PHYSICAL FEATURES. xvii 
watercourses boast a coarse vegetation, with some acacias and dracsenae. Continuing 
onwards, the route passes up the Khor Haratri, a winding defile between the granite 
slopes of the mountains, and with two wells. The head of this khor forms the watershed 
between the Nile and the Red Sea at an elevation of 880 metres. A slight descent 
follows, and then the great plain of the Wadi Ahmed is entered, with the grand 
mountain known as Taabid at its further end, with bold rocky precipices running down 
to the broad plain, strewn with fragments of trap and porphyry, excepting in its lower 
parts, and supporting a few trees and shrubs, and, at rare intervals, small patches of 
dhurra. After another easy descent over sparse grass and past a variety of trees, 
followed by a much steeper declivity over rocky ground where the hills close in, the 
route leads to the tortuous Wadi Omareg, which is nearly level and about 1 to 3 kilom. 
in width. A ridge is then crossed and the path descends into the valley of Sinkat, at 
an elevation of 880 metres above the sea, a favourite resort with the Hadendowahs of 
Suakin for grazing their flocks at the season when rain occasionally falls, from August 
and onwards, until the vegetation becomes once more dried up, when they retire to the 
littoral plain which benefits by the humid atmosphere of the Red Sea. This valley 
runs nearly north and south, and is closed in on the east by Jebel Erbab and on the 
west by Jebel Ayakeb. Schweinfurth's description of the vegetation of these valleys will 
suffice to prove how comparatively fertile they are. He says : — " This rich covering 
of vegetation is, however, confined to the side of the mountains towards the sea ; on 
the other side, as soon as the second pass is left behind, the rocks are bare, and only 
the lowest part of the valley is covered with anything of luxuriant verdure. Acacias, 
growing so closely as almost to form a hedge, and gigantic clumps of the grass-green 
Salvadora, shoot up like great dishes of green salad from the cheerless space around." 
And again, in describing the valley of Harrasa, in the Erkowit mountain, which attains 
to 1293 metres in height, he remarks, this valley " discloses the whole flora of the 
Abyssinian highland in wonderful and complete luxuriance. Euphorbia? and dracsense 
deck the mountain in masses which might almost be reckoned by millions, so that the 
slopes in the distance have the appearance of being covered with huge black patches. 
Halfway between Singat (Sinkat) and Erkoweet we halted in a wady .... 
which bore the name of Sarroweet. What a prospect! how gay with its variety of hue, 
green and red and yellow ! Nothing could be more pleasant than the shade of the 
acacia, nothing more striking than the abundance of bloom of the Abyssinian aloe, 
transforming the dreary sand beds into smiling gardens. Green were the tabbes-grass 
and the acacias, yellow and red were the aloes, and in such crowded masses, that I 
was involuntarily reminded of the splendour of the tulip-beds of the Netherlands ; but 
here gardens lay in the midst of a waste of gloomy black stone." The similarity of the 
life on these heights to that of the Abyssinian highland is not confined to plant-life 
alone, as that remarkable rodent Lophiomys is common to both regions, and associated 
with it is found Oreotragus saltator ; but unfortunately very little is known of the 
