386 GOSA TO WANDL good sign that such a thing can happen in the country without a disturbance.

The Aire, or Ire, as the Yalo is called here, is about sixtyfive feet broad and three and a half feet deep at the ford. The banks, which are not wooded, slope gently down to the rushing water, which is broken by ledges of rock.

Gosa, the central station of the Abukaya country, was only raised to the rank of a station a few months ago. It is admirably situated for watching the road from Monbuttu to the north, and those leading to the district of Rol and to the Bahr-el-Ghazal. My experiences last year in Amadi proved the necessity of this surveillance. Cotton has thriven so well here that it has given rise to the industry of weaving, which will probably be of considerable importance in the future. he inhabitants—at present only the Danagla and their servants—weave the light cotton stuff known throughout the Sudan as damur, which is so very well suited to our climate. It is better made here than I have ever seen it in Khartum.

Gosa lies so low that I was unable to obtain views of either mountains or hills, and a platform which I constructed for the purpose proved of no use. ‘The surrounding land had been denuded of trees, and the steppe was covered with burnt grass, so that I could not add to my collections. Hven the birds which I noticed or obtained were hardly worth taking trouble about.

13. From Gosa Vid ABUKAYA AND MakraKkA-SuUGAIRE TO WANDI.

THE PAPAW-TREE—A ROUNDABOUT WAY—TROOPS OF MONKEYS—GRANITE HILLS—EXTENSIVE DURRAH-FIELDS—AFRICAN STILL-LIFE.

CLIMBING slowly out of the depression in which Gosa lay, and passing through a very wild bushwood and by many scattered villages, we reached the first of the low ranges of hills of which the highest point is named Luttu; it lay at a short distance to the left of our path, and near the small village