WARS OF THE NINETIES. 122 visible on a dry paccn of ground in this submergedregion.' Fashoda is singularly difficult. It is the region of what the Arabscall thesudd— great vegetable barriersthatrender theriver at times absolutely impassable. These are formed by a mass of weeds and long grass growing in the sluggish, shallow water at low Nile,which are tangled and interwovenintohuge floating islandsof vegetable matter, living and dead, which come down on the flood, and ground as the river falls. So much interest attaches to Marchand's journey that it may be well to describe this difficult region of the Nile more fully. The following passages from Lieutenant Vandeleur's recently published work, " Campaigning on the Upper Nile andNiger," give a good idea of the difficulties with which voyagers on the branches of the great river just above Fashoda have to contend:— "Junker took eight days to ascend the river to Meshra-er-Rek in a steamer, and on the afternoonof the first day met with the first realgrass barrier, which wassurmountedintwentyminutes. Later followed other loose accumulations which, though easily removed, still caused much delay, one obstacle taking an hour to cut away. On the second day a few scattered trees denoted the presence of dry ground, but the same difficulties weremet with,although once or twice theriver opened out into a good broad waterway. On the thirdday,after getting throughsome smaller masses, the steamer was blocked for several hours by a huge barrier of felt-like consistency, and nearly a third of a mile in extent; whilst the whole of the fourth day was spentin forcing a way through sudd one and a quarter miles in length." "In1870 Sir Samuel Baker found the White Nile entirely blocked by an immense number of floating islands,which had converted the riverhed into a solidmarsh, so that he was obligedto trv anotherroute, via the second channel, called the Bahr Giraffe. Here, however, his crews foundthemselvesentrappedin a seaofapparently boundlessmarsh and water-grass, from which,in spite of all their labour,they did not emergefor forty-six days. Making another attempt on January 12th, 1871, he succeeded in cutting a way through, and arrived in open water again onMarch 19th."

On the fifth day the junction of the Bahr-el-Arab andthe Bahr-el-Ghazal waspassed. "After this," says Dr. Junker, " there was another expanse of stagnant water, beyond which the open channel contracts at first to fifty, then to a little over twenty yards. Here the woods become thinner,and at last again give place to boundless flooded grassplains, withpatches here and there of tallvegetation. Beyond the mouth of the Jur, coming from the south-west, there was little to suggest a river, there being apparently a boundless sea of grass and sedge, withan open expanse winding away to the head of the steamnavigation at Meshra-er-Rek."

This description makesit easier to realise how it was that Marchand,havingreachedMeshra-er-Rek after the river had fallen, could not make any further progress for months, and had to content himself withbringing upreinforcements and supplies, and preparing to attempt the passage downwards to the main stream of the Nile when the river rose again. It was a most unhealthy and trying place in which to pass the hot season. Even whenhe started with hislittle steamerandbarges,many a wearydaymust have been spent cutting through the grass barriers and floating islands. From private letters from a member of his expeditionit appearsthat early in April, about the time when the Sirdar was winning the battle of the Atbara, Marcfund's flotilla had got as far as the marshy lake where the Bahr-el-Arab joins the main stream,and was workinghis way forward along the grass-encumbered reach towards the mouth of the Bahr-el-Zerafor Giraffe.

Lieutenant Vandeleurgives some further details, gleaned from the writings of Sir Samuel Baker and DoctorJunker. "Baker tells us,"he says, "that the Bahr-el-Ghazal,thoughnavigable for two hundred miles,and the receiverof a multitude ofrivers some three to four hundred miles long,is in the dry season nearly empty of water, being at that periodonly a line of stagnant pools andmarshes. It seems probable,however,that by cutting through the obstructions with great labour, navigation is feasible evenin some dry seasons, as Junker oneyear ascendedto Meshraer-Rek inFebruary, or about the middle of the dry season. A lake calledthe Magren-el-Bahur, or Meeting of the Waters, is formed during the rainyseason by the junction of theBahr-el-Jebel (White Nile) and Bahr-el-Ghazal, but at low water it is divided into two sections, which communicate through a channel a little overhalf a mile long. On leaving the lake and ascending theBahr-el-Ghazal the channel narrowsto about fifty yards, and Junker describes how'onboth sides extensive tracts ofcountry arepermanently flooded,and only an occasional fishing hamlet is