504 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



houfes and poflemons, and thefe, therefore, being refpected 

 by Michael, had not been involved in the devaftation of the 

 late war. The villages are all furrounded with KoL quail 

 trees, as large at the trunk as thofe we met on the fide of 

 the mountain of Taranta, when we afcendedit on our journey 

 from Mafuah to enter into the province of Tigre ; but the 

 tree wants much of the beauty of thofe of Tigre ; the 

 branches are fewer in number, lefs thorny, and lefs in- 

 dented, which feems to prove that this is not the cli- 

 mate for them. 



The 30th of October, at fix in the morning, we continued 

 our journey from Bab Baha ftill rounding the lake at W. S. 

 W. and on the very brink of it : the country here is all laid 

 out in large meadows of a deep, black, rich foil, bearing 

 very high grafs, through the midft of which runs the ri- 

 ver Sar-Ohha, which, in Englifh, is the Graffy River ; it is a- 

 bout forty yards broad and not two feet deep, has a foft 

 clay bottom, and runs from north to fouth into the lake 

 Tzana. 



We turned out of the- road to the left at Bab Baha, and 

 were obliged to go up the hill ; in a quarter of an hour we 

 reached the high road to Mefcala Chriuos. At feven o'clock 

 we began to turn more to the fouthward, our courfe being 

 S. W. ; three miles and a half on our right remained the vil- 

 lage of Tcnkel ; and four miles and a half that of Tfhem- 

 mera to the N. N. W. ; we were now clofe to the border of 

 the lake, whole bottom here is a fine fand. Neither the 

 fear of crocodiles, nor other monfters in this large lake, 

 could hinder me from fwimming in it for a few minutes. 

 4 Though 



