AND THE RUDOLP BASIN 23 



are in possession of ponies, descended from the Somali or Gala stock. But 

 drought and the Abyssinians between them appear to have depopulated 

 nearly all the east coast of Rudolf, and even the camels have died of 

 the drought, and strew the country with their whitened bones. The 

 late Captain Wellby, who visited these regions two years ago, wrote to 

 me that the aspect of much of the east coast of Lake Rudolf was the 

 most desolate he could conceive, like a picture of a dead world, strewn 

 with the whitened bones of huge mammals and of men, no vegetation to 

 be seen within reach of the eye — -nothing but salt water and sun-baked 

 rocks, themselves perhaps congealed lava. At the north end of Rudolf, 

 owing to the abundant waters of the Omo and the Nakua, things bear a 

 more cheerful aspect, or would do so if the Abyssinian raids could be 

 restrained. Here, with proper protection from Ethiopian ravages, a large 

 population might grow np. This district probably will be before long 

 much visited by Europeans, owing to the rumours of alluvial gold in the 

 mountains to the north-west of the Nakua River. 



The country along the Upper Turkwel and Wei-wei Rivers, and also 

 on the Kerio River before it reaches the hot lowlands, may be styled the 

 Suk country in particuhir, though tlie Suk tribes stretch thence to Lake 

 Baringo. All these lauds are fairly well watered by the tumultuous streams 

 which descend from the northern slopes of the Elgeyo and Kamasia 

 Escarpments, and from that tumbled mass of strangely shaped peaks and 

 ridges called the Suk JMountains. Portions of this country are highly 

 cultivated, and are resorted to by trading caravans for supplies of food. 

 There is a good deal of wood, Init it contains as a rule only those lofty 

 acacias and papilionaceous trees and shrubs, fig-trees, and euphorbias 

 characteristic of the average East African vegetation. Here and there is 

 a kigelia, with its pendulous, red-gieen flowers and, more commonly seen 

 in their place, the enormous smooth grey fruit, in sliape exactly like the 

 weight of a hall clock. The Suk JMountains are so fantastic in outline, 

 with such overhanging crags, precipices, notches, dijjs, and tilts (not to 

 speak of the numberless hills set like isolated pyramids in tlie plain, and 

 often crested with a bouquet of trees), that the scenery is very picturesque. 

 Moveover, these mountains give rise to innumerable streams, the waters of 

 which serve to irrigate the hot plains at their base. 



As on our imaginary tour we are advancing southwards again, we may 

 find ourselves climbing up through the extremely broken ground of the 

 Suk country on to the northern edge of tliat great plateau which, to avoid 

 a multiplicity of names, it is ])referable to call " Nandi." We should 

 be attacking it at the edge of the Elgeyo Escarpment and near the flanks 

 of a loftv ridge known as Chibcharafuin — perhaps literally '" attacking 

 it," if we were compelled at this moment to be there in the body and 



