B CHARACTER OF RIFERS, [ c h a p . i .
has given it the well-known name of Bahr el Azrak, or
Blue River. No water is more delicious than that of
the Blue Nile; in great contrast to that of the White
river, which is never clear, and has a disagreeable taste
of vegetation. This difference in the quality of the
waters is a distinguishing characteristic of the two
rivers: the one, the Blue Nile, is a rapid mountain
stream, rising and falling with great rapidity; the
other is of lake origin, flowing through vast marshes.
The course of the Blue Nile is through fertile soil;
thus there is a trifling loss by absorption, and during
the heavy rains a vast amount of earthy matter of a
red colour is contributed by its waters to the general
fertilizing deposit of the Nile in Lower Egypt.
The Atbara, although so important a river in the
rainy season of Abyssinia, is perfectly dry for several
months during the year, and at the time I first saw it,
June 1 3 , 1 8 6 1 , it was a mere sheet of glaring sand ;
in fact a portion of the desert through which it flowed.
For upwards of one hundred and fifty miles from its
junction with the Nile, it is perfectly dry from the
beginning of March to June. At intervals of a few
miles there are pools or ponds of water left in the deep
holes below the general average of the river’s bed. In
these pools, some of which may be a mile in length,
are congregated all the inhabitants of the river, , who, as
CHAP. i . ] CAUSES OF NILE INUNDATIONS. 9
the stream disappears are forced to close quarters in
these narrow asylums; thus, crocodiles, hippopotami,
fish, and large turtle are crowded in extraordinary
numbers, until the commencement of the rains in.
Abyssinia once more sets them at liberty by sending
down a fresh volume to the river. The rainy season
commences in Abyssinia in the middle of May, but the
country being parched by the summer heat, the first
rains are absorbed by the soil, and the torrents do not
fill until the middle of June. From June to the middle
of September the storms are terrific ; every ravine becomes
a raging torrent; trees are rooted up by the
mountain streams swollen above their banks, and the
Atbara becomes a vast river, bringing down with an
overwhelming current the total drainage of four large
rivers—the Settite, Royan, Salaam, and Angrab, in addition
to its own original volume. Its waters are dense
with soil washed from most fertile lands far from its
point of junction with the Nile; masses of bamboo
and driftwood, together with large trees, and frequently
the dead bodies of elephants and buffaloes, are hurled
along its muddy waters in wild confusion, bringing a
rich harvest to the Arabs on its banks, who are ever on
the look-out for the river’s treasures of fuel and timber.
The Blue Nile and the Atbara receiving the entire
drainage of Abyssinia, at the same time pour their