The severe marching of the preceding two days had
told upon my caravan, and I was often forced to halt
in order to allow the stragglers to catch up. On the
march I saw five rhinoceroses, two of which were very
white in colour, and at first both Lieutenant von Hohnel
and I took them for a new species; but closer inspection
disclosed the fact that they had wallowed in white
D h u m P a l m a n d A c a c i a
clay; hence their odd appearance. I knocked over a
fine young male oryx, and we stopped for a few moments
to cut up the meat. The men, who by this time
had finished every drop of their water, attempted to
quench their thirst by chewing bits of the raw meat.
From now on, the plain descended visibly to the
northward, and keen eyes might detect the tops of
palm trees. A t sight of these the men seemed to
become imbued with fresh vigour, and even the lame
and the halt stepped forward briskly to where they
knew they would find water. ' The ground here was
absolutely white with sulphate of magnesium, so bright
in the sunlight, indeed, that the eyes were pained by
the glare.
On our right there rose a cone to a height of 1500
feet, and to the southwest, in the far distance, we caught
a glimpse of the sloping sides of Mount Kenya. In the
rear towered the Jombeni Mountains; in front, and not
far to the west, rose high hills. We were on the border
of volcanic and aqueous formations, between which the
Guaso Nyiro flowed. A t this point the river had
worn its bed deep below the level, so that our camp,
pitched upon the river bank, was sheltered from the hot
winds which blew across the desert. The river here
is 100 feet wide and not more than six feet deep, but
this depth is attained only in few places. Its current
is swift, and the course is frequently interrupted by
gneiss rocks, which in some spots are so large and
numerous as to almost dam the river’s flow. My delight
upon reaching this river was truly great, but it
was surpassed by the joy of Lieutenant von Hohnel.
He, on his former journey, had been the first to discover
the source of the Guaso Nyiro, and had followed
it to within about seventy-five miles of our present
camp.
Up to the time of our journey it had been asserted
that the Guaso Nyiro emptied into the Tana. This
we discovered not to be the case. So it appears there
are at least three separate river systems having their
sources at Mount Kenya, viz.: the Sabaki, the Tana,