Our route crossed the two effluents of the lesser Gumara River not far below Wansage. A concise and interesting account of the geology and botany of the river-valley at that place has been given by Dr. Stecker.[61] This morning while we were on the road we met the “Sultan of Delgi.” The “Sultan,” notwithstanding his title, is a subordinate official, the tax-collector of a district. It was this man whose “Deputy” had met us when we arrived on the plateau and raised difficulties. We found the “Sultan” a very affable old man. He shook hands with us, asked if matters went well with the expedition, and if we were in need of anything. This was the more satisfactory as he was then returning from a visit to the feudal lord of the district, Ras Gouksha. The village of Ambo was destroyed by the Dervishes, and had not been rebuilt. The site of it is on a beautiful little bay of the lake, which at one part has a sandy beach that shelves into the clear water and at another is bordered by a thick fringe of reeds. Snipe swarm in these. There was no cultivated ground at this spot, and no timber or “scrub.” Tall grass was growing everywhere, and I have no doubt that the soil is extremely fertile. The tents were pitched, and after lunch we took out our guns to replenish the larder. We made a bag of some half-dozen snipe, and saw an abundance of geese—but they are not very good eating—herons, and other large and small water-fowl. On the way back to camp we put up a flock of crown crane and could have brought down some of them. They are excellent at table; but it seemed a scandal to kill such fine fellows, and we did not shoot. These are noble-looking birds. In the afternoon some natives passed the camp, who had shot a tree-boa. They were carrying the skin. Without the head, which they had cut off, the snake measured ten and a half feet. As we had avoided camping at a village—a course by which we cheated innumerable vermin—we had no evident claim on any hamlet for free viands. But I found that a fowl and some eggs had been brought into camp, and, to do the Habashes justice, I do not think they grudged the tribute in kind which our presence exacted from them. It is a custom of the country to offer a gift in order to receive one of greater value in return, but the rural folk of the lake country had no such motive—as far as I could see—in furnishing supplies.