NATURE 
[May 12, 1870 
30 
a small lizard (a kind of Acanthodactylus), and a very 
After 
venomous little viperine snake (Echis arenicola). 
the lapse of a few days, he started for the interior, and 
soon reached Hadoda. On waking the next morning, he 
saw a large troop of dogfaced baboons (Cynocephalus 
hamadryas), hunting for corn that had been dropped where 
the horses had been picketed. In the early part of 
January he was sent forward to examine the water supply, 
which proved to be abundant. and was obtained in places 
where there was no running water, by means of Norton’s 
American pumps, and subsequently by an improved kind 
of chain pump (Brasyer’s). 
The pass which was selected for the road to the Abys- 
sinian highlands commences at Komayli, situated on the 
verge of the coast plain, and extends to Senafé, a distance 
of about fifty miles. At Undul Wells, which is 3,400 feet 
of the valley is sandstone, while the bottom of the valley 
lies on metamorphic rocks. The picturesque character of 
the scenery of this region is here well shown. Leaving 
Senafé, the road traverses a plain of slaty metamorphic 
rocks, and presents few points of interest till the valley of 
Guna Guna is reached, where the scenery becomes very 
grand, and increases in beauty near Fokada, close to which 
there is a fine hill of columnar trachyte; and where the 
road winds round the western side of this, the view over 
the valley to the westward, exhibited in our second illus- 
tration, is one of unusual interest and beauty. The valleys, 
as usual, are deeply cut into the metamorphics ; the flat 
hill-tops are of sandstone. To the southward, above the 
sandstone-bed, rise the terraced trap hills of the Harat 
range, and in the far distance are the strangely-shaped 
hummocks of the Adowa mountains. 
VIEW OF THE HAMAS VALLEY, WEST OF SENAFE 
above the sea, the subtropical fauna was entered, contain- 
ing some of the animals peculiar to the Abyssinian _high- 
lands. Amongst these may be mentioned the Corvus 
affinis, a king crow, a noisy yellow-billed hornbill, a cra- 
teropus, a large partridge, and a very handsome bee-eater. 
A small plain covered with bush jungle, and partly with 
an aloe-like plant, was haunted with wart-hogs, hyzenas, 
and Beni Israel. 
Abyssinian Plantain-eater (Zuvracus leucotis) appeared 
with a handsome francolin. Senafé itself, at the head 
of the pass, is 9,050 feet above the sea-level. Here he 
found the Hyrax, Ichneumon, Klipspringer, and Koodoo. 
The drawing shows the Hamas Valley west of Senafé. 
The lofty hill in the distance is Hasheyat, or, as it is spelt in 
the excellent geological map which accompanies the work, 
Kishyat-hill, composed of columnar trachyte, and there- 
fore of volcanic origin, The terrace on the opposite side 
At a height of 5,000 feet, the splendid | 
Starting rom Fokada, our traveller, following the 
track of the army, passed through Adigrat; “a 
considerable town, with a fine church containing 
some remarkable mural paintings, in which Scriptural 
scenes are portrayed as they might have appeared, 
perhaps, had the scene been Abyssinia and the actors 
Abyssinians ; just as the Italian painters of the Middle 
Ages introduced the costumes of Italy and the great build- 
| ings of Florence and Sienna in the representation of events 
which occurred in Palestine.” j 
We need not follow Mr. Blanford’s progress step by 
step, as the several camping-grounds are already known 
to the public through Markham’s Abyssinian Expedition, 
and the correspondent of the ///ustrated London News. 
He describes the scenery as being almost everywhere 
strikingly beautiful ; now bold and romantic—now resem- 
bling the undulating character of western England. 
