Serengeti over 80 percent of the Serengeti. The southeastern area lies in the rain shadow of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area's highlands and is composed of shortgrass treeless plains with abundant small dicots. Soils are high in nutrients, overlying a shallow calcareous hardpan due to natrocarbonatite eruptions from Ol Doinyo Lengai. A gradient of soil depth northwestward across the plains results in changes in the herbaceous community and taller grass. About west, acacia woodlands appear suddenly and stretch west to Lake Victoria and north to the Loita Plains, north of the Maasai Mara National Reserve. The sixteen acacia species vary over this
On the Edge of a Plain young cattle-pup, and intercuts his tale with the occasional observation about the pup's feet, or a request for a knife. With the tale complete, Mitchell and his mate take up their swags, "[turn] their unshaven faces to the wide, hazy distance, and [leave] the timber behind them." "On The Edge Of A Plain" is an example of the "sketch story," a style of short story of which Lawson was particularly fond. The story itself contains very little plot, and simply describes one particular moment in Mitchell's life. "On The Edge Of The Plain" has been cited as the "perfect" example