AGULA. 65 



capensis. This little dove, which in May and later 

 abounded on the sea-coast, appeared in winter and spring 

 to be entirely wanting, not only on the shores of the Eed 

 Sea, but throughout the portion of Tigr^ which I tra- 

 versed north of the Genfel river. 



Between hunting for fossils and looking after birds 

 time slipped away. I had already been detained in con- 

 sequence of one of my men having been badly kicked by 

 a mule, and I had put my lame collector on a horse 

 which Captain Roddy had lent me to ride, and sent him 

 on ; so when night came on, I was alone, and still at some 

 distance from camp, and I had no little difficulty in 

 finding my way through the darkness. The road was far 

 from good, and after blundering over rocks for half an 

 hour, I was glad to see the camp-fires of Agula. An 

 excellent plan had been adopted of pitching a large tent 

 ^large, that is, for Abyssinia ; in India we should have 

 thought it very small — at each halting-place, for the use 

 of officers marching through. I had scarcely reached 

 this refuge when a downpour of rain accompanied by 

 heavy thunder and lightning burst upon us, and lasted 

 for at least an hour. Hitherto the weather had been 

 lovely, but afterwards showers fell not unfrequently. 



Near Agula are the ruins of a church,^ described by a 

 correspondent of the Illustrated London News as a 

 Greek temple. The scenery around is very character- 

 istic of this part of the country, a comparatively open 

 valley with very little vegetation on the slopes, but a 



^ A description with a plan will be found in Markham's "Abyssinian 

 Expedition," p. 236. 



F 



