2 [No. 96 GEOGRAPHY : EAST AFRICA

it follows to its source . It then crosses the summit of Mount Elgon , and, striking the River Sio, follows it

to Victoria Nyanza, and passes west of the islands of Sumba , Mageta, and Mfwanganu, to the point on Mohuru Bay at which the former German frontier reaches the lake.

( 2 ) SURFACE , COAST, RIVERS, AND LAKES

Surface and Coast Apart from a narrow belt of coast -land and the plains of Jubaland and Tanaland, the whole territory forms part of the East African Plateau . The country is traversed from north to south by the Eastern Rift valley, which forms a series of lake basins from Lake Rudolf in the north to Lake Natron on the southern frontier.

The highland region in the south -west, which extends far into the Tanganyika Territory, lies at an altitude of between 5,000 and 8,000 feet. North wards to Lake Rudolf, beyond the region of high mountains, the general level declines rapidly, though there are mountains south-east of the lake. Farther east a steppe region , bounded on the north by the escarpment of the Abyssinian highlands, slopes down wards towards the south -east, passing intothe plains

of Jubaland . West of the Rift valley the Nandi and Mauescarpments fall sharply to the great depression of Victoria Nyanza.

The whole territory may be divided roughly into five regions: ( 1 ) the coast and coastal plain , (2 ) the slopes of the south -western plateau, ( 3 ) the largely volcanic highlands rising therefrom , ( 4 ) the depression of Victoria Nyanza , and (5) the northern steppes and the plains of Jubaland and Tanaland . Of these regions the third is by far the most important and characteristic.

( 1 ) The Coast. – From the River Umba, as far north as Formosa Bay, the coast consists of sandy beaches and

low coral cliffs, broken by mangrove - fringed creeks and protected by a barrier reef. Farther north it be