vince of Avergale, until it joins the former river in the district of Temben, so that it probably collects in its course the various small streams which water the fertile province of Enderta. This river should appear to answer, better than any other, to the Coror, in Mr. Bruce's map; but as we know that the latter is put down from single mention only of such a stream in Alvarez, it must, had it existed, have taken its origin, as I have before observed, further to the eastward, the track of the Portuguese in 1620 having certainly lain in that direction. This morning the atmosphere proving extremely clear, we could, for the first time, plainly distinguish the snow, (called by the Abyssinians Berrit,) on the top of Béyeda and Aruba Hai, the two loftiest summits of the mountains of Samen. Mr. Bruce having passed over only a lower ridge, called Lamalmon, did not believe the fact of snow having ever been seen on these mountains,[1] though it is noticed in the very earliest account of the country, in the Adulic inscription given by Cosmas, (Καὶ Σεμηναι ἔθνος πέραν του Νείλου (the Tacazze,) ἐν δύσβατοις καὶ χιονόδεσσιν ορεσιν οἰκουντας, ἐν οἷς διαπαντὸς νιφετοὶ καὶ κρύν καὶ χιόνες βαθύτατοι, ὡς μέχρι γονάτων καταδύνειν ἄνδρα, τὸν ποταμὸν διαβὰς ὑπέταξα,) and subsequently by several of the best informed men among the Jesuits who travelled in Abyssinia.
In the afternoon we proceeded forwards to Werketarvé, a small town situated on a hill, inhabited by the Agows. To a stranger there appears to exists a slight difference only between this people and the Abyssinians, except that the Agows are, perhaps, on the whole, a stouter race of men, and, in general, not so active in their habits: their language is, nevertheless, perfectly distinct, and appeared to my ear to sound much softer and less energetic than that of Tigré, bearing a strong resemblance, when indistinctly pronounced, to some of our
- ↑ Vide Vol. III. p. 313. From the following expression made use of by Mr. Bruce, in another part of his work, it appears, that he did not believe in the possibility of so light a substance lying on the top of a mountain under the tropics. "It is said, that snow has been seen to lie on the mountains of Caffa, &c.; but this I do not believe. Hail has probably been seen to lie there, but I doubt much whether this can be said of a substance of so loose a texture as snow." Vide Mr. Bruce's Travels, Vol. III. p. 329.
