234 
ASCENT OF TARANTA. 
it in kid-skins, which being stripped off almost entire from 
the animal, are afterwards tanned, •and made up into the shape 
of the goat skins commonly used to carry water on the coast. 
Thermometer at this station 81°. 
On Saturday the 3d of March, at ten minutes before six in the 
morning', we commenced our journey up the mountain of Taranta. 
The first part of the road, called TellimCnna, forms for about a 
mile a gradual ascent, which is much incumbered with loose 
stones and fragments of rock. We passed over this at a brisk 
rate, in a west by south direction, when we arrived at a steep 
and rugged part of the mountain thickly covered with the 
kolquall, which at this season bore a beautiful appearance, owing 
to the crimson colour of its seeds, which were closely set on the 
ends of every branch. This continued for about two miles, 
when we reached a very precipitous ascent, which shortly after- 
wards conducted us to a station called Mijdevella, where tra- 
vellers often stay during the night, on account of the convenience 
attached to a spring of water in the neighbourhood. It was on 
this spot that Mr. Bruce slept on his way up the mountain, and, as 
he asserts, in one of the many caves which served for houses to 
the old inhabitants, the Troglodytes these, however, we were 
not fortunate enough to discover ; nor do I believe that they ever 
existed, except in the imagination of the author ; for in spite of 
the censure passed upon me for what I mentioned on this subject 
in my former journal, it does not appear to me any argument in 
favour of the existence of caves on one side of the mountain, that 
the houses at Dixan and Halai, on the other side, are formed in a 
manner somewhat to resemble caves but situation and distance 
