CHARACTEmSTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAKES 621 
with sodium (probably sodium carbonate is meant), but yet abound 
with fish, mostly cat-fish. Crocodiles and hippopotami were also 
found on the lake. 
Lake Stefanie (Basso Ebor, White Water"), in lat. 4° 30' N., 
long. 37° 0' E., about 1900 feet above sea-level, is 35 miles long, 
15 miles wide, and not over 25 feet deep ; in shape it is like a boot. 
Its Sagau affluent receives an overflow from Lake Abaya in times of 
flood. Dr Donaldson Smith ^ says the waters of the lake are quite 
fresh, though it has no overflow. In 1899 Harrison ^ found the lake 
dried up and covered with sand, and this may explain its freshness. 
An almost continuous chain of lakes, some fresh, others brackish, 
some completely closed, others connected by short channels, extends 
from Lake Stefanie as far north as Lake Zuai. 
Lake Zuai, in lat. 8° 0' N., long. 38" 45' E., is a fresh-water 
lake, and two distinct terraces of former shore-lines lie some 80 feet 
above the present level of the water. It is fed by the River Makee, 
and its outlet is the River Siiksuk, which flows between clifl^'s of chalk 
100 feet high, into the brackish Lake Hora, the shores of which are 
covered with a white crust of sodium carbonate. In rainy weather 
this lake is joined to Lake Sveta, lying to the east. Lake Hora drains 
into Lake Laminia, a very brackish lake. 
Lake Abai. — Farther to the south is Lake Abai or Abba. 
These variants are used generically for any large mass of water. The 
Italians found its true name to be Pagade, and christened it afresh 
Regina Margherita. It is of great beauty, and contains twelve islands, 
all inhabited and cultivated. It is about 95 miles long, and receives 
from the north the waters of the Shashago River, and with them the 
drainage of a hot spring south of Lake Laminia ; it sends a short 
effluent into Lake Abaya or Chiamo, lying to the south and draining 
in the rainy season into Lake Stefanie. 
Lake Aussa, in lat. 11° 25' N., long. 42° 40' E., lies in the 
centre of a depression some 60 or 70 miles from the head of the 
Gulf of Tajura. It is fed by the Hawash, the principal river of 
Eastern Abyssinia, a copious stream nearly 200 feet wide and 4 feet 
deep at its junction with its chief tributary, the Germana. This 
lake is fresh, though the lagoons in the region are highly saline, 
with thick incrustations of salt round their martrins. 
Lake Assal is separated from the Gulf of Tajura by a sill only 
12 miles wide, covered with a bed of lava containing several deep 
craters. It is about 7 miles long, and lies about 222 feet below the 
level of the sea. Several torrents flow into it, but there is no outlet. 
Its waters are very salt, and there are salt deposits round it ; the level 
of the lake seems to be falling. 
1 Op. cit, p. 224. 2 Oj). ciL, p. 271. 
