ments made of matting spread on sticks, and the sole sustenance of the inhabitants is derived from their flocks, which they with difficulty keep alive during the dry season by driving them up to the loftier slopes of the mountains.

For many years past the Egyptian authority in these parts has been nil, and confined only to a few wretched forts on the coast. Dervish raids from the interior and the stoppage of whatever caravan trade there ever was has contributed to the miserable condition of affairs now existing. The Batran of the Achmed Orab tribe told us that all the way from Ras Bernas to just below Halaib, a distance of more than a hundred miles, over which his tribe has nominal territorial rights, he can only count upon a force of 300 fighting men, and that scattered over a too hopelessly extended area for any practical resistance to their more powerful enemies inland; and it would seem that if this condition of affairs were to continue much longer the country would soon be again uninhabited. One can well understand why these miserable hounded tribes are wavering in their allegiance between the Egyptian Government and the Khalifa whom they dread, and that they countenance the slave traders from the reason that they have no power to resist them.

For all practical purposes it is a wretched country, waterless during a great part of the year, except where some deep ancient wells, scattered at wide intervals over the country, form centres where camels and flocks can be watered; and as we travelled along we were struck by the numbers of these wells which had been quite recently abandoned. But the mountains are magnificently grand, sharp in outline and with deep and lovely gorges. Formerly they abounded in mines, and were celebrated for their mineral wealth, and if there is ever to be a revival in this country it will be from this source that hope will come.

At Mohammed Gol, to which port our dhow next conducted us, our prospects of getting well into the interior were much brighter, and our ultimate results beyond comparison more satisfactory than they had been at Halaib. Mohammed Gol is distinctly a more lively place than Halaib, possessing more huts, more soldiers, and actually a miniature bazaar where, strange to relate, we were able to buy something we wanted.

The governor or mamour of the little Egyptian garrison there summoned three sheikhs from the neighbouring mountains, into whose hands he confided us, and though several travellers had visited the Red Sea side of the massive group of Mount Erba on holidays from Sawakin in search of sport, no one as yet had been behind it; and thither, with the assistance of our three sheikhs, we were determined to go.

Little did we dream when we left Mohammed Gol with our rather extensive caravan that behind that gigantic mountain, which, though

it only reaches an elevation of 7,500 feet, looks considerably higher from the sea as it rises almost directly out of the level plain, we were to find an ancient Egyptian gold mine, the ruins in connection with which would offer us the first tangible comparison to the ruins which had exercised our minds so much in the gold-fields of South Africa.

In the summer season, when the waters of the Red Sea are low, traders come to Mohammed Gol for salt. The salterns are situated on the narrow spit of land called Ras Rowaya; consequently, the people about here are more accustomed to the sight of Europeans, and the governor, who is young and energetic, seems far more in touch with the world than Ismael of Halaib. He complains much of the dulness of his post, and passes his weary hours in making walking-sticks out of ibex horns, a craft he has learnt from the Bedouins of Mount Erba, who soften the horns in hot water, grease them, pull them out and flatten them with weights and polish them, using them as camel sticks. The governor gave us several of these sticks, and also presented an ibex horn head scratcher to Mrs. Bent, remarking, as he did so, with a polite gesture, that it was a nice thing to have by her when her head itched.

Two Kourbab sheikhs, the rulers over Mount Erba and its adjacent spurs, and one Keilab sheikh, whose dominion extends over a vast area in the adjacent valleys, after much haggling and many palavers in the reed council chamber by the shore, consented to take us where we wished; 'right round Mount Erba, and as far inland as possible,' being the crucial sentence in our agreement with them.

He of the Keilab tribe, Debalop by name, was the most important of them, and he took one of his wives with him; all had their servants and shield bearers, and most of them were wild, unprepossessing-looking men, with shaggy locks and lard-daubed curls, and all of them were, I believe, thorough ruffians, who, as we were told afterwards, would willingly have sold us to the Dervishes had they thought they would have gained by the transaction. These things officials told us when we reached Sawakin; but to do our guides justice I must say they treated us very well, and inasmuch as we never believed a word they said, the fact that they were liars made but little difference to us.

