SAVAGE SUDAN 



CHAPTER I 



INTRODUCTORY 



THE SUDAN comprises one -fifth of the African 

 Continent. Leaving exact measurements to the text- 

 books, its area approximates to a million square miles 

 roughly speaking, tenfold greater than that of our British 

 Islands and, of that million, only a