THE GREAT RAINS IN ABYSSINIA. 519 



tember, the entire drainage of which is carried away by the 

 above-named channels to inundate Lower Egypt." * 



We have already alluded to the tendency to sudden 

 and violent floods, to which the mountain courses of 

 streams are always subject, and the incredible rapidity 

 with which they sometimes rise ; this is well illustrated 

 by the sudden arrival (like a thief in the night) of 

 the mighty stream of the great river Atbara, of 

 which all the above-named rivers, mentioned by Sir 

 S. Baker, are affluents. Though we have cited it 

 elsewhere, as a notable instance of a sudden flood, f 

 it may be convenient to briefly repeat its salient features 

 here. On the 23rd of June 1861 the drought had 

 been unbroken for months; the heat was intense; the 

 sky unspotted by a cloud: while the fiery breath of 

 the simoom had desiccated the land so completely 

 that vegetation had apparently almost perished, and 

 the bed of the Atbara consisted merely of a glaring 

 expanse of dry sand, without one drop of water, except 

 in a few isolated pools. 



On that night Sir Samuel Baker and, his party were 

 resting by the margin of the river, when a noise was 

 heard like distant thunder a sound which had not 

 been heard for months which came nearer and nearer. 

 Suddenly shouts were heard from the Arab camp, of 

 " El Bahr ! El Bahr ! " (the River the River) ; there was 

 but barely time to escape, when the waters arrived, 

 and (says Sir Samuel Baker) 



"On the morning of the 24th of June I stood on the banks 

 of the noble Atbara river." " In one night there was a mysteri- 



* The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia, by Sir Samuel W. Baker, 

 1867, p. 468. 



j See our section on Climates and Temperatures, Vol. i, p. 98. 



