Bahr el Ghazal Navigation. 29

The depth now falls to about 15 feet, showing that the Bahr el Arab is the main contributor to the lower portion of the river.

The current in the Bahr el Ghazal becomes hardly perceptible as it passes through the Dinka country, and the spreading waters give the appearance of lakes.

The river towards Meshra er Rek varies in depth from 8 to 15 feet, and is covered with floating grass islands. The following description by Dr. Junker of the Bahr

el Ghazal is the most complete, accurate, and recent account of that river. It is therefore given in his own words :—

" We started (in a paddle steamer) up the Bahr el Ghazal on the 21st February, 1880, and I began at once to record the angle measurements of the fluvial channel, and to sketch any salient features in the course of the river and its immediate vicinity. During the rainy season the whole region of the Moqren el Bahur forms an exten-

sive lake, whereas at low water it is divided into two

sections, which communicate through a channel a little over half a mile long. Even after entering the river

properly so called, the observer seeks in vain for any conspicuous object, or even a mere bush, from which to take his bearings. On both sides extensive tracts are permanently flooded, but the river gradually narrows, apparently, to half or even a third of the lacustrine

depression ; nevertheless, it still for some hours of steam

navigation maintains a clear waterway at least 50 yards wide. Throughout this stretch nothing was visible except

a, dry patch on the right side, occupied by a wretched

fishing hamlet whose Nuer inhabitants led a sort of amphibious existence.

"A little higher up there came into view, also on the

right side, the Maiyeh bita Komundari (the Keilak of the older maps), branching off like a river far into the interior. A second backwater followed, still on the

right side, and soon after the Maiyeh bita er Req, on the

left. Smaller channels of like formation, and communi-

cating with the main stream, also occur for a long way on both banks ; but they are so little conspicuous that it

is often difficult to say whether they are the mouths of tributaries or merely backwaters.