Two Or
Three Large Trees Grew Within The Camp; Beneath The Shade Of This
Our Tent Was Pitched.
This we never inhabited, but it served as
an ordinary room, and a protection to the luggage, guns, &c. The
horses were well secured within a double circle of thorns, and
the goats wandered about at liberty, as they were too afraid of
wild animals to venture from the camp:
Altogether this was the
most agreeable spot we had ever occupied; even the night-fires
would be perfectly concealed within the dense shade of the nabbuk
jungle, thus neither man nor beast would be aware of our
presence. We were about a hundred paces distant from the margin
of the river; late in the evening I took my rod, and fished in
the deep bend beneath a cliff of conglomerate pebbles. I caught
only one fish, a baggar, about twelve pounds, but I landed three
large turtles; these creatures were most determined in taking the
bait; they varied in size from fifty to about ninety pounds, and
were the same species as that which inhabits the Nile (Trionis
Nilotica). From one of them we took upwards of a hundred eggs
which we converted into omelettes, but they were rather strong in
flavour.
Although this species of turtle is unprepossessing in appearance,
having a head very like that of a snake, with a dark green shell
spotted with yellow, it produces excellent soup; the body is
exceedingly flat, and the projecting edges of the shell are soft;
it runs extremely fast upon the shore, and is suggestive of the
tortoise that beat the hare in the well-known race. Throughout
the Nile and its tributaries there are varieties of fish and
reptiles closely connected, and the link can be distinctly traced
in the progression of development. There is a fish with a hard
bony frame, or shell, that includes the head, and extends over
more than half the body; this has two long and moveable spikes
beneath the fore fins, upon which it can raise itself as upon
legs when upon the land; when first caught, this fish makes a
noise something like the mewing of a cat: this appears to be
closely linked to the tortoise. The Lepidosiren Annectens, found
in the White Nile, is a link between the fish and the frog; and
certain varieties of mud fish that remain alive throughout a dry
season in the sun-baked earth, and reappear with the following
rains exhibit a close affinity to reptiles.
On the morning after our arrival, I started to explore the
country with the aggageers, and rode about forty miles, From this
point, hills of basalt and granite commenced, connected by rugged
undulations of white quartz, huge blocks of which were scattered
upon the surface; in many of these I found thin veins of galena.
All the rocks were igneous; we had left the sandstone that had
marked the course of the Atbara and the valley of the Settite as
far as Ombrega, and I was extremely puzzled to account for the
presence of the pure white and rose-coloured limestone that we
had found only in one place--Geera.
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