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.
CHAPTER V.
THE STORM.
A VIOLENT thunderstorm, with a deluge of rain, broke upon our
camp upon the banks of the Atbara, fortunately just after the
tents were pitched. We thus had an example of the extraordinary
effects of the heavy rain in tearing away the soil of the valley.
Trifling watercourses were swollen to torrents; banks of earth
became loosened and fell in, and the rush of mud and water upon
all sides swept forward into the river with a rapidity which
threatened the destruction of the country, could such a tempest
endure for a few days.
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