We Left Berber In The Evening, And About Two Hours After Sunset Of The
Following Day Reached The Junction Of The Nile And Atbara.
The latter
presented a curious appearance.
In no place was it less than four
hundred yards in width, and in many places much wider. The banks were
from twenty-five to thirty feet deep, and had evidently been overflowed
during floods; but now the river bed was dry sand, so glaring that the
sun's reflection was almost intolerable. The only shade was afforded by
the evergreen dome palms; nevertheless the Arabs occupied the banks at
intervals of three or four miles, wherever a pool of water in some deep
bend of the dried river's bed offered an attraction. In such places were
Arab villages or camps, of the usual mat tents formed of the dome- palm
leaves.
Many pools were of considerable size and of great depth. In flood-time a
tremendous torrent sweeps down the course of the Atbara, and the sudden
bends of the river are hollowed out by the force of the stream to a
depth of twenty or thirty feet below the level of the bed. Accordingly
these holes become reservoirs of water when the river is otherwise
exhausted. In such asylums all the usual inhabitants of this large river
are crowded together in a comparatively narrow space. Although these
pools vary in size, from only a few hundred yards to a mile in length,
they are positively full of life; huge fish, crocodiles of immense size,
turtles, and occasionally hippopotami, consort together in close and
unwished-for proximity.
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