250 AGARU TO FAJULI. 



baskets made of bark were hung on the trees. The short stretch 

 of land from here to Jebel Gikkor, one of the many lofty hills 

 in this region, is fairly well wooded, and crossed by two small 

 watercourses. Here, too, we saw clumps of butter-trees. 

 Larema, a Negro village at the foot of the hill, had been 

 deserted, because the soil was exhausted, and its inhabitants 

 had built another village upon the hills of Loto, which may, in 

 its turn, be deserted in three or four years. Durrah soon ex- 

 hausts the soil, and the varieties of beans, which are exten- 

 sively grown here, exhaust it still more rapidly. Manuring is 

 not dreamt of, a change of residence being preferred. We 

 had therefore to camp in the forest, where we were able to 

 admire the abundant succulent sword-grass growing there, and 

 still more the full grandeur of a thunderstorm which came from 

 the south-east, accompanied by a deluge of rain, turning the 

 country into a lake in a few minutes. 



Before the rain fell, however, I had been able to climb 

 Jebel Gikkor, and to take from its summit a series of bearings, 

 which was fortunate, as Jebel Oppei, near Agaru, and Jebel 

 Abayo were visible. Such bearings give a good basis for 

 laying down routes. A correct triangulation could easily be 

 made from this point, were time and instruments at command. 



The farther one proceeds to the south-east, the more savan- 

 nah-like does the country become ; and the Lango country 

 has the same character, if those who have been there may be 

 believed. While at Jebel Gikkor there is still to be seen a 

 small wood, the red or chocolate-coloured country beyond it 

 is only covered with high grass, or, in moist places, with reeds 

 and Cyperus, scarcely a tree being visible. In front of us 

 neither mountain nor hill could be seen ; only the far-stretching 

 undulations of the countrv were to be distinguished, as it 

 gently rose and fell beneath corresponding waves of grass. 

 To the north, the land rises, following the general dip of the 

 country towards the south ; otherwise there is nothing but 

 wide undulating grassy tracts, and a semblance of woods in 

 the distance, due to the perspective accumulation of the few 

 trees. 



The station of Fajuli, situated amidst such surroundings 

 and built in a sort of caldron, is not a very desirable place to 



