ADMINISTRATIVE DIVISIONS 15

thousands of square miles of swamps, the highest

land in amongst them rising only a few feet above

water-level, intersected by the Rivers Zeraf, Moun-

tain Nile, and the system of the Bahr-el-Ghazal.

When, in the course of a journey up some branch

of the latter river, whose ramifications extend over

the whole province, the lowest-lying area is passed,

a tropical country is entered which is favourable

to the growth of fine timber, and, still more im-

portant, is situated within the zone suitable for the

planting of rubber, in the cultivation of which

important experiments are being made.

The Blue Nile and the Atbara both rise in the

neighbourhood of Lake Tsana, far up in Abyssinia,

and at the point of its entrance the former, with

some hundreds of miles of its course still before it,

is only 150 miles distant from the main stream of

the White Nile.

For administrative purposes the country is divided

into thirteen provinces, of which the most im-

portant are those of Dongola, Berber, and Khartoum,

in the north ; Sennaar and Kassala in the east

;

Kordofan in the west ; and the Upper Nile and

Bahr-el-Ghazal in the south. The chief towns of

these are, respectively, Merowe, El Damer, Khar-

toum, Singa, Kassala, El Obeid, Kodok, and Wau. Dueim, the gate of Kordofan, is a flourishing port

;

but Omdurman, originally containing a vast popula-

tion, decreases in numbers, while Khartoum North

expands daily with the increase of commerce and

occupation.