Sudan Angdo-Egyptian] PROVINCIAL HISTORY 15 The actual delimitation of provincial boundaries has been steadily in progress, but is not yet in all cases completed. Irrigation and labour have throughout the period been the chief problems of the northern provinces, communications and transport of the southern . The process of pacification and economic development has been pursued with success from the beginning. The chief historical events may be briefly sum marised under the various provinces. These differ so widely in size, condition, and inhabitants (the Sudan being one great conluvies nationum ' ') that a more generalized treatment of their history is hardly possible.

Halfa . - Locusts, rainstorms, and a low Nile (as especially in 1913 ) have at times occasioned distress, but the province has on the whole been prosperous and has always paid its way . The closing of the old mili tary railway from Halfa to Kerma in 1905 increased the scantiness of communications; but this involved no such disastrous consequences as were feared. In 1903 the backward Sukkotand Mahas districts of Dongola province were transferred to Halfa . Wadi Halfa, the capital, has become a flourishing cosmopolitan town.

Dongola . - Capital: Dongola from 1899 to 1903, Merowe (Merawi) from 1903. In1902 the kidnapping of women and children by the Bisharin and Jaalin for sale as slaves in Jedda market caused unrest . The tribes of the far western deserts and the Arbain road have been constantly harried by Bedaiat raids from Darfur. The Hawawir tribe has given trouble and refused to pay tribute, but in 1917 was assigned to Kordofan ; otherwise the province has always been rich , prosperous, and contented . The system of basin irriga tion established here in 1909 has averted most of the evils caused by a low Nile (as in 1913 ) . Schools are popular, malaria is decreasing, and progress is deliberate and assured .

Khartum . — The population of the three towns, Khartum , Omdurman, and Khartum North ( called [ 3919] E 2