Although this species of turtle is unprepossessing in appearance,
having a head very like that of a snake, with a dark green shell
spotted with yellow, it produces excellent soup; the body is
exceedingly flat, and the projecting edges of the shell are soft;
it runs extremely fast upon the shore, and is suggestive of the
tortoise that beat the hare in the well-known race. Throughout
the Nile and its tributaries there are varieties of fish and
reptiles closely connected, and the link can be distinctly traced
in the progression of development. There is a fish with a hard
bony frame, or shell, that includes the head, and extends over
more than half the body; this has two long and moveable spikes
beneath the fore fins, upon which it can raise itself as upon
legs when upon the land; when first caught, this fish makes a
noise something like the mewing of a cat: this appears to be
closely linked to the tortoise. The Lepidosiren Annectens, found
in the White Nile, is a link between the fish and the frog; and
certain varieties of mud fish that remain alive throughout a dry
season in the sun-baked earth, and reappear with the following
rains exhibit a close affinity to reptiles.

On the morning after our arrival, I started to explore the
country with the aggageers, and rode about forty miles, From this
point, hills of basalt and granite commenced, connected by rugged
undulations of white quartz, huge blocks of which were scattered
upon the surface; in many of these I found thin veins of galena.

All the rocks were igneous; we had left the sandstone that had
marked the course of the Atbara and the valley of the Settite as
far as Ombrega, and I was extremely puzzled to account for the