5IO THE GREAT CARAVAN ROUTES. 



though the writer in the Encyclopedia Britannica 

 gives it as 3370 miles; an estimate which we think, 

 considering its winding nature, must be considerably 

 below the actual length. 



In consequence of these difficulties in the way of 

 navigation, though the river may be navigable all the 

 way at the very highest stage of the water, when 

 rocks and rapids are buried deep under stream, the 

 risks are so great that the usual trade routes for goods, 

 going to and from the Soudan, are two in number, 

 first via Korosko, situated in Lat. 22 5 o' N., between 

 the first and second cataract, to Abu Hammed, and 

 Berber (a desert city, situated on the Nile bank, in 

 Lat. 18 N., Long. 34 E.) by camel caravan, a march 

 of about 380 miles through the desert or secondly, via 

 Suakim on the Red Sea and thence by caravan to 

 Berber, a march of 275 miles also through the desert. 

 From Berber the boat journey is resumed, and goods 

 are carried via Khartum and the White Nile, as far 

 as Gondokoro, Lat. 4 54' N. ; beyond Gondokoro 

 they are generally transported on the heads of native 

 porters to their destination. 



Since the rebellion in 1884 both these routes are 

 however practically closed to commerce. 



In any description of the Nile, it would be impossi- 

 ble to omit some notice of the inundations, which are 

 decidedly among the most remarkable phenomena 

 connected with that river. From the forks of the Nile 

 at Khartum to the sea, a distance not far short of 

 2000 miles, the river receives as we have said, but 

 one regular affluent, the Atbara, a large stream 400 

 yards wide, which joins the Nile in Lat. 17 37' N, 

 about 140 miles below Khartum. Nearly the whole 



