294 UGANDA AND TEE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

driest place was sitting in, the paddle-box, but I usually preferred the soaking deck to the smells and mosquitoes which congregated there. About sunset a cold dense fog arose from the river and hung like a pall over the steamer. Even night brought no alleviation to our misery : owing to the frequent storms we were obliged to sleep under cover, and the damp, hot atmosphere below turned the cabins into a vapour bath. Sleep was impossible ; the hours passed in a semi-stupor, broken by frightful dreams and horrid nightmare, so that morning found us unrefreshed, and each d#y less able to contemplate with stoical indifference the outcome of our imprisonment. More than half the crew were down with fever, and the way in which the poor sailors had to work while trying to extricate the steamer was piteous in the extreme. In order to get wood they were obliged to drag the boat through the floating vegetation for nearly three miles, and then work up to their waists in water to reach the little wood procurable. One load of wood was their daily task, and ten hours' work was required to obtain it ; however, they never grumbled, but when unloading the boat at night might even be heard singing as they passed the wood up to the steamer. At last, after many days' hard work, our captain thought that he had enough wood, and so we steamed on for a few hours, but found ourselves once more at a full stop and the