Aided by the wind from the north she breasted the current of the Nile, and very soon the mud walls of Berber were left behind. The banks of the river showed signs of greater fertility than our friends had seen on their ride from Aboo Hamed; groves of palm-trees were numerous, and there were many fields of grain, cotton, and other growing things. Abdul said there had been great suffering in this region at different times, owing to bad government. At one time the Governor-general of the Soudan had caused the natives to be plundered, in order that he might secure a larger taxation than usual. Many villages were abandoned, the people fleeing to the interior to escape persecution, and neglecting agriculture altogether. When he passed up the river with Baker Pacha's expedition the country was almost destitute of inhabitants, and for miles and miles where formerly were prosperous villages not a native could be seen. The land here, like that lower down the Nile, is kept fertile by irrigation. The sakkiehs, or water-wheels, are turned by oxen, and their creaking is the reverse of musical. In some places they seem to form a continuous line along the banks, and in a distance of less than a mile Frank counted thirty-seven sakkiehs at work, besides nearly as many more lying idle. This part of the Nile might be made one of the most productive parts of Egypt, and it is to be hoped that a better government will control it than has been its ill-fortune since the days of Mohammed Ali to the present time. [Illustration: VIEW IN THE ATBARA VALLEY.] Abdul called the boys to look at the Atbara River. "It is noticeable," said the Doctor, "as the first tributary of the Nile above its entrance into the Mediterranean. For fifteen hundred miles this great river does not receive so much as the tiniest brook, a condition of things without parallel with any other river of the world." "The Atbara rises in Abyssinia," said Abdul, "near the base of two lofty mountains called Abba-Jaret and Amba-Hai. They are not far from the coast of the Red Sea, and one of the head streams of the Atbara is said to start as though intending to reach the coast, when it suddenly turns and flows toward the Nile. It is called Atbara only in the lower part of its course; higher up it is known as the Tacazze, and it runs through a country that would be very productive if it contained people to cultivate it." A short distance above the mouth of the Atbara they passed Damer, a town situated on the point of land between the Nile and its tributary stream. Abdul said it was not unlike Berber, but smaller, and they were not losing much in passing it without stopping.