A Heavy Shower Of Rain Fell Shortly After Our Camp Was Completed,
When Fortunately The Baggage Was Under Cover; This Proved To Be
The Last Rain Of The Season, And From That Moment The Burning Sun
Ruled The Sodden Country, And Rapidly Dried Up Not Only The Soil
But All Vegetation.
The grass within a few days of the cessation
of the rain assumed a tinge of yellow, and by
The end of October
there was not a green spot to relieve the eye from the golden
blaze of the landscape, except the patches of grass and reeds
that sprang from the mud banks of the retiring river. The climate
was exceedingly unhealthy, but we were fortunately exceptions to
the general rule, and although the inhabitants of Sofi were all
sufferers, our camp had no invalids, with the exception of
Mahomet, who had upon one occasion so gorged himself with
half-putrid fish, that he nearly died in consequence. It would be
impossible to commence our explorations in the Base until the
grass should be sufficiently dry to burn; there were two
varieties: that upon the slopes and hollows of the stony soil of
the Atbara valley had been a pest ever since it had ripened; as
the head formed three barbed darts, these detached themselves
from the plant with such facility, that the slightest touch was
sufficient to dislodge them; they immediately pierced the
clothes, from which they could not be withdrawn, as the barbed
heads broke off and remained. It was simply impossible to walk in
this grass as it became ripe, without special protection; I
accordingly tanned some gazelle skins, with which my wife
constructed stocking gaiters, to be drawn over the foot and tied
above and below the knee; thus fortified I could defy the grass,
and indulge in shooting and exploring the neighbourhood until the
season should arrive for firing the country. The high grass upon
the table lands, although yellow, would not be sufficiently
inflammable until the end of November.
The numerous watercourses that drained the table lands during the
rainy season were now dry. No sooner had the grass turned yellow,
than the pest of the country, the seroot fly, disappeared; thus
the presence of this insect may be dated from about 10th July to
10th October. As the fly vanished, the giraffes also left the
neighbourhood. By a few days' exploration, I found that the point
of land from the junction of the Settite river with the Atbara,
formed a narrow peninsula which was no wider than eight miles
across from our encampment: thus the herds of game retreating
from the south before the attacks of the seroot, found themselves
driven into a cut-de-sac upon the strip of land between the broad
and deep rivers the Settite and Atbara, which in the rainy season
they dared not cross. All this country being uninhabited, there
were several varieties of game at all seasons, but the three
rainy months insure a good supply of elephants and giraffes;
these retreat about thirty miles farther south, when permitted by
the cessation of the flies to return to their favourite haunts.
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