470 CHOICE OF EVILS. 



admits of wheat, barley, and linseed being produced. 

 Little rivulets, whose constant course have deepened 

 their channels into valleys, and formed these hills 

 out of the once level slope, trickle down until, by 

 combining, they form streams which sometimes do, 

 and sometimes do not, reach the Hawash. This 

 river is, in fact, entirely formed of the waters of 

 this slope, which is the prominent feature of the 

 intermediate country between its stream and the 

 terminating edge of the table land above. A con- 

 cluding remark upon this subject is, that it would 

 be difficult to find one of these Abyssinian Alps 

 that, from its own base, independent of its position 

 upon the slope, would measure seven hundred feet 

 high. 



I sat with my companions some time, asking and 

 receiving information, now the more interesting, 

 from the vicinity I was in to the first stage, as I 

 considered it, of my contemplated African journey ; 

 and where I had purposed to myself a stay of some 

 months, to prepare me for future endeavours to 

 penetrate farther into the continent. The change 

 of feeling too, on again becoming the denizen of a 

 country where at least social order was maintained, 

 was exciting in its way, for I had learnt to value 

 civil rule as it ought to be, and I should have but- 

 little hesitation in giving my vote, if the question 

 were the extreme absolutism of Shoa, or the equally 

 extreme of liberty possessed by the Dankalli 

 tribes. For my part, I never thought myself so 





