22 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
II 
From Mulioroni the railway runs under the Nandi 
Escarpment and reaches Port Florence, its terminus 
at Kavirondo Bay, Victoria Nyanza, where a comfortable 
steamboat conveys passengers to Uganda. 
Whilst waiting for the steamer to start we spent 
an interesting hour watching the fishermen on the 
lake shore, as well as amusing ourselves with the 
crowned cranes, which could be approached as easily 
as the fowls in a barn-yard. 
Throughout the greater part of a railway journey 
from the coast to the Victoria Nyanza the country 
presents a panorama of absorbing interest. The 
variations in the physical conditions of the provinces 
traversed by the railway are remarkable. After 
leaving Mombasa with its heat, humidity, and 
fertility, the line slowly climbs a long extensive slope 
covered with scrub, and unsuitable for cultivation. 
Scrub is a term in constant use in relation to land in 
East Africa ; it may be described as coarse grass, with 
stunted, thorny bushes growing among it, with trees 
here and there. An extensive tract covered in this 
way is known as the Nyika (wilderness or desert). 
From the moment the train leaves the Salisbury 
Bridge attention is sure to be arrested by the brick-red 
earth. This is especially noticeable in the railway 
cuttings. A large part of the Protectorate is covered 
with a sheet of lava, which is gradually undergoing 
disintegration and forms a very fertile soil. 
It is curious to see the huge ant-hills arising by 
the side of the railway, many of them, ten feet high and 
as red as any chimney pot in rural England. Some of 
them present several openings and look like a cluster 
of chimney pots. Occasionally a tree will be found 
'growing in the midst of an ant-hill, and here and there 
ant nests will be seen in trees. 
Around Nairobi, and especially in the Kikuyu 
country, honey-barrels hang in the trees, and they 
form curious objects as seen from the train. 
