THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 18 



d 



felves at the bottom of a mountain of granite, bare like the 

 former. 



We faw quantities of fmall pieces of various forts of 

 granite, and porphyry fcattered over the plain, which had 

 been carried down by a torrent, probably from quarries of 

 ancient ages ; thefe were white, mixed with black fpots ; red, 

 with green veins, and black fpots. After this, all the moun- 

 tains on the right hand were of red marble in prodigious 

 abundance, but of no great beauty. They continued, as the 

 granite did, for feveral miles along the road, while the oppo- 

 fite fide was all of dead-green, fuppofed ferpentine marble. 



It was one of the mod extraordinary fights I ever faw. 

 The former mountains were of confiderable height, with- 

 out a tree, or fhrub, or blade of grafs upon them ; but thefe 

 now before us had all the appearance, the one of having been 

 fprinkled over with Havannah, the other with Brazil fnufE 

 I wondered, that, as the red is neareft the fea, and the mips 

 going down the Abyflinian coaft obferve this appearance 

 within lat. 2 6°, writers have not imagined this was called 

 the Red &a upon that account, rather than for the many 

 weak reafons they have relied upon. 



About eight o'clock we began to defcend fmartly, and, half 

 an hour after, entered into another defile like thofe before 

 defcribed, having mountains of green marble on every fide 

 of us. At nine, on our left, we faw the higheil mountain 

 we had yet palled. We found it, upon examination, to be com- 

 pofed of ferpentine marble ; and, thro' about one-third of the 

 thicknefs, ran a large vein of jafper, green, fpotted with red. 

 Its exceeding hardnefs was fuch as not to yield to the blows 



Vol, I, A a of 



