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. The animals of the desert - gazelles, hyenas,
and wild asses - are compelled to resort to these crowded
drinking-places, occupied by the flocks of the Arabs equally with the
timid beasts of the chase. The birds that during the cooler months would
wander free throughout the country are now collected in vast numbers
along the margin of the exhausted river; innumerable doves, varying in
species, throng the trees and seek the shade of the dome-palms;
thousands of desert grouse arrive morning and evening to drink and to
depart; while birds in multitudes, of lovely plumage, escape from the
burning desert and colonize the poor but welcome bushes that fringe the
Atbara River.
After several days' journey along the bank of the Atbara we halted at a
spot called Collodabad, about one hundred and sixty miles from the Nile
junction. A sharp bend of the river had left a deep pool about a mile in
length, and here a number of Arabs were congregated, with their flocks
and herds.
On the evening of June 23d I was lying half asleep upon my bed by the
margin of the river, when I fancied that I heard a rumbling like distant
thunder. I had not heard such a sound for months, but a low,
uninterrupted roll appeared to increase in volume, although far distant.
Hardly had I raised my head to listen more attentively when a confusion
of voices arose from the Arabs' camp, with a sound of many feet, and in
a few minutes they rushed into my camp, shouting to my men in the
darkness, "El Bahr! El Bahr!" (the river! the river!)
We were up in an instant, and my interpreter, Mahomet, in a state of
intense confusion, explained that the river was coming down, and that
the supposed distant thunder was the roar of approaching water.
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