RETURN MARCH TO ANTALO. 97 



carriage, and by a free fight taking place for their 

 possession. 



The march back demands but brief notice. Finding it 

 most tedious to march on the narrow steep roads with 

 the head-quarters camp, owing to the lengthy train of 

 baggage — which started generally at daybreak, and the 

 last of which rarely accomplished a march of eight or 

 ten miles before dark — Dr. Cook and I made a double 

 march from Makhan to Atala, and afterwards kept with a 

 small force, which marched one day ahead of the Com- 

 mander-in-chiefs camp. We reached Antalo once more 

 on the 11th, and I halted there a day. St. John, who 

 had brought the telegraph thus far, had explored the 

 neighbourhood, and carefully marked down a couple of 

 owls {Bubo cinerascens), which inhabited some rocks by 

 the Buya stream, about two miles from camp. Besides 

 killing one of these, I obtauied several other rare 

 birds on the same day, amongst them a pair of Ibis 

 comata. 



As I heard that the head-quarters and rear-guard 

 would only halt for two days at Buya, I left on the 

 13th May, in order to have, in any case, a couple of days 

 for the examination of the junction of the limestone and 

 sandstone, and to search for fossils at Agula and Dongolo. 

 I could not even spare a day to visit Antalo town and 

 Chelikot. Nothing worthy of record occurred on the 

 road to Agula. The weather had become fine again, and 

 the road being comparatively good and hard there was 

 but little delay in marching. Moreover, all commissariat 

 supplies, and especially grass and grain for the animals, 



H 



