The Upper Cliffs Are Crowned With Tufts Of The Dragon's-
Blood Tree.
Leaving our mules with an attendant, we began to climb the rough and rocky
gorge which, as the breadth diminishes, becomes exceedingly picturesque.
In one part, the side of a limestone hill hundreds of feet in height, has
slipped into the chasm, half filling it with gigantic boulders:
Through
these the noisy stream whirls, now falling in small cascades, then gliding
over slabs of sheet rock: here it cute grooved channels and deep basins
clean and sharp as artificial baths in the sandstone, there it flows
quietly down a bed of pure sparkling sand. The high hills above are of a
tawny yellow: the huge boulders, grisly white, bear upon their summits the
drift wood of the last year's inundation. During the monsoon, when a
furious torrent sweeps down from the Wagar Hills, this chasm must afford a
curiously wild spectacle.
Returning from a toilsome climb, we found some of the Ayyal Ahmed building
near the spot where Biyu Gora is absorbed, the usual small stone tower.
The fact had excited attention at Berberah; the erection was intended to
store grain, but the suspicious savages, the Eesa Musa, and Mikahil, who
hold the land, saw in it an attempt to threaten their liberties. On our
way home we passed through some extensive cemeteries: the tombs were in
good preservation; there was nothing peculiar in their construction, yet
the Somal were positive that they belonged to a race preceding their own.
Near them were some ruins of kilns,--comparatively modern, for bits of
charcoal were mixed with broken pieces of pottery,--and the oblong tracery
of a dwelling-house divided into several compartments:
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