132 STEPPES AND DESERTS. 



than Mont Blanc. (Compare Riippell, Reise in Abyssinien, bd. 

 i. s. 414, and bd. ii. s. 443.) Ruppell found, adjoining the Bua- 

 hat, aa elevated plain 13,080 (13,939 Eng.) feet above the Red 

 Sea, barely covered with a small quantity of fresh fallen snow (Hum- 

 bold t, Asie Centrale, t. iii. p. 272). The celebrated inscription of 

 Adulis, which Niebuhr considers to be somewhat later than Juba 

 and Augustus, also speaks of Abyssinian snow "that reaches to 

 the knees." This is, I believe, the earliest mention in antiquity 

 of snow within the tropics (Asie Centrale, t. iii. p. 235); as the 

 Paropanisus is 12 of latitude north of the northern limit of the 

 torrid zone. 



Zimmermann's map of the countries about the Upper Nile shows 

 the dividing line which determines the basin of the Great River, 

 and separates it on the south-east from the domain of the rivers 

 which flow into the Indian Ocean; that is to say, from the Doara, 

 which enters the sea north of Magadoxo; from the Teb, which has 

 its embouchure on the Amber coast, near Ogda; and from the 

 Groschop, whose abundant stream is formed by the confluence . of 

 the G-ibu and the Zebi, and which he distinguishes from the Godjeb, 

 rendered celebrated since 1839 by Antoine d'Abbadie, the missionary 

 Krapf, and Beke. These results of the travels of Beke, Krapf, 

 Isenberg, Russeger, Riippell, Abbadie, and Werne, brought together, 

 and shown in the most comprehensive and convenient manner by 

 Zimmermann, were hailed by me on their appearance in 1843 with 

 the most lively joy, as expressed in a letter to Carl Ritter. "If," 

 I wrote to him, "a life prolonged to an advanced period brings with 

 it several inconveniences to the individual, and perhaps some even 

 to those who live with him, there is a compensation in the delight 

 of being able to compare older states of knowledge with that which 

 now exists, and to see great advances in knowledge grow and de- 

 velop themselves under our eyes in departments where all had long 

 slumbered in inactivity, with the exception, perhaps, of attempts 

 by hypercriticism to render previous acquisitions doubtful. This 

 enjoyment has from time to time fallen to our share, yQurs and 

 mine, in our geographical studies, and this particularly in reference 

 to those very parts of the world which formerly could only be treated 

 of with timid, hesitating uncertainty. The conformation of a con- 



