Koomaylee Pass, Ethiopia: watering-place during the Abyssinian expedition. Coloured wood engraving by J.M.

"The war in Abyssinia. We have received a number of sketches from our Special Artist in Abyssinia, four of which are engraved for this Number of the Journal, with another sketch by our esteemed correspondent the Staff Officer. It will be convenient to give our Special Artist's account of the subjects delineated by him. The first is a scene at Koomaylee, the watering of transport animals there. A plentiful supply of water has been got at this place by digging wells and pumping it up. Both suction and chain pumps are used. There are three of these, but it does not require them all to supply the water for the animals. Seven thousand animals could be watered every day, if it were needed. A working party is told off to work the pump, and by changing the men a continuous run of pure clear water is kept up. This is led, by means of wooden troughs along a considerable space, and the animals are led down by the conductors in companies. They are very difficult to manage, as they get excited at the sound of the water, and rush at it, in their eager desire to drink, producing confusion everywhere. Sentries are stationed to regulate their turns to drink, and fences are put up to keep them in order and in their turns. In the evening, when they come. down to water, it is a most animated scene. The camels, with their long necks stretched out in the direction of the water, become excited, and produce that disagreeable gurgling roar which is so painful to listen to. Great bullocks from Goojerat come on with a steady step; mules and horses tear, pull, and kick; conductors swear in English or abuse in Hindostanee; and the attendants, who have been picked up in all the bazaars of the East, talk and shout in every language that Babel gave birth to. The view up the Koomaylee Pass is very picturesque: it presents successive ridges of mountains, rising one above the other as they recede into the interior. In the digging of these wells, a great many garnets were found, and other precious stones, but none of any great value."-- Illustrated London News, loc. cit.