1894. SOME NEW BOOKS. 3D1 



sporting excursions were carried out by the Count, while von Hohnel 

 was again brought nearly to death's door by fever and dysentery. 



We now come to the adventures detailed in the second volume of 

 the English translation, which are of greater interest, as relating to a 

 country previovisly unexplored. The new lakes lying north of Baringo 

 had been heard of by Joseph Thomson, and are conjecturally repre- 

 sented in the route-map of his East African expedition. A bold push 

 was also made towards them by Messrs. Jackson and Gedge during 

 their journey to Uganda through Masai-land in 1889-90, subsequent 

 to Count Teleki's expedition. But these explorers were turned back 

 by the natives in the plains of Ngaboto, in consequence, as they 

 believe, of the bad behaviour of some members of Count Teleki's party 

 so that, in fact. Count Teleki and Lieutenant v. Hohnel are the 

 only Europeans that have, as yet, visited Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie. 



After their halt at Lake Baringo the party finally left for the 

 north in the beginning of February, 1888, and soon found themselves 

 in difficulties from want of water. They would have been also miser- 

 ably short of provisions had it not been for the successful shooting by 

 Count Teleki. Quantities of game, chiefly buffaloes and rhinoceroses, 

 were met with on the plateau now crossed, which was bordered on the 

 east by a new chain of mountains — named General Matthews' range, 

 after the well-known premier of Zanzibar. After about fifty miles 

 transit over the v^^aterless steppe, a half-dried-up swamp was found at 

 the base of Mount Nyiro containing " a little thick, green, slimy 

 fluid " with which the travellers were at last able to wet their lips. 

 Here also the first natives of the Samburu district were met with. 

 They are a pastoral race, called Burkeneji, closely related to the 

 Masai in genealogy and language. According to their information 

 the two much-looked-for lakes were not far off to the north. A few 

 days later, accordingly, the party arrived within view of the southern 

 end of Lake Rudolf. Before them lay a district entirely covered with 

 black streams of lava and dotted over with extinct craters, while from 

 one conical mountain (afterwards named the Teleki volcano) ceaseless 

 clouds of smoke arose. Almost at their last gasp, the travellers rushed 

 on down to the water which lay before them clear as crystal, but to 

 their bitter disappointment when they reached it found it to be saline. 

 Nevertheless, it afforded them a refreshing bath, and upon treatment 

 with tartaric acid was sufficiently improved to quench their thirst. 

 Proceeding onwards from March 6 for nearly a month, the travellers 

 pursued their route northwards along the eastern shores of Lake 

 Rudolf through a miserable and thirsty country. The large " Crater- 

 Island " in the lake which they passed presented an extraordinary 

 appearance, being made up of a series of apparently extinct volcanoes, 

 some of which rose to a height of 400 feet. Further north, fortunately, 

 the country improved a little, and sufficient game was obtained to 

 support the lives of the party, while the discovery of a small stream 

 of fresh water flowing from Mount Kulall, apparently an extinct 

 volcano of about 4,000 feet in altitude, materially improved their position. 

 Further on, hippopotami and elephants were found, while the 

 shore was haunted by immense numbers of lake-loving birds. At 

 length, after fifty-four days' wandering in an all but uninhabited land, 

 nearly bare of fresh water and vegetation, the travellers found them- 

 selves among the Reshiat, a pastoral race of Gallas that inhabit the 

 northern shores of Lake Rudolf. Beyond them stretched a flat tract 

 of country overgrown by impenetrable forest, from which a five- 

 peaked mountain-mass (Nakua) and other heights rose in the distance. 

 On the whole, the month's stay among the Reshiat was a peaceful 



