My huntsman—whom, however, I could not see—shot close to me, and a covey of guinea-fowls rose from behind the next block of stone, and induced me to mount in pursuit of them. I took off my shoes, and it was like walking on a red-hot oven, notwithstanding I kept on my stockings. As we ascend to the summit of this mountain-group, a dreadful destruction and piling of rocks one over the other is observed, similar to the scene on the rocks near Phile. Granite rocks, originally lying above the level of the waters, are rounded on the top into the form of pikes, cupolas, and horns. Periodical rains and a hot sun may split, rend, and break them, though only as an exception to the general rule, as I believe from the analogy of the Alps, the mountains on the Nile, and in the desert and country of Taka; they throw off, therefore, perhaps, their decayed covering, and burst forth new like an egg from the shell; and, although the layers on the side of the wind, rain, and sun, admit of no regularity of form, yet they seldom display any ghastly splits or gaps. I would assume, therefore, that these rocks also stood at one time as crags above or beneath the water, in which opinion I am supported by the rounded gravel visible here and there on the layers of rocks. I cannot certainly determine in what manner the granite rocks, projecting here into the Nile, and extending into the river bed as far as the mountains of Kordofàn, and connected with the distant mountain visible on the other side, in N. and S.E. from the mountains here, may prevent at some future times the waters of the lake from being drawn off. I was now on the summit, where I found a human skull, and felt myself very tired, whilst evening was coming on. In order to descend by another path, I slid down, disregardless of hurting my _posteriora_, laying my gun on my knees, and tying two guinea-fowls I had shot round my neck; and it was fortunate for me I did so, or else the back of my head would have been stove in. I met one of Suliman Kashef’s soldiers on the lower declivity, who pointed out to me wild buffaloes and elephants at a distance, close to whom he had been. We had seen already a very large quantity of elephants’ dung. I had lost my huntsman in the rocks: he brought fowls also, but trembled dreadfully, because, just as he was aiming at the herds, a lion had presented himself at a short distance. The presence of lions was subsequently doubted; but this morning my two other servants took quite a young lion in their hands, to bring him to me; but they thought it more advisable afterwards to let him bask on in the sun. They, as well as several others, remarked also wild buffaloes and boars (Jalùff) in the neighbourhood; and they brought me, as a proof of the former animals being present here, a horn quite fresh, the owner of which, had become the prey of lions; for the marafill (the spotted hyæna), whose calcareous dung is visible in all parts of this region, never attacks buffaloes.