42 THE PROVINCE OF EFAT. 



circumstance that is well shown in those saline 

 resorts of deer and buffaloes, called the " licks" of 

 North America. The geological structure of the 

 hills in this neighbourhood is a finely-grained 

 trachytic rock; grey, save where the intrusion of 

 narrow dykes of some blacker rocks, a few feet in 

 thickness, and evidently heated on their first appear- 

 ance, has changed the general colour to a deep 

 red, which gradually recovers its natural hue at the 

 distance of some yards on either side the dyke. 

 This rock contains a considerable quantity of 

 decomposing felt-spar, supplying the potass, and, I 

 presume, deriving from the atmosphere, and the 

 moisture it contains, the other necessary elements 

 to form the thick efflorescence of saltpetre that 

 covers in some places the surface of the rock. 



The religion of Farree is exclusively Mahomedan, 

 as is also that of more than three-fourths of the 

 towns and villages of the province of Efat, all of 

 which are under the hereditary viceregal Wallasmah, 

 who boasts a descent from the famous Mahomed 

 Grahne, the Adal conqueror of many portions of the 

 ancient Abyssinian empire, in the sixteenth century. 

 Efat forms a portion of the valley country, or Ar- 

 gobbah, which extends from the edge of the table 

 land of Shoa to the Hawash, that flows along 

 the base of this slope, from the south towards the 

 north. The northern boundary of Efat is the river 

 Robee, the southern one being the Kabani ; both 

 of them flow into the Hawash. 



Late in the afternoon of the 30 th of May, the 



