THE UASO NYIRO 



Somali trade route to Wajheir, reached the Lorian 

 at the height of the dry season, states : " . . . the 

 Uaso Nyiro runs out of this swamp in a fairly large 

 stream and then flows in a south-easterly direction for 

 about thirty miles, when it reaches a swamp known 

 as * Ururaha.' Here the river splits up into little 

 swamps running off in different directions like the 

 fingers of a hand and gradually trickles out in a tiny 

 stream a few feet in width and about six inches in 

 depth. This runs on for about ten miles, gradually 

 dwindling until it eventually dries up entirely near 

 Marer Koh,^ where the dry watercourse known as 

 Lak Dera, which runs down in the direction of 

 Afmadu, commences. I had not time to follow this 

 course, but there is no doubt it is well defined. . . ."^ 



Mr. Haywood has obviously confused the main 

 Lorian Swamp with an extensive shallow depression 

 covered with grass and surrounded by jungle, and 

 crossed by three shallow channels situated on the 

 right bank of the Uaso Nyiro, and which the Borana 

 call Melka Gela. He has called it Jaffa-wein, but 

 this is the name applied by the natives to the southern 

 side of the bed of reeds, which forms the main swamp. 

 There are several other points in his description of it 

 with which, I am afraid, I entirely disagree, but I shall 

 have more to say about them in dealing with the 

 Lorian in the course of my narrative. 



Another description is as follows : " . . . the E. 

 Uaso Nyiro was very low, and was not running 

 into the swamp, but formed a long series of dis- 

 connected pools. These pools, some as much as two 



^ Probably the same place as I mention under the name of Madoleh. 

 "^Geographical Journal, May 1913, "The Lorian Swamp," C. H. 

 Haywood. 



22 



