In the Heart of Africa | Page 8

was entirely out of his place, if not out of
his mind, at certain moments, and having upon one occasion smashed a
basin by throwing it in the face of the cook, and upon another occasion
narrowly escaped homicide by throwing an axe at a man's head, which
missed by an inch, he became a notorious character in the little
expedition.

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. 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.
Many of the people were asleep on the clean sand on the river's bed;
these were quickly awakened by the Arabs, who rushed down the steep
bank to save the skulls of two hippopotami that were exposed to dry.
Hardly had they descended when the sound of the river in the darkness
beneath told us that the water had arrived, and the men, dripping with
wet, had just sufficient time to drag their heavy burdens up the bank.
All was darkness and confusion, everybody talking and no one
listening; but the great event had occurred; the river had arrived "like a
thief in the night". On the morning of the 24th of June, I stood on the
banks of the noble Atbara River at the break of day. The wonder of the
desert! Yesterday there was a barren sheet of glaring sand, with a fringe
of withered bushes and trees upon its borders, that cut the yellow
expanse of desert. For days we had journeyed along the exhausted bed;
all Nature, even