AND THE RUDOLF BASIN 23 



are in possessit)ii uf j)onies, descended from the Somali or Gala .stock. But 

 drought and the Abyssinians between them appear to have depopulated 

 nearlv all the east coast of Kudolf, and even the camels have died of 

 the drought, and strew the country with their whitened bones. The 

 late Captain Wellby, wlio visited these regions two years ago, wrote to 

 me that the aspect of much of the east coast of ]>ake Kudolf was the 

 most desolate he could conceive, like a picture of a dead world, strewn 

 with the whitened bones of huge mammals and of men, no vegetation to 

 be seen within reach of the eye — nothing but salt water and sun-1)aked 

 rocks, themselves perhaps congealed lava. At the north end of Rudolf 

 owing to the abundant waters of the Omo and the Xakua, things bear a 

 more cheerful aspect, or would do so if the Abyssinian raids could be 

 restrained. Here, with proper protection from Ethiopian ravages, a large 

 population might grow up. This district probably will be before long 

 much visited by Europeans, owing to the rumours of alluvial gold in the 

 mountains to the north-west of the Nakua Kiver. 



The country along the Upper Turkwel and Wei-wei Elvers, and also 

 on the Kerio Kiver before it reaches the hot lowlands, may be styled the 

 Suk country in })articuh\r, though the Suk tribes stretch thence to Lake 

 Baringo. All these lands are fairly well watered by the tumultuous streams 

 which descend from the northern slopes of the Elgeyo and Kamasia 

 Escarpments, and from that tumbled mass of strangely shaped peaks and 

 ridges called the Siik .Mountains. Portions of this country are highly 

 cultivated, and are resorted to by trading caravans for supplies of food. 

 There is a good deal of wood, but it contains as a rule only those lofty 

 acacias and papilionaceous trees and shrubs, fig-trees, and euphorbias 

 characteristic of the average East African vegetation. Here and there is 

 a kigelia, with its })endulous, red-gieen flowers and, more commonly seen 

 in their place, the enormous smooth grey fruit, in shape exactly like the 

 weight of a hall clock. The 8uk ^Mountains are so fantastic in outline, 

 with such overhanging crags, precipices, notches, dijis, and tilts (not to 

 speak of the numberless hills set like isolated pyramids in the plain, and 

 often crested with a bouquet of trees), that the scenery is very picturesque. 

 Moveover, these mountains give rise to innumerable streams, the waters of 

 which serv^e to irrigate the hot plains at their base. 



As on our imaginary tour we are advancing southwards again, we may 

 find ourselves climbing up through the extremely broken ground of the 

 Siik country on to the northern edge of that great ])lateau which, to avoid 

 a multiplicity of names, it is preferable to call "Xandi." We should 

 be attacking it at the edge of the Elgeyo Escarpment and near the flanks 

 of a lofty ridge known as Chibcharafian— perhaps literally "attacking 

 it," if we were compelled at this moment to be there in the body and 



