286 
BOUNDLESS PRAIRIES. 
[chap. X. 
before us an interminable sea of prairies, covering to 
the horizon a series of gentle undulations inclining 
from east to west. There were no trees except the 
dolape palms ; these were scattered at long intervals in 
the bright yellow surface of high grass. The path was 
narrow, but good, and after an hours march we halted 
for the night on the banks of a deep and clear stream, 
the Un-y-ame;—this stream is perennial, and receiving 
many rivulets from Shooa, it forms a considerable torrent 
during the rainy season, and joins the Nile in N. lat. 
3° 32' at the limit reached by Signor Miani, 1859, the 
first traveller who ever attained a point so far south in 
Nile explorations from Egypt. There was no wood for 
fires, neither dung of animals ; thus without fuel we 
went supperless to bed. Although the sun was pain¬ 
fully hot during the day, the nights were so cold (about 
55° Fahr.) that we could hardly sleep. 
For two days we marched through high dry grass, 
(about ten feet), when a clear night allowed an obser¬ 
vation, and the meridian altitude of Capella gave lati¬ 
tude 2° 45' 37". In this interminable sea of prairie 
it was interesting to watch our progress south. 
On the following day our guide lost the road ; a 
large herd of elephants had obscured it by trampling 
hundreds of paths in all directions. The wind was 
strong from the north, and I proposed to clear the 
country to the south by firing the prairies. There were 
numerous deep swamps in the bottoms between the 
undulations, and upon arrival at one of these green 
dells we fired the grass on the opposite side. In a few 
minutes it roared before us, and we enjoyed the grand 
sight of the boundless prairies blazing like infernal 
regions, and rapidly clearing a path south. Flocks 
of buzzards and the beautiful varieties of fly-catchers 
thronged to the dense smoke to prey upon the innu¬ 
merable insects that endeavoured to escape from the 
approaching fire. 
In about an hour we marched over the black and 
smoking ground, every now and then meeting dead 
