102 Dr. Beke on the Sources of the Nile. 



enables us to arrive at tolerably satisfactory conclusions re- 

 specting the general character of the table-land of Eastern 

 Africa. 



As a whole, this table-land may be described as a succession 

 of undulating plains, declining very gradually towards the 

 west and north-west, irregularly studded with loftier mountain- 

 masses, and intersected by numerous streams; which streams, 

 after a short course on the level of the plateau, fall abruptly 

 into deep-cut valleys, in which they soon attain a depression of 

 from 3000 to 4000 feet below the general level of the table-land. 

 The valleys of the larger streams, though at first mere fissures 

 in the rocks, soon open to a considerable width : that of the 

 Abai, in the south of the peninsula of Godjam, is at least 

 twenty-five miles from the extreme points where it breaks 

 from the table-land on either side. And, as the country within 

 these valleys is exceedingly wild and irregular, possessing all 

 the characters of a mountainous one ; nothing is easier for a 

 traveller, who has not first taken a comprehensive view of the 

 entire region, and who, on crossing a river, finds himself shut 

 up within a mass of broken country rising around him on all 

 sides to a relative elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet, or even more, 

 — than to suppose that, in ascending this broken country on 

 either side, he is crossing a mountain-chain ; whereas, on 

 reaching the summit, he has merely arrived on the level of the 

 table-land. 



The fall of the rivers within their deep-cut valleys dimi- 

 nishes gradually as they flow north-westwards to join the main 

 stream of the Nile ; which latter, skirting the western flank of 

 the high land, is the sink into which the Takkazie, the Bahr 

 el Azrek or Blue River, the Godjeb, Sobat or River of Ha- 

 besh, the Shoaberri, and whatever other rivers there may be, 

 are received; its current being very sluggish, and almost 

 stagnant in the upper part of its course, except during the 

 floods. In the dry season its bed would indeed almost seem 

 to consist of a succession of lakes and swamps, rather than to 

 be the channel of a running stream. At Khartum, at the 

 confluence of the Blue River with the Nile, the bed of the 

 united stream is only 1525 feet above the ocean; and it is far 

 from improbable that even as high up as the 5th parallel of N. 

 latitude its absolute elevation does not much exceed 2000 feet. 



On the seaward or eastern side of the waterparting, the 

 declivity being much more abrupt and the extent of country 

 much more limited than on the western side, the rivers must 

 necessarily be of secondary importance. Thus, proceeding 

 from the north, we do not meet with a stream deserving of 

 name till we come to the HawAsh ; and even this river is, near 



