The exit of the water was between two lofty walls of
basalt rock, which overhung the stream, which in the rainy season
not only forced its way for about a hundred yards through this
narrow cleft, but it had left proof of inundations that had leapt
over the summit of the obstruction, when the rush of water had
been too great for the area of the contracted passage.
Altogether, the two rivers Sahaam and Angrab are interesting
examples of the destructive effect of water, that has during the
course of ages cut through, and hollowed out in the solid rock,
a succession of the most horrible precipices and caverns, in
which the maddened torrents, rushing from the lofty chain of
mountains, boil along until they meet the Atbara, and assist to
flood the Nile. No one could explore these tremendous torrents,
the Settite, Royan, Angrab, Salaam, and Atbara, without at once
comprehending their effect upon the waters of the Nile. The
magnificent chain of mountains from which they flow, is not a
simple line of abrupt sides, but the precipitous slopes are the
walls of a vast plateau, that receives a prodigious rainfall in
June, July, August, until the middle of September, the entire
drainage of which is carried away by the above-named channels to
inundate Lower Egypt.
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