BANKS OF THE ATBARA. 29

we (lid not ask if the people on the opposite side of the Mogren do

not sometimes apply that name to the Atbara, down to its junction

with the Nile, and if the gohr was to be merely looked on as an

auxiliary stream, and included in the name. The Dutchman does

not blush to call the main stream of the Rhine the Waal, because

a river of that name, on which, perhaps, he once dwelt and still

loves, runs into it and flows on with it into tlie ocean, but hails all

on its banks as his countrymen. In Taka I saw the great Gohr-

el-Gash, the waters of which are said to vanish — how, if this

monstrous mass of water, which it is impossible the earth can

drink in, were to collect again in the low lands and form this

mo"-ren ? and this, the direction of the Gohr -el-Gash, and the

slope of the country seem to me but too plainly to point out.

Whence the gohr comes they know not ; " rain fok," (from above)

they said, and that in the rainy season it gathers from all sides, from

which gathering may be the peculiar meaning of the word gohr.

The high banks on our side of the river, were at this season

covered with luxuriant, beautiful turf, with strong, fruit-laden

Dom-palms (Cucifera Thebaica), mimosas, and large thorn trees

(nebbek), the bright green of which lent a freshness and enlivening

colour to the scene, hardly to have been looked for from the slimy,

sandy soil. The Atbara was some 150 or 200 paces broad, but

seemed, from the distance of the opposite bank, to have, when full,

a breadth of 600 or 800 paces. The banks consisted of layers

of sandstone, and it was plainly visible, that this sandstone

was in a continuous state of forming, as in some spots it

was very soft, and in these we found encrusted wood and petri-

factions, but no conchylites. Further upwards, the soil was

good, the land well cultivated and sown with durra*, divided

off into small squares, intersected with narrow channels or

canals; but we saw no saghies (water-wheels), so either must

the river's overflowings have been guided into these canals,

or they must have been filled by means of water-tight baskets

(saduff), as in Nubia and elsewhere. We saw no one who could

give us any information about this, and at midday returned to

the camp, as we had been warned to keep near it, the tribes of

this neighbourhood being neither most friendly nor trustworthy.

* Sorglinm cernuuin, L., the ancient Egri)tian bread corn— Sorgno, ii kind

of thick-cared, high-growing barley.