CHAP, x PREPARATIONS FOR AN EXPEDITION 123 



all Scotland and Wales put together. It contained 

 within its borders part of that vast cleft in the 

 earth's surface known as the Rift Valley; practically 

 unexplored lakes such as Rudolf, Sugota, and 

 Baringo; mysterious rivers such as the Turkwell 

 and Guaso Nyiro; inhospitable tracts of barren 

 waste like the Kaisoot Desert; and rugged ranges 

 of volcanic mountains such as Lorogi, Matthews, 

 and Marsabit, whose beautiful forest-clad slopes 

 give a last shelter to the fast vanishing elephant. 

 Throughout the greater part, however, it is nothing 

 but nyika a vast, parched wilderness of thorny 

 scrub and stunted growth, practically waterless 

 except during the rains, when for a few weeks its 

 innumerable dongas and ravines fill to overflowing 

 with a rushing torrent. 



This great area had been declared a Reserve by 

 a former Commissioner (as the Governor of East 

 Africa was until recently styled), in order to prevent 

 an undesirable number of sportsmen from pene- 

 trating into those regions where as yet we had no 

 " effective control," and where, in consequence, 

 trouble with such savage tribes as lived there might 

 have been expected to occur probably with ill results 

 to the shikari. 



The inhabitants of these regions are practically 

 all nomads, and some of them are very keen 

 hunters. It is, of course, a very difficult matter 



