3-021-496 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Expedition to Abyssinia: the Mayen Wells, half way to Senafe, 1868. 'The scenery of Abyssinia is now becoming familiar to the readers of this Journal, thanks to the admirable sketches of our correspondent the Staff Officer, and those of several other contributors...The halting-place of Mayen...is situated half way from the foot of the mountains to Senafe. It has been made a halting-place [for the British Army] only since the practical application of Norton's tube-wells...gave a supply of water at this place. There was an old disused well at Mayen, which was not sufficient for the wants of the long trains of weary mules and camels. The patent tube-wells now yield as much as 700 gallons an hour, so that the laborious thirty-mile march will henceforth be divided, to the great relief of our troops and transport service'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.