Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/422

 Johnston, the population of this territory may be roughly estimated at nearly two millions.

In 1885 the trader and explorer, Fischer, skirted the east foot of the dividing range towards the Victoria Nyanza basin, and found that this range, forming the outer scarp of a plateau, runs with great regularity in the direction from south to north. This long line of cliffs, rising abruptly above the plain, very probably represents the ancient shore-line of a now vanished inland sea, of which nothing remains except a system of stagnant waters, lakes, and saline wastes, covering a large space at the foot of the escarpments. The volcanic cones occurring at intervals along the edge of the plateau are the flues of the underground fires formerly fed by the chemical ingredients which were elaborated in the depths below the bed of this extensive lacustrine basin. The still flooded depressions, mainly disposed in the same direction from north to south, stand far below the level of the rim of the tableland, which has a mean elevation of about 6,500 feet above the sea, whereas one of these depressions rises scarcely more than 2,000 feet above that level. A sort of trough or deep lacustrine cavity, with no present outflow, thus separates the elevated western plateau from the raised platform on which stand the great igneous masses of Kilima-Njaro, Kenia, and their associates.

So far as is at present known, the chain of lakes terminates southwards in the saline Manyara basin, which however has not yet been visited, and is known only from the reports of the natives. Some 60 miles north of this "natron lake" lies another, which is commanded on the south side by the extinct volcano baring the name of Dunye-Ngai, or "Heavenly Mountain" (7,200 feet), and on the east by the imposing Mount Gelei, nearly twice as high (14,000 feet). The "Minaret," as the terminal cone of Dunye-Ngai is called, is said to constantly emit smoke, the summit being wrapped in a dark vapoury cloud even in the fairest weather. The rumbling of the underground thunders is continually heard like