THE EDGE OF THE RIFT VALLEY 



93 



Purkiss with a beam of timber. He was soon disarmed, tied to 

 the flag-staff and flogged. He was one of the Somali who had 

 given me a good deal of trouble at Ngatana. 



After leaving this hospitable fort we struck away to the 

 north-west over forest land, intersected by numerous deep 

 valleys. We were watched by a crowd of Kikuyu, who 

 howled and jeered at us, but did nothing more alarming. On 

 arrival at our camping-place I found that two boxes had been 

 left behind by mistake, and so had to return next day with 

 thirteen men, while Omari held the camp with the rest. Our 

 reappearance created temporary consternation, for the rumour 

 had come in the night before that a powerful force of Masai 

 was marching northward, in order to join the Kikuyu in an 

 attack upon the fort. Some friendly Kikuyu had had a fight 

 with the Masai outposts and killed five of them on the previous 

 day. Purkiss therefore thought that I had come across the 

 Masai and been driven back by them. I was glad of the 

 warning, and so, having got the boxes, started back at once for 

 camp. We moved this on a little farther, and then built our thorn 

 boma in a steady downpour of rain. As some Kikuyu were 

 sneaking about watching us, we prepared to resist an attack. 

 In addition to the ordinary sentries, Omari and I both kept 

 guard all night. 



We were off betimes next morning, anxious to leave the 

 Kikuyu forests and to reach the Rift Valley. We crossed a 

 swamp, which must be one of the head springs of the Tana, and 

 then entered a valley, the character of which is different, both 

 in structure and scenery, from any that we had previously seen. 

 Its eastern wall was a straight precipitous cliff, due to a dis- 

 location of the type known to geologists as " faults." At the 

 northern end of the valley we should be on the edge of the Rift 

 Valley, so we hastened along it. For five weeks I had been 

 looking forward to the view that I expected to get from this 

 point. My disappointment may therefore be imagined when, 

 just before we reached the summit of the pass, a dense cloud 

 settled down upon us and completely blotted out the view. We 

 descended a few hundred feet, and then a wonderful prospect 

 burst upon us. We were on the face of a cliff 1400 feet in 

 height, broken only by a platform 500 feet above the floor of 

 the valley. From the foot of the cliff a level plain extends thirty 



