_13th April._—We shall stop here in the neighbourhood of the mountain till noon. Notwithstanding the heat, I had not any rest till I made yesterday a trip to the mountain, which I always thought must be the real Defafaùngh. I had already seen by the rounded rocks in the river what kind of stone I might expect to find. A layer of gravel extends to the north from these rocks, and I soon came upon large stones of coarse-grained granite, inclined to a reddish colour, among numerous little marble stones, which I had not hitherto seen. A species of shrub-acacia covered the whole side of the path I had taken under the mountain where the gravel ceased, of which some bushes served me as a shady resting-place. Its leaves had already fallen, its bark was green, and it had short arcuate thorns. The immense number of seed-husks is a proof of the quantity of flowers it bore; they hung altogether in clusters, and I filled my pockets full with them. I saw a quantity of guinea-fowls on a rock running obliquely to the base:—the rocks of the lower mountains are not perhaps more than a quarter of an hour from the water. They became very active when they remarked us, and I ordered, therefore, my dark, half-naked, huntsman to go first, for these are more accustomed to such a sight. I had roused a herd of gazelles standing at my left, but permitted them to withdraw in peace; for I had just found two little hills consisting of stones of inconsiderable size, evidently thrown together here. Judging from the analogy of the stone hills I had seen in Kassela, and being fully persuaded that no violent rains from the mountains above, or flood from the Nile, could have so placed them, I took them to be ancient tombs, and searched for potsherds and other memorials of buildings that might have stood here, but in vain. Negro villages and cities disappear the moment they are not inhabited, like ignited bundles of straw, and the ashes do not remain on the ground. Yet it is not likely that there were many inhabited places here, for the unprotected man of nature does not make his residence near the rocky encampments and cavities of wild beasts, and no fragments here indicated the contrary. The native of a civilised country must forget all analogies of his own land, if he wish to comprehend the meaning, custom, and possible conduct of a rude nation. I ascended with ease the nearest fundament of the granite rock. The rain and distilling sun had produced several round holes, which appeared to have been chiselled by the hand of man, and which may frequently blow up these firm masses of stone, as if a mine were sprung underneath, when they happen to fall on a vein. I found these holes principally in those places where the rocks presented a flat, horizontal superfices, as I had remarked also previously in the granite mountains of the Land of the Troglodytes.