AFRICAN GRASS FORESTS. 279 



add not a little to the difficulty of the journey. * 

 Dr. Schweinfurth in like manner describes the grass 

 in the Nyam-Nyam country, as quite fifteen feet in 

 height, with stalks as hard as wood, and as thick as 

 a man's finger, f Sir Samuel Baker also relates his 

 troubles with the Bari, and other wild tribes, during 

 his government of the Soudan, and describes the diffi- 

 culties and dangers of his retreat through long grass 

 plains of this character, where his enemies lay hid in 

 the tall grass, and fired out upon his caravan with 

 poisoned arms, etc., as it made its way painfully 

 along. 



These African long grass forests are generally found 

 in districts of either a highly elevated or swampy 

 character, wherever in fact the tree growths are absent. 

 Some of the gigantic reeds of these countries are also of a 

 wonderful character : one of the most notable of these 

 being the celebrated Egyptian Papyrus (Cyperus Papy- 

 rus) which is still found growing in immense quantities 

 in the swamps along the Nile, to the southward of 

 Khartoum. It was from this reed, as is well known, 

 that the celebrated Papyri of antiquity were obtained, 

 which formed in past ages the paper upon which the 

 ancient Egyptian writers inscribed their records ; speci- 

 mens of these papyri thus written upon, found in the 

 tombs, have been handed down in an admirable state 

 of preservation, and form perhaps the most valuable 

 historic relics of ancient Egypt at present extant 



* Letters from Central Africa, by Emin Pasha, 1888, p. 19^ 

 (Translated from the German). 



j The Heart of Africa, by Dr. Georg Schweinfurth, 1874, Vol. i, 

 P- 337. 



Ismailia, by Sir Samuel W. Baker, 1874, Vol. ii, Ch. ix, " The 

 March to Kionga." 



