42 THE EASTERN PROVINCE 



valleys of Mau you are in the presence of an unintentioned European 

 colony, some of which no doubt will melt away with the completion of 

 the railway, but much of which must be the nucleus of tlie great white 

 colony one may hope to see established on the only land really fitted for its 

 development in Equatorial Africa. The Kavirondo, alas! aie wearing trousers 

 and "sweaters"; the sacred ibises have left Kisumu, for its swamps are 

 drained. Piers and wharves, hotels and residences in corrugated iron, are 

 springing up at Port Florence, destined, no doubt, to be a great emporium 

 of trade on the Victoria Nyanza. The dirty brown waters of Kavirondo 

 Bay, a gulf of the great lake that was only properly mapped last year, 

 are now daily navigated by sailing boats and steamers. Before long this 

 chapter on the Eastern Province will only possess the value of describing 

 an aspect winch in many details has ceased for ever to exist. 



