BERBER of noticing the various types of natives who were gathered together there, and their, to me, unfamiliar costumes. Though only fifteen months had elapsed since Berber had passed into the hands of British officers, they had already writ their mark large in the town. The Government buildings had been repaired, roads had been marked out by rows of stones, the market had been re-established, and the natives of the town and of the deserts round about it, being sure by this time that the Khalifa's rule was 1 1 Hffi' "'''" "iffilisiftiif ' TRANSPORT TRAIN ON A SIDING AT ATBARA FORT IN \\ dead, had begun to trade with a feeling of confidence and security hitherto unknown. The "key of the Sudan," as Berber has often been called, is admirably adapted by nature for native markets, though Europeans and natives alike find its winds and sandy atmosphere very trying. It was proposed many years ago by Sir Samuel Baker to make Berber the inland terminus of a line between Berber and Sawakin on the sea coast, but the modern requirements of the Sudan suggest that Atbara is the better place for the line to start from. It is undoubtedly a wise policy which has made it the terminus of the new line from Sawakin, and 249