272 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

Gebel Marah there is a large salt-water lake, from which great quantities of salt are procured by evaporation.

When I passed through the province it was the dry season, and, as there are no rivers which flow all the year, we had great difficulty in obtaining water. At Dara and one or two other places, there are good wells ; but the greater part of the water we found en route was taken from the "adansonia" reservoirs; and during the dry season the people have to rely chiefly on the water-melon, which they use for drinking, washing, and cooking.

We were in Dara in January, and found it very cold, the thermometer often being 48 Fahr. in the early morning, though it sometimes rose to above 90 in the middle of the day. The rainy season begins in June, and lasts till September. A large portion of the province is under cultivation. Dok'n, cotton, and water-melons are the chief products, though at times I saw small fields of sem-sem, gourds, and cotton ; and we occasionally had capital honey, which, I believe, is procured near the mountains.

The dress of the natives is very simple, their garments being generally made of their home-spun damoor cloth. The men wear merely a long shirt with wide sleeves and open neck ; while the women's attire is a kind of large sheet, which is bound round the waist, one corner being thrown over the left