30 Bahr el Ghazal.

" An apparently endless uniformity is the prevailing feature of the landscape, the low grassy mere scarcely broken by a few tall papyrus stalks. An open expanse which I noticed, penetrating far into the grassy steppe, our re'is told me was the Khor Deleb. Half an hour beyond it we sighted another wretched Nuer fishing village. With the field-glass I could descry some ten

huts, on which about 30 of the natives had swarmed, the better to observe our steamer. In the immediate

vicinity the main stream is joined by an important affluent, which would appear to be a northern branch of the Khor el Arab.

" Shortly before noon we passed two Deleb palms (Borassus flabelliformis), forming on the left side a distinct landmark near the mouth of the already-mentioned Khor Deleb. Some scrub and a few old termite hills, rising above the grass on the distant horizon, indicate the

locality where this dreary watery region begins to merge in more solid higher ground. " In the course of an hour we passed the third Nuer hamlet in this region—a group of some 20 mud huts with

straw roofs peeping up above the grass. The stream, which had hitherto presented a free surface at least 50 yards wide, now assumed a sudden and surprising change. The navigable open track seemed to trend

sharply round to the right ; hence my astonishment when we made straight for a narrow opening in the grass, which would have escaped any but a sharp eye familiar with the locality. We thns suddenly passed from a broad waterway to a narrow channel, where the steamer's

paddle-boxes grazed the herbage on both banks. This was the continuation of the Bahr el Ghazal, whereas the

apparent main stream turned out to be only the Bahr bita el Arab branch.

" The open current was only 15, or in the broadest

places at most 50 yards wide, and pond-like expanses were but rarely met. Nor was it often possible to detect the true river banks, or distinguish the parting- line between land and water. The higher grounds, rising- like islands above the grassy plains, were indicated more by their scanty brushwood and ant-hills than by their actual elevation ; while the region exposed to inundation stretched in many places far into the dreary waste.