[108]The position of this cairn is latitude 23° 57′ 46″, longitude 35° 12′ 10″.
[109]The position of the cairn is latitude 24° 4′ 41″, longitude 35° 15′ 34″.
[110]By measurement with the theodolite I found the average slopes of the mountain to be 35°, and many parts have double this inclination. The vertical angle from my camp to the summit was over 23°.
[111]The word Elba (Bishari) means “white mountain.” The designation “Gebel” is thus strictly speaking superfluous, but is convenient as the Bishari tongue is so little known.
[112]Prof. Schweinfurth informs me that the tree is the dragon’s-blood tree, Dracaena ombet v. Heuglin; he himself did not see it in the Elba neighbourhood, and its occurrence has not hitherto been recorded further north than the Erkowit district of the Sudan (latitude about 19°), where the native name for the tree is to-omba or t’ombet. See Bollettino della Società Africana d’Italia: Naples, 1891.
CHAPTER VII.
WATER SUPPLIES.[113]