A GREAT SOUDAN RAIN STORM. 521 



up. Being as wet as I could be, I resolved to enjoy the scene 

 outside ; it was curious in the extreme. . Flash after flash of 

 sharp-forked lightning played upon the surface of a boundless 

 lake; there was not a foot of land visible, but the numerous 

 dark bushes projecting from the surface destroyed the illusion 

 of depth that the scene would otherwise have suggested. 

 The rain ceased, but the entire country was flooded several 

 inches deep, and when the more distant lightning flashed 

 as the storm rolled away, I saw the camels lying like statues 

 built into the lake." * 



The rush of all this water, everywhere pouring over 

 a vast extent of country, and all hurrying towards 

 the Nile, gives us some insight into the wonderful 

 water supplying capacity of this mighty river system, 

 and the reader will probably cease to wonder that 

 notwithstanding any amount of evaporation which may 

 occur in Nubia and Upper Egypt, enough water is 

 still carried down to be the parent of the great in- 

 undations which annually cover the Nile valley and 

 the delta of Lower Egypt with its turbid but fertilizing 

 flood. 



Leaving now the historic region of the Nile, we 

 pass to the consideration of another great river system 

 of a different type, but which of its kind is certainly 

 one of the most remarkable of all streams. 



We refer to the River Indus, f whose frowning rocky 

 gorges and impetuous flood at present constitute a 

 leading factor, as a line of defence, upon the north 

 western frontier of our Indian Empire. 



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

 1867, p. 105 6. 



j "Indus" in Sanskrit Sindhu. (Whence doubtless the territory of 

 Sindh takes its name.) 



