299 APPENDIX B.

THE SUDD.

SUDDSCAPE.

The " sudd " (in Arabic aadd = block) is a generic name by custom applied to the huge marshes through which General the Bahr El Jebel, Bahr El Ghazal, Bahr El Zeraf and the lower portion of their tributaries wind their way. It forms /Ejitip J**"' an irregular triangle of which the northern base extends about 200 miles west from the mouth of the Bahr El Zeraf, and the southern apex lies about Bor, 250 miles S.S.E. of Lake No. It is difficult to estimate the area of these vast marshes, but it cannot be much less than 35,000 square miles.

These marshes are formed by the expansion of the rivers mentioned over this area, and probably represent the bed of an old prehistoric lake which has to a certain extent dried up. The theory has been put forward that in those far-off days a ridge about Kodok, subsequently broken through by the river, caused the holding-up of waters in this lake, but this is hardly the place to examine this theory in detail.

Suffice it to say that a great part of this area is covered with a shallow sheet of water, over almost the whole extent of which thick reeds and swamp-grasses have sprung up. Except in the actual river channels this water is probably nowhere more than 2 to 6 feet deep.

To the eye the effect is one of a vast extent of brilliant green papyrus, feathery reeds and sword-grass, 5 to 15 Scenery, feet above the water, broken by occasional patches of light ambach trees, with channels of water, pools and lagoons dotting the " swamp-scape," and here and there a sparse tree or two on the horizon. Occasionally, and more especially towards the south, ridges, or patches of mud or solid ground are visible, and in such parts there is much bird Animal life, and animal life. In the lower (northern) reaches of the Sudd nearly all signs of lifeexcept the brilliant little bee-2 R