during floods; but now the river bed was dry sand, so glaring that the
sun's reflection was almost intolerable. The only shade was afforded by
the evergreen dome palms; nevertheless the Arabs occupied the banks at
intervals of three or four miles, wherever a pool of water in some deep
bend of the dried river's bed offered an attraction. In such places were
Arab villages or camps, of the usual mat tents formed of the dome- palm
leaves.

Many pools were of considerable size and of great depth. In flood-time a
tremendous torrent sweeps down the course of the Atbara, and the sudden
bends of the river are hollowed out by the force of the stream to a
depth of twenty or thirty feet below the level of the bed. Accordingly
these holes become reservoirs of water when the river is otherwise
exhausted. In such asylums all the usual inhabitants of this large river
are crowded together in a comparatively narrow space. Although these
pools vary in size, from only a few hundred yards to a mile in length,
they are positively full of life; huge fish, crocodiles of immense size,
turtles, and occasionally hippopotami, consort together in close and
unwished-for proximity. The animals of the desert-- gazelles, hyenas,
and wild asses--are compelled to resort to these crowded
drinking-places, occupied by the flocks of the Arabs equally with the
timid beasts of the chase. The birds that during the cooler months would
wander free throughout the country are now collected in vast numbers
along the margin of the exhausted river; innumerable doves, varying in
species, throng the trees and seek the shade of the dome-palms;
thousands of desert grouse arrive morning and evening to drink and to
depart; while birds in multitudes, of lovely plumage, escape from the
burning desert and colonize the poor but welcome bushes that fringe the
Atbara River.