90 PERSONAL NARRATIVE. 



It is quite foreign to the purpose of the present work 

 to describe the capture of Magdala, which took place 

 two days after my arrival. The remarkable good fortune 

 which crowned the expedition was far less favourable to 

 scientific inquiry than to military renown ; for the sub- 

 sequent rapid retreat to the coast, however brilliant as 

 a military manoeuvre, entirely prevented me from exa- 

 mining the country in any detail. 



AU the hills around Magdala appear to be of horizontal 

 traps, chiefly basalt, although trachyte also occurs, and 

 the plateau of the fortress itself consists of the latter 

 rock ; the steep surrounding scarp, which would have 

 rendered the place so difiiculfc of capture had it been 

 defended, being the ordinary form of outcrop, already 

 alluded to as characteristic of the trachyte beds. Inter- 

 stratifications of white shale, much hardened as if by 

 lava-flows, were met with in two or three places around 

 Arogyd, and were especially noticed, close to the camp of 

 the 2d Brigade ; but no organic remains could be de- 

 tected in them. 



The camp before Magdala was certainly the most un- 

 pleasant abode in which I found myself in Abyssinia. 

 The whole force was crowded into the smallest possible 

 space, in small thin tents, not nearly large enough even 

 to hold, the men ; the only food was inferior flour and 

 tough beef, and it was difficult to obtain sufficient water 

 to drink ; washing was a luxury only to be occasionally 

 attained. It was decidedly worse than at Malkatto. 

 Water there was scarce, but a swim in the sea was 

 always a resource available ; and there was no crowding ; 



