THE SOURCE) OF THE NILE. oy 
the weft, on our right; We encamped this night on a rifing- 
ground called Shitokeeb, where:thereis no water, though 
thie- mountains ewere everywhere cut through with guilies 
and water: courts, made’ by the violént rains that fall here 
in winter! io edtico. aot ashe jaqgaqo vals Hi 
Tue 17th, we continued along the fame plain, ftill cover- 
ed thick -with acacia-trees. . They were then in blofiom, had 
a round: yellow-flower, but we faw no'gum upon the trees; 
Our direction had-hitherto been ‘fouth:) We turned wefter- 
ly, throughoan opening in! the mountains, which hereftand 
fo ‘clofe together as;to leave no \valley or -plain -fpace be- 
tween them ‘but: what is made by the torrents, in the rainy 
feafon, forcing their way with great violence to the fea. 
up bed-of the:torrent was our only road; and, as it 
was all fand, we could not with for a better. : The moifture 
it had ftrongly imbibed protected it from the'fudden effects 
of the fun, and produced, all alongit its courfe, a great de- 
greesof: vegetation and verdure: Its banks were full of 
rack-trees, capers, and tamarinds; the two laft bearing lar- 
ger fruit than I had ever before feen, though not arrived to 
their greateft fize or maturity. as 
- We continued this winding, according to the courfe of 
the river, among mountains of no great height, but bare, 
ftony, and full of terrible precipices. At half paft eight 
o'clock we halted, to avoid the heat of the fun, under fhade 
of the trees before mentioned, for it was ‘then exceffively 
hot, though in the month of November, from ten in the 
morning till two in the afternoon. We met this day with 
large numbers of Shiho, having their wives and families 
Ta along 
