WILD LIFE ACROSS THE WORLD 



the locomotives and steamers on the Victoria Nyanza 

 all being fired with it. 



Naivasha is a small place containing about a dozen 

 European houses and a boma, or fort. It is situated 

 on a beautiful lake of the same name. Roughly 

 speaking, this lake is seventeen miles long by twelve 

 miles wide, and is one of the most interesting things 

 we saw up there. It is entirely surrounded by 

 mountains and has no visible outlet, yet there are two 

 rivers, viz. the Marandat and Gil Gil, which daily 

 pour in more water than is evaporated from the 

 surface ; yet it never floods, in fact it sank whilst we 

 were there. 



What is the explanation ? That problem has yet 

 to be solved. Local settlers, anxious for the import- 

 ance of their lake, assert that it is the original of the 

 lake in Rider Haggard's Allan Ouatennain, where 

 Curtis, Good and Co. got drawn into the subterranean 

 passage, but no such passage has been discovered. 

 To my mind another close resemblance to the novel 

 is that at Gil Gil, at one extremity of the lake, there 

 are some marvellous natural steam jets which spurt 

 out of the land without any apparent cause. 



One thing is certain, that the country round here 

 has recently been subject to considerable volcanic 

 influences, for in several places round the lake, as well 

 as at Gil Gil, smoke or steam issues forth. At one 

 place, on a mountain named Longonot, right at the 



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