250 RIVER ANGiUEAH. 
ascertain this fact ; but, unfortunately, the barometer which I 
had taken from England for this service proved perfectly useless, 
owing to a great part of the quicksilver having escaped through 
the cork, which on examination proved to be actually saturated 
with this penetrating metal. I have been, since my return, 
informed, that there exists a much simpler mode of ascertaining 
the heights of mountains ; by means of immersing a thermo- 
meter, graduated for the purpose, in boiling water : if this should 
be a correct method, it will prove a very valuable discovery for 
travellers. 
While we continued at our station under the daro tree, I saw 
several species of birds which I had never before met with : one 
of these proved to be the Waalia of Mr. Bruce, (Columba Abys- 
sinica of Dr. Latham) ; its colour is a most beautiful yellow, 
shaded off into purple. I also shot a new and elegant species of 
Musicapa. 
At three o'clock we again started ; and, after a considerable 
descent, came to the river Angueah, which runs through a bed of 
granite, and shapes its course in a north-west direction till it 
joins the Mai eg. Beyond this we had several steep and rugged 
precipices to mount, when we arrived at the house of Ayto 
Nobilis, a young chief on whom the Ras had lately conferred 
this district, as a reward for military service : here we passed a 
pleasant day in the enjoyment of the unconstrained freedom, at- 
tendant on Abyssinian hospitality. 
On the 9th of March we quitted the house of Ayto Nobilis in 
the afternoon, and proceeded across a fertile valley towards a 
range of hills lying tothe soutli, leaving the mountains of Adowa 
