Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER X PREPARATIONS FOR A SECOND EXPEDITION At the time I arrived in East Africa the Northern Game Reserve was a large tract of country, about which but very little was known, and of which the boundaries, especially those to the north and east, were of the vaguest. While the southern and western sides were defined by recognizable physical features, such as the Guaso Nyiro on the south, and the Turkwell on the west, no natural boundaries could be given on the north or east, for want of geographical knowledge of the country, and on these two sides the limits of the Reserve were merely arbitrarily marked out on an inaccurate map by straight lines drawn along the 3rd parallel of north latitude, and the 39th meridian of east longitude. The whole Reserve was some thirty-eight thousand square miles in area, or, in other words, as large as all Scotland and Wales put together. It contained within its borders part of that vast cleft in the earth's surface known as the Rift Valley; practically unexplored lakes such as Rudolf, Sugota, and Baringo; mysterious rivers such as the Turkwell and Guaso Nyiro; inhospitable tracts of barren waste like the Kaisoot Desert; and rugged ranges of volcanic mountains such as Lorogi, Matthews, and Marsabit, whose beautiful forest-clad slopes give a last shelter to the. fast vanishing elephant. Throughout the greater part, however, it is nothing but nyika -- a vast, parched wilderness of thorny scrub and stunted growth, practically waterless except during the rains, when for a few weeks its innumerable dongas and ravines fill to overflowing with a rushing torrent. This great area had been declared a Reserve by a former Commissioner (as the Governor of East Africa was until recently styled), in order to prevent an...