fashion, shooting, fishing, and exploring in Asia Minor and Turkey in Europe. In 1859 he settled down as Manager-General of a British-made railway from the Danube to the Black Sea. Whilst this railway was being made he met in Hungary the lady who became his second wife.[75] The railway was completed in 1860, and Baker once more became restless. Big-game shooting in Asia Minor--splendid as it seems to have been at that period, when he could shoot as many bears, boars, wolves, red deer, and roe deer as he wished--did not content him; his thoughts turned towards Africa and the Nile. He arrived at Cairo with Mrs. Baker in 1861, with the idea of travelling up the Nile to meet Speke and Grant coming from Zanzibar via the Victoria Nyanza. [Illustration: _Photo by Maull & Fox._] SAMUEL BAKER, 1865.] But Baker resolved, before attempting anything so difficult as the exploration of the White Nile above Gondokoro, to learn something of African travel and Sudanese Arabic. He therefore left the main Nile at Berber and ascended the Atbara River, the last affluent which the Nile receives on its way to the Mediterranean;[76] the first running river encountered by the traveller ascending the Nile that can be said to flow through tropical Africa,--the Africa with the typical Ethiopian fauna and flora. “After a scorching march of about twenty miles we arrived at the junction of the Atbara River with the Nile [writes Baker]; throughout the route the barren sand stretched to the horizon on the left, while on the right, within a mile of the Nile, the soil was sufficiently rich to support a certain amount of vegetation, chiefly dwarf mimosas and the _Asclepia gigantea_.... The Atbara has a curious appearance; in no part was it less than four hundred yards in width, while in many places this breadth was much exceeded. The banks were from twenty-five to thirty feet deep: these had evidently been overflowed during floods, but at the present time the river was dead, not only partially dry, but so glaring was the sandy bed that the reflection of the sun was almost unbearable. Great numbers of the _Dum_ palm (_Hyphæne thebaica_) grew upon the banks.... The only shade there is afforded by the evergreen Dum palms.... Many pools were of considerable size and great depth. In flood time a tremendous torrent sweeps down the course of the Atbara, and the sudden bends of the river are hollowed out by the force of the stream to a depth of twenty or thirty feet below the level of the bed. Accordingly, these hollows become reservoirs of water when the river is otherwise exhausted.... These pools are full of life, huge fish, crocodiles of immense size, turtles, and occasionally hippopotami.... The animals of the desert gazelles, hyaenas, and wild asses--are compelled to resort to these crowded drinking places.... Innumerable doves, varying in species, throng the trees and seek