1868.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 173 



Magdala behind the storming party. I lost by one day the skirmish 

 on Good Friday. However I saw everything else. 



I will write more another time when I have time and paper. Here 

 at 10,000 feet are several peculiar birds. I am collecting as well as I 

 can by myself, but it is slow work. I have returned before the army. 



It was a hard march up : constant rain from Dildee, and almost from 

 Asliangi ; long marches, frightful roads, cold, and sundry other small 

 drawbacks ; water was plentiful atZoulla when compared to Magdala and 

 the chief's Camp at Eraga. However all keep well. I am in good health, 

 but I have been wretchedly unlucky. My best horse, a most useful 

 little Arab, has been stolen, and the only man I have with me who can 

 cook, has broken his arm. However, I am not done for yet, and I am 

 trying to induce the chief to send me to Lake Dembea or to Shoa. 

 But I fear he will not. 



All south of Antalo is trap ; basalt and trachyte in horizontal beds at 

 least 5,000 feet thick. Ashanghi is a curious little lake of sweet water 

 without an outlet above ground. Maps all poor. 



Zoulla, June 8th. 



I wrote you a few lines about a month ago from Esindye I think ; 

 thence I hurried into Ashangi, getting a few things only from the high 

 Wadcla plateau, for my letter ordering my men up was delayed, and they 

 never came up. At Ashangi I waited for the chief, as I had written to 

 apply to be sent with an escort to Lake Dembea and the Chelga coal 

 field, and, if practicable, beyond into Kwarra and the Nile country. 

 However the chief first wrote to me to give my plans in detail, which 

 I did, and then refused even to discuss the matter. At Ashangi 

 I found Cook, whom I had left ill at Senafe. We came back together. 



The best thing I got at Ashangi, was an extraordinary rat with the 

 habits of a mole or of a bamboo rat, but living on roots of grasses 

 just as the bamboo rat (JRhizomys) does on roots of bamboos. I got 

 a few water-birds too, I came ahead of the chief's camp to Antalo ; 

 halted there a day ; then slipped off without a convoy and came on 

 to Agala and Dongolo where I found, at last, a few decent fossils in 

 the limestone. They are Oolitic I think. I have a Pholadomya 

 and a Trigonia, like the little species so common in the Cutch Oolites. 

 I also obtained several birds I wanted. Thence I marched with the 



