Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 3 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
At nine o’clock, after passing a plain, with the lake Tzana all the way
on our right, in length about three miles, we came to the banks of the
river Gorno, a small but clear stream; it rises near Wechnè, and has a
bridge of one arch over it about half a mile above the ford. Its course
is north and south nearly, and loses itself in the lake between Mitraha
and Lamguè. A mile farther we arrived at Emfras, after a very pleasant,
though not interesting excursion.
The town is situated on a steep hill, and the way up to it is almost
perpendicular like the ascent of a ladder. The houses are all placed
about the middle of the hill, fronting the west, in number about 300.
Above these houses are gardens, or rather fields, full of trees and
bushes, without any sort of order, up to the very top. Emfras commands
a view of the whole lake, and part of the country on the other side. It
was once a royal residence. On a small hill is a house of Hatzè Hannes,
in form of a square tower, now going fast to ruin.
Emfras is in lat. 12° 12´ 38´´ N. and long. 37° 38´ 30´´ E. of the
meridian of Greenwich. The distances and directions of this journey
from Gondar were carefully observed by a compass, and computed by
a watch of Ellicot’s, after which these situations were checked by
astronomical observations of latitude and longitude in every way that
they could be taken, and it was very seldom in a day’s journey that we
erred a mile in our computation.
The lake of Tzana is by much the largest expanse of water known in
that country. Its extent, however, has been greatly exaggerated. Its
greatest breadth is from Dingleber to Lamguè, which, in a line nearly
east and west, is 35 miles; but it decreases greatly at each extremity,
where it is not sometimes above ten miles broad. Its greatest length is
from Bab Baha to a little S. W. and by W. of that part, where the Nile,
after having crossed the end of it by a current always visible, turns
towards Dara in the territory of Alata, which is 49 miles from north
to south, and which extent this lake has in length. In the dry months,
from October to March, the lake shrinks greatly in size; but after that
all those rivers are full which are on every side of it, and fall into
the lake, like radii drawn to a center, then it swells, and extends
itself into the plain country, and has of course a much larger surface.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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