Chelga—Amba-Mariam—Ifag.
Towards the north-western angle of the Derabea plain are the scattered hamlets forming the town of Chelga, which, though less famous than Gondar, is of more commercial importance. Lying near the water-parting between the Blue Nile and the Atbara, it is frequented by the Abyssinian merchants and the traders from Galahat and Gedaref, who reach it from Wohni the first station on the Abyssinian frontier. In the upper valley of the Goang, which flows to the Atbara, are beds of excellent coal, disposed in layers some two to three feet thick, and very easy to work. From the plateau which rises west of the town to a height of over 8,800 feet, a view is commanded of the vast circle of hills and valleys enclosing Lake Tana, the Tsana of the Tigré. At the foot of the basalt crag of Gorgora, rising near the north-western shore of the lake, stands the large village of Changar, which possesses a port serving as the outlet for Gondar, Chelga, and other towns of the province.
The only communication between the plain of Dembea and the riverain districts east of the lake is by a defile, in which stands the custom-house of Ferka-ber, much dreaded by travellers. Beyond this post the towns and villages belonging to this lacustrine region are built away from the banks at a considerable height above the bed of the streams. Amba-Mariam, or the "Fort of Mary," with its famous church, stands on a level and treeless table-land, at whose base the villages of the district of Emfran nestle amongst the tufted vegetation. Ifag, or Eifag, forms a group of villages encircling the foot of a barren volcanic rock some 1,600 feet high, which commands from the north the abrupt plateau of Beghemeder. Situated at the northern extremity of a fertile plain watered by the copious rivers Reb and Gumara, and commanding the narrow passages which wind round the base of the mountains at the north-eastern angle of the lake, Ifug is an important commercial emporium with a central custom-house. The caravans stop and reform at the town of Darita, farther east. The plains of Fogara, stretching southwards, are said to produce the finest tobacco in Abyssinia, while also yielding rich pasturages for the numerous herds. Like Koarata, farther south, Ifag was formerly celebrated throughout Abyssinia for the excellence of its wine, obtained from plants introduced by the Portuguese; but the vines, which generally grew to a gigantic size, nearly all perished in 1855 of oïdium, at the some time that the European vineyards were wasted by this destructive fungus.
Debra-Tabor.
South of the plains of Fogara stretches a ridge running east and west, and over-looked from the east by the cloud-capped cone of Mount Guna. This broad ridge, covered with a thick layer of black earth and furrowed by the rivulets floating from the marshy sides of Guna, is the plateau of Debra-Tabor, or "Mount Tabor," so-called from a church formerly a place of pilgrimage, but which, since the time of Theodore, has become the chief residence of the Abyssinian kings. From a
