The Nile 



blue above and vivid scarlet on the neck and 

 breast. These last hover and swoop all day like 

 swallows, and revel in a grass fire, because it stirs 

 up the insects for them. As you sit in the bows 

 of the boat in the evening countless night-jars 

 flap past you on noiseless wings in their hunt for 

 moths and other insects of the niorht. No 

 mammals live here ; no hippos, as there is no 

 landing-place for them ; and no crocs, as there 

 are no antelopes for them to eat. All is given 

 up to solitude. 



Two days in the sudd is enough for most 

 people, and with Lake No to follow ! That is 

 very little better, except that one does see a 

 thorn forest now and again, with a Dom palm 

 and a scattered village or two as one approaches 

 the Shilluk country further east. 



In quick succession on the right bank come 

 the mouths of the Bahr-el-Zeraf — not a river, 

 but a big overflow from the sudd — and the Sobat 

 river. This latter is remarkable for its tre- 

 mendous flooding after the rains inland on the 

 Abyssinian border, and it, together with the Blue 

 Nile and the Atbara, both miles further north, is 

 mainly responsible for the great storage of water 

 at the Assuan dam ; and more especially for 

 keeping the dam filled. The rains at the respec- 

 tive sources of these great rivers up-country 

 come at different periods every year, so that each 

 in turn contributes its share of water. 



57 



