WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



by the now extinct volcanoes, flooded this high plateau 

 in prehistoric times. As far back as the Eocene time — • 

 according to Hans Meyer — the gigantic forces of nature, 

 remoulding the coast of the earth, fashioned those 

 majestic volcanoes, forming around them that great 

 African depression the waters of which found no outlet 

 into the sea, but are drained into the great inland 

 swamps and lakes. To-day the fires of the crater of the 

 peak of Kibo, which is six thousand feet in circumference 

 and six hundred feet deep, are extinct, but the lava rock 

 of the surrounding steppe is a lasting monument of their 

 furv. 



And over the steppe we now wend our way. To the 

 right the western Ndjiri swamps stretch out before us, 

 covering an enormous area of depression and grown over 

 with papyrus. In the rainy season the waters of the 

 southern slope of the Kilimanjaro flow into this basin, 

 filling it to overflowing and changing the neighborhood 

 for miles and miles into endless lakes. The natives claim 

 that also in the dry season these marshes are fed by 

 subterranean mountain streams. The "molog" creek, 

 which suddenly disappears before us in the earth, lends 

 strength to this belief, and it may be that the eastern 

 Ndjiri swamps receive a constant tribute from the 

 crystal clear water of the "ngare rongai" brook. 



Only the southern slope of the Kilimanjaro mountain, 

 rising in terraces, is well watered and covered in the 

 lower part with rich vegetation. This portion is in- 



33^ 



