CHAPTER II 



NAIVASHA AND THE VICTORIA NYANZA 



* In the afternoon they came unto a land 

 In which it seemed always afternoon.' 



Tennyson. 



To the west of Nairobi the character of the country- 

 changes completely. The open, rolling plains end 

 abruptly at the foot of the Kikuyu Hills, and the 

 line begins at once to ascend rapidly by steep 

 gradients and wide curves, which afford an endless 

 series of changing views of the plain below. There 

 are some fine stretches of forest, where gangs of 

 natives were busy cutting fuel for the railway, and a 

 good deal of native cultivation. For mile after mile 

 the train struggles painfully on, always uphill, mount- 

 ing about 2,000 feet in five-and-twenty miles, until 

 suddenly the engine whistles — it sounds like a sigh 

 of relief — and in a moment we are plunging down 

 from the Kikuyu Escarpment into the Great Rift 

 Valley. One could wish to wait awhile upon the 

 brink and take in the scene at leisure, but as we go 

 racing downwards, over bridges and round apparently 

 impossible curves, we get impressions of steep, well- 

 wooded slopes, a broad vale of brilliant grass to 

 right and left so far as the eye can see, and on the 



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