100 PERSONAL NARRATirK 



"which flows in a similar deep ravine, I returned by it to 

 the road, Sir C. Staveley having allowed me to take a small 

 guard. I was unable, however, to reach sufficiently far 

 to examine the base of the limestone in this direction.-^ 



At Dongolo I halted for a day, and was overtaken by 

 the Commander-in-chiefs camp and the rear-guard. It 

 had been the intention of Sir Eobert Napier that a small 

 party with a guard should be allowed to cross from the 

 Haramat plain near Adabagi to Adowa and Axum, and 

 thence march to rejoin the main body at Senafe ; and to 

 this party Dr. Cook, Mr. Holmes the archaeologist, the 

 officers of the Trigonometrical Survey, and a few others, 

 including myself, were to have been attached. I was 

 especially desirous of examining the remarkable Adowa 

 hUls, reported by some travellers to be of sandstone, but 

 which Dr. Schimper considers of volcanic origiu, and 

 which are, as previously remarked, probably identical in 

 composition with the trachytic rocks about Senafe, which 

 they resemble so greatly in form. However, it was 

 found that the length of the march was too great to enable 

 the party, if detached, to rejoin the main body before the 

 latter left Senafe, so the project was abandoned. 



I returned with the head-quarters camp to Adigrat and 

 Senafe. At the former place I found that the collector I 

 had left behind had not a large number of bird-skins, 

 though there were many amongst them of interest. He 

 had, however, about twenty specimens of the species 



1 Amongst a collection of rock specimens which Dr. Beke has very politely 

 sent to me for examination, I find fragments of both limestone and sandstone 

 from the country farther to the westward in this direction. 



