CHAP. I.] 
CAUSES OF NILE INUNDATIONS. 
7 
the dead bodies of elephants and buffaloes, are hurled 
along its muddy waters in wild confusion, bringing a 
rich harvest to the Arabs on its banks, who are ever 
on the look-out for the river s treasures of fuel and 
timber. 
The Blue Nile and the Atbara receiving the entire 
drainage of Abyssinia, at the same time pour their 
floods into the main Nile in the middle of June. At 
that season the White Nile is at a considerable level, 
although not at its highest; and the sudden rush of 
water descending from Abyssinia into the main channel 
already at a fair level from the White Nile, causes the 
annual inundation in Lower Egypt. 
During the year that I passed in the northern 
portion of Abyssinia and its frontiers, the rains con¬ 
tinued with great violence for three months, the last 
shower falling on the 16th September, from which date 
there was neither dew nor rain until the following 
May. The great rivers expended, and the mountain- 
torrents dried up, the Atbara disappeared, and once 
more became a sheet of glaring sand. The rivers 
Settite, Salaam, and Angrab, although much reduced, 
are nevertheless perennial streams, flowing into the 
Atbara from the lofty Abyssinian mountains, but the 
parched, sandy bed of the latter river absorbs the 
entire supply, nor does one drop of water reach the 
Nile from the Atbara during the dry season. The 
wonderful absorption by the sand of that river is an 
illustration of the impotence of the Blue Nile to 
contend unaided with the Nubian deserts, which, were 
it not for the steady volume of the White Nile, would 
drink every drop of water before the river could passs 
the 25th degree of latitude. 
The principal affluents of the Blue Nile are the 
Bahad and Binder, flowing, like all others, from 
Abyssinia. The Bahad is entirely dry during the 
dry season, and the Binder is reduced to a succession 
of deep pools, divided by sandbanks, the bed of the 
river being exposed. These pools are the resort of 
