THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN from them, and for all the work they did, but piastres had for once lost their power in the Sudan, for there was nothing to buy.

In the afternoon we stopped at another wooding station, this time on the east bank, and here the desolation was made more evident by the thorn jungle which had pushed its growth over the edge ot the bank, and almost down to the water. There were several fine trees there which afforded pleasant shade, and we all took the opportunity of cooking and eating a meal whilst the "wooding" WOODING STATION AliOVE ATliARA IN iJ of the steamer went on. The men who loaded her slept between the heaps of wood, and had neither tu.kuls nor huts ; they lived on dates, dliurra, and water, the last-named article alone being abundant. At the south end of the station they had made a sort of clearing which enabled them to work at digging up the tree stumps and at cutting off branches from the larger trees, but it would have been very difficult for any one to penetrate the thorn jungle for more than a few hundred yards.

We left the station as soon as possible, and steamed till about an hour after sundown, when the captain stopped for the night. The crew were very glad to reach some place 262