THE easteux province 



13 



perch themselves hke i'antastic P'gyptian sculptures on every junnaele or 

 boulder. On the grassy uplands skirting the precijuces the sleek cattle 

 of the .Alasai are feeding, accomijanied by herdsmen like Greek statues 

 in terra cotta, these pastoral scenes having for a background the ultra- 

 marine waters of the lake 1,000 feet below. 



Two or three days' journey over grassy downs where the zebras browse 

 in their thousands, where the climate is European, and the heart is glad 

 with the delicious air and the harmless sunshine, would bring one from 

 Nakuro northwards to a more broken surface of the Kift A'allev, where its 



II. DEAD TREES ST.VXDIXG FAR OUT IN THE WATER OF LAKE HA^•^•l^'GTO^■ 



northern descent in altitude commences. Hidden away in a little rift 

 valley of its own, a longitudinal trough between the Laikipia Escarpment 

 and an up-reared ridge of volcanic rocks, lies little Lake Hannington, so 

 concealed that it was long overlooked by the great explorers, and when 

 found was named, perhaps not unjustly, after the misguided ]iut ]ilucky 

 missionary bishop who tried to enter Uganda by the forbidden route and 

 was slain in consequence by the uneasy ^Iwanga. It might be jiossible 

 for a short-sighted man to walk paralh^l with tlie west coast of Lake 

 Hannington and overlook the fact that he liad a long sheet of water on 

 his right-hand side, for the opposite Laikipia Escarpment is so lofty that 



