THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 635
worft kind of thorn, hide the mouths of the caverns above mentioned, even from fight ; there is no other communica- tion with the houfes either from above or below, but by narrow-winding fhcep-paths, which through thefe thorn? are very difficult to be difcerned,forallare allowed to be over- grown with the utmoft wildnefs, as a part of their defence ; lofty and large trees (moil of them of the thorny kind) tower high up above the edge of the cliff, and feem to be a fence againft people falling down into the plain; thefe are all at their proper feafon covered with flowers of different forts and colours, fo are the bufhes below on the face of the cliff: every thorn in Abyffinia indeed bears a beautiful flower ; a fmall atonement for the evils they occafion.
From the edge of the cliff of Geefh above where the vil- lage is fituated, the ground flopes with a very eafy defcent due north, and lands you at the edge of a triangular marih above eighty fix-yards broad, in the line of the fountains, and two hundred and eighty-fix yards two feet from the edge of the cliff above the houfe of the prieft of the river, where I refided : this triangle, fuppofing it a right one, will meafure one hundred and ninety-fix yards in its length, or in the perpendicular ; I mean it did fo on the 6th of Novem- ber 1770 ; douotlefs, like other marines, in the middle of the dry feafon, and of the rains, it will vary its dimenfions. I fuppofe that this perpendicular reprefents the north of the marfh, and immediately from the brink of it the ground rifes in a rather fleep bank, and forms a round hill not a hundred yards high, upon the top of which is placed the church of St Michael Geefh ; I did not meafure this diftancc, but am fure it is very little lefs than five hundred yards from the church to the middle fountain. On the eaft the
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