africa. 
We were more than hospitably received by 
the Commissioner, Mr. Home, who had 
been a cow-puncher in Wyoming for seven 
years—so that naturally we had much in 
common. He had built the station himself, 
and had tamed the wild tribes around by 
mingled firmness and good treatment; and 
he was a mighty hunter, and helped us in 
every way. 
Here we met Kermit and Tarlton, and 
heard all about their hunt. They had been 
away from us for three weeks and a half, 
along the Guaso Nyero, and had enjoyed 
first-rate luck. Kermit had been particu¬ 
larly interested in a caravan they had met, 
consisting of wild spear-bearing Borani 
people like Somalis, bringing down scores 
of camels and hundreds of small horses to 
sell at Nairobi. They had come from the 
north, near the outlying Abyssinian lands, 
and the caravan was commanded by an 
Arab of stately and courteous manners. 
Such an extensive caravan journey was 
rare in the old days before English rule; 
but one of the results of the “Pax Eu- 
