212 The Sudd.

broken up and torn away bit by bit by the steamer. Such operations are excessively tedious, and Marno was occupied from September, 1879, to April, 1880, with four steamers and several hundred men in clearing the Bahr el Jebel.

" To these aquatic growths the White Nile, as well as many other sluggish streams of tropical Africa, owe their characteristic aspect. The White, which is the ' Clear,' is so named in contradistinction to the Blue, that is, the ' Dark ' or ' Turbid ' river, which contains a large proportion of inorganic matter kept constantly churned up by its rapid current and eddies. In the White Nile, on the contrary, as well as in its numerous affluents, the floating vegetation acts like a filter, purifying the troubled flood-waters of the rainy season, and sending them down in almost a limpid stream as far as and even beyond the Blue Nile confluence."

The miseries endured by people blocked in the sudd are graphically described by Dr. Felkiu :— " Imagine then a space of clear water, 100 yards broad and 300 long, bounded on each side by tall grass and reeds, which grow to a height of 20 or 30 feet above the water, so that nothing but water, grass, and sky could be seen. The river was dark and dirty ; supposing you called for a glass of water, you obtained a liquid mixture of mud and water ; if a pinch of alum was added to clear it, the result was that about a quarter of an inch of mud was deposited at the bottom of the glass. The sickening smell of tropical plants and of the rotting vegetation oppressed us ; now and then dead fish floated past, or at times we saw the decaying body of a native slowly borne down the stream. The air was alive with mosquitoes, whose attacks continued by day as well as by night. The steamer was so crowded that there was no room to walk about the deck, so that want of exercise told upon our health, in addition to the impure water and insufficient food : for all our fresh meat was soon finished, and our principal food was dhurra pancakes, and this was nearly exhausted before we were released, the sailors having to be put on short allowance long before. Nearly every day we had a terrible storm of wind and drenching rain, and the heat of Khartum having warped the decks, the cabins