278 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [Dec. 



however, behaved very well, and carrying with us all provisions except 

 meat, which we expected to obtain from the inhabitants or by our 

 guns. "We were accompanied throughout by a brother of the Naib of 

 Arkeko, one of the principal chiefs of the country. 



"We marched first due west about 30 miles to Ailat at the foot 

 of the main range of hills, intending to wait there for Mr. Munzinger, 

 who was detained in Massowa. The road lay through low hills, 

 mostly of a peculiar formation composed of interstratifications of 

 volcanic and sedimentary rocks. About 20 miles from Massowa, we 

 entered metamorphics, the newer volcanic beds being confined to the 

 neighbourhood of the coast, along which they appear to form a 

 fringe. 



Ailat is the place where Mr. Rassam and his party remained for 

 a long time, whilst awaiting an answer from Theodore to their appli- 

 cation for permission to enter Abyssinia. The village is in a plain 

 which here extends for many miles along the foot of the hills. As 

 this was about three miles from water, we pitched our camp close to the 

 latter, a proceeding we had subsequently occasion to regret. The 

 water is supplied by a very hot spring, the temperature of which 

 was unable to take accurately, one of my thermometers not ranging 

 sufficiently high, while the boiling point thermometer was not gradu- 

 ated low enough ; the temperature is, I believe, 150° or 160°, much 

 hotter than other springs which issue along the foot of the hills, 

 though all have a high temperature. 



At Ailat lions and leopards abounded. Of the former, one came 

 one evening within 200 yards of our tents, but we could not succeed 

 in shooting it. A cow tied up as a bait was entirely devoured by 

 hysenas (H. crocuta,) which were as numerous here as everywhere 

 else in Abyssinia. The spotted hysena, though smaller in size, is 

 far bolder than his striped relative (H. striata). I have never heard 

 of even a young bullock or cow being killed by the latter in India, 

 although I have known hundreds of instances of young buffaloes or 

 bullocks being tied up as baits for tigers and panthers. 



I obtained several birds at Ailat which I had not previously met 

 with, the most interesting being Micronisus niger, M. gabar, Cen- 

 tropus super ciliosus, Lamprotornis rujiventris, Quelea sanguiniros- 

 tris } Halcyon rufiventer, Promerops senegalensis, JDryoscopus cubla, 



