The Hawash may be conjectured to have experienced interruption in its course to the Bahr Assal and Bay of Tajura, at the same period that volcanic agency divided the waters of the great Salt Lake from Goobut el Kharab. Miles around the wonted boundaries of each lagoon now become annually inundated during the spreading of the great freshes; and, as the floods, carried off by absorption and evaporation, again recede, the soil is covered with a fertilising sediment--a fat alluvial deposit, which with little labour yields an ample return. Even the lazy and listless Danakil, who neither sows nor reaps elsewhere, is here induced to turn agriculturist; but not a single acre of ground in any direction is to be found under the plough from the sea even to the mountains of Abyssinia--a distance exceeding three hundred and fifty miles. Pastoral as well as agricultural pursuits engage the population of Aussa; but whilst the cultivating portion of the inhabitants are permanent residents on the soil, the shepherds are annually driven away by the gad-fly, which attacks the flocks from the setting-in of the rainy season until the termination of the fast of Ramzan, when the waters have again subsided, and the herdsman, descending from the mountains, returns to his occupation in the valley. An extensive commercial intercourse is moreover carried on with Tajura. Salt from the Bahr Assal, blue calico, which is in high demand for the caps universally worn by the married Bedouin females, zinc, pewter, and brass or copper wire, used both for personal ornament, and for the decoration of weapons, are bartered for the produce of the luxuriant soil--some few caravans crossing the Hawash, and pursuing their journey along the western bank to Dowwe, on the frontier of the Wollo Galla, in order to purchase slaves; or striking into the main road at Amadoo, and so prosecuting their way to Shoa for a similar purpose. Mudaito tribes occupy the entire plain of Aussa, but they are now divided into five distinct nations. The Assa-himera are under the rule of Humferi, a descendant of the ancient house of Ajdahis, who preserves the empty title of Sultan, and resides at the decayed capital. Eastward are the Isse-hiraba, governed by Das Ali, an independent chief, and the Galeyla, under Daamer Ibrahim; south are the Dar, who own allegiance to Akil Digger Myargi; and west are the ferocious Koorha, under the sway of Yoosuf Aboo Bekr, who, also with the title of Akil, resides at Alta, and wages war indiscriminately on both Assa-himera and Debenik-Woema.