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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photo by C. K. Akeley 

 on the: ATHI PLAINS 



peculiar shape of ant-hill commences as 

 soon as one has descended from the up- 

 per part of the Rift Valley to the level 

 of Lake Baringo, and I believe continues 

 northward toward Abyssinia.* 



The scenery of the Rift Valley is very 

 grand, especially when seen from above. 

 I have stood at one point near the north- 

 western edge of the Elgeyo escarpment 

 and looked down a sheer 5,000 feet on 

 to a gleaming river which threaded its 



*The celebrated Rift Valley begins in Ger- 

 man East Africa at an altitude of about 2,500 

 feet. It rises in height as it is followed north- 

 ward till at Lake Navaisha the altitude is 

 6,300 feet. The general level of the Rift Val- 

 ley then slowly decreases till at Lake Rudolf 

 it is only 1,200 feet above sealevel, and from 

 this point, with a few occasional upheavals and 

 ridges excepted, it dwindles down to sealevel 

 at the Gulf of Aden. See also page 209. 



way through a lake and numer- 

 ous pools. Here, coming from 

 the north, begin those splendid 

 forests of conifers (two species 

 of juniper and a yew) so char- 

 acteristic of this plateau region. 

 Away to the west toward the 

 great blue mass of Elgon, the 

 country is of noble appearance ; 

 splendid rolling downs of short 

 rich grass, patches of wood- 

 land, acacia forests, and vege- 

 tation of more tropical appear- 

 ance along the valleys of the 

 watercourses. For the most 

 part the downs, over which 

 one's gaze can stretch 50 or 60 

 miles as they gently slope 

 toward the north or toward 

 Victoria Nyanza, are clothed 

 with soft, silky grass, which 

 takes a pale pink, mauve, gray, 

 or russet sheen as the wind 

 bends the flowering stems be- 

 fore it. 



HERDS OP GIRAPPE)S 



Over this plateau (where the 

 traveler must beware of follow- 

 ing any presumed native path,, 

 since it is only a cunning de- 

 vice leading up to a game- 

 trap, an oblong pitfall hidden 

 with sticks and cut grass) 

 roam countless wild animals at the pres- 

 ent day, and I earnestly pray may con- 

 tinue to roam there, completely protected 

 from the British sportsman and his oft- 

 times insensate ravages. The nomad 

 natives who make these game-pits secure 

 too small a proportion of the antelopes 

 to be taken into much account. Here 

 may be seen large herds of giraffes as one 

 might see cattle peacefully standing about 

 in an English park. These giraffes are 

 the finest development we yet know of 

 the northern form — of that species of 

 giraffe which extends all over northern 

 Central Africa from east to west, with 

 the exception of Somaliland, where a pe- 

 culiarly colored species is developed. In 

 color the adult males and females become 

 so dark on the upper part of the body 

 that, seen from a distance, they seem to> 



