THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. .643 



ed fprings are more than double its quantity ; and being 

 arrived under the hill whereon ftands the church of Saint 

 Michael Sacala, about two miles from its fource, it there 

 becomes a ftream that would turn a common mill, fhallow, 

 clear, and running over a rocky bottom about three yards 

 wide : this muft be understood to be variable according to 

 the feafon ; and the prelum observations are applicable to 

 the 5th of November, when the rains had ceafedfor feyeral 

 weeks. There is the ford which we palled going to Geefh, 

 and we crofled it the day of our arrival, in the time of my 

 converiation with Woldo about the fafh. 



Nothing can be more beautiful than this fpot ; the fmall 

 rifing hills about us were all thick-coveredwith verdure,efpe- 

 cially with clover, the largeft arid nneft I ever faw; the tops 

 of the heights crowned with trees of a prodigious lize ; the 

 ilream, at the banks of which we were fitting, was limpid 

 and pure as the nneft cryftal ; the ford, covered thick with 

 a bulhy kind of tree that feemed to affecT: to grow to no 

 height, but thick with foliage and young branches, rather 

 to court the furface of the water, whilft it bore, in prodigi- 

 ous quantities, a beautiful yellow flower, not unlike a fingle 

 wild rofe of that colour, but without thorns ; and, indeed, 

 upon examination, we found that it was not a fpecies of 

 the i'ofe, but of hypericum. 



From the fource to this beautiful ford, below the church 

 of St Michael Geefh, I enjoyed my lecond victory over this 

 coy river, after the firft obtained at the fountains themfelves. 

 What might Hill be faid of the world in general no longer 

 applied to me : — 



4 M 2 Nee 



