MEMOIR OF BRUCE. 
60 
he joyfully descended to its hanks, which were 
ornamented on the west with high trees of the salix 
or willow tribe ; while on the east appeared black 
and thick groves, with craggy pointed rocks, and 
overshaded with tall timber trees going to decay 
with age. The old inhabitants had a profound 
veneration for the river, and endeavoured to prevent 
the strangers from crossing, unless they took off 
their shoes. 
Next day they journeyed through a plain covered 
with acacias. “ Here (says Bruce) the Nile winds 
more in the space of four miles, I believe, than any 
river in the world. It makes above a hundred 
turns in that distance ; and is not above twenty feet 
broad, nor more than a foot deep.” After coasting 
for some little time along the side of the valley, they 
began to ascend a mountain, supposed to be the 
Montes Lunce of antiquity ; and reaching its summit 
about noon, they came in sight of Sacala, which 
joins the village of Geesli. Immediately below was 
seen the Nile, much diminished in size, and now 
only a brook that had scarcely water to turn a mill. 
It ran swiftly over a bottom of small stones, with 
hard black rock appearing amongst them ; the 
ground rose gently from the bank to the southward, 
full of small hills and eminences. Before he had 
reached Geesh, Bruce was told by his guide, Woldo, 
to look at a hillock of green sods in the midst of a 
marshy ground ; “ It is there (said he) that the two 
fountains of the Nile are to be found.” 
The intelligence had an electric effect on the 
