22 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



which was concentrated there, but had the campaign 

 lasted longer, it was intended to have taken the water in 

 pipes to Zulla. 



The temperature of the water was remarkably high, 

 so much so that I suspected part of the supply was 

 derived from a hot spring. But all wells in this neigh- 

 bourhood are singularly warm. In one which was sub- 

 sequently dug by the Punjab Pioneers, about six miles 

 from Zulla, the water was far hotter than at Komayli, 

 and certainly much above the average temperature of the 

 air. Coupling these facts with the presence of a hot 

 spring on the shore at Atzfut already mentioned, and 

 with that at Ailat to be subsequently noticed, it appears 

 probable that nearly all the subterranean waters in the 

 neighbourhood of Zulla and Massowa have an unusually 

 high temperature; a fact perhaps connected with such 

 evidence of geologically recent volcanic action as is 

 afforded by the cone at Arafild. 



I rode back to Zulla the same evening. The Com- 

 mander-in-chief, Sir Eobert (now Lord) Napier, had 

 landed in the morning, and, on hearing my report, 

 directed me to proceed to Maj^en or Undul Wells, two 

 marches beyond Komayli, and ascertain all I could con- 

 cerning the water-supply there. The pass which had 

 been selected for the road to the Abyssinian highlands 

 consisted, of a ravine running nearly north and south, 

 or parallel to the general direction of the great scarp 

 bordering the high country, from Komayli to Senaf^, a 

 distance along the bed of the torrent of about fifty miles, 

 In two places, at Suru, twelve miles beyond Komayli, 



