My camp was in a very commanding position, as it was protected in
front by the Atbara, and on the left by a perpendicular ravine
about eighty feet deep, at the bottom of which flowed the rivulet
called by the Arabs the "Till;" this joined the river immediately
below our plateau. On our right was a steep and rugged incline
covered with rocks of the whitest sandstone, through which ran
veins of rich iron ore from four to five feet in width. I found
a considerable quantity of fossil wood in the sandstone, and I
had previously discovered on the Sofi side of the river, the
fossil stem of a tree about twelve feet long; the grain appeared
to be exceedingly close, but I could not determine the class to
which the tree had belonged.
As the Atbara had fallen to the level of the small tributary, the
Till, that stream was nearly exhausted, and the fish that
inhabited its deep and shady waters during the rainy season were
now fast retiring to the parent river. At the mouth of the stream
were a number of rocks, that, as the water of the Atbara
retreated, daily increased in size; these were evidently blocks
that had been detached from the cliffs that walled in the Till.
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