CHAPTER VII 



BEYOND BAEINGO 



(l) AFTER ORYX AND ELAXD 



Now that Barino-o is becomino* a favourite resort of 

 big-game liimters, it is interesting to recall that but a 

 score of years ago the region was unknown. The first 

 white explorer to reach its shores was Joseph Thomson, 

 who, writing in 1885, thus described it: "The mys- 

 terious lake of Bariuo'o, thouo;h lono- heard of, has been 

 a delightful bone of contention between geographers at 

 home, who have drawn it in various phases with the 

 large and liberal hand characteristic of those who are 

 guided by their inner consciousness and a theoretic eye. 

 {Sometimes it was comparable to the Nyanza in size ; at 

 other times it had no existence. Then it knocked 

 around the map a bit, being now tacked on to Victoria 

 Nyanza, anon separated therefrom, or only connected 

 by a thin watery line. After all this shuttlecock work. 

 Lake Baringo proves to be an isolated basin, sunnily 

 smiling up at its great parents, the shaggy, overhanging 

 ranges of Kamasea and Laikipia. In extreme length the 

 lake is eiohteen miles, and in breadth ten miles." ^ 



Baringo has now acquired not only a fixed position 

 in geography, but even a niche in history. A British 

 station was first established on the Ribo Hills to the 

 north of the lake ; and this led to bloodv fio-htino-. Two- 

 thnxls of the native garrison, having been treacherously 

 decoyed away, were surrounded and speared to a man 

 by overwhelming swarms of the Jabtulail and Turkana 



^ Through Masailaml, p. 533. 

 73 



