MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 69 



he joyfully descended to its banks, which were 

 ornamented on the west with high trees of the salix 

 or willow tribe ; while on the east appeared black 

 and thick groves, with craggy pointed rocks, and 

 overshaded with tall timber trees going to decay 

 with age. The old inhabitants had a profound 

 veneration for the river, and endeavoured to prevent 

 the strangers from crossing, unless they took oft* 

 their shoes. 



Next day they journeyed through a plain covered 

 with acacias. " Here (says Bruce) the Nile winds 

 more in the space of four miles, I believe, than any 

 river in the world. It makes above a hundred 

 turns in that distance ; and is not above twenty feet 

 broad, nor more than a foot deep." After coasting 

 for some little time along the side of the valley, they 

 began to ascend a mountain, supposed to be the 

 Monies Lunce of antiquity ; and reaching its summit 

 about noon, they came in sight of Sacala, which 

 joins the village of Geesh. Immediately below was 

 seen the Nile, much diminished in size, and now 

 only a brook that had scarcely water to turn a mill. 

 It ran swiftly over a bottom of small stones, with 

 hard black rock appearing amongst them ; the 

 ground rose gently from the bank to the southward, 

 full of small hills and eminences. Before he had 

 reached Geesh, Bruce was told by his guide, Woldo, 

 to look at a hillock of green sods in the midst of a 

 marshy ground ; " It is there (said he) that the two 

 fountains of the Nile are to be found." 



The intelligence had an electric effect on the 



