We were compelled to kill more of the sheep for food, as no game whatever was to be seen; the effect, I suppose, of the rinderpest. We saw thousands of skulls of cattle scattered over the plains of North Kenia, the remains of the vast herds of the Masai, who at one time used this stretch of country as a grazing ground. Some few of the remains were no doubt the tracks of parties of Masai elmoran, who, from their settlements at Kinangop and Naivasha, used this road on their raiding expeditions to M’thara, Munithu, and north-east Kenia generally. On the following day, which on consulting my diary I find to be the 2nd of November, 1900, we started at eight o’clock in the morning, and an hour later reached a small stream. Crossing this without much trouble we marched for another two hours, at the end of that time reaching the upper waters of the Waso Nyiro. The Waso Nyiro has always been supposed to rise in the Aberdare Range, and to flow in a north-easterly direction till it is joined by the Ngare Nanuki, and then to flow northward. This is a mistake, so far as it is supposed to rise in the Aberdare Range, as the Waso Nyiro really rises in the western side of Kenia itself, the comparatively small and muddy stream hitherto supposed to be Waso Nyiro being merely tributary to it. At the spot only a few miles from its source, where we crossed the Waso Nyiro, it was already a fairly large and deep stream, with a very swift current. It lies at the bottom of a large ravine, which we were at first unable to cross, but after searching the crest for an hour we discovered a broad elephant path which took us down to the bottom, across the river, and up the other side. At the crossing-place the Waso Nyiro flows over dark coloured rock; the water was icy cold and most remarkably pellucid. Objects such as small stones, etc., in the bed of the stream, were surprisingly distinct; and but for the swiftly flowing current that distorted their outlines a little, it would have been difficult to believe that they were being viewed through from four to six feet of water. Taking this into consideration, I am in no way surprised that it is called the Waso Nyiro, literally _clear water_. Till that time the name had seemed to me to be somewhat of a misnomer, as the Waso Nyiro, for the 140 odd miles of its course that we had traversed, was a yellowish muddy stream, which belied its name. The Masai from Gilgil and Naivasha, in their raids on North-east Kenia, most probably used the route we were then following—as instanced by the bones of the cattle—and would cross the river at the same spot. With their gift for appropriate nomenclature they, to my mind, could not do otherwise than name it the “Clear water,” in the same way as they named the Ngare Nanuki the “Red water,” on account of the apparent colour given to the water by the red gneiss rock over which it flows in that part of its course which lay on their route to and from North-east Kenia.