upon the edge of a deep valley, between five and six
miles wide, at the bottom of which, about 200 feet
below the general level of the country, flowed the
river Atbara. On the opposite side of the valley,
the same vast table lands continued to the western
horizon.
We commenced the descent towards the river ;
the valley was a succession of gullies and ravines,
of landslips and watercourses ; the entire hollow of
miles in width, had evidently been the work of the
river. How many ages had the rains and the
stream been at work to scoop out from the flat
table land this deep and broad valley ? I Here was
the giant labourer that had shovelled the rich loam
upon the delta of Lower Egypt! Upon these vast
flats of fertile soil there can be no drainage except
through soakage. The deep valley is therefore the
receptacle- not only for the water that oozes from
its sides, but subterranean channels bursting as land-
springs from all parts of the walls of the valley,
wash down the more soluble portions of earth, and
continually waste away the soil. Landslips occur
daily during the rainy season; streams of rich mud
pour down the valley’s slopes, and as the river flows
beneath in a swollen torrent, the friable banks topple
down into the stream and dissolve. The Atbara
becomes the thickness of pea-soup, as its muddy
waters steadily perform the duty they have fulfilled
from age to age. Thus was the great river at work
upon our arrival on its bank at the bottom of the
valley. The Arab name, “ Bahr el Aswat” (black
river) was well bestowed ; it was the black mother
of Egypt, still carrying to her offspring the nourishment
that had first formed the Delta.
At this point of interest, the journey had commenced
; the deserts were passed, all was fertility
and life: wherever the sources of the Nile might
be, the Atbara was the parent of Egypt! This
was my first impression, to be proved hereafter.