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Updated: May 3, 2025
This could be accounted for by the sudden arrival of the river, as the water percolated rapidly through the sand and nourished the famishing roots. At Gozerajup, two hundred and forty-six miles from Berber, our route was changed.
In the rainy season, the whole of this country, from the south to Gozerajup, is covered with excellent pasturage, and, far from resembling a desert, it becomes a mass of bright green herbage.
A dam across the Atbara would irrigate the entire country from Gozerajup to Berber, a distance of upwards of 200 miles; and the same system upon the Nile would carry the waters throughout the deserts between Khartoum and Dongola, and from thence to Lower Egypt.
The baggage-camels were left to the charge of the servants, and we were requested to mount immediately, as the Sheik Abou Sinn was determined to accompany us for some distance as a mark of courtesy, although he was himself to march with his people on that day in the opposite direction towards Gozerajup.
As we approached within about twenty-five miles o Cassala, I remarked that the country on our left was in many places flooded; the Arabs, who had hitherto been encamped in this neighbourhood during the dry season, were migrating to other localities in the neighbourhood of Soojalup and Gozerajup, with their vast herds of camels and goats.
The entire country from Gozerajup to Cassala is a dead flat, upon which there is not one tree sufficiently large to shade a full-sized tent. There is no real timber in the country; but the vast level extent of soil is a series of open plains and low bush of thorny mimosa.
This portion of the desert was rich in agates and numerous specimens of bloodstone. Exactly opposite the village of Gozerajup are curious natural landmarks, four pyramidical hills of granite that can be seen for many miles' distance in this perfectly level country.
Upon this fertile tract of land, cotton might be cultivated to a large extent, and sent to Berber, via Atbara, from Gozerajup, during the season of flood. At the present time, the growth is restricted to the supply required by the Arabs for the manufacture of their cloths.
After nine hours' journey we arrived at the, valley of the Atbara, in all sixteen hours' actual marching from Cassala. There was an extraordinary change in the appearance of the river between Gozerajup and this spot.
This was an alluring programme; but after thanking him for his kindness, I explained how much I disliked to retrace my steps, which I should do by returning to Gozerajup; and that as I had heard of a German who was living at the village of Sofi, on the Atbara, I should prefer to pass the season of the rains at that place, where I could gather information, and be ready on the spot to start for the neighbouring Base country when the change of season should permit.
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