From These Belts, Which Average A
Quarter Of A Mile In Depth, The Dom Palms Rise In Great Numbers.
All the
bush is leafy, and looks very pretty and green by contrast with the sombre
vegetation of the Nile.
Between the trees fly gay parrots and many other
bright birds. The river itself above Ras-el-Hudi is, during March and
April, only a dry bed of white sand about 400 yards broad, but dotted with
deep and beautifully clear pools, in which peculiarly brilliant fish and
crocodiles, deprived of their stream, are crowded together. The atmosphere
is more damp than by the Nile, and produces, in the terrible heat of the
summer, profuse and exhausting perspiration. The natives dislike the water
of the Atbara, and declare that it does not quench the thirst like that of
the great river. It has, indeed, a slightly bitter taste, which is a
strong contrast with the sweet waters of the Nile. Nevertheless the British
soldiers, with characteristic contrariness, declared their preference
for it. Outside the bush the ground undulated gently, but the surface was
either stony and uneven or else cracked and fissured by the annual
overflow. Both these conditions made it hard for cavalry, and still more
for artillery, to move freely; and the difficulties were complicated by
frequent holes and small khors full of long grass.
Amid such scenes the squadrons moved cautiously forward. Having made
the ground good for fifteen miles from Hudi, Colonel Broadwood halted
his force at Abadar, an old fort, and sent one squadron under Captain
Le Gallais seven miles further.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 293 of 476
Words from 77993 to 78257
of 127807
