Naivasha 



which it will be observed an important store and 

 place of business has been recently rebuilt in stone. 



The next day I again took the train up country 

 and continued my journey as far as Naivasha, which 

 is 391 miles up the line from the coast and no less 

 than 6,230 feet above sea-level. Although this 

 place is, comparatively speaking, in its infancy, 

 there can be little doubt that at no distant date 

 it will become the health resort of the Protectorate. 

 Having been seized near this station with an attack 

 of fever, a rest of two days here enabled me to 

 pick up again with wonderful celerity. The hotel is 

 well placed, overlooking the splendid lake of 150 

 square miles, which is beautifully situated in the 

 midst of a circle of hills. A launch can be hired 

 and a pleasant trip made round the lake in search 

 of hippopotamus, of which large numbers exist 

 among the reeds that stretch out many yards from 

 the shore. This trip can include a picnic on the 

 island in the centre, which a settler is clearing for 

 an ostrich farm and is valuable from the fact that 

 its situation will render it immune from all maraud- 

 ing and dangerous poachers. 



Plenty of duck and other birds are to be met 

 with. The surface of the lake is strewn with 

 beautiful blue water-lilies which have a delicious 

 smell, and on their cool, flat, floating leaves count- 

 less small birds are to be seen hopping gaily about, 

 and an occasional frog, disturbed from his resting 

 place upon them, will drop with a slight splash 

 into the depth of clear water to the safer shelter 



5 



