Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/265

 feet deep, and affords safe shelter to large craft. According to Rochet d'Héricourt, it is not of sufficient size to accommodate more than eight or nine vessels of from three to four hundred tons. In the vicinity of the town lies a large saline plain, whence the Issa camel-drivers obtain the salt which they sell to the Harrari at a high price. Zeïla has no springs; hence every morning a long string of camels is dispatched to seek the necessary water in the wadi of Tacosha. Three-fourths of the population consists of Issa Gallas, and every evening the village resounds with

their warlike or other national songs. A small English garrison from Aden now occupies the town, so that there is some hope that the slave-trade may at last be suppressed, of which Zeïla has hitherto been one of the principal centres.

The route between Shoa and Tajurah Bay does not enjoy, like that of Zeïla, the advantage of a midway station such as the city of Harrar; still the principal town of the Aussa district, situated near the southern bank of a fresh-water lake, which receives the waters of the Awash, may be regarded as a veritable town. It is a