ATBARA (Bahr-el-Aswad, or Black Biver), an important river of Eastern Africa. It rises in the mountains of Abyssinia to the N.W. of Lake Tâna, unites its waters with a number of rivers, such as the Settite, the Salaam, the Angarep, and the Tacazze, several of which more than equal it in volume, and continues its northward course till its junction with the Nile at El-Dam er. It flows in many parts through a very fertile and beautiful country, tenanted only by the beasts of the field, or sparsely peopled with a few Arab tribes. In the dry season its waters are considerably lessened, but during the rains it has an average depth of 35 or 40 feet, and measures 400 or 500 yards across at its embouchure. See Hassenstein and Petermann’s Karte und Mémoire von Ost-Afrika (supplement of Petermann’s Mittheil., 1861); and Baker’s Journey to Abyssinia in Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc. 1863.