Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



gradually receding from the river. Short grass 

 and isolated tall trees adorn the otherwise bare 

 flanks. Papyrus and yellow-flowering ambatch 

 deeply fringe both banks. On the east bank 

 wild rocks, towering one above the other, stand 

 majestically up ; but the level of the country 

 gradually sinks in the neighbourhood of the 

 perennial Unyama river, on the shore of which 

 is built Nimule, looking over the plain sloping 

 towards the east. 



The west bank, on the contrary, presents a 

 plain exposed to floods at places, while rather 

 hio-h and well-washed columnar mountains rise in 

 a long chain, culminating at the barrier reef and 

 rapids, and form the rocky portals of the Nile 

 that guard the narrow approach to Nimule from 

 the north. Closer and closer they trend towards 

 the river, partly covered by bushes and trees, 

 often presenting bare cliffs, rendered black by the 

 action of sun and rain. On a still, equatorial 

 night a distant rumbling here announces the 

 approach of the rapids on the hither side of the 

 Fola Falls; we are gradually nearing the narrow- 

 est part of the great river. 



We have passed deserted Belgian Dufile some 

 five miles back. For a considerable time this 

 was one of the chief Congolese ports on the 

 Nile ; and the tumbledown ramparts of the fort, 

 to say nothing of their well-built burnt-brick 

 bungalows, with their broad, airy verandahs, and 



48 



