GUIXEA-FOWL PLAIN. 29 



but was fruitless ; neither mule nor rifle was ever 

 seen again. 



About a mile and a half up the ravine above Mayen, at 

 a spot where several smaller valleys enter it, is a little 

 plain, about a quarter of a mile across, and rather more 

 than half a mile long, tenanted by many guinea-fowl 

 when the pioneers of the army passed by, and hence 

 always known as Guinea-fowl Plain. It is a flat, formed 

 of boulders and granite deposited from the streams, and 

 covered partly with thick thorny bush-jungle, partly with 

 a very prickly aloe-like plant. It was much haunted by 

 wart-hogs, hyaenas, and Beni Israel, until, like the guinea- 

 fowls, all, except the hyaenas, found their way into the 

 camp cooking-pots, and served to eke out the tough beef 

 of coromissariat rations. Small as it is, this plain is the 

 broadest piece of level ground met with in the pass, and 

 from it a view is obtaiaed up some of the side valleys ; 

 one of these, the Undul torrent already mentioned, ex- 

 poses at its head some noble clifls of sandstone, part of 

 the scarp of a plateau near Takonda between the Haddas 

 and KomayK valleys. This small plain is also note- 

 worthy as being the first place on the road to the high- 

 lands, where that fine and remarkable euphorbiaceous 

 plant, the kolqual, was met with. To Anglo-Indians this 

 plant was perhaps less striking than to Europeans, as a 

 closely allied species abounds in parts of the Bombay Presi- 

 dency ; but the Indian plant is inferior in size and beauty. 



It struck me that the base of these sandstone cliffs 

 might be a very likely spot for a copious supply of 

 water, and that it was at least worth the trouble to 



