A few extracts from my journal written at that time will convey
a tolerable idea of the place and our employments.
"September 23.--Started for the Settite river. In about four
hours' good marching N.N.E. through a country of grass and mimosa
bush that forms the high land between that river and the Atbara,
I reached the Settite about a mile from the junction. The river
is about 250 yards wide, and flows through a broken valley of
innumerable hillocks and deep ravines of about five miles in
width, precisely similar in character to that of the Atbara; the
soil having been denuded by the rains, and carried away by the
floods of the river towards the Nile. The heat was intense; there
was no air stirring; a cloudless sky and a sun like a
burning-glass. We saw several nellut (Taurotragus strepsiceros),
but these superb antelopes were too wild to allow a close
approach. The evening drew near, and we had nothing to eat, when
fortunately I espied a fine black-striped gazelle (Gazella
Dorcas), and with the greatest caution I stalked it to within
about a hundred paces, and made a successful shot with the
Fletcher rifle, and secured our dinner. Thus provided, we
selected a steep sugarloaf-shaped hill, upon the peak of which we
intended to pass the night.
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