Some miles inland on the plain behind Mohammed Gol are certain mysterious towers some twenty feet high, of unknown origin. They have every appearance of belonging to the Kufic period, being domed and covered with a strong white cement; they have no doors, but windows high up; some are hexagonal, some square, and they are apparently dotted all along the coast. Whether they were tombs, or whether they were landmarks to guide mariners to certain valleys leading into the mountains, will probably not be definitely proved until some one is energetic enough to excavate in one. They are

found as far south as Massowa, but as far as I could ascertain those we saw were the most northern ones. In one we found two skeletons of modern date, with the scanty clothing still clinging to the bones, as they had laid in the agonies of death, poor sick creatures, who had climbed in to die.

At the tower which marks the entrance to the Hadi valley we halted, and bade adieu to the governor and officials of Mohammed Gol, who had accompanied us thus far. Our parting was almost dramatic, and the injunctions to the sheikhs to see to our safety were reiterated with additional vehemence.

The dismal journeys of the next few days are by no means pleasant to look back upon. Our road led us in and out of desert and uninhabited valleys, with no object of interest to look upon save the numerous circular buildings crowning heights, and clustered on elevated ground, which I put down as the tombs of the departed Bejas; tombs of a somewhat similar nature are found all down this coast-down to the confines of the Ethiopian Empire; they originally built circular walls about three feet high and ten feet in diameter, and filled up the centre with stones, with a slight depression in the middle.

As we wandered up the valleys to the north of Mount Erba, occasional glimpses of the fine peaks of the range would relieve the monotony of the landscape, but the barren hills around us, with a few mimosa trees dotted here and there, long stretches of sand, and scarcely any animal or vegetable life, made the daily hours on our camels extremely wearisome.

We were in Debalop's country now, the chief of the large and powerful Keilab tribe, half of which owns avowed allegiance to the Khalifa, and the other half with their chief is put down as wavering by the Government at Sawakin. Luckily we did not know this at the time, or otherwise I question if we should have ventured to put ourselves so entirely in his hands, with the horrors of a visit to Khartoum, as experienced by Slatin Pasha, so fresh in our memories.

A halt of three days was called for, after we had marched steadily for six, at a spot called Hadai, close to which Debalop's own huts were placed, and where he took the opportunity of changing his wife, having presumably had enough of the other's company on the road. The Debalop family mausoleum is also here, the tombs of which consisted of piles of white stones, with little paths around them made of the same material, and headstones towards Mecca, neat but not gaudy.

At Hadai for the first time during the whole of our journey our interests were keenly aroused in certain antiquities we found here— antiquities about which Debalop had said a good deal, but about which we had never ventured to raise any hopes.

Hard by the Debalop mausoleum was another Kufic tower, though

VOL. XL-No. 236

R R

much smaller than those we had seen on the coast, and not covered with white cement, and in the same locality were several foundations of circular buildings very neatly executed in dry masonry, which appeared to have at either end the bases of two circular towers and curious bulges, which at once reminded us of our South African ruins. On climbing an adjacent hill we found a circular fort, evidently constructed for strategical purposes, with a door with rounded ends leading into it, quite a counterpart of the smaller ruin on the Lundi river in Mashonaland. The analogy was indeed curious, and we talked about it hesitatingly to ourselves, as yet unable to give any satisfactory reason for its existence. On various heights around. were cairns erected as if for landmarks, and we felt that here at last we were in the presence of one of those ancient mysteries which it is so delightful to solve.

