THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN importance, and her position on the river would give her the command of all the river-borne commerce going south and north.

Having finished the work which had. to be done at Sulb, we determined to drop down stream to Suwarda. We left early one morning, and crossed over to the eastern bank, where we landed the Inspector, who wished to visit one or two places between Eru and SuwEirda. He proposed to ride part of the way, and to walk the rest, and I was to come on in the boat ; we agreed to meet that evening at Suwarda. So soon as he had started the captain of the boat discovered that he had some friends in the village, and he went off to smoke a pipe and have a chat with them. In a general way this would not have mattered, for Suwarda is only seven hours distant from Sulb by boat. Whilst he was gone, however, the north wind arose with considerable force, and was blowing a gale by the time he came back. It was hopeless to start in the teeth of such a wind, and we therefore remained tied up to the bank until one o'clock. The wind having dropped a little by this time, we started, but our progress was slow, and at three o'clock we were still a mile to the south of the famous rock called Gebel Dosha, i.e., we had not passed the village of Sulb.

Quite suddenly the wind arose with renewed violence, and as we neared the great rock, and met its full force, we were caught by a squall and well-nigh capsized. The captain was, however, very alert, and, letting go the sail, he steered straight for some huge boulders on the west bank, a little to the south of the rock, and ran us in under the shelter of the high bank just behind them. The sail had suffered a good deal, and needed some patching, and there was nothing to be done except mend it, and wait for the wind to drop. The captain landed and said his prayers, and the crew went off to the great slope of bright yellow. sand close by, where there was no wind, and lay down on it, and went fast asleep.

Meanwhile I took the opportunity of visiting Gebel D6sha, which marks the boundary between Dar Sukkot and Dar Mahass.

This rock is of sandstone and contains here and there veins of iron ore. Some portions of it have become very dark in colour, and these give it a striking appearance, especially in the afternoon when the sun shines full on the bright yellow sand which lies about 450