IV 
THE NDOROBO COUNTRY 
83 
There were also a few men with donkeys, which they packed 
with the mineral. It seems they trade it for goats with the 
Wakanda, who use it to mix with their tobacco. The drinking 
water (nastily brackish) is got out of one of several pits near 
the edge of the lake ; all the others produce (I was told) salt 
water. I looked down from the edge of the crater, but did 
not descend, as it is a long way down.” 
The country hereabouts and towards the Gwaso Nyiro is 
frightfully barren and very stony. In some places are great 
plains and ridges almost devoid of vegetation, consisting of 
black lava in rough fragments of all shapes and sizes. This 
makes very bad going for men carrying heavy loads, and 
is trying work for their feet even with hide sandals—the more 
so that we have now left all paths behind, except the fitful 
game tracks ;—it is terribly destructive, too, to one’s boots. 
Fortunately the lava ceases at the Gwaso Nyiro River. The 
lava overlies limestone, and where the latter crops out, as it 
often does near the river, the water, which has been under¬ 
ground before, comes to the surface here and there in springs, 
some very large. One, on which I camped one day, was a 
good-sized stream where it rose, but disappeared again a little 
way below. It was, as these limestone springs often seem to be 
here, quite warm, and the water slightly brackish ; it was full 
of leeches, as I found to my cost on bathing in it' for the first 
time. Quantities of game sometimes frequent these springs. 
Some of the marches between the waters were rather long 
on the north side of the river, and, as it was very hot, tried the 
men a good deal. I saw some fresh elephant spoor once or 
twice, but, as the country is mostly very open, the elephants 
appear only to pass through it in the night, except, perhaps, 
during the rains. I had to wait two or three days at the river 
before going on, in order to send ahead to explore for water, as 
our guides had not an intimate knowledge of the country through 
which I wished to pass. While waiting I shot something every 
day to keep up the supply of beef for all hands, generally oryx. 
