The palace of Ankobar lifts its thatched roofs above the summit of a high pyramidal hill, the abrupt termination of the narrow spur-like ridge upon which Ankobar stands. Three sides are singularly regular, and appear as if cut into an angular pyramidal cone, that rises two or three hundred feet above the level of the ridge to which it is connected on the fourth side. A high stockade of splintered _ted_ winds spirally from midway, to the last enclosure upon the top of the hill, wherein stand the royal buildings. The lower portion of the palisades skirt for some distance the road into Ankobar from the valley of the Airahra, and the first house upon the elevated ridge may be said to be the palace, for its large and rudely-formed wooden gates on the left hand, are the first doorway perceived by the weary traveller after having ascended to the level of the town. If, however, he look over the precipices to the right, the whole way up, he will perceive hundreds of the thatched roofs of little circular houses, in which the greater number of the Royal slaves and servants reside with their families. These descend by a quick succession of little gardened terraces to the meadow-like but limited plateau that intervenes some distance, before the actual bed of the Airahra river is gained. If the traveller looks from his elevated position in this direction, and if it be a bright day, a splendid prospect extends before him. Houses, the straw tops of which he could jump down upon, so steep is the descent, conceal the view of those which are immediately below; but jutting beyond these, fringe-like enclosures of the thick foliage of the _shokoko-gwoman_ and the _amharara_ trees, and low-thatched roofs buried in gardens of the broad-leaved _ensete_ or _koba_ banana plant, appear, falling rapidly to the undulating broad meadow, studded with numerous little eminences, where solitary, but snug-looking farmhouses are sheltered by tall flat-topped mimosas or the pine-like growing ted. Partial glimpses, of the winding Airahra beyond; here, where it meanders sluggishly through a verdant mead, or there, where a silver column marks a distant fall; the opposite grey cliffs of the Tchakkah range, dotted with dark green clumps of the huge crimson-flowering _cosso_, all aid in filling up the background of a picture of real beauty and of apparent peace, upon which the eye and mind can dwell for hours untired, contemplating with a pleased sympathy of delight, upon a scene that appears so adapted for a practical experiment of Utopian colonization, the object of which should be the fullest development of human happiness and excellence.