9 6 
THE EAST AFRICAN RAILROAD 
eros—we emerge breathless, as from another world, half astonished 
to find ourselves within a quarter of a mile of the railway line, with 
its trolley, luncheon, soda water and other conveniences of civilization. 
Let us now follow our hunter farther on his route, to where the 
train descends into the famous Rift Valley, one of the most remark¬ 
able phenomena of nature which Africa presents. This celebrated 
valley is a strange depression in the elevated region of eastern Africa, 
beginning in the southern portion of German East Africa at an alti¬ 
tude of about 2,500 feet, and rising in height as it passes northward 
till it reaches its highest elevation of 6,300 feet at Lake Naivasha. 
Then its level slowly decreases until at Lake Rudolf it is only 1,200 
feet above sea level. From this point it dwindles in elevation, with 
occasional ridges, until sea level is reached at the Gulf of Aden. It 
varies from twenty to forty miles in width and is bounded by precip¬ 
itous sides rising to a much greater elevation. It appears as though 
some convulsion of the earth had caused a section of the great eastern 
plateau to slip down about 3,000 feet below the ground level of the 
land, the great cut being traced by geologists from the lower end of 
Lake Tanganyika to the land of Palestine. 
On looking at a relief map of northeast Africa it almost suggests 
the idea that nature had been considering whether she would not cut 
off another slice of Africa in addition to Madagascar. Madagascar 
may have been originally separated from Africa in that way. In this 
curious depression of the “Rift Valley” is a series of lakes, salt in 
some instances and fresh in others. Particularly noteworthy is a salt 
lake named Lake Hannington, after a missionary bishop murdered by 
the natives. (This commemoration was rather inappropriate because 
he was killed at a distance of nearly four hundred miles from this 
place.) Lake Hannington is visited at the present day by tourists who 
come to see the great number of flamingoes which make their home 
here. 
On Lake Hannington it is no exaggeration to say that there must 
be close upon a million flamingoes. These birds are mainly collected 
around the northern end of the lake and on the submerged banks which 
break up the deep blue-green of its still surface. The shores where 
they cluster, and these banks in the middle of the lake where they are 
