“There is no organized system of supply in the Abyssinian army, and hitherto arrangements made individually to carry one month’s supply on a mule or donkey had been found sufficient to enable expeditions to reach a district from which supplies could be drawn; such a course did not meet the conditions under which the present force was about to act, owing to the distance to be covered, the necessity for carrying water, and the total absence of any grain, either on the road or in the probable zone of operations. After some unavoidable delay, arrangements were improvised for carrying two months’ supply,[262] and his Highness Ras Makunnan,[263] who personally interested himself in the despatch of the force, subsequently supplemented this supply by sending three small convoys as transport became available. The force commenced concentration in the neighbourhood of Harrar on November 27, 1903. . . . The advanced party reached Wardair on January 12, 1904. . . . The resources of the country in the neighbourhood of the River Fafan and the arrival of two more small convoys enabled the force to keep the field until March 28, 1904, when the Abyssinian commander (Fituari Gabri) was advised that the retreat of the Mullah through the Sorl, pursued by the British columns, rendered the presence of the Abyssinian expedition no longer necessary, and the force marched for Harrar.”[264] Those who wish to acquaint themselves with the home life of the Abyssinian people should read the works of Mansfield Parkyns and Mr. Augustus Wylde. The latter has given especially full details of the surroundings and habits of the middle and lower classes of the nation. Mr. Wylde has chapters on “Shooting in Abyssinia” and “Outfit and Rifles.” His book also contains an appendix on “Animals met with in Abyssinia and on the Borders,” ranging in its scope from lions to sand-martins. There are several passages dealing with sport and natural history in Parkyns’s volume, and Mr. Vivian’s work contains observations on the same subjects. Stecker’s scientific notes have been frequently mentioned. His brief but pithy treatise amply repays study. Harris’s “Highlands of Ethiopia” has valuable appendices on the climate, geology, botany, and zoology of the southern provinces (Vol. II). Probably no country at the present time offers a better field for research, sport, and exploration than Abyssinia. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 123: “The Highlands of Æthiopia,” by Major W. Cornwallis Harris, of the H.E.I.C.’s Engineers, 1844, vol. iii. pp. 3, 4.] [Footnote 124: “Wanderings among the Falashes,” p. 185.] [Footnote 125: “Modern Abyssinia,” pp. 352, 353.] [Footnote 126: Ib. p. 16.] [Footnote 127: “The Highlands of Æthiopia,” vol. iii. pp. 84-86.] [Footnote 128: “Modern Abyssinia,” p. 157.]