THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 623
meafure from the brink of the precipice to the center of the altar, in which the principal fountain ftands, and found it 1760 feet or 506 yards 2 feet, and this is the diftance Paez calls a league, or the largeft range of a fliell (hot from a mortar; this I do aver is an error that is abfolutely impofli- ble for any travellers to commit upon the fpot, or elfe his narrative in general fhould have very little weight in point of precifion.
I shall clofe thefe obfervations with one which I think
muft clearly evince Paez had never been upon the fpot.
He fays the field, in which the fountains of the Nile are,
is of very difficult accefs, the afcent to it being very fteep,
excepting on the north, where it is plain and eafy. Now, if
we look at the beginning of this description, we fhould
think it would be the defcent, not the afcent that would be
troublefome ; for the fountains were placed in a valley, and
people rather defcend into valleys than afcend into them ;
but fuppofing it a valley in which there was a field, upon
■which there was a mountain, and on the mountain thefe
fountains, flill I fay that thefe mountains are nearly inac-
ceflible on the three fides, but that the molt difficult of them
all is the north, the way we afcend from the plain of Gout-
to. From the eaft, by Sacala, the afcent is made from the
valley of Litchambara, and from the plain of Affba, to the
fouth, you have the almofl perpendicular craggy cliff of
Geefh, covered with thorny bufhes, trees, and bamboos,
which conceal the mouths of the caverns; and, on the
north, you have the mountains of Aformafha, thick- fet with
all forts of thorny fhrubs and trees, efpecially with the
kantuffa i thefe thickets are, moreover, full of wild beads,
efpecially
