64 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



the difference in colour, I consider this sandstone iden- 

 tical with that left behind at Adabdgi, but the question' 

 will be discussed in a subsequent page especially devoted 

 to geology. In this valley the beautiful iridescent star- 

 ling {Lamprocolius chalyhceus) abounded, and many 

 birds reappeared which had been wanting on the bleak 

 plateau we had traversed from Adigrat. From this point 

 the general elevation of the road as far as Antalo did 

 not much exceed 7,000 feet above the sea. 



From Dongolo we marched the same afternoon to 

 Agula, the next camping-ground. The road passes 

 through a beautiful little glen in the sandstone, at one 

 side of which is a church cut in the rock. Immediately 

 on leaving this, the sandstone distinctly dips under 

 limestone, and the road enters a large open plain with 

 hills to the eastward. It traverses the level ground for 

 four or five miles, and then ascends a somewhat barren 

 rise, still keeping on limestone, which indeed was tra- 

 versed from this point for upwards of seventy mdes, and 

 until we had passed Antalo. In this limestone I at last 

 found fossils, but they were extremely obscure. A few 

 oysters of the Exogyra type, and some spines of Echino- 

 derms, were the only remains I could recognise. Casts 

 of bivalves were common enough, but they, of course, 

 were useless for determination. 



Not only was the geology of much interest, but several 

 birds which I had not previously seen attracted atten- 

 tion. I shot a pair of a handsome sand-grouse, which I 

 afterwards found to be a Cape species, Fterocles guttu- 

 ralis, and a specimen of the long-tailed dove, CEna 



