218 AFRICA SPEAKS 



in intensity as we picked our way forward over the 

 hot sharp stones. This ceaseless noise, the hissing and 

 kronking of millions of birds, has probably disturbed 

 the solitude of this remote vale for many thousands 

 of years. 



After climbing down some steep rocks, we passed 

 through a small grove of stunted trees and emerged 

 into the open. There before us was one of the most 

 romantic and compelling scenes any man has ever 

 witnessed. The nearest shore Hne of the lake was a 

 sohd mass of birds as far as the eye could reach, while 

 toward its center floated many pink islands. As we 

 approached closer we realized that there were millions 

 of flamingos within sight — not hundreds nor thou- 

 sands, but millions. I paced off one mile along the 

 shore line and estimated the width of the block of 

 birds at this point as one eighth mile, thus making an 

 area of flamingos one mile long and one eighth mile 

 wide, eighty acres of pink birds, packed solid side by 

 side. These were not all of them, for the glasses dis- 

 closed greater multitudes in the distance. It does not 

 seem possible that there could be so many birds of 

 one kind in the world. 



Lake Hannington lies in the bottom of a deep bowl 

 formed by the sheer walls of the escarpment on one 

 side and by small brush-covered hiUs on the other. 

 That it has been the undisturbed home of the flamingos 

 for ^centuries is proven by the bird feathers and other 

 remains, which are piled layer upon layer many feet 

 deep along the beach for miles and miles. The water 

 is very heavy with soda and hme, the decaying bodies 

 of the dead birds having something to do with this. 

 The N jemps say that a devil hves in the lake and if 



