126 NORTH-EAST APEICA. 



Modern Exploration. 



But seventy years passed between Poncet's short visit and that of the Scotch- 

 man Bruce, with whom begins the era of modern exploration. Since his time 

 the country has been traversed by many European travellers, naturalists, traders, 

 adventurers, soldiers, and missionaries, and European military expeditions have 

 even been made into the heart of Abyssinia. Commercial relations are rapidly 

 increasing, and many of the plateau districts have already been pointed out by 

 explorers as a future field of emigration for Europeans. But it might be doubted 

 whether the two races would continue to live on friendly terms, without the 

 conflicts and wars of extermination generally proceeding the fusion of different 

 peoples. 



Certain parts of Ethiopia are already much better known than any other 

 African region lying beyond the colonies and maritime regions under European 

 influence. Since Bruce's visit, the country has been thoroughly studied by 

 explorers, such as Salt, Eiippel, Rochet, Ferret, and Galinier ; Beke, Sapeto, 

 Krapf, Combes, and Tamisier ; Lejean, Munzinger, Raffray, Rohlfs, and Heuglin, 

 who have brought back maj)s, charts and observations of every description. 

 Moreover Antoine d'Abbadie, during his twelve years' stay in Ethiopia, made a 

 geodetic survey of the country, by a rapid but accurate method, hardly inferior 

 in precision to the lengthy and delicate system of triangulation usually adopted 

 in Europe. On d'Abbadie's map the Red Sea coast is connected with the moun- 

 tains of the plateau as far as Kaffa by a continuous series of triangles, fixing the 

 latitude and longitude of about nine hundred points. The map is covered with a 

 close network of geodetic lines and routes, the names of many localities being 

 inserted with considerable accuracy. Detailed surveys were also taken by the 

 British staff ofiicers during the expedition of 1868 from Adulis Bay to the 

 highland fortress of Magdala. 



Abyssinia Proper. 



Most European explorers who have visited the Ethiopian uplands have 

 penetrated from the east, where these highlands present the most imposing aspect. 

 Above the samhar or mudun, a naked plain separating the coast from the plateau, 

 the outer terraces of the escarpment are seen piled up in domes and pyramids, 

 barren rocks or verdant slopes, whose sharp hazy crests seem to merge in a single 

 irregular range. At the mouth of the ravines which cleave the rocky masses 

 with their parallel furrows, the argillaceous plains are succeeded by rolled stones 

 and boulders, with here and there a solitary tree, or patches of scrub or herbage 

 visible in the cavities occasionally flooded by the tropical rains. Still higher up 

 rise rocky or wooded slopes and steep precipices, round which wind narrow and 

 dangerous paths. When the traveller at last reaches the summit he does not 

 find himself on a ridge, as he might have expected, but on almost level pasture- 

 lands interspersed with tall juniper-trees. At a height of from 7,000 to 9,000 

 feet the edge of the plateau stands out in relief, on one side overlooking the grey 



