AND THE RUDOLF BASIN 



21 



are constant features along the coast of Lake Kndolf. Occasionally, where 

 streams from the western hill ranges in the Tnrkana, Karamojo, and Sfik 

 countries bring down running water to the lake, wild date palms and 

 the branching Hyphcene thebaica, or Dfim palm, may be seen with an 

 occasional baobab, fig-tree, or green-barked acacia (^4. vervufjosa). On the 

 rising ground to the west of the lake there is fairly good grazing, except 

 after periods of long drought. Along the valleys of great rivers like 

 the Turkwel, which seldom wholly dry up in their lower courses, there 

 are forests of the tall acacia just mentioned (see illustration, p. 18). The 





4^ 



17. STRANGE TERMITE (" AXT ") HII.LS FOUND THROUGHOUT THE BARINGO AN1> RUDOLF REGIONS 



onlv certain feeder of Eudolf is the mighty Eiver Omo, which flows all 

 the wav from Southern Abyssinia into the north end of this lake. Along 

 the lower course of the Omo the vegetation is of a tropical luxuriance, and 

 in places there are huge stretches of papyrus swamp. With this exception 

 the whole of the Kudolf region is almost as unprepossessing as the Sahara 

 Desert. In the Turkana country, west of Lake Kudolf. the leading 

 features may be summed up in these jwords : stony hills and thorny bush : 

 poor grazing. Nevertheless, this land of scrub, short trees, ^' wait-a-bit," and 

 Acacia fistula forests is, by reason of the scarcity of moisture and conscpient 

 absence of mosquitoes, healthy, and it is the home of the finest Negro 



