as it forced its way between rocky banks. This bridge
was made of withes and looked frail, but it was sufficiently
strong, and afforded room for the passage of a
lightly laden native.
We had exhausted our store of meat at dinner the
nieht before, so that our Christmas O ' feast consisted of
soup, fish, and beans.
The next day we made an early start, and pursued our
way along the bank of the river, which at this point ran
nearly due east. From what Motio told us, we hoped to
reach Lake Lorian in three days. As we advanced, the
current of the Guaso Nyiro became swifter, and flowed
so deeply below the surface of the surrounding country
as to form a canon more than 100 feet deep and about
300 feet wide. The soil on our side of the stream
was composed of lava dust, strewn with innumerable
blocks of the same material. The other bank, however,
gleamed with mica, showing that the formation there
was gneiss.
Toward noon, just as I began to think of halting for
our mid-day meal, a dull, roaring sound reached my ears.
After going a half-mile further, the noise increasing all
the while, we reached a point where the plain fell to the
level of the river. There we found explanation of the
roaring sound. The Guaso Nyiro, meeting a wall of
black lava in its' course, flows over it, and has a drop of
sixty feet. Even at the season of the year when we
visited it, and when the autumn rains had been very
slight, the falls presented an imposing appearance. The
wall of lava, being higher in the middle than at the sides,
divided the river into two streams. Below the falls these
two streams again met, and forced their way between
two precipitous walls of black lava; foam was churned
and thrown high into the air, and the leaping, tumbling,
frothing stream had a really wild and savage aspect. This
place we named Chanler Falls. We pitched our camp
five miles below the falls, at which point the river again
peacefully wended its way between rows of tall palms.
C h a n l e r F a l l s
While the men were building a camp, I went in search
of meat. We were sorely in need of it; and as Lieutenant
yon Hohnel had fallen and injured his knee sc
badly as to incapacitate him for hunting, all prospect
of satisfying my hungry men centred in the presence
of game and the accuracy of my single rifle. I found
game plentiful, but the country was too open to get
within range of it. I walked three miles, led along by