and 'with huge projecting stones, which, seemed to bid
defiance to the passage of the camels’ bodies. Indeed,
it was very marvellous, with their long spindle-shanks
and great splay feet, and the awkward boxes on their
backs striking constantly against every little projection
in the hill, that they did not tumble headlong over the
pathway; for many times, at the corners, they fell
upon their chests, with their hind-legs dangling over
the side, and were only pulled into the path again by
the combined exertions of all the men. Like Tibet
ponies, when they felt their bodies slipping helplessly
over the precipices—down which, had they fallen,
they would have met instantaneous and certain death
—they invariably seized hold of anything and everything
with their teeth to save their equilibrium. The
ascent was at length completed after an infinity of
trouble, and our view from the top of the mountain
repaid me fully for everything of the past. I t was a
glorious place ! In one glance round I had a complete
survey of all the country I was now destined to travel
over, and what I had already gone over.
The pass was called Yafir, and, by the boiling thermometer,
showed an altitude of 6704 feet. I t was
almost the highest point on this range. From a cedar
tree I cooked my breakfast under, on facing to the
north I saw at once the vast waters of the Grulf, all
smooth and glassy as a mill-pond, the village of Bunder
Glori, and the two buggaloes lying in its anchorage-
ground, like little dots of nut-shells, immediately below
the. steep face of the mountain. So deep and perpendicular
was it, that it had almost the effect of looking
down a vast precipice. But how different was the
view on turning to the south ! Instead of this enormous
grandeur—a deep rugged hill, green and fresh in
verdure, with the sea like a large lake below—it was
tame in the extreme; the land dropped gently to
scarcely more than half its depth, with barely a tree
visible on its surface; and at the foot of the hill,
stretched out as far as the eye could reach, was a howling,
blank-looking desert, all hot and arid, and very
wretched to look upon. I t was the more disappointing,
as the Somali had pictured this to me as a land of
promise, literally flowing with milk and honey, where,
they said, I should see boundless prairies of grass, large
roomy trees, beautiful valleys with deep brooks running
down them, and cattle, wild animals, and bees in abundance.
Perhaps this was true to them, who had seen
nothing finer in creation; who thought ponies fine
horses, a few weeds grass, and a puny little brook a
fine large stream. At noon we reloaded, and proceeded
to join the camels and men sent forward on the
previous day. The track first led us a mile or two
across the hill-top, where I remarked several heaps of
stones piled up, much after the fashion of those monuments
the Tibet Tartars erect in commemoration of
their Lahma saints. These, the Somali said, were left
here by their predecessors, and, they thought, were
Christian tombs. Once over the brow of the hill, we
descended the slopes on the south, which fell gently in
terraces, and travelled until dark, when we reached a