AND THE nUDOLF BASIX 7 



The traveller from Mombasa before reaching the frontier of the Uganda 

 Protectorate has passed tliroiigh the country of Kikuyu. which is relatively 

 well forested, while the ground is richly clothed with vegetation. As he 

 descends into the Kift Valley, the Kikuyu vegetation decreases in luxuriance, 

 and a very prominent feature is a ])articularly uglv form of drac;ena 

 (a kind of tree-lily), with stitf sword-leaves of sicklv vellow-green. 

 The mass of Longonot and the distant outline of the Suswa crater already 

 referred to are imposing objects, but present very little vegetation with 

 which to diminish the desert-like appearance of the scene. Towards the 

 south end of Lake Naivasha there are many isolated pinnacles and fragments 

 of rock. Along the western shores of Naivasha the vegetation becomes 

 much richer, especially on the steep slopes of the Mau Plateau edge. All 

 along the eastern borders of the lake there is sweet, short grass, kept low 

 by the browsing of innumerable gazelles and the herds of ^Nlasai sheei) 

 and cattle. Near Naivasha station the Kikuyu Escarpment, descending in 

 a series of terraces, terminates abruptly in precipitous cliffs on the edges 

 of which huge boulders and monoiyths are poised. The shores of Naivasha 

 are in many places thickly belted with papyrus, which is growing at an 

 altitude (6,300 feet) and in a mean temperature not usually associated with 



5. STEAM RISING FROM FISSIRE, EL HURUO 



