May.] 
PASSAGE OVER A HILL. 
215 
its sides, seemed to forbid our farther pro- 
gress. The sides were about twenty feet in per- 
pendicular height. After examining above and 
below, we fixed on a place which we thought by 
a little labour might be rendered passable ; and 
applying for some time the spade and the pick- 
axe we got over without any accident. We had 
then to ascend the steep side of a hill covered 
with loose stones and trees, at the summit of 
which the ascent became more gentle for two 
miles, when it terminated at the foot of steeper 
and higher hills than we had seen since we left 
Mashow ; but not half so formidable to overcome 
as we had been led to expect from the accounts 
of the natives. If measured from the level of the 
sea, however, they might equal in height any in 
South Africa, as they seemed to afford sources to 
rivers running westward to the Ethiopic, and 
eastward to the Indian Oceans ; but from their 
bases they were far from being formidable. 
At five P.M. we reached the foot of that range 
of hills which runs from west to east, where we 
halted, judging it impossible to get over them 
before sunset. We had no sooner pitched the 
tent, than Munameets came in with a downcast 
countenance, and told us that his heart got more 
and more afraid, the nearer he approached the 
Marootzee. We could not account for his terror 
in any other way than that his past shedding of 
