54 PERSONAL NARRATIVH. 



abundant, and we shot sufficient not only for ourselves, 

 but to a great extent for our camp. 



At Senaf^ I received an answer from Colonel Dillon, 

 the military secretary to Sir K. Napier, telling me to 

 purchase any carriage I wanted for specimens, as iione 

 could be supplied by the Transport Train. For some 

 days I could obtain no mules, as none were brought for 

 sale. At last I succeeded in obtaining three. Drivers 

 were equally unprocurable, unless I took Shohos, who 

 were sure to be missing after two or three stages, 

 perhaps taking the mules with them ; however, my 

 Indian horsekeepers tried their hands at mule-driving, 

 and, the little Abyssinian mules beuig really very 

 manageable, they succeeded pretty well. 



It was thus the 1 7th of March before I could start for 

 the front. By this time the head -quarters were close to 

 Ashangi, and, as we then supposed, within two or three 

 marches of Magdala. But the information, so far in the 

 rear as Senaf^ then was, of the progress of head-quarters 

 was most scanty, and all sorts of rumours prevailed. 

 Had the march forwards from Antalo been as leisurely 

 as that from Senafe and Adigrat, there would stiU have 

 been abundant time for me to reach the front before the 

 army could arrive at its goal ; but lately the progress 

 had been much more rapid. 



It was, of course, of the greatest importance to me 

 that I should see as much of the country as possible, in 

 order to be able to form a clear idea of its geology. I 

 certainly had no idea, even at this period of the cam- 

 paign, that its end was so near, and I believe that my 



