40 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



means clear whether this mass is intrusive, or whether it 

 fills a hoUow in the metamorphics. 



The hill (Akdb Teriki) is flat at the top, the uppermost 

 portion consisting apparently of a trachyte lava flow, 

 rather coarse and gritty, resembling sandstone. It is of 

 a greyish colour on a freshly fractured surface, but 

 weathers brown. It contains grains of magnetic iron, 

 which afiect the compass. The lower portion of the hOl 

 consists partly of basalt and partly of trachyte. 



A band of hills to the north-west is composed of hard, 

 greenish-black basalt, compact and fine-grained, contain- 

 ing a little quartz and agate in irregular nodules. 

 Beyond these again to the west, and also to the south, 

 there is a considerable hilly tract of trachyte. There is 

 nothing hke bedding nor any regular superposition of one 

 rock upon the other, such as is seen near Adigrat and 

 south of Antalo ; the basalt is seen in one place about five 

 miles north-west of Senaf^ abutting against the trachyte 

 as if faulted, in another spot it appears to emerge from 

 beneath it. Some volcanic ash is seen, which adds to the 

 probability of a volcanic vent having existed in the im- 

 mediate neighbourhood, but the rocks are far too confused 

 for their history to be made out satisfactorily. 



The trachyte forms cliff's of great height on the side of 

 the deep valley west of Senafe and south-west of Akiih 

 Teriki, the bottom of which consists of metamorphic 

 rocks, (See Plate II.) The same rock forms a low ridge 

 bounding the little cultivated plain at Senafe on the 

 west. It is very compact and hard^ greatly resembling 

 a hardened sandstone. 



