CH. XV] KHARTOUM 455 



ul Allah." As we went down the Nile we kept seeing 

 more and more of the birds which I remembered, one 

 species after another appearing ; familiar cow herons, 

 crocodile plover, noisy spurwing plover, black and white 

 kingfishers, hoopoos, green bee-eaters, black and white 

 chats, desert larks, and trumpeter bullfinches. 



At night we sat on deck and watclied the stars and 

 the dark, lonely river. The swinniiing crocodiles and 

 plunging hippos made whirls and wakes of feeble light 

 that glimmered for a moment against the black water. 

 The unseen birds of the marsh and the night called to 

 one another in strange voices. Often there were grass 

 fires, burning, leaping, lines of red, the lurid glare in 

 the sky above them making even more sombre the 

 surrounding gloom. 



As we steamed northward down the long stretch of 

 the Nile which ends at Khartoum, the wind blew in our 

 faces, day after day, hard and steadily. Narrow reed- 

 beds bordered the shore ; there were grass flats and 

 groves of acacias and palms, and farther down reaches 

 of sandy desert. The health of our companions who 

 had been suffering from fever and dysentery gradually 

 improved ; but the case of champagne, which we had 

 first opened at Gondokoro, was of real service, for two 

 members of the party were at times so sick that their 

 situation was critical. 



We reached Khartoum on the afternoon of JNIarch 14, 

 1910, and Kermit and 1 parted from our conn-ades of 

 the trip with real regret. During the year we spent 

 together there had not been a jar, and my respect and 

 liking for them had grown steadily, ^loreover, it was 

 a sad parting from our faithful black followers, whom 

 we knew we should never see again. It had been an 

 interesting and a happy year ; though I was very glad 



