THE BAYUDA "DESERT." 2 1 / is the geological formation of the Nile valley above Wacly Haifa, soon gives place to granite, basalt, and volcanic rock, and this is again succeeded by sandstone, which, however, disappears at Kobe about 150 miles above Wady Haifa, where it was once intended to bridge the river for the line of the Soudan railway. Here are found traps, schists, and slates; and the bed of the river is composed of schistose rocks, which frequently appear above water. These are succeeded by granite and porphyry formation up to the third cataract, when the sandstone appears again. It may easily be imagined that the rocks scattered about the river bed add greatly to the danger of navigation.

New Dongola, a town of mean appearance on the left bank of the river, is important because of its situation. The merchandise is chiefly ivory, gum, and senna, brought from the Blue and White Niles, by numerous vessels which discharge their cargoes at Haffir at the head of the third cataract, whence the consignments are carried overland to Wady Haifa. The country around New Dongola is fertile, and the crops are abundant wherever the land is well cultivated. Old DonQ-ola is on the risfht bank on the summit of a high rock, but it is now a place of no importance and is almost a ruin. The Nile there is about 700 yards wide. Debbeh, a few miles above it on the left bank, is another place, which, though insignificant as a town, is in the midst of rich and productive land, and therefore a considerable population, and is, or was, the place to which gum and ivory were brought from the interior, and to which European goods arrived to be distributed onward to Khartum, Kordofan, and Darfur. This business was, of course, suspended because of the disturbed state of the country, and it is doubtful whether it will be recovered.

We have now, so to speak, reached the point where the Nik; commences to turn to form the great loop, and from Debbeh we come to Ambukol, Korti, and the Shaikeyeh district, north of the so-called " Bayuda desert," a district which was formerly a kind of military republic. The Shaikeyehs or Shaggeyihs, famous horsemen and with famous Arab horses, offered a determined resistance to the mission by Ismail Pasha and to the Egyptian troops who