LAKE NAIVASHA 17 



other side the dark forest-covered ranges of the 

 Mau. It looks indeed like a Promised Land, and it 

 may be hoped that some day it will flow with milk 

 and honey. 



Of all the beauties of the Rift Valley, there is none 

 that can be compared with the lovely and mysterious 

 Lake Naivasha. 



* She smiled, but the water stood in her eye,' 



might well have been written of Naivasha, whose 

 name in the native language means ' The Tear.' 

 Almost always there is a smile of sunshine on her 

 wide waters and on the broad pastures of her eastern 

 shore, while on the other there is as often a black 

 frown of thunder-clouds rolling over the Mau and a 

 white cap of rain on the peak of Longonot. It is hard 

 to believe that this is Africa, and within but a few 

 miles of the Equator. Naivasha has been likened to 

 many different places ; one writer was reminded of 

 a gloomy Irish lough — perhaps his first visit was in 

 the wet season, or perhaps the resemblance was sug- 

 gested by the snipe in the swamps ; another was 

 reminded of the Bay of Naples, and the view from 

 Posilipo ; but to my mind there is something of New 

 Zealand in the air and in the scene as well. The 

 great slumbering volcano, Longonot, its lava-covered 

 slopes scored by the rains into a thousand gullies, 

 might well be Tarawera, and though no geysers nor 

 pink and white terraces have yet been found, there 

 are jets of steam spouting through the scrub and 



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