170 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XIV 
end, which has a sandy shore bordered with thick reed- 
beds, interrupted here and there with hippopotamus 
tracks. Behind these reed-beds there are dense thickets 
of thorn trees and spaces covered with green grass 
around the spot where the river flows into the lake. 
Here we were able to satisfy ourselves of the nature and 
variety of the animal life occupying this dense thicket 
around the mouth of the river, for the soft sandy ooze 
Among the rocks we found many reed-buck and succeeded 
in obtaining some good heads. 
was covered with tracings more thickly than the 
columns of the great temple at Thebes, and they were 
easier to read. Here were the marks of innumerable 
birds’ feet:—wading birds, duck, goose, ibis, and the 
pink feathers and bones of tlie flamingo. Among 
these footmarks by the edge of, and leading into the 
reed-beds, were the huge footprints of the hippo¬ 
potamus, large enough when filled with water to serve 
