1 48 Joia-nal of Travel and Natural History 



If this be the principle on which Von HeugUn has regulated his 

 account of what passed between him and the King, we can con- 

 gratulate him on the success with which he has carried it out. The 

 most nubigenous diplomatist could not have told us less, although 

 he might probably have taken more words to tell it in. The 

 naturalist, indeed, may think that the space is better bestowed 

 upon natural history than on the elucidation of the phases of 

 mental variation in a semi-savage chief, and were it not for the 

 interests now involved in the chief's proceedings we should be 

 very much of the same opinion. Von Heuglin, however, gives 

 us no option, so we gladly, though " on compulsion," pass on to 

 what may be called the proper subject of his work — The Natural 

 History of Abyssinia. 



First, one word as to his route. Starting from Massowa (for we 

 pass over the journey from Vienna to that port), he gained the 

 highlands somewhat to the north of the route selected for that of 

 the present expedition, and continued eastwards for a short space 

 until he reached Keren on the track usually followed in journeying 

 from north to south, and then, turning southwards, continued to 

 follow it until he reached Gondar. Thence he passed on to Mag- 

 dala to visit King Theodore, passing in his way along the shores 

 of the Tana Sea. On reaching Magdala he found that King 

 Theodore was encamped in the Gala country, considerably to the 

 south, and he prosecuted his journey until he reached his camp at 

 a place called Etsebed. After paying his respects to the King, he 

 retraced his steps until he reached the head or northmost point of 

 the Tana Sea, then turned north-eastwards, striking for the Nile, 

 which he reached at its junction with the Rahad, and then de- 

 scended it by vessel to Chartum. 



The coast region on the shores of the Red Sea — almost the 

 whole of the Abyssinian highlands from north to south, and the 

 upper Nile district — all contribute materials to the present work, 

 and from such materials some contribution to the solution of the 

 problem of the physical history of Abyssinia might reasonably have 

 been expected. This last Von Heuglin does not undertake. 

 The volume is crammed full of natural history information on 

 three branches — mammals, birds, and plants, but none of it is what 

 is called " applied." The information is all raw material, and is 

 communicated in the simplest and easiest way — easiest for the 

 writer we mean. It is given in the shape of a diary of each day's 

 procedure, and the material thus collected is emptied at the 



