AND THE XILE 



lt3 



Dufile and Fort Berkeley, there are few trees to l)e seen anvwhere near 

 the river, though there is rich forest in the valleys of tlie trihutaiv streams. 



The ^Nile is broad as far nortli as Dufile, with lake-like windini^s in jiarts, 



I.N I 111. :.w.L 



of uncertain channel, containing many sandbanks and islands, and floating 

 masses of grass which look like permanent islands. From Dufile north-west 

 to Fort Berkeley the river narrows and falls nearly 1,()0() feet in continual 

 rapids and rushes. The scenery of the gorges between the confluence of 

 the considerable Eiver Asua and the Lahore Kapids is said by >[r. Lionel 

 Decle to be one of the finest bits of natural beauty in the Protectorate. 

 From Fort Berkeley north-west the banks of the river become increasingly 

 marshy until the eye wearies of papyrus and horizons of white-plumed 

 reeds. On the banks of the river almost the only for)n of tree is that 

 fresh-water mangrove, the ambatch (Hermiiiiera eldphroxi/Uni), which has 

 been already described in connection with the Victoria Nyanza. All along 

 this section of the Nile the hippopotamuses are a danger and a nuisance. 

 White-eared cobus antelopes with bold markings of brown and white 

 frequent the reed brakes, flnormous crocodiles lie on the muddy banks 



