22 EASTERN ETHIOPIA ii 



From Muhoroni the railway runs under the Nandi 

 Escarpment and reaches Port Florence, its terminus 

 ;it Kavirondo Bay, Victoria Nyanza, where a comfortable 

 steamboat conveys passengers to Uganda. 



Whilst waiting for the steamer to start we spent 

 an interesting hour watching the fishermen on the 

 lake shore, as well as amusing ourselves with the 

 crowned cranes, which could be approached as easily 

 as the fowls in a barn-yard. 



Throughout the greater part of a railway journey 

 from the coast to the Victoria Nyanza the country 

 presents a panorama of absorbing interest. The 

 variations in the physical conditions of the provinces 

 traversed by the railway are remarkable. After 

 leaving Mombasa with its heat, humidity, and 

 fertility, the line slowly climbs a long extensive slope 

 covered with scrub, and unsuital)le for cultivation. 

 Scrub is a term in constant use in relation to land in 

 East Africa ; it may be described as coarse grass, with 

 stunted, thorny bushes growing among it, with trees 

 here and there. An extensive tract covered in this 

 way is known as the Nyika (wilderness or desert). 



From the moment the train leaves the Salisbury 

 Bridge attention is sure to be arrested by the brick-red 

 earth. This is especially noticeable in the railway 

 cuttings. A large part of the Protectorate is covered 

 with a sheet of lava, which is gradually undergoing 

 disintegration and forms a very fertile soil. 



It is curious to see the huge ant-hills arising by 

 the side of the railway, many of them ten feet high and 

 as red as any chimney pot in rural England. Some of 

 them present several openings and look like a cluster 

 of chimney pots. Occasionally a tree will be found 

 growing in the midst of an ant-hill, and here and there 

 ant nests will lie seen in trees. 



Around Nairobi, and especially in the Kikuyu 

 country, honey- barrels hang in the trees, and they 

 form curious objects as seen from the train. 



