Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



feathery papyrus and forbidding umbrella thorn 

 trees, results in the Fola rapids, where the river 

 rushes down as through a shoot ; not so very 

 striking or impressive, till one sees that these 

 rugged Congo mountains are just being tipped 

 with the glory of a rising sun, whilst out of the 

 veiled, mysterious depths comes the thunderous 

 sound of falling waters, booming the more noisily 

 in that Creation has hardly yet awakened out of 

 its deep sleep. 



Khor Eyu, a boiling mountain torrent, leaps 

 and bounds down the face of the crags under the 

 site of a long-evacuated Dervish post, erected 

 here to keep the line of communications open 

 throuofh this narrow defile, under the shadow of 

 Jebel Meto. In a series of falls and rapids, 

 broken now and again by a calm, swift-flowing 

 pool deep down between the rocks, or twisted 

 into swirls and eddies, onward goes the cease- 

 less flow of many waters. Grotesque forms of 

 euphorbias stand out upon the naked rocks, now 

 with short trunks splitting up into a semicircular 

 entanglement of leafless branches, now with high 

 pillar-like trunks bearing only at the summit a 

 few candelabra. 



The valley begins to open out a little, though 

 the mountains still rear their mighty crests on 

 either hand. On the other side of the river, hills 

 interchange with park land and patches of sand ; 

 tall sturdy trees provide shade, and wooded belts 



50 



