112 Bahr el Ghazal Country.

the wholesale exportation of the women and children, and by the emigration of others to avoid the cruelties of the traders, the populations were so reduced that manydistricts became totally uninhabited.

The Zeribas, Jur Ghattas, Dem Idris (or Ganda), and Dem Zubehr (Dem Suliman) were among the principal stations of the traders, and were named after them.

Wan, on the River Wan, is well situate for becoming the chief station of the Bahr el Ghazal Province. Large flat-bottomed craft could convey goods throughout the year to Meshra er Rek and bring back stores and supplies from Khartum.

Topography.

Dinka That portion of the province to the north-east inhabited counry.

"by the Dinka tribe, and included in the angle between the Bahr el Arab and Rohl Rivers, is a vast alluvial flat, rising but slightly above the Bahr el Ghazal River, of which it is the basin. The soil of this region is an unfathomable clay, in places covered by wastes of sand about 10 feet thick. 'Great areas of forest are met with, and innumerable marshes, lagoons, and sluggish chanuels of water left by the annual inundations of the river. From July to the end of the rainy season, a great part of this country is under water. In March the water is at its lowest level.

The inhabitants devote themselves exclusively to cattle breeding.

Bordering this allnvial plain is the foot of a steppe country which gradually rises towards the mountainous regions to the south. The line of demarcation between the alluvial and the steppe country runs close by Jur Ghattas in a north-west and south-east direction.

Here the borders of the huge tableland of ferruginous soil are reached, which, unbroken except by gentle undulations or isolated mounds of gneiss, gradually ascends to the Equator. This plain appears to cover the greater part of the centre of the continent.

Bongo The steppes are, in the Jur and Bongo country, corncountry. p0Se f a ferruginous soil known as swamp ore. This extends in broad plains and plateaus, and produces the ore which is, or rather was, worked to a considerable extent by the tribes.