Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/204

 that my thoughts immediately recurred to the beautiful and instructive romance, founded on this custom by Dr. Johnson, whose character, from a rare union of ability and feeling, was impressed on my mind by local connexion, as an object of admiration, from my childhood; and I feel assured, that I shall stand excused for observing, that the reflections which his interesting tale gave rise to, on this, as well as on many other occasions, added greatly, from a natural association of ideas, to the pleasure which I experienced in traversing the wild regions of Ethiopia. The mountain of Devra Damo appears to be completely scarped on every side, and, as I was informed, is very difficult of access, having only one path leading up to it; resembling in this respect many of the hill forts in India, as well as in its general character. As soon as I had completed a sketch of it, we proceeded on our journey, and, after travelling a few miles, came to a pass in the mountains, called Kella, which takes its name from the castellated appearance of the rocks in its neighbourhood: 'Kella' in the Abyssinian, as well as Arabic language, signifying a 'castle.' It still continues to be a place where duties are collected from the cafilas. About a mile farther on, we came to a beautiful glen, where a large daro tree stood by the side of a winding stream, the banks of which were richly covered with verdure, and here we stopped to refresh ourselves during the heat of the day. At this time I conceive we must have arrived at a great height above the level of the sea, for notwithstanding our journey had hitherto tended towards the south, at a time when the sun was proceeding northward, yet we every day found the climate more temperate, and the vegetation backwarder in its progress. It was a subject of continual regret to me, that we could not ascertain this fact; but, unfortunately, the barometer which I had taken from England for this service proved perfectly useless, owing to a great part of the quicksilver having escaped through the cork, which on examination proved to be actually saturated with this penetrating metal. I have been, since my return, informed, that there exists a much simpler mode of ascertaining the heights of