112 ALONG THE RIFT VALLEY TO BARINGO i>art ii 



of retching that it was necessary to give him some cocaine. 

 The sight of the water drove the donkeys almost mad, and 

 they made most desperate efforts to reach it ; we dared not 

 let them drink, for it would probably have killed them. 

 Bitterly disappointed we resumed our march along the eastern 

 shore of the lake. In our thirsty condition we soon began to 

 feel the heat. The whole place seemed to have been planned 

 as a sun-trap. The black precipice and the bare lava at its 

 foot became hotter and hotter as the day drew on, till the glow 

 from them became almost intolerable. The cliff, moreover, 

 screened us from the refreshing breeze that generally softened 

 the midday heat. Hence the air was stagnant, and there was 

 nothing to carry away the moisture that rose from the surface 

 of the lake, or the putrid odour of the vegetation that lay 

 rotting in the submerged meadows along its margin. Here 

 and there we had to cross stretches of sand, raising a cloud of 

 salt-covered dust which added to the pangs of our burning thirst. 

 Occasionally we had to wade for short distances through the 

 lake, to avoid dense thickets of bush or rocky headlands, or to 

 cross meadows now submerged owing to the high level of the 

 water. During these we had to tie sacks over the donkeys' 

 heads to prevent them from drinking ; as we could not take 

 the same trouble with the sheep, they drank what they wanted, 

 and two out of the three died. 



I dragged in the lake for shells, but could get none, nor any 

 trace of aquatic animal life. It was more barren than Elme- 

 taita, for the water of that lake, though bitter and salt, was 

 clear and pure, and yielded a few insect larvae and amphipods ; 

 but the putrid sulphurous water of Lake Losuguta seems fatal 

 to life. Some trees that stood a few yards from the shore 

 were dead, though, as their leaves were still attached to them, 

 their submergence must have been recent. The grass was 

 yellow, and whatever the water touched it seemed to kill. 

 The only exceptions were a green alga and some pink flamin- 

 goes, and in the absence of competition these throve exceed- 

 ingly. The alga grew in such dense masses that it often 

 coloured the water green ; while the number of the flamingoes 

 was such that when, towards sunset, they rose from the lake 

 and flew northward, one of the kite-shaped flocks must have 

 measured 400 yards in breadth and a mile in length. But these 



