ABYSSINIA. 



SITUATION AND EXTENT. 



Miles. Degrees. &q. Miles. 



feS h h "rial be tween 5 4? ^ I? ?°m ^* J ^8,000. 

 Breadth 680 ^ £33 and 43 Last longitude. 5 



Boundaries, divisions. ...It is bounded on the north by the king- 

 dom of Sennaar, or Nubia ; on the east by the Red sea and the coun- 

 try of Adel ; on the south by the kingdom of Gingiro and Alaba ; and 

 on the west by Kordofan and Gorham. 



It contains (according to Mr. Bruce, from whom the following ac- 

 count is chiefly taken) the following provinces, viz; 



1, Masuah ; 2, Tigre ; 3-, Samen ; 4, Begemder; 5, Amhara ; 6, 

 Walaka; 7, Gojam; 8, Damot ; 9, Maitsha ; 10, Dembea; Il,Kuara; 

 12, Nara. 



Face of the country, mountains... .The surface of this country 

 is generally rugged and mountainous ; it abounds with forests and 

 morasses, and it is also interspersed with many fertile vallies and 

 plains that are adapted both to pasture and tillage About the centre 

 of the kingdom are the mountains of Lamalmon, and those of Amhara 

 and Sameno, which latter are said to be the loftiest in the country, 

 and in them numerous rivers arise and flow in all directions. 



Lakes. ...The lake of Tzana or Denbea (not to mention those of 

 Gooderoo and Court Ohha) is by much the largest expanse of water 

 known in this country. Its extent, however, has been greatly exag- 

 gerated. Its greatest breadth is thirty-five miles, and its extent in 

 length is forty-nine. The Nile, by a current always visible, crosses 

 the end of it. In the dry months, from October to March, the lake 

 shrinks greatly in size ; but after that all those rivers are full which 

 are on every side of it, and fall into the lake, like radii drawn to a cen- 

 tre; it then swells and extends itself into the plain country, and has 

 of course a much larger surface. 



There are about eleven inhabited islands in the lake. All these 

 islands were formerly used as prisons for the great people, or for a 

 voluntary retreat on account of some disgust or great misfortune, or 

 as places of security to deposit their valuable effects during trouble- 

 some times. 



Rivers. ...The chief river is the Nile, or that branch of it named 

 the Bahr el Azrek, or the Blue river, called by the Abyssinians Abawi. 

 Besides this there are the Tacaze, the Kibbee, or, as the Portuguese 

 call it, the Zibbee, the Mareb, and the Hawash, which falls into the 

 Tacaze ; and a great number of other smaller rivers. 



Metals. MiNERALs....Some gold is found among the sands of the 

 rivers, and there are mines of fossil salt. The Abyssinians, in lieu of 

 small money, frequently make use of pieces of rock salt, which are a% 



