4 White Nile.

drove other floating islands down upon him in rear, thus

blocking him up for weeks.

In September, 1879, Mr. Felkin was unable to proceed from Lado to Khartum by water on account of the sudd, which Mr. Lupton had been trying for nearly a year to

open up. At that time, 26 miles of grass had been re- moved. In 1881 Mr. Felkin reported the Nile as clear

again.

The Nile when it flows into Lake No (Mogren el Buhur, or Mouth of the Streams), appears to be a channel

varying from 100 yards to a mile in breadth, but, from the masthead of a steamer, it would be seen that there is a sea of grass on either side of this water channel, and that the real banks of the river are 4, 8, or even 12 miles distant on either side. Under all this grass is water, which is slowly making its way down to fill up the void caused by the absorption of the water by sand and sun. The grass which floats on the top of the water is so thick that it is possible to walk on it ; and, were it not for this

covering, the evaporation over such a vast area would

greatly diminish the supply of water to Lowrer Egypt. A considerable part of the Nuer tribe actually live on the floating mass of vegetation, fish and the stalks of a

waterlily forming their only food. The surface of the water is covered by a dense tangled mass of papyrus, ambach, and other water plants, which in places grow to a height of from 15 to 30 feet.

At the rise and fall of the Nile, quantities of the grass get torn away and floated down stream. If the season is

unusually wet, the stream increases in bulk and rapidity, and innumerable large masses of the grass are sent floating -down.

The channel of the river (not its true banks) is very tortuous, and at Lake No, where the Bahr el Grhazal flows into the Nile, there is a sharp turn to the east. If the water contributed simultaneously by the Bahr el Ghazal

Itappens to be insignificant and incapable of sweeping away the floating masses, a block is the result. The Nile was blocked by the sudd from 1870 to 1874, from 1878 to 1881, in 1884, and in 1895. Since 1896 it

is believed to be open.

For full details and methods of dealing with the sudd,

v. Appendix I (p. 207).