THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 635 



worft kind of thorn, hide the mouths of the caverns above 

 mentioned, even from fight ; there is no other communica- 

 tion with the houfes either from above or below, but by 

 narrow-winding fhcep-paths, which through thefe thorn? 

 are very difficult to be difcerned,forallare allowed to be over- 

 grown with the utmoft wildnefs, as a part of their defence ; 

 lofty and large trees (moil of them of the thorny kind) tower 

 high up above the edge of the cliff, and feem to be a fence 

 againft people falling down into the plain; thefe are all at 

 their proper feafon covered with flowers of different forts 

 and colours, fo are the bufhes below on the face of the cliff: 

 every thorn in Abyffinia indeed bears a beautiful flower ; a 

 fmall atonement for the evils they occafion. 



From the edge of the cliff of Geefh above where the vil- 

 lage is fituated, the ground flopes with a very eafy defcent 

 due north, and lands you at the edge of a triangular marih 

 above eighty fix-yards broad, in the line of the fountains, 

 and two hundred and eighty-fix yards two feet from the 

 edge of the cliff above the houfe of the prieft of the river, 

 where I refided : this triangle, fuppofing it a right one, will 

 meafure one hundred and ninety-fix yards in its length, or 

 in the perpendicular ; I mean it did fo on the 6th of Novem- 

 ber 1770 ; douotlefs, like other marines, in the middle of the 

 dry feafon, and of the rains, it will vary its dimenfions. I 

 fuppofe that this perpendicular reprefents the north of the 

 marfh, and immediately from the brink of it the ground 

 rifes in a rather fleep bank, and forms a round hill not a 

 hundred yards high, upon the top of which is placed the 

 church of St Michael Geefh ; I did not meafure this diftancc, 

 but am fure it is very little lefs than five hundred yards 

 from the church to the middle fountain. On the eaft the 



4 L 2 ground 



