Wadi El Gab. 205 Names of places.

Distance in miles.

Description. Intermediate.

Hafir Lagia El Muiigur Bayuda Sawani Dongola 14 7 lOf 9 26 On the Nile. The road is in a S.S.W. direction, and is over a plain mostly covered with shiugle and a few mimosa shrub.s. At 9 miles, a ridge is monnted, whence the Wadi EI Gab is visible. At 12 miles, the valley is reached; and at 14, the village of Lagia. The road is S.E. for 7 miles to El Mungur. The road goes S.S.W. for 2 miles ; the rest of the way W.S.W. The road goes 7 J miles S. by E., then S.E. The road due E into Dongola.

Total 66J Wadi El Gab.

{By Col. Colvile, Grenadier Guards, October, 1884.)

The Wadi El Gab is a sandy khor about 63 miles in length, running through the trough of a broader and rocky valley. Its general direction is north-west and south-west. It is inhabited by the Omatto section of the Kababish tribe, of which Sheikh Fadl Mula Wad Rekha is the chief. Its most southerly well is Marghum, 30 miles to the west of Khaiidak, and its most northerly is said to be 20 miles west of Hafir. Its only productions are wood and dates, both of which are plentiful. Its inhabitants do not appear to own any great number of camels ; those to be seen at the variou". settlements being mostly milch nagas and their foals. Goats, which feed on the mimosa, are plentiful.

On leaving the Nile at Bakri the road at first crosses a flat sandy desert, destitute of vegetation ; but after 7 miles a district is reached, thickly studded with low mimosa bushes. In the district are several Arab encampments, some of them as much as 4 hours' journey from the nearest water. Fifteen miles from Bakri the country becomes more undulating, and the surface covered with firm gravel ; and 10 miles further on, a range of hills running north and south is reached. Passing through a break in this range, the road follows for 3 miles a valley running nearly at right angles to the main one, and then strikes the track running down the Gab to the Abu Gussi-Kordofan road. Passing down a sandy valley, dotted with sand dunes, and sparsely studded with low mimosa scrub, the most southerly well, Bir Marghum, is reached, 7 miles north of the point where the valley first entered. The well is stone-lined, and the water is 20 feet below the surface and 4 feet deep. It is said that the well never runs dry ; the water is good. For the next 6 miles the country continues to be scantily covered with low mimosa scrub ; Bir El Ain is then reached, and the valley becomes more thickly and heavily wooded, and continues to be studded with fine acacia timber to El Sawani. Between El Ain and El Sawani are the following six wells : — Abu Haweid. El Bab. El Harma.

El Hudden.

Bayuda. El Huffera.

They are all lined with stone, and about 4 feet of good water is found in each of them at from 3 to 4 feet below the surface. Nine miles beyond El HufEera, El Sawani, the chief settlement of this section of the Kababish, is reached. It contains many native huts and four mud dwellings. This well, like all the others (with the exception of El Marghum) is marked by a clump of palms.

The road to El Ordi, after skirting the valley for a few miles in a north-east direction, turns to the east ar.d crosses 10 miles of broken rocky ground and low ridges. A tract of undulating ground is then reached, which extends to El Ordi. With the exception of small patches of acacia in some of the valleys, this district is wholly devoid of vegetation ; it is uninhabited.

Wadi El Gab.

(By C'olo7wl A. HmUer, C.B., D.S.O., Movember, 1896.)

The Gab does not realise expectation, nor fulfil the descriptions given of it. The hand and sand of destruction is everywhere visible. The wind, blowmg prevalently north or north-west, rolls the sand along, the sand catches in the 2 E 2