~ 
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 623 
mieafure from the brink. of the precipice to the center of 
the altar, in which the principal fountain ftands, and found 
it 1760 feet or 586 yards 2 feet, and this is the diftance Paez 
calls a league, or the largeft range of a fhell {hot from'a 
mortar; this I do aver is an error that is abfolutely impofli- 
ble for any travellers to commit upon the fpot, or elfe his 
narrative in general fhould have very little weight in point 
of precifion. if 
I suart clofe thefe obfervations with one which I think 
mutt clearly evince Paez had never been upon the fpot. 
He fays the field, in which the fountains of the Nile are, 
is of very difficult accefs, the afcent to it being very fteep, 
excepting on the north, where it is plain and eafy. Now, if 
we look at the beginning of this defcription, we fhould 
think it would be the defcent, not the afcent that would be 
troublefome ; for the fountains were placed in a valley, and 
people rather defcend into valleys than afcend into them; 
but fuppofing it a valley in which there was a field, upon 
which there was a mountain, and on the mountain thefe 
fountains, ftill I fay that thefe mountains are nearly inac- 
ceffible on the three fides, but that the moft difficult of them 
all is the north, the way we afcend from the plain of Gout- 
to. From the eaft, by Sacala, the afcent is made from the 
valley of Litchambara, and from the plain of Affoa, to the 
fouth, you have the almoft perpendicular craggy cliff of 
Geefh, covered with thorny bufhes, trees, and bamboos, 
which conceal the mouths of the caverns; and, on the 
north, you have the mountains of Aformatha, thick.fet with 
all forts of thorny fhrubs and trees, efpecially with the 
kantuifa; thefe thickets are, moreover, full. of wild beatfts, 
7 efpecialty 
