1 7 o EASTERN ETHIOPIA xiv 



end, which has a sandy shore bordered with thick reed- 

 beds, interrupted here and there with hippopotamus 

 tracks. Behind these reed-beds there are dense thickets 

 of thorn trees and spaces covered with green grass 

 around the spot where the river Hows into the lake. 

 Here we were able to satisfy ourselves of the nature and 

 variety of the animal life occupying this dense thicket 

 around the mouth of the river, for the soft sandy ooze 



Among the rocks we found many reed -buck and succeeded 

 in obtaining some good heads. 



was covered with tracings more thickly than the 

 columns of the great temple at Thebes, and they were 

 easier to read. Here were the marks of innumerable 

 birds' feet : wading birds, duck, goose, ibis, and the 

 pink feathers and bones of the flamingo. Among 

 these footmarks by the edge of. and leading into the 

 reed-beds, were the huge footprints of the hippo- 

 potamus, large enough when fille_d with water to serve. 



