7 DECEMBER 1867, Page 1

Colonel Merewether announces, in a _letter which Sir Stafford Northcote

publishes without a date, that lie has discovered a pass from the coast to the highlands of Abyssinia, passable-for cavalry and camels, and improvable by hard work. A second pass was to be examined immediately, Colonel Merewether having dis- covered that south of Massowah the hills are purely volcanic, and, therefore, barren. The place to be reached by these passes on the plateau is, of course, not stated, but it must be near Takunda We observe, also, from the Pall Mall Gazette, that a railway from Annesley Bay to a place where water is obtainable will soon be constructed, the rails being laid easily on the sandy soil. All this while Theodore makes no sign.