THE EASTERN PllOYTNCE 5 



in the north is strewn along its course and up its branches and blind alleys 

 with a succession of lakes, large and small, fresh and salt. There is no need 

 to enumerate here those which do not come within the limits of the I'ganda 

 Protectorate. Those which do are Lakes Naivasha (fresh), Elmenteita and 

 Nakuro (salt), Hannington, liaringo, and Sugota (brackish), and the great 

 Lake Kudolf, which is either brackish or only just potable. There are also 

 not a few pools and lakelets as yet unnamed and undescribed, some of which 

 are fresh and others salt. In the case of the bigger lakes, the degree of 

 potability of the water depends a great deal on the recent rainfall and the 

 extent to which the evaporation is exceeded by the supply. Aery often, 

 when the water of tlie bigger lakes is undrinkable close to the shore, half 

 a mile farther out it may be relatively fresh. Where this depression of 



MAW LITTLE ISOLATED CHATEK?^ 



the Eift Valley begins, somewhere in the neighbourhood of Lake Jiukwa, 

 it lies at an altitude probably not much exceeding 2,500 feet. It rises 

 in height by degrees as it is followed northwards, till on the southern 

 frontier of the Eastern Province the altitude is not far short of 4,000 feet. 

 This rise continues till at Lake Naivasha the altitude is 6,300 feet, and 

 the Rift Valley is here at its apex. It is as though this rilibon of depression 

 bad been arched in the centre of its long course, for from Lake Xaivasha 

 northwards tlie general level of the Rift A'alley slowly decreases till at 

 Lake Rudolf it is only 1,200 feet above sea level, and from this point 

 again, with a few occasional upheavals and ridges exce])ted, it dwindles 

 down to sea level at the Gulf of Tajurra. 



The Rift A'alley makes a most striking frontier for the Eastern Province. 

 The Kikuyu Plateau stretching northwards into the Laikipia Escarpment 

 forms its eastern cliifs, and from these forested heiglits, ranging in altitude 



