146 CAPTAIN TUCKEY’S NARRATIVE. 
the current seems the only obstacle to the ascent of boats, 
and that I should consider as none to my progress with the 
boats, did there appear to be the smallest utility in getting 
them above it. But as the shore on either side presents the 
most stupendous overhanging rocks, to whose crags alone 
the boats could be secured, while an impetuous current 
flows beneath; and as every information makes Yellala a 
cataract, of great perpendicular fall, to which the approach 
is far easiest from the place near which the boats are now 
anchored in perfect safety, I determined to visit this cataract 
by land, in order to determine on my future operations. 
Accordingly at 8 o’clock on the morning of the 14th 
I Janded on the north shore, in a cove with a fine sandy 
beach, covered with the dung of the hippopotamus, exactly 
resembling that of the horse. My party consisted of Messrs. 
Smith, Tudor, Galwey, and Hodder, and 13 men, besides 
two Embomma interpreters (the Chenoo’s sons), and a guide 
from Noki, with four days provisions. Our route lay 
by narrow foot paths, at first over most difficult hills, and 
then along a level plateau of fertile land; in short, over 
a country resembling that between the river and Noki. 
Our course lay between E.N.E. and N.E. At noon 
we reached Banza Cooloo, from whence we understood we 
should see Yellala. Anxious to get a sight of it, I declined 
