154 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



and was the fafefl and readieft fupply for the army, zs 

 being perfecHily under command of our mufquets, where 

 our horfes could water without danger : immediately louth 

 from this ran a valley full half a mile broad, which ended 

 in a large plain about two miles ofF. 



The valley where Michael and the van ITrfl: enga.ged\ was 

 formed by the hills of BeleflTen on the eaft, and the river Ma- 

 riam on the weft, and near the middle of the valley there 

 was a low and flat-topt hill, not above 30 yards in height, 

 which did not join with the hill of Serbraxos. Between 

 them there was an opening of about 100 yards^ through 

 which ran Deg-Ohha, to the ford of the river ]Vlariam,from 

 which you afcended in a diredion nearly N. W. up into the 

 plain which reached to the lake Tzana. On the fouth end 

 ©f this hill, as I have faid, which might have been about 

 two miles in length, the banks of the Mariam are very 

 high, and the river ftands in large deep pools, with banks 

 of fand between them. Where this hill ends to the right 

 is another ford of the river Mariam, where a deep and nar- 

 row fandy road goes winding up the banks, in a direcflion 

 N. \V. like the former, and leads to the fame plain border- 

 ing on the lake Tzana : fo that the plain of the valley 

 where the Mariam runs, which is bordered by the foot of 

 the mountains of BelefTen, and continues along the plain 

 fouth to Tangoure, is near 200 feet lower than the plain 

 that extends on the lide of the lake Tzana. Nor is there a 

 convenient accefs from the plain to the valley, at leaft that 

 I faw, by reafon of the height and fteepnefs of the banks of 

 the Mariam, excepting thele two already mentioned ; one 

 between the extremity of the long even hill, and Hope cf 

 the mountain on the north, and the other on the fouth, 



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