444 Seven Years in the Sottdan.

cares, and a school ut Dem Seleiman is already bearing good fruit ; the sheikhs send their children, and in a few years the employes can be taken from the natives of the country.

" Gressi's activity had ha])])yand prompt success in the research and study of tlie natural riches of the country. At one time ivory, and es])ecially slaves, constituted the oidy products of these districts ; now a good quantit} of excellent tamarinds are gathered ; caoutchouc, better than that of Brazil, can be furnished to commerce to the quantity of about four thousand hundredweights ; and another product, vegetable silk, procured from the JEriodcndnim amphractiiosum, of which Gessi sent samples to Khartoum and Italy, will perhaps form an item of riches at a no distant future. The existence of the incense tree was ascertained, and the harvest will be initiated as soon as the rainy season is over.

" One of the articles which is scarce at Khartoum, and in almost all the Soudan, is timber for building, which reached a high price and is generally imported from Trieste. Well, they now transport to AVau from the forests trunks of trees of diif erent qualities, on small carts pur])osely constructed, which make excellent planks. Four natives manage the two saws. I have seen the timber to be sent to Khartoum in a few days ; it is superior in toughness, hardness, compactness and beauty of fibre to that produced in Italy. With the wood sawed at Wan, two l)oats of the draught of about forty tons each were built, and in a month they will bear witness at Khartoum to the progress made in these provinces. They cost the Government together sixty dollars — even the nails were manufactured on the spot — while a boat at Khartoum sells for not less than four hundred dollars. Three days ago loads of ivory, tamarinds, caoutchouc and timber, left for Meshra.

" And here I note that the opening of the river