Description. 97 slopes of Jebel Singe in the midsfc of the gold-bearing district, and 75 miles south by west of Famaka. It is very healthy, cool, and prettily situated. Here a battle was fought by Ismail Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali,in February, 1822, and the country was annexed to the Egyptian dominions. The gold is washed out of the streams during, or immediately after, the rainy season. Convicts were at first sent there from Egypt to work the gold, but the proceeding was so unremunerative that Said Pasha gave it up. A certain amount is, however, still obtained. The possession of the country is still in dispute. Wad Tur el Guri, a recalcitrant Dervish Emir, fled here about 1887, and pacified the Khalifa by sending him an annual tribute of gold dust. On the other hand, the country, or at all events a large part of it, the southern half included, is claimed by the Emperor Menelik of Abyssinia.

There is no doubt that the chief portion of the gold is sent to Abyssinia, and of this a considerable quantity finds its way through Harrar to India.

The inhabitants are negroid, warlike and generally restless.

The Inkasana, in the north of the district, are robbers, and unsubdued. They use as weapons, besides spears and occasional rifles, thro wing-sticks like boomerangs (trumbash) , and throwinsf-knives (sickle-shaped, kulbeda). Further south, the inhabitants approximate more to the Gall as.

An Abyssinian expedition, under Ras Makunnen, is reported to have gone in this direction, to repress a rising, in 189.7, and to have inflicted a severe defeat on Wad Tur el Guri in the spring of 1898.

(ii) Country East of the Blue Nile.

General Description. East of the Blue Mle, between Khartum and Abu Haraz, the country towards the Atbara is little known, and offers but few inducements to further explorations. It appears to be a steppe-like country, growing more stony as one proceeds eastwards.* Running water there * See " Report on Nile and Country between Dongola, &c.," Part III, Route VIII.

(386) H