84 (No. 98 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS (2 ) From Suakin to Tokar, a distance of 56 miles, to serve the cotton districts . Tokar cotton at present has to be brought to the coast by camel transport.

( 3 ) From Rahad, on the Khartum - El Obeid line to El Fasher, via El Odaiya . The distance from Rahad to El Odaiya is 171 miles, and from El Odaiya to El Fasher via Sharafa is 304 miles. It is impossible to prolong the line direct from El Obeid, because to the west of El Nahud and along the Darfur frontier there appears to be a belt of sand dunes , eighty miles in width , with deep depressions and switchback slopes , known locally as Gozland .

A further project, for which no survey has yet been undertaken , is the extension of the El Odaiya line in a south -westerly direction along the old caravan route to Kafia -Kengiin the north -west ofthe Bahr el-Ghazal province . It has been discovered that the Nile - Congo watershed is suitable for a railway along its whole length . If a railway to Kafia -Kengi were constructed, and linked upwith one along the Nile-Congo divide to Lake Albert, it would go far towards thecompletion of the Cape-to -Cairo railway route. There is little doubt that this would be the most feasible route, if not the only possible one, avoiding the sudd region. Before either of these latter schemes iscarried into effect it is probable that another short link in the rail and -steamer Cape-to -Cairo transport facilities will be constructed, namely , that between Rejaf, the southern limit of steam navigation from Khartum , and Nimule, the northern limit of navigation from Lake Albert. The intervening section of the river , something less than 100 miles,and all within Sudan territory, consists of unnavigable water and the Fola rapids .

(d ) Posts, Telegraphs, and Telephones There are 118 post and telegraph offices in the Sudan . Many places on the railway or in reach of waterways are served by travelling post offices, the railways dealing with ordinary and registered