ALONG THE GUASO NYIEO 



415 



say. Some thought, however, that it was the end of the Guaso 

 Nyiro, but all spoke by hearsay only ; not one of them had ever 

 seen the Lorian, and we could not induce any of them to act as 

 guides even for one day. 



We returned to our people, crossed the Guaso Narok at its 

 junction with the Guaso Nyir'o, and pushed on along the river- 

 bank by paths well trodden by the Wandorobbo. The vege- 

 tation was much the same as before, thorny euphorbias pre- 

 ponderating, but just by the edge of the water were some fine 

 trees, including a few feather palms. For a distance of about 

 a mile and a quarter in the latter part of this march the bed of 

 the river assumed a very interesting form. Thus far it had 

 consisted of a rocky channel, varying in width from about 

 eleven to sixteen yards, but now it narrowed to a rift from 

 eight to ten feet wide between perpendicular walls of gneiss 

 from six to fifteen feet high. 



We camped on the northern opening of this fissure on the 

 very edge of the rock, in spite of the deafening roar of the 

 seething water below, and just as I looked over, a crocodile, the 

 first I had seen, plunged into the stream. 



We were now at a height of about 5,000 feet, and in the 

 thirty-one miles of the Guaso Nyiro so far explored its waters 

 had a fall of some 550 feet. The coarse-grained pink gneiss of 

 which so far its bed had been formed, now alternated with 

 a greyish-black and a very fine-grained variety of the same 

 material. We noticed numerous grey lizards with red or green 

 heads disporting themselves on the rocks. 



We had been told that we should meet with no more Wa- 

 ndorobbo, and there were not any bee-hives in the trees, but 

 the ground was still strewn with ashes. The path led away 

 from the river, but we trusted to luck and followed it. To my 

 great disappointment it landed us presently amongst a confusion 

 of gneiss hillocks and hills, amidst which it was impossible 



