644 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



'Nee contigit ulli 



Hoc vidijfe caput; 

 And again, 



Nee licuit populis parvum te t Nile, videre. 



Here, at the ford, after having ftepped over it fifty times, 

 I obferved it no larger than a common mill ftream. The 

 Nile, from this ford, turns to the weftward, and, after run- 

 ning over loofe Hones occafionally, in that direction, about 

 four miles farther, the angle of inclination increafing great- 

 ly, broken water, and a fall commences of about fix feet, 

 and thus it gets rid of the mountainous place of its nativity, 

 and iflues into the plain of Goutto, where is its firft cata- 

 ract ; for, as I have faid before, I don't account the broken 

 water, or little falls, cataracts, which are not at all vifiblein 

 the height of the rains. 



Arrived in the plain of Goutto, the river feems to have 

 loll all its violence, and fcarcely is feen to flow, but, at the 

 fame time, it there makes fo many fharp, unnatural wind- 

 ings, that it differs from any other river I ever faw, making 

 above twenty lharp angular peninfulas in the courfe of five 

 miles, through a bare, marfhy plain of clay, quite deftitute 

 of trees, and exceedingly inconvenient and unpleafant to 

 travel. After pairing this plain, it turns due north, receives 

 the tribute of many fmall ftream s, the Gometti, the Goo- 

 gueri, and the Kebezza, which defcend from the mountains 

 of Aformafha; and, united, fall into the Nile about twenty 

 miles below its fource ; it begins here to run rapidly, and 

 again receives a number of beautiful rivulets, which have 

 their rife in the heights of Litchambara, the femi-circular 

 range of mountains that pafs behind, and feem to inclofe 



Aformaiha . 



