40 Kordofan.

height of the latter is about 500 feet, and the slopes have been terraced by the inhabitants in a remarkable manner. Water is supplied by springs which trickle out of the rocks, among which the inhabitants dwell Between Wadelka and Daier is a flat, fertile, densely wooded country traversed by watercourses tributary to Abu Habl. It is, however, uninhabited. There is also a luxuriant valley, thickly wooded, between Jebel Wadelka and the main range. The trees are mostly acacia, and a low thornless tree called LibbciN. There are also many deleb palms, tamarinds, and baobabs.

Limits. The limits of the province in the old days were illdefined. The most northerly villages are Katul, long. 30° E., lat. 14° 15' N. ; Safiyeh, long. 31° 45' E., and lat. 15° 40' N., and Shegeg, long. 32° 15' E., and lat. 14° 30' !pr. ; but the Kababish, who roam over the steppes between these villages and the Nile used to pay tribute to the Government of Kordofan. On the south, the Baggara tribes and negro tribes of Takalla and Dar Nuba were nominally subject, and used to pay an uncertain tribute. Dar Nuba (or country of black slaves) lies at the southern corner of Kordofan, but its limits cannot be fixed with any precision, v. p. 82. On the west, the western limit of the range of the Beni-Hamid Beduins forms the boundary, a very uncertain one, passing near Abu Haraz and Kagga, between long. 30° 30' and long. 29° 30'. To the east, the authority of the Governor used to cease at a line running roughly parallel with the course of the Nile, and at from 10 to 20 miles west of its left bank.

Soil The soil of Kordofan is uniform, and is a granite sand mixed with clay ; sometimes the clay, but more generally the sand, predominates, and this especially in the north and east, while in the small basins of Bara, Abu Haraz, and Melbeis, and, in general, south of El Obeid, there is a larger admixture of clay ; and, as we pass still further south, the bed of the watercourses rising in Dar Nuba and sinking in lat. 13° long. 32° 25', becomes somewhat plastic. In this neighbourhood also there are wide areas of forest country covered with a rich black mould formed by the decaying vegetation, this being especially the case between El Birket and the mountains of Nuba, and between Jebel Daier and Takalla.