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BRITISH EAST AFRICA

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 601 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRITISH EAST AFRICA  , a
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term, in its widest sense, including all the territory under
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British influence on the eastern side of Africa between German East Africa on the south and Abyssinia and the Anglo-
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Egyptian Sudan on the north . It comprises the protectorates of
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Zanzibar,
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Uganda and East Africa . Apart from a narrow belt of coastland, the
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continental
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area belongs almost entirely to the
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great plateau of East Africa, rarely falling below an
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elevation of 2000 ft., while extensive sections rise to a height of 6000 to 8000 ft . From the coast lowlands a series of A ~t B C E.~ LStefanie ` ' d A 1 ..@" sas r g r. y, S'" IILCbtlleko G~ t O i .r1~4, t . F ~ UL saissisak Ii `1 :< 9 gpy .0 rout'. s r °lnenr ifB Na 1 ' .. "-5 do/ an xlllaCO 7r 10 jr Ca~~ tKa la;~ r ( i.A 1 5l laki it rl '1` RAY, t.LOld/6° Ya?~ bs°~ynoa o4 e .. --- oy A'gO rasa r . 4ah ,rk~ I 1H r r - ® x "Pw n dsarinre A S 'a b a 1 C 1 oey . Liban s e t ° 6 ~ V d ®Mt.Maraablt ~ \ .. N SQL \ lK . ~'~----\ e . /Mkash
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Bird LAShaha /., Gx't~ T tfyiro 6 tzsamis tt4 a Lo,n a `1'S .

1 3 `Uy f 'Yi= L j .Seramba s"• W _ l~ 3 @ ,~ °r e Y9J f1 la 1 ' (~+ a bgiu Yaka Joo o ans ~~ ti C Worn . * HI f .1'\ $,c

lip] hi 1 r,a~t 6r. v~ ` ! ~,n _ S yt ) ' Afiad % E . ator,., g, s h.rh LDmb _t'6 ~ mh+=ata Guth .. _ ;~ . K'mayu t* , a-as z~ tf~ ° c A Ng a 1 a n 1 d " p •, _ rote a1 T a - ® ® .•.1, T .. Ii To, Llltt alp6rtyu . E ' aro J' K u ... t•a~.a~ t it rcF Lave , atrqq~.+ 1 a Qoanns ryy,p, J G~® a t1, m P,P t ~ib~.1'% 'N ~J / .. •Mayto Curette e 3 t~ dot' nnH Y\~177~~r Eng k Si b Si' a M i\ rat v ~E o , B I 1 oN Ns U . Vyi .' LNat o s,gR LonOid - . Ss 2 . Its Mt-Kilimanf Y i +l K ZANZIBAR ~/ e *a ° 'xaanBa
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PROTECTORATE ~o ,'neS e t' d i e `tli3 (Same scale) .40 Samlaf la sat a BRITISH EAST AFRICA aa SogtlStt nll ' t•QI y - ~ 4
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ioo 9 \ .

-

Capital of Protectorate 0 9 B r,_ oa' - - . - ,'• Capitals of Provinces-- 1 i --
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Railways - f Longitude F. g6°of
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Greenwich B qo° rj a B . _''- steps with intervening plateaus leads to a broad zone of high ground remarkable for the abundant traces of volcanic
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action . This broad upland is furrowed by the eastern " rift-valley," formed by the subsidence of its floor and occupied in parts by lakes without outlet . Towards the west a basin of
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lower elevation is partially occupied by Victoria Nyanza, drained north to the Nile, while still farther inland the ground again rises to a- second volcanic belt, culminating in the
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Ruwenzori range . (See ZANZIBAR, and for Uganda protectorate see UGANDA.) The
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present article treats of the East Africa protectorate only . Topography.-The
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southern frontier, coterminous with the
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northern frontier of German East Africa, runs north-west from the mouth of the Umba
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river in 4° 4o' S. to Victoria Nyanza, which it strikes at I° S., deviating, however, so as to leave Mount
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Kilimanjaro wholly in German territory . The eastern boundary is the
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Indian Ocean, the coast
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line being about 400 m . On the north the protectorate is bounded by Abyssinia and
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Italian
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Somaliland; on the west by Uganda . It has an area of about 240,000 sq. m., and- a population estimated at from 2,000,000 to 4,000,000, including some 25,000 Indians and 3000 Europeans . Of the Europeans many are emigrants from South Africa; they include some hundreds .of
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Boer families . The first of the parallel zones—the coast plain or " Temborari is generally of insignificant width, varying from-2 to to m., except in the valleys of the main rivers .

The

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shore line is broken by bays and branching creeks, often cutting off islands from the main-
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land . Such are Mvita or
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Mombasa in 4°4' S., and the larger islands of Lamu, Manda and Patta (the Lamu
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archipelago), between 2° 20' and 2°S . Farther north the coast becomes straighter, with the one indentation of
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Port Durnford in I ° to' S„ but skirted sea- wards by a row of small islands . Beyond the coast plain the country rises in a generally well defined step or steps to an alti- tude of some 800 ft., forming the wide level plain called " Nyika (uplands), largely composed of
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quartz . It
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con- tains large waterless areas, such as the Taru
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desert in the Mombasa
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district . The next stage in the ascent is marked by an intermittent line of mountains—gneissose or schistose—running generally north-north-west, sometimes in parallel chains, and representing the
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primitive axis of the continent . Their height varies from 5000 to 8000 ft . Farther inland grassy uplands extend to the eastern edge of the rift-valley, though varied with cultivated ground and
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forest, the former especially in- Kikuyu, the latter between o° and o° 4o' S . The most extensive grassy plains are those of Kapte or Kapote and Athi, between 1° and 2° S . The general altitude of these uplands, the
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surface of which is largely composed of
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lava, varies from 5000 to 8000 ft . This zone contains the highest elevations in British East Africa, including the volcanic
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pile of
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Kenya (q.t.) (17,007 ft.), Sattima (13;214 ft.) 'arid Nandarua (about 12,900 ft.) . The Sattima (Settima) range, or Aberdare Mountains, has a general elevation of fully 10,000 ft .

To the west the fall to the rift-valley is marked by a line of cliffs, of which the best-defined portions are the Kikuyu escarpment (8000 ft.), just south of 1 ° S., and the Laikipia escarpment, on the

equator . One of the main watersheds of East Africa runs close to the eastern wall of the rift-valley, separating the basins of inland drainage from the rivers of the east coast, of which the two largest wholly within British East Africa are the
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Sabaki and
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Tana, both separately noticed . The Guaso Nyiro rises in the hills north-west of Kenya and flows in a north-east direction . After a course of over 350 M. the river in about 1° N., 39° 30' E. is lost in a marshy expanse known as the Lorian Swamp . The rift-valley, though with a generally level floor, is divided by transverse ridges into a - series of basins, each containing a lake without outlet . The southernmost section within British East Africa is formed by the arid Dogilani plains, drained south towards German territory . At their north end rise the
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extinct volcanoes of Suswa (7800 ft.) and Longonot (8700), the latter on the ridge dividing off the next basin—that of Lake )'Taivasha . This is a small fresh-
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water lake . 6135 ft. above the sea, measuring some 13 m. each way .

End of Article: BRITISH EAST AFRICA
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