240 THROUGH UNKNOWN AFRICAN COUNTRIES. 
loads; whether it was the result of fly bites, or the wet 
ground they had to he on when camped near the Amara, 
I could not then tell. A Boran named Liban, of the 
Mataro tribe, told me his people brought nitrate of soda, 
which they call “ megada,” besides cattle, goats, and sheep, 
to trade with the Konso people in exchange for tobacco, 
coffee, and durrha. The “megada” is crushed up and 
mixed with tobacco to give it a spicy flavor, and is greatly 
prized. The boys I sent to explore the river told me it 
would be absolutely impossible to take the caravan along 
its banks, and I was also informed that the donkey path 
was too steep for the camels to ascend. 
According to the natives, the donkey path led clear 
across the Tertala Mountains, and came to the river again 
near Lake Boyi; so I determined to try to take this road, 
as we had to move on anyway, and this seemed to present 
a few less difficulties than the river valley. There was a 
curious hill near the camp, rising like a pyramid from the 
river valley, and on the top of this was a mass of glistening 
white quartz. The principal stone to be found in this 
country is a coarse granite, and volcanic rock. We spent 
a whole day hard at work, getting the camels up the 
donkey path. The road led up the steepest and stoniest 
mountain passes one could possibly imagine. We _ suc- 
ceeded in ascending fifteen hundred feet, but the camels 
were in a terrible condition, even those that were not 
loaded coming into camp almost too tired to walk. The 
mountains were covered with euphorbias, instead of the 
umbrella mimosa-trees we had been accustomed to see 
lately, and the underbrush was very dense, comprising 
different varieties of acacia, cactus, and aloe. 
We camped by a small brook of clear water running 
towards the Galana, in which I caught a small fish resem- 
bling achub. There was much micaceous grit on the banks 
