823 FL OBEID, THE CAPITAL OF KORDOFAN.

NOTE ON THE SHIRKELEH EXPEDITION AND THE PURSUIT OF THE KHALIFA-IN our account of the reconquestof the Soudan, the narrative of events was brought downto thecaptureof Khartoum, the flight of the Khalifa, the occupation of the Nile Valley to Fashoda and Sobat, and the defeat of the Dervishes in the Eastern Soudan under Ahmed Fadil. Though the Khalifa's power had been completely broken up, he had evaded the first pursuit, and for a year after his great defeat at Omdurman he kept a gathering of followers together in Kordofan. To use General Archibald Hunter's words, he had ceased to be a danger, but he could still be a nuisance, and in the winter of 1898 an unsuccessful attempt was made to hunt him down.

The force employed consisted of some companies of the Camel Corps and some hundredsof friendly Arab irregulars, the whole under the command of Colonel Walter Kitchener, the brother of the Sirdar, whohadbeen at the head of the transport department during the three years' advance on the Nile. No official details of the expedition have been published. Only the main facts are known.

After his defeat at Khartoum the Khalifahad fled southwards and eastwards into Kordofan with a small following. But he was joined by parties of fugitives, and by some large detachments that had not shared in his great defeat. These were parties of his followers that had been left to hold the southern portions of his dominions. Later stillhe wasreinforced by the Emir Ahmed Fadil, with some fragments of the army that Parsons, Rundle,and Lewis had driven from Gedarefand the BlueNile. Osman Digna was also with him, and the Sheikh Ali Wad Helu.

Kordofan, in which he had taken refuge, was the home of his tribe, theTaaisha Baggara. It is a very peculiar country. The extreme north is a waterless desert. In the Tagalla mountains in thesouth there isaconsiderablerainfallduring the wet season, which lasts from early in June to the end of September,and this drains into a long hollow known as the Khor Abu Habl, in which lie the lakes of El Birket, Er Rahad, and Shirkeleh. The rest of the country north of the lakes is a steppe, with a light soil affording pasture after the rains. After the rains there is water in the hollows,and in many placesit can be reached by digging, as it accumulates under ground. But as the dry seasoncontinues, pools and wells dry up ; even the lakes become reedy hollows, in the bed of which water can only be got by digging. At El Obeid and a few other points reservoirssupply waterall the year round; but overa great part of the country the villages are abandonedin the dry season. A large army can only move just after rains. There is a good deal of bush, desert thorn, and such-like plants that canlive from one wet season to another.

Since Omdurman had fallen,and the Dervish system had broken up,it wasmuch moredifficult to get precise information as to the movements and resources of the fugitive Khalifa. But the one place in Kordofan where an army could keep together was in the lake region. Colonel Kitchener was ordered to reconnoitre in this direction. Leaving the Nile near Abba Island,