MOMBASSA TO LION LAND 7 
Having now reached Nairobi, the usual starting 
point for sefaris, I may as well try in a few words, to 
give some general idea of the country, and especially 
of that part of it, where the best scenery and best hunting 
are to be found. 
A volcanic upheaval has raised a wide plateau in East 
Africa far above the level of the continent. Roughly 
speaking, that plateau runs three hundred miles east and 
west. It begins about two hundred miles from the sea, 
and slopes down on the west to Lake Victoria. North it 
falls away toward Abyssinia and Italian Somaliland. 
In the middle it is divided by a huge cleft, the great 
Rift Valley (the eastern end of this valley is called the 
Kedong) and in this valley lie a string of lakes — Naivasha, 
the most easterly; Rudolph, the most westerly; Nukurn and 
Baringo lying between. The Rift Valley is well named. 
It is a mighty crack in the world crust, running, as geologists 
have traced it, all the way from Lake Rudolph to the 
Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea. On either side of this 
valley rise two lofty chains of mountains. On the western 
side these are called the Mau Escarpment; on the east the 
Kikuyu Escarpment and the Aberdare Range. Moun- 
tainous branches and spurs from these ranges run back 
into the plains to west and east —and two fine mountains 
standing far out from the tumult of tumbled and crossing 
ridges, dominate all other mountain peaks. These are 
Elgon on the west, looking down on Lake Victoria, and 
beautiful, lonely snowy Kenia, rising above the wide 
Laikipia plateau on the east. I shall speak of Kenia 
later. Now our faces are set toward the high table lands 
lying beyond the forest of the Mau. Here but three years 
ago entrance to the traveller and sportsman was forbidden. 
The Nandi, a numerous and warlike tribe, were in process 
of being chastened. Several hundreds of them were 
killed, their crops burned and many of their cattle taken 
