98 COMING DOWN OF THE GREAT ATBARA. 



previously, not a single drop of rain had fallen 

 and the drought was extreme. The heat of the previous 

 day had been intense: the fiery breath of the Simoon 

 being almost overpowering while the sky as usual 

 was unflecked by a single cloud. The only water 

 in the river consisted of detached pools occurring here 

 and there in the midst of a bed of burning sand. 



The following is the substance of Sir S. Baker's 

 narrative : 



"The cool night arrived, and at about half-past eight I 

 was lying half asleep by the margin of the river, when I 

 fancied I heard a rumbling like distant thunder: a low un- 

 interrupted roll appeared to increase in volume. Hardly had 

 I raised my head to listen, when a confusion of voices arose 

 from the Arabs' camp, shouting in the darkness, ' El Bahr ! 

 El Bahr!' The River! The River! (literally 'The Water'). We 

 were up in an instant, and my interpreter, in a state of intense 

 confusion, explained that the river was coming down, and that 

 the supposed thunder was the roar of approaching water. Many 

 of the people were asleep on the clean sand on the river's 

 bed these were quickly awakened by the Arabs. Hardly 

 had they descended, when the sound of the river beneath 

 told us the water had arrived. All was darkness and con- 

 fusion. The great event had occurred, the river had arrived 

 ' like a thief in the night ' on the morning of the 24th 

 June I stood on the banks of the noble Atbara River, the 

 wonder of the desert! Yesterday there was a barren sheet 

 of glaring sand, with a fringe of withered bush and trees on 

 its borders, that cut the yellow expanse of the desert. For 

 days we had journeyed along the exhausted bed ; no bush 

 could boast a leaf; no tree could throw a shade crisp gums 

 crackled upon the stems of the mimosas ; the sap dried upon 

 the burst bark, sprung with the withering heat of the Simoon. 

 In one night there was a mysterious change there was no 

 drop of rain, no thundercloud on the horizon to give 



