Lake Victoria to Khartoum 



parts of the solid pile ; the guard is furnished by 

 one of the smart Egyptian battalions quartered 

 on the outskirts of the city. The Army of 

 Occupation in Cairo and Lower Egypt generally 

 sends one British regiment up here annually, as, 

 though awfully hot, the climate is extremely dry 

 and healthy, much more bearable than the moist, 

 steamy heat caused by the great system of irriga- 

 tion obtaining in Cairo 1500 miles north. The 

 climate is so dry that, without exaggeration, a 

 piece of bread cut at the beginning of lunch is 

 like a bit of toast at the end of the meal. The 

 British regiment — the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in 

 1907-8 — is housed in long, low, roomy barracks 

 a short distance up the Blue Nile, nestling under 

 the waterworks tower. 



On the opposite bank of the Blue Nile is 

 Halfaya, or Khartoum North, a busy, noisy 

 place, echoing with the whistling of many engines 

 and the clang of the steam hammer driving rivets 

 into the iron hulls of the steamboats, for it boasts 

 the railway terminus and a dockyard. A bridge 

 joining up the railway with Khartoum proper is 

 in course of construction, and when that is com- 

 pleted Khartoum will be, so to speak, properly 

 collected all under one roof. The dockyard goes 

 ahead by leaps and bounds yearly. AH the gun- 

 boats and other steamers are put together here, 

 the various sections and armour plates being 

 shipped out from home. Here is also the 



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