The Entire Route From Farajoke
Had Been A Gentle Descent, And I Found This Point Of The Asua In Lat N.
3 Degrees 12 Minutes To Be 2,875 Feet Above The Sea Level, 1,091 Feet
Lower Than Farajoke.
The river was a hundred and twenty paces broad, and
from the bed to the top of the perpendicular banks was about fifteen
feet.
At this season it was almost dry, and a narrow channel of about
six inches deep flowed through the centre of the otherwise exhausted
river. The bed was much obstructed by rocks, and the inclination was so
rapid that I could readily conceive the impossibility of crossing it
during the rains. It formed the great drain of the country, all its
waters flowing to the Nile, but during the dry months it was most
insignificant. The country between Farajoke and the Asua, although
lovely, was very thinly populated, and the only villages that I saw were
built upon low hills of bare granite, which lay in huge piles of
disjointed fragments.
On arrival at the river, while the men were washing in the clear stream,
I took a rifle and strolled along the margin; I shortly observed a herd
of the beautiful Mehedehet antelopes feeding upon the rich but low grass
of a sandbank in the very centre of the river. Stalking them to within a
hundred and twenty paces they obtained my wind, and, ceasing to graze,
they gazed intently at me. I was on the high bank among the bushes, and
I immediately picked out the biggest, and fired, missing my mark.
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