We rested our camels and our men at Hadai, and drank of some fresh water, the first we had seen in this barren country, which was supplied by a tiny stream which made its appearance for a few yards in a sheltered corner of the valley, a stream of priceless value in this thirsty land. Debalop suggested that he knew of some ruins in a neighbouring valley to which he could take me, but it was not without considerable hesitation that I decided to go. A long day's ride in this hot country, supposed to be almost, if not quite, within the Dervish sphere of influence, was not lightly to be undertaken, more especially as I had been on so many fruitless errands in search of ruins at the Bedouin's suggestion, and returned disgusted; and when I mounted my camel next morning, without any hope of finding anything, and sure of a fatiguing day, if a reasonable excuse had offered itself I should probably have not gone. But the unexpected in these cases is always happening. The long ride turned out only to be one of three hours. Wadi Gabeit was infinitely more fertile and picturesque than any we had as yet seen, and as a climax to it all came the discovery of an ancient gold mine, worked in ages long gone by doubtless by that mysterious race whose tombs and buildings we had been speculating upon.

Diodorus, in his account of an old Egyptian gold mine, describes most accurately what I found in the Wadi Gabeit. For miles along it at the narrower end were the ruins of miners' huts; both up the main valley and up all the collateral ones there must have been seven or eight hundred of them at the lowest computation. Then there were hundreds of massive crushing stones, neatly constructed out of blocks of basalt, which had been used for breaking the quartz, lying in wild confusion amongst the ruined huts, and by the side of what once was a stream, but now only a sandy, choked-up river-bed. On a high rock in the centre of the valley I found a trifle of a Greek inscription scratched by a miner, who had evidently been working the rich quartz vein just below it.

On an eminence behind the valley was another of the circular forts in ruins, similar to the one on the hill above Wadi Hadai, intended evidently for a look-out post to protect the miners at work below. Burnt quartz and refuse of quartz lay around in all directions, and on either side of the valley stretched for a mile or more seams of the auriferous quartz just as it had been laid bare by the ancient workers. There was no question for a doubt that I had come across the centre of a great mining industry of ages long gone by, lost in these desert valleys behind the mighty wall by which Mount Erba and its spurs shut off this district from the Red Sea littoral.

Naturally one's ideas were a trifle confused at being confronted with this unexpected discovery, and in the short space of time then available it was impossible to grasp it all. So I rode back joyfully to tell the news to my party at Hadai. I told Debalop that we would move our camp thither, and stay as long as it was possible.

Difficulties again confronted us. Our two Kourbab sheikhs did not want to go at all, and Debalop himself had to be firmly spoken to on the subject, but at length we all made a start to visit my new Eldorado. A short time before reaching the spot we were met by a small band of natives, who tried to stop our advance with menaces, which we were determined neither to understand nor recognise. Possibly they were some of the Keilab tribe, who owned allegiance to the Dervishes, possibly they were actuated by the inherent dread the Moslem has of Christian enterprise reaching their secluded vales. However, our show of fire-arms and determination to go on had the effect of intimidating them, and after a somewhat feeble hostile demonstration and many palavers, we found ourselves comfortably established in our tents in the heart of the ancient industry, and peacefully distributing medicines from our chest to our whilom foes.

Thus we had ample time to look around us and gauge the extent of the former industry. We marvelled at the multiplicity of the crushing pans scattered in every direction, and the number of huts there must have been; and we also found several miners' scratchings, representing gazelles, birds, &c. on the rocks, and we visited a spot higher up the mountain sides, where we saw large blocks of quartz that had been cut out of the vein ready to be removed to the valley below for crushing purposes.

Since returning home I have consulted various ancient authorities on the subject of these mines, and have come to the conclusion that they form a portion, at least, of those referred to by Edrisi and Aboulfeda as the gold mines of Allaka, in one allusion to which they are placed in the vicinity of the Red Sea, four days from Aydab. There is an interesting old map, said to be the oldest in the world, given by M. Chabas in his Inscriptions des Mines d'Or, now in the Turin Museum, and dating from the time of Seti the First, and it is highly probable that this is a rough sketch of these very mines;