114 liivers Dindm- and- Raliad.

Game. Tributaries of Blue Nile.

Dinder. General.

Bed.

Banbs.

Forests.

Navigability.

Flood.

Tributaries. Bahad. GeneraL Width.

Baoka Forest.

furnished by the battalion at Wad Medani. A gunboat is also stationed here. The population is increasing, chiefly Hameg and Sudanese tribes. The market is kept open all the year round, and most ordinary requirements can be obtained here. For rainfall, vide footnote on preceding page.

Karkoj. — On the right bank is an unimportant village, formerly residence of a British Inspector and Mamur, and the headquarters of the District, which has, however, now been moved to Senga, Population about 1,000, mostly Jaalin. The market, which is a poor one, is held on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There is no post or telegraph office here. Senga is the telegraph office.

Senga.— Left bank. (Vide Chap. V, p. 119.) Sennar.— Left bank. (Vide Chap. V, p. 119.) Wad El Abbas. — On the right bank ; was founded about 50 years ago. The population numbers about 1,200, and consists chiefly of Jaalin, with a mixed lot of Gezira Arabs, as well as about 300 Sudanese.

There is a weekly market on Wednesdays. Wad Medani. — Left bank. (Vide Chap. V, p. 119.) For principal towns between Wad Medani and Khartoum (vide Chaps. IV and V).

See under " Country between Blue Nile and Rahad," p. 109. With the exception of the Dinder and the Rahad, there are in the Sudan no other important affluents of the Blue Nile, with the exception of perhaps the Khor Tomat, which joins the main stream near Famaka. This is dry, except during and shortly after the rainy season. Water, however, is easily obtained by digging in its bed.

The River Dinder rises in the Abyssinian mountains to the south-west of Dunkur, and after flowing for about 50 miles through very mountainous country it enters the plains of the Sudan and flows for about 200 miles in a northwesterly direction until it joins the Blue Nile (right bank) about 40 miles above the town of Wad Medani. Its bed near Dunkur, where it leaves the mountains, is rocky and stony, and about 100 yards wide. It was here found (June, 1901) to be 3 feet deep, with a rapid current, and for several months in the rainy season it must be difficult to ford.

Throughout its course in the Sudan its bed, which is sandy and free from rocks a few miles below where it crosses the frontier, is much less winding than that of the Rahad and rarely exceeds 200 yards in width. Its tendency is to become narrower in its lower reaches, and at its mouth it is not more than 120 yards wide.

Upstream of the old site of El Haj the river is wider and shallower and banks lower than in the inhabited area. Even in the old days there were few or no permanent villages above El Haj, but only temporary grazing encampments.

Its banks are steep and generally about 15 feet high. They are, as a rule, rather higher than the adjacent country, which, when the river is full, becomes flooded and marshy. These marshes were formerly extensively planted with cotton, which is said to have been of good quality ; its cultivation is now being encouraged as far as the limited population admits.

The forests along the banks of the Dinder are of better quality and less dense than those of the Rahad ; sunt, kakamut, haraz, sidr, hashab, talh, babanus etc., are plentiful.

The Dinder has been navigated by steamer as far up-stream as Deberki, about 120 miles from its mouth. Large sailing boats ascend it as far as El Safra. Of course, this is only possible whilst the river is in flood during, perhaps, three months in the year, and owing to the wooded banks and southerly wind it is very difficult for sailing boats. In the drj' season water stands in pools. There is little doubt, however, that like the Rahad it is navigable in flood to the Abyssinian border.

The flood arrives at the junction with the Blue Nile about the last week in June. This is rather earlier than the Rahad flood, owing to the later commencement of the rains in Northern Abyssinia, and possibly partly due to the Dinder not being so excessively tortuous as the Rahad. Both Dinder and Rahad bring down large quantities of fertilising matter.

Nr'ue of much importance. The Rahad rises in Abyssinia in the mountainous region between Lake Tsana on the East and Kwara to the west. It takes, at first, a northerly direction, but after entering the Sudan it flows generally north-west in an extraordinarily winding bed to its junction with the Blue Nile, almost opposite the town of Wad Medani.

Its width probably nowhere exceeds 100 yards, and is frequently not more than 60 ; in places it is only 30 yards wide. It loses much of its water by "spills " known as " Maya," and is a much more imposing-loolcing river above than below Hawata.

The banks, especially the right, are steep and high, sometimes as much as 40 feet above the bed at low water. They differ from those of the Dinder in that only the left bank is liable to be flooded, and that only at a few places, and consequently do not lend themselves to cultivation to the same extent.

Belts of dense kittr bush and other jungle grow along its banks. In the lower reaches there are many fine sunt