The Nile 



adorn the river. Here are the small beginnings 

 of cultivation on the banks, with possibly a Madi 

 or Tuktuk village squeezed in. Terraces covered 

 with cultivated patches of green dhurra, simsim, 

 and lubia, and at times a few huts upon the flanks 

 of the hills, offer agreeable resting-places for the 

 eye. If you pitch your moving camp in this 

 neighbourhood, you may perhaps hear the hippo 

 grumbling and "grousing" at his midnight meal ; 

 but still the rugged escarpment towers above one, 

 in the ouise of the Akiko Mountains on the 

 eastern bank, and the Aronzi Range in the Lado 

 enclave. 



From this point the track, still a mere foot- 

 path, leads along half-way up between the hill- 

 tops and the river, which is still narrow and 

 foaminof but rather less like a mountain torrent 

 than before. 



The way sinks down into deep gullies formed 

 by the rain, only to rise again suddenly out of 

 the swamps to lead us past small clusters of 

 tamarinds and an occasional borassus palm. On 

 our right the Nimule Mountains have gradually 

 descended, in the midst of its forests and woods, 

 first to hills, and afterwards to mere excrescences 

 bordering the river. 



As far as old-time Lahore, an erstwhile Dervish 

 stronghold of great strategical importance, the 

 blue river foams in a thousand small cascades and 

 rapids, rushing out of its deeply hollowed channel. 



SI 



