218 Posts mid Telegraphs.

Mules.

Donkeys.

Oxen.

CMriers.

The price varies from £E.9 in the Kassala and Suakin districts to £E.15 in the Dongola province, and fancy prices are sometimes paid for particularly good riding camels.

Average cost of camel hire PT.8 to PT.12 per diem, including baggage saddle, head rope, forage, and attendant. Price of native riding saddle (maglufa) £E.2 to £E.5. Sudan camels easily carry 350 lbs., and occasionally carry up to 500 lbs. Mules are only obtainable from the Abyssinian borderland, chiefly at Gedaref, Gallabat, Roseires, and Itang, though, unless plenty of notice is given, not many are obtainable even at these markets. These mules are small, but good and hardy, suited to pack transport, though not suitable, owing to their small size and weight, to draught work. Price, £E.5 to £E.10. Can carry 150 to 180 lbs.

Donkeys make excellent transport animals ; they can go longer without water than mules. They are obtainable in most parts of the Sudan, price £E.3 to £E.10, or, to hire, PT.5 per diem. The Sudan donkey does for both riding or baggage work. The Abyssinian donkey is smaller and cheaper, £E.l to £E.3, and better for transport work, especially in hilly country, being less liable to sore backs, but he generally permits no one to ride him. Large quantities are to be had in Gedaref and Gallabat. Can carry 100 to 150 lbs.

Pack oxen, occasionally used in Southern Kordofan and the Bahr El Ghazal, can only carry light weights up to 150 lbs., and are very slow movers. For draught work they have been so far successfully tried in the Bahr El Ghazal. Human carriers are only obtainable with difficulty on the Upper Nile and in the Bahr El Ghazal. They carry 50-lb. loads besides their rations. Elephants are still a dream of the future as regards pack and transport work.

Section 5. — Posts and Telegraphs. PoBts. In March, 1897, a Sudan postal service was commenced. The first office opened was at Haifa camp, and following in the wake of the Army, offices were opened in the same year at Kerma, Dongola, Korti, and Merowe, and a regular bi-weekly mail was established.

In 1898 offices were opened at various places between Berber and Khartoum, and the postal service was rapidly further extended over a great part of the Sudan. In February, 1901, the postal and telegraph services were combined, and the head office was transferred from Cairo to Khartoum North, and subsequently in 1902 to Khartoum.

There are now 26 post offices in the Sudan open to the money order service, and a travelling postmaster issues and pays money orders at stations on the Halfa-Kerma Railway.

There are various other offices open dealing with correspondence, sale of stamps, and ordinary parcel service {vide below).

An increasing amount of money passes through the post in the shape of money orders. In 1902, a total of £E. 355,000 was paid in at Sudan offices by the public for transmission, and a total of £E. 145,000 was paid out. The figures in . 1901 were £E.267,500 and £E. 107,700 respectively.

Mails in the Sudan are carried by railway, steamers, camels, donkeys, or runners, according to the locality. Mail services now extend to Gallabat, Roseires, Gondokoro, Meshra El Rek, and Nahud. Mails are exchanged weekly with Eritrea at Sabderat. (For details of post offices, vide Egyptian Postal Guide, 1904, p. 175.) Telcgrapha The telegraph now, besides connecting with Suakin and Kassala, reaches to Gallabat, Taufikia (W. Nile), Roseires, and El Obeid. A line from Khartoum through Geteina and Kawa to Goz Abu Guma is now in course of construction, and when the Nile-Red Sea Railway is commenced, a telegraph line will be built along it.

At the beginning of 1!)05 a telegraph line will be laid from Meshra El Rek to Wau, and thence probably rid Rumbek to the Bahr El Jebel. Communication between Meshra and Taufikia is to be maintained by oil launches.

Till 1902 white ants were a great source of annoyance, but since steel bases have been used for telegraph poles this has, to a great extent, ceased. Creosoted poles also do not appear to be attacked by them.

Elephant and giraffe in the more southern districts are, however, likely to continue a somewhat frequent course of interruption of communication.

A reconnaissance was made in April, 1904, south of Taufikia and another from El Obeid to Nahud and Foga with a view to further extensions of the wire. In the winter of 1904-05 the line will be laid from Meshra Rek to Wau, but there is a great difficulty in connecting with Taufikia.

There are now 3,074 miles of telegraph line (3,409 miles of wire), and 35 telegraph offices, in the Sudan {vide below). Wireless telegraphy has not been lost sight of, but will not be adopted, at any rate, for the present. 79,.500 private telegrams were forwarded from Sudan offices in 1903, as against 57,700 in 1901 and 66,000 in 1902. TelephoueH. A telephone system was established between Khartoum, Omdurman, and Khartoum North, with an exchange in the Government buildings, Khartoum, in February, 1903. There are at present 45 offices connected to the exchange.