BEAUTIFUL LAKE ABAYA. 229 
the evening only two miles from the lake, completely tired 
out, and unable to go a step farther. There were many 
hartebeests, gazelles, rhinos, and zebras in the broad valley, 
so it was easy to procure food for my boys. 
Indeed, the zebras and hartebeests were so numerous that 
they appeared to form one vast herd several miles long. 
By sunrise we were on the lake, and a happy man I was as 
I looked over the beautiful sheet of water and felt that I 
was the only white man who had stood on its shores. There 
was little time to be lost, so I started at once to measure out 
a base and find out the size of the lake. It was from eleven 
to twelve miles across, and almost rectangular, the eastern 
and southern sides presenting gently sloping grassy plains 
and low hills for a couple of miles until the mountains of 
the Jan Jams and the Konso range are reached. 
On the north and west high mountain ranges, rising 
directly from the water’s edge, extend far away in the dis- 
tance. From a high peak on the Konso range I could 
make out peaks fifty or sixty miles to the north that must 
have been nine thousand feet high. 
The Omo River was supposed by geographers to flow 
across this country from east to west, but it seems quite 
incredible to me that any river could have found a fissure 
deep enough to allow its waters to pass this broad and 
mighty mountain wall. This is the continuation of the 
great water-shed which we had ascended at Sheikh Husein, 
and which extends south and west from Abyssinia to Lake 
Rudolf. On the north rise the Hawash and the Blue Nile. 
To the south rise the Jub, or Ganana, the Omo, — which 
probably flows into the Jub, —the Dawa, and the Galana 
Amara; and to the west the Nianam, which flows into 
Lake Rudolf. To the south of Lake Abaya there are no 
inhabitants until you come to the rich and intelligent 
Konso tribe, thirty miles distant. 
