V 
RECONNAISSANCE OF ABYSSINIAN BORDER 133 
and thousands of camels. It rained all night long ; and another 
storm, with thunder and lightning, came on at 8 a.m. next 
morning, just as things were beginning to get dry. 
2 6th August. — We started off in pouring rain at 9 a.m. It 
rained more or less the whole day, and everything was soaked. 
My brother w T ent on ahead with his half of the caravan towards 
Dubburro, but the caravan twice lost him and the guide, and 
he was on foot from 9 a.m. till 4.30 p.m. in a deluge of rain. 
Luckily we had before surveyed this ground. At last he gave 
up trying to find the tracks, and walked to Dubburro, where he 
found his caravan halted, after a march of twenty-five miles 
under continuous rain. I had halted some miles in rear of him, 
but had not the least notion where I was. The whole country 
seemed flooded. 
27 th August. — My brother arrived at 7.30 p.m. at my camp, 
his own having gone on. He had lost his caravan, so I lent 
him my pony, and he at last reached his men, after having gone 
thirty miles, all but the last two miles being on foot, in rain- 
soaked boots, with violent toothache added to his other miseries. 
The last hour was in the dark, but he was kept from falling 
asleep at the roadside by the roaring of a lion. 
Elinta Kaddo, 2 St/i August. — It rained during the night. 
We had a few days of pleasanter weather after this, but it 
rained, more or less, daily during the whole of this trip till we 
reached Grildessa. We marched across the beautiful Marar 
Prairie, to Qumbur Dug, halting at several of the high conical 
hills which rise out of the elevated plain to nearly seven thousand 
feet above sea-level, as we wished to get a base from which to 
triangulate in points of the Harar Highlands which we were not 
able to visit. 
We reached Gumbur Dug on the morning of 1st September. 
It is a low, grass-covered hill of white limestone. Jig-Jiga was 
close to us. Next morning herds of hartebeests were seen on 
the plain, comprising several thousands ; and when we shot one, 
the plain was covered with a line of swiftly galloping animals, 
a mile or two in length, half obscured in clouds of red dust and 
flying turf. 
To the south was a karia of the Bertiri tribe, and we sent 
two scouts on in the evening to find out whether Jig-Jiga was 
still occupied by the Abyssinians. These men returned late at 
night, reporting the karia deserted, but that they had found 
men tending camels. The Bertiri karias were all at Jig-Jiga, 
