CHAPTER II 
THE EQUATORIAL TRENCH 
HUNTING IN THE RIFT VALLEY (EBURU TO THE 
ENDERIT RIVER) 
The Equatorial Trencli is an old-time geological fissure 
that bisects British East Africa from north to south. 
It is stated that the course of the Trench is traceable 
northwards across the Red Sea into the Jordan Valley 
in Palestine. However that may be, at least the 
Trench is visible enough in these latitudes, where it is 
known as the Rift Valley. Every passenger on the 
Uganda railway must realise its existence when, shortly 
after passing Timoru (400 miles from the coast), the 
train suddenly dips away beneath him, plunging down¬ 
wards in what appears a mad descent through tropical 
forest, to a station yclept “ Escarpment.” 
Within a mile or two he has been hurled into an 
abyss, dropping from 7,500 ft. elevation at Limoru 
to 5,800 ft. on the Enderit River. Those are the 
engineers’ figures; though mere cold numerals convey but 
little idea of its sense of vastness. And on the opposite 
side the phenomenon is equally conspicuous. For, after 
traversing the floor of the Trench (some 40 miles across), 
the line rises again in gradients hardly less abrupt, 
reaching an altitude of 8,000 ft. on the Mau Plateau. 
The width of the Trench varies from 40 to 60 miles, 
its floor averaging 2,000 ft. below the flanking mountain- 
walls that enclose it—Laikipia on the east, Kamasea on 
the west. 
Within this depression lies the great chain of lakes, 
9 
