208 Bayiula Desert.

Oommuni-C*tioD8.

Northeru Eiayucla Drt.

Vegetation.

FirewcKHl.

Fofid for ranitrls.

Sheep.

Route from AiubugoL Communications throughout this district are bad owing to scarcity of water. The principal trade routes are : — (1) Debba-Fasher xm the Wadi Melh (little used). (2) Debba-El Obeid vid Amri, Hobagi, and Haraza (used a little during rainy season). (3) Debba-El Obeid vid Amri, Elai, and Habisa (longer than (2) but more water). (4) Debba to Omdurman* viCi Inderab, Gumr and Gabra (a good deal used). (5) Debba to Omdurman vid Elai and Gabra (little used). (6) Ambugol and Merowe to Shendi (Metemma) (little used). (7) Merowe to Berber vid Sani (a good deal used).

(8) Merowe to Omdurman* rid Hamboti and Wadi Bishara. (9) Gabra to Korti (little used).

All the above routes except No. 8 are described in the route reports in Vol. II, and from them some idea of the country may be obtained. The traffic along No. (7) will presumably increase considerably on the completion of the Nile-Red Sea Railway.

{From the Reports of the Surveyiny Parties emjdoyed by Mr. G. Kilgour and Mr. Fowler, C.E., 1871-72, and other Sources.)

The track across the Bayuda Desert, from Ambugol to Shendi, is comparatively easy going, and is fairly well supplied with water ; but not being a main trade route, it is little used by caravans.

There are no difficult defiles or passes. The tract of country traversed consists of extensive plains divided by ranges of low hills. It is very unlike the sterile and rocky deserts further north, and in many places shows abundant signs of vegetation. Wadis, pastures of long coarse grass, and many clusters of tiees are met with, whilst, during the rainy season, the ground is susceptible of profitable cultivation in some parts.

This route is just within the limits of the tropical rains. The wet season lasts from May to August, but rain never falls for more than 15 days in any year. Sometimes there is no rain for two consecutive years.

There are no streams, the water sinking into the sand and disappearing within 24 hours after rain has fallen. During exceptionally hot days small whirlwinds pass in great numbers, and carry across the desert sand and fine debris in columns upwards of 150 feet in height. They have a formidable appearance, but are really almost harmless. A very large one might upset a tent, but this performance represents their maximum effect.

The Bayuda Desert is inhabited merely by wandering Arab tribes, of whom the principal are the Hawawir, Hassania, the Sauarab, the Fadnia, and the Aonia.

They subsist almost entirely by keeping flocks of sheep and goats, and by breeding camels, wandering from spot to spot to the best herbage, at such distance from the wells as enables them to water their animals. They also trap the gazelle — so plentiful in this desert ; and after the rains a certain amount of ground is usually cultivated by them, and small crops are obtained.

About 4 miles above Ambugol the wadi (valley or stream course) Abu Gir debouches into the Nile ; this wadi takes its rise in the Jebel Gilif about 70 miles from the Nile ; water is obtainable from shallow wells along its entire course in its bed ; like most of the lower portions of the Bayuda Desert, it is thickly covered with vegetation.

This consists principally of low " samr " bushes (spreading thorny acacia), occasional " sunt " trees (acacia arabica, 20 to 25 feet high), the milk plant (asdepia gigantea), the " marakh " (a green shrub), the " tundub " (a bush, some 15 feet high,), and " heglig " trees (20 to 25 feet high, and often with a diameter of trunk at 5 feet from the ground of 12 to 15 inches), the " mokert " (sattadora persica), and even occasionally the " dom " palm (hypwne thebaica), of which the " dom " palm, the " usher," and " marakh " are indicative of water close to the surface.

Best suited for firewood are the " sunt," the " samr," the " tundub," and the " heglig," the wood of the latter, I may mention, being used as the base on which the natives twirl a dry piece of " samr " root with the object of producing fire.

Camels devour eagerly the younger branches of the " samr," the succulent leaves of the marakh camel thorn and el gau (camel grass), both of the last-mentioned being plentiful in the Bayuda ; indeed, this is a favourite district for breeding and rearing hagins (the lighter and faster class of camels).

Sheep, of which large flocks are owned by the Hassania, Aonia, and other wandering Bedawi tribes of the Bayuda, find, during the dry season even, ample food in the grasses of the plains near Jebel Gilif ; whilst the fresher shoots of the marakh and tundub, with the juicy leaves of the usher, provide sustenance for the goats.

The readiest route from Ambugol is to strike for the desert close to the town, whence an easy slope, some 2 miles in length, rises to the desert plateau, here some 50 feet above the Nile bank. A shingly level plain is then traversed * Cost of camel transport hy this route iraries from 65 P. T. to 75 P.T. per kantar.