British 5 Basishfrica ] SURFACE AND COAST
watered, but nevertheless affording good grazing, ex cept inthe Nyiri district in the south -east.
The Eastern Rift valley crosses the entire territory from north to south, and in the region of Lake Baringo is bounded on the west by the double line of
the Elgeyo and Kamasia escarpments . In its central portion, where the escarpment walls are most clearly defined, and where its floor is highest , it has a width of 20 to 30 miles, and lies at a depth of 800 ft. below
the general level of the highlands, and 1,500 to 3,000 ft. below the heights of the neighbouring escarpments.
The valley floor is divided by a series of transverse folds, which form many lake basins. (See section on “ Lakes ” below . ) The high central portion of this region iswell watered and affords excellent pasturage and fertile agricultural land, but north and south of
this the valley becomes arid and the climate hot.
The great Gwas Ngishu plateau is bounded on the east by the Elgeyo escarpment, on the north by the Suk Mountains, on the west by Mount Elgon, and on the south by the Nandi escarpment. It consists mainly of level grass-covered plains, with an altitude of 6,000 to 8,000 ft . , but there are large tracts of forest .
The Nandi and Mau escarpmentsare clothed in dense forest, which continues through the broken Lumbwa and Sotik hill country, westward to the Victoria Nyanza depression and southward to the former German frontier.
( 4 ) The Depression of Victoria Nyanza . — That por tion of the territory which borders Victoria Nyanza belongs naturally rather to the_Uganda Protectorate than to British East Africa. East of the Kavirondo Gulf the shore of the lake is low and swampy , and the country here consists of open plains. Farther south the surface is high and broken, and there is much forest and bush .
(5 ) The Northern Steppes and the Plains of Juba land 'and Tanaland. — This district is a northerly con tinuation of the coastal plain described in ( 1 ) . The whole of the territory between Lake Rudolf and the