THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 383
runs. We have many rivers of this quality in the Alps, e- fpecially between mount Cenis and Grenoble.
Delivered now from the ftrait and rugged country on the: banks of the Mogetch, we entered into a very extenfive plain, bounded on the eaft fide by the mountains, and on the weft by the large lake of Dembea, otherwiie called the lake Tzana, or Bahar Tzana, the Sea of Tzana, which geographers have corrupted into the word Barcena. Rejoiced at laft that I had elbow-room, I began the mod laborious fearch for Ihrubs and herbs all over the plain, my fervants on one fide and I on the other, fearching the country on each fide of the road. It appeared to our warm imaginations, that the neighbourhood of fuch a lake, in fo remote a part of the world, ought infallibly to produce fomething perfectly beautiful, or altogether new. In this, however, we were difappointed, as indeed we always were in meadows, and where grafs grew {o exuberantly as it did all over this plain.
At eleven o'clock we croffed the river Tedda ; here the road divides : that branch to the eaft leads to Wechne, iii the wild, uncultivated territory of BelefTen, famous for no production but that of honey.
We continued along the other branch of the road, which led fouth to Emfras. One mile diftant on our left is the church of St George. About one o'clock we halted at the church Zingetch Mariam ; and a few minutes after, we paHTed the river Gomara, a confiderable ftream rifing in Be- kilen, which Hands in pools during the dry weather, but
had
