32 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



eastern side being for some distance clear and blue, 

 while those to the west are muddy and of a whitish 

 hue. 



" { In going up the White Nile from Khartoum to 

 the 10th degree the bed of the river is very broad 

 and slopes but very little, the result being that its 

 current is very slow, little more than half a mile an 

 hour, while with a north wind there is scarcely any. 

 The banks are not at all steep, and are formed by a 

 narrow sort of shore which divides the river from 

 the immense plains which are in many cases below 

 its level. The land is very well cultivated near the 

 river, but beyond it is covered with wild plants, 

 woods, and bush. At the 14th degree begins the 

 Archipelago of the Chulucks, up to within a day's 

 journey of the mouth of the Saubat, an affluent 

 running from the east between the 10th and 9th 

 degrees. 



" ' From the 10th to the 6th degree the White Nile 

 flows through marshes where travellers are much 

 plagued by insects. M. de Malzac, who last year 

 killed seventeen elephants with his own gun, has 

 formed an establishment in the land of the Djours, 

 between the 6th and ^9th degrees, a hundred leagues 

 to the west of the Mle. From that point he has 

 put himself in communication with several other 

 tribes, all of which speak different languages. He 

 already employs five native interpreters to conduct 

 his exchanges of glass and other trinkets for ivory, 



