Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/100

80 tended by the shot to let us know they were at hand, tho' it was not till near midnight before our long-eared companions joined their masters.

found it impossible to pitch our tents, from the extreme weariness in which our last night's exertion had left us: But there was another reason also; for there was not earth enough covering the bare sides of Taranta to hold fast a tent-pin; but there were variety of caves near us, and throughout the mountain, which had served for houses to the old inhabitants; and in these found a quiet and not inconvenient place of repose, the night of the 20th of November.

this side of the mountain of Taranta, which we had passed, was thick-set with a species of tree which we had never before seen, but which was of uncommon beauty and curious composition of parts; its name is kol-quall. Though we afterwards met it in several places of Abyssinia, it never was in the perfection we now saw it in Taranta.

the 21st, at half past six in the morning, having encouraged my company with good words, increase of wages, and hopes of reward, we began to encounter the other half of the mountain, but, before we set out, seeing that the ass of the stranger Moor, which was bit by the hyæna, was incapable of carrying his loading further, I desired the rest every one to bear a proportion of the loading till we should