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Baker's ox, just by his tail, the effect of which was to produce so sudden a kick and plunge, that he threw her to the ground and hurt her considerably: she accordingly changed the animal, and rode a splendid ox that Ibrahim very civilly offered. I had to walk to the Atabbi, about eighteen miles, which, although a pleasant stroll when in good health, I found rather fatiguing.
This was just twenty-five miles from our camp at Lobore, in latitude N., by observation, 3 degrees 43 minutes. We happened to arrive at the spot where the river Atabbi joined the Asua. At this junction the Atabbi was perfectly clear, while the Asua was muddy, which proved that heavy rain had fallen in the Madi and Shooli countries, while the weather was dry in the mountains of Obbo.
Accordingly, the Asua, receiving the Atabbi river, which is the main drain of the western face of the Madi mountains, and the entire drainage of the Madi and Shooa countries, together with that of extensive countries to the east of Shooa, including the rivers Chombi and Udat, from Lira and Umiro, it becomes a tremendous torrent so long as the rains continue, and conveys a grand volume of water to the Nile; but the inclination of all these countries tending rapidly to the northwest, the bed of the Asua river partakes of the general incline, and so quickly empties after the cessation of the rains that it becomes nil as a river.
Were I to think of shooting in preference to exploring, I could have excellent sport on the Atabbi river during the dry season, as also on the Kanieti, in the vicinity of Wakkala; but I must neglect all but the great object, and push on to Kamrasi's capital, and from thence to the lake.
Ascending rising ground in perfectly open prairie on the opposite side of Atabbi, I saw a dense herd of about two hundred elephants they were about a mile distant, and were moving slowly through the high grass.
We bivouacked on the south bank of the Atabbi. The next morning, after a walk of about eight miles, I purchased of one of the Turks the best ox that I have ever ridden, at the price of a double-barrelled gun -it was a great relief to be well mounted, as I was quite unfit for a journey on foot. At 4.30 P.m. we arrived at one of the villages of Farajoke.
The bed was rocky; but although the Atabbi had subscribed its waters above the point where we now crossed, there was merely a trifling stream occupying about a quarter of the river's bed, with a current of about two and a half miles an hour. Crossing this on foot, the water in the deepest part reached to the middle of my thighs.
My horse Filfil was lost. As a rule, hunting during the march should be avoided, and I had now paid dearly for the indiscretion. I reached the Atabbi river about eighteen miles from Obbo. This is a fine perennial stream flowing from the Madi mountains towards the west, forming an affluent of the Asua river.
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