We Passed Numerous Villages And
Extensive Plantations Of Dhurra That Were Deserted By The Arabs,
As The Soldiers Had Arrived To Collect The Taxes.
I measured the
depths of the wells, seventy-five feet and a half, from the
surface to the bottom; the alluvial soil appeared to continue the
whole distance, until the water was discovered resting upon hard
sand, full of small particles of mica.
During the march over a
portion of the country that had been cleared by burning, we met
a remarkably curious hunting-party. A number of the common black
and white stork were hunting for grasshoppers and other insects,
but mounted upon the back of each stork was a large
copper-coloured flycatcher, which, perched like a rider on his
horse, kept a bright look-out for insects, which from its
elevated position it could easily discover upon the ground. I
watched them for some time: whenever the storks perceived a
grasshopper or other winged insect, they chased it on foot, but
if they missed their game, the flycatchers darted from their
backs and flew after the insects like falcons, catching them in
their beaks, and then returning to their steeds to look out for
another opportunity.
On the evening of the 23d May we arrived at the Rahad close to
its junction with the Blue Nile: it was still dry, although the
Dinder was rising. I accounted for this, from the fact of the
extreme length of the Rahad's bed, which, from its extraordinary
tortuous course, must absorb a vast amount of water in the dry
sand, before the advancing stream can reach the Nile.
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