50 
ANTALOW. 
extremity, and then ascended the northern side by a steep path 
that had seldom before been attempted by mules. We found the 
summit covered with verdure, and pastured by numerous herds 
of cattle. On passing over to the southern brow, we had a com- 
plete view of the town of Antalow, the adjacent villages, and the 
high mountains that divide Tigre from the country of theGalla to 
the south. 
" Antalow consists of upwards of one thousand houses, with 
conical thatched roofs, erected upon an uneven rising ground in 
the valley below. The house of the Ras is conspicuous from its 
size, from the different shape of the roof, and from a wall by which 
it is surrounded. With this exception, the rest of the place makes 
a most wretched appearance, and the country around is extremely 
uninteresting, there not being a tree to be seen in the whole ex- 
tent, except a few small ones that surround the two churches in 
the vicinity of the town. 
*' The top of this hill was formerly used as a place of defence, 
andy on many of the ledges of the rocks, walls yet remain formed 
of loose stones, for the purpose of impeding the progress of assail- 
ants. The last time that the inhabitants fled to it, was in the time 
of Ras Michael Suhul, when they were attacked by the Galla, under 
a chief of the name of Waldo. 
" On our return, we were obliged to dismount from our mules, 
the descent being steep and broken, and well calculated by nature 
for defence. The upper part of this hill is composed of loose cal- 
careous stones, of a reddish sandy colour, lying in horizontal strata, 
bare, and perpendicular at the edges ; lower down is found a bed 
of breccia resting upon a mass of hard black stone (probably basalt). 
