THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN "lands far from its point of junction with the Nile; masses of *' bamboo and driftwood, together with large trees, and frequently " 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 velocity of the Atbara current is so great when the river is in flood, and its waters so dense, that it forces the water of the Nile across onto the western ENTRANCE TO THE BRITISH CEMETERY AT ATBARA.

bank. Even in December the Nile is so wide at the mouth of the Atbara that it forms a kind of bay, and the shallowness of the water in the winter renders the passage from one bank of the river to the other a long and tedious business.

About a mile from Atbara Fort, on the right bank of the Atbara, is the English cemetery, which is enclosed within a high mud wall, and is provided with wooden gates. The graves were well kept, and all the crosses were in position, and Captain Swabey took special care to see done everything which would Sir Samuel Baker, " The Albert Nyanza," London, 1870, p. 6.

252 i i