324 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

banks of sandy soil, ten or twelve feet in height, and covered with forests of the gum-bearing mimosa, under which grew thickets of a dense green shrub, mixed with cactus and euphorbia. The gum is a tree from twenty to thirty feet in height, with a thick trunk and spreading branches, and no Italian oak or chestnut presents a greater variety of picturesque forms to the painter's eye. The foliage is thin, allowing the manifold articulations of the boughs and twigs to be seen through it.

It was most abundant on the Kordofan side, and the greater proportion of the gum annually exported to Egypt comes from that country. The broad tide of the river and the wild luxuriance of the continuous forests that girdled it, gave this part of its course an air of majesty, which recalled the Mississippi to my mind. There was not a single- feature that resembled Egypt.

Towards noon we reached the more thickly populated districts of the Hassaniyeh. The town of Damas, on the east, and Tura, on the west, not very distant from each other, were the first I saw since leaving Khartoum. They were merely clusters of tokuls, or the straw huts of the natives, built in a circular form, with a conical roof of matting, the smoke escaping through an opening in the top. At both these places, as well as at other points along the river, the natives had ferries, and appeared to be busy in transporting men, camels and goods from one bank to the other. On account of the breadth of the river the passage was long, and the boatmen eased their labor by making a sail of their cotton mantles, which they fastened to two upright sticks. The shores were crowded with herds of sheep and goats, and I saw near Damas a large drove of camels which were waiting an opportunity to cross. The Has-