THE EASTERN BOEDER RANGE. 135 



rocks and pumice, although their snowy peaks contain no craters. Till recently 

 the Ras Dajan, probably over 15,000 feet, was considered the highest point in this 

 district, but this distinction belongs probably to that of Buahit, or Abba-Yared. 

 The highest peaks of these two mountains, rivalling Mont Rosa or Mont Blanc of 

 the European Alps, are streaked with snow, and according to the natives, snow 

 rests on them throughout the year. The aspect of the Simen highlands is scarcely 

 so imposing as that of the Alps. They rise little more than from 1,500 to 2,500 

 feet above the base of the plateau ; but at the escarpments of the terrace lands, 

 from which they are separated by deep gorges, these mountains, with their 

 fantastic towers, peaks, and successive vegetations of every climate clothing their 

 flanks, stand out in all their sublimity. From the pass of Lamalmon on the 

 Gondar route, the traveller on turning a rock comes suddenly on this amazing 

 prospect, and utters an involuntary cry of admiration at the sight of the snowy 

 peaks piercing the clouds. 



The Eastern Border Range. 



East of Tigré, the chain forming the eastern escarpment of Abyssinia is 

 continued regularly north and south, interrupted by breaches some 8,000 or 10,000 

 feet high, which would facilitate communication with the plains on the Red Sea 

 coast were the country not occupied by the dreaded Afar tribes. This border 

 chain maintains its normal elevation for a distance of about 180 miles, but at 

 certain points it merges in a rugged upland plain whose depressions are flooded by 

 lakes such as Ashangi, Ha'ik, and Ardibbo. Eastwards the mountainous tableland 

 of Zebul, some 3,000 feet high, and dominated by peaks rising from 1,000 to 2,000 

 feet higher, advances far into the country of the Somali. Although their escarp- 

 ments are so precipitous, and so densely clothed with matted vegetation, as to 

 render them almost inaccessible, the Zebul heights are not to be compared with 

 the majestic Abyssinian mountains. The Bekenna, or Berkona, an afiluent of the 

 Awash, rising in the watershed near the sources of the Takkazeh and Beshilo, 

 separates the border chain from the Argobba, a lateral ridge which projects far 

 into the lowlands, forming in the south-west the last spur of the Abyssinian 

 highlands. 



The line of transverse depressions, indicated on the coast by the Gulf of 

 Tajurah, and in the interior by the bed of Lake Tana, is well defined on the 

 border terrace by a nucleus of diverging valleys constituting the main point of 

 radiation of all the Abyssinian rivers. Near the hot spring forming its source 

 rise other tributary rivers of the Takkazeh ; the chief affluents of the Beshilo or 

 Beshlo, which with the Aba'i forms one of the main headstreams of the Blue Nile, 

 also originate in these mountains, while their eastern slopes give birth to many 

 tributaries of the Awash and of the Gwalima, or Golima, which latter finally runs 

 dry in the plains of the Afars. 



In the vicinity of Lake Haik, east of the fortress of Magdala, the range is 

 crossed by a pass said to be considerably less than 7,000 feet high, thus forming the 



