80 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



post to post. The mail letters were carried by cavalry 

 picquets, and the men were always eagerly questioned 

 for news. For a long time the belief in aU the camps in 

 Tigr^ was, that Magdala would be reached and assaulted 

 on the 25th of March, and some of the Indian sowars 

 actually told us that it had been captured on that day, 

 long before the news could possibly have reached them. 

 Afterwards, the 6th of April was the appointed date. 

 As is well known, the place did not fall till the 13th. 



From Lat the road ascended to the crest of the Dafat 

 pass, which is not so high as that of Wombarat. Hence 

 again there is a fine view both to the south, over the 

 valleys of the TeUari river and its feeders, and to the 

 eastward, over a portion of the same great valley in the 

 Asubo Galla country, which was seen from the pass north 

 of Lake Ashangi. AU the country around Lat, as far 

 south as the Abuyameda range, between the Tellari and 

 Takkazzyd valleys, consists of the lower group of traps. 

 These traps are more or less inclined, usually at low angles, 

 but occasionally, as just west of Lat, with high dips. 

 In this case the angle is 4.5°. The general dip is to the 

 south. 



From the Dafat pass the road descends into a 

 well- wooded valley. I met here with a small herd of 

 monkeys {Cercopithecus griseo-viridis) , which are not 

 often seen at quite so high an elevation. I also met with 

 two doves, Peristera afra and Turtur semi-torquatus, 

 Eiippell, usually met with at a lower horizon. 



From Marawa, the camping-ground beyond Lat, to 

 Dildi on the Tellari, here a very small brook, was a long 



