146 CAPTAIN TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



the current seems the only obstacle to the ascent of boats, 

 and that I should consider as none to my progress with the 

 boats, did there appear to be the smallest utility in getting 

 them above it. But as the shore on either side presents the 

 most stupendous overhanging rocks, to whose crags alone 

 the boats could be secured, while an impetuous current 

 flows beneath ; and as every information makes Yellala a 

 cataract, of great perpendicular fall, to which the approach 

 is far easiest from the place near which the boats are now 

 anchored in perfect safety, I determined to visit this cataract 

 by land, in order to determine on my future operations. 



Accordingly at 8 o'clock on the morning of the 14th 

 I landed on the north shore, in a cove with a fine sandy 

 beach, covered with the dung of the hippopotamus, exactly 

 resembling that of the horse. My party consisted of INIessrs. 

 Smith, Tudor, Galwey, and Hodder, and 13 men, besides 

 two Embomma interpreters (the Chenoo's sons), and a guide 

 from Noki, with four days provisions. Our route lay 

 by narrow foot paths, at first over most difficult hills, and 

 then along a level plateau of fertile land ; in short, over 

 a country resembling that between the river and Noki. 

 Our course lay between E. N. E. and N. E. At noon 

 we reached Banza Cooloo, from whence we understood Ave 

 should see Yellala. Anxious to get a sight of it, I declined 



