428 



ACROSS LEIKIPIA 



volcanic formation, but, strictly speaking, I sliould have said 

 of volcanic origin, since it was evidently formed by the up- 

 heaval of a metamorphic substratum mixed with lava and 

 ashes. To the inquiry whence came all this volcanic debris 

 we must reply, not, as would be supposed, from Kenia, the 

 apparent volcanic storehouse of the district, but from the 

 declivities referred to above, though it is at present impossible 

 to say exactly where the craters are, or were, from which 

 issued the all-levelling streams. Kenia can only have affected 

 the southern portion of the plateau, and that in an altogether 

 minor degree ; it was gradually built up, and thus assumed its 

 beautiful conical form. The trend of the two jDortions of the 

 plateau betrays the fact that the sources of all the debris with 

 which it is covered were somewhere in the south-west and 

 north-west of Leikipia, exactly where, however, still remains 

 to be discovered. The Aberdare, Subugia, and Marmanett 

 mountains are all of volcanic formation, the base of the 

 Loroghi chain alone consisting of primitive rock. Although 

 not one of these groups has a single peak of the crater form, 

 the eruptive force must have originated in them, and we can 

 only suppose that the distinctive volcanic forms must have 

 been destroyed in some terrific convulsion. The thorough ex- 

 amination of this mountain world, which was temporarily 

 forced into the background by the further exploration of Kenia, 

 should be the ultimate goal of the next exjDedition to Africa. 



After this digression we will return to the caravan and 

 relate our march to Lake Baringo. Tlie first day we climbed 

 over a low spur of the Marmanett mountains, entering a wide 

 valley overgrown with steppe grass, and camped for the night 

 inside the fence of Count Teleki's old halting-place on the edge 

 of the bed of a brook, which had apparently quite recently 

 contained water. We found a few pools in a wood some 

 hundred paces further up. 



