112 ALONG LAKE RUDOLF 



of the lake, at the mouth of the broad, but uow dried-up and 

 rubbish-encumbered, channel of a stream. There was no want 

 of vegetation here, but the general impression of the district 

 remained forbidding, presenting as it did a chaos of sand and 

 debris, and uprooted trees and bushes. Eather more than 

 half a mile from the beach were two small islands, and 

 beyond our camping-place the shore of the lake stretched 

 westwards for a considerable distance. 



Tuesday, March 13. — We kept as near the edge of the water 

 as possible on this march, although we were often wetted by 

 the surf, for we found it easier than tramping through the 

 loose wliite sand, which stretched away to the base of the low 

 range of hills rising about two to three miles from the shore. 

 By this means we also escaped the dust. The country 

 further inland was no longer a mere wilderness, for the fine 

 sandy soil is fruitful and quite beautiful trees grow in it. Here 

 and there occurred regular thickets of acacias and of the 

 succulent bush of which we saw such quantities on the salt 

 steppes near Lake Nyiro. These thickets had many of them 

 evidently been inhabited not long ago, Lembasso thought, by 

 Burkeneji, who used previously to frequent the shores of the 

 lake a good deal, but had now aA^oided them for some years 

 on account of their dread of the Turkana. Durino^ the march 

 we saw numerous crocodiles, and here and there on the 

 heaving surface of the lake appeared the unwieldy head of a 

 hippopotamus, but the heavy surf kept most of the birds 

 away from the beach, and the only insects were dragon-flies, 

 such as we had noticed in Leikipia, and a kind of sandhopper, 

 vast numbers of which lived in the damp sand by the edge of 

 the water. The latter greatly resemble those of Europe, and 

 share their wonderful agility, for in spite of every effort I 

 never succeeded in catching one without a net. It was notice- 

 able that there was no drift along the shore. Polished bits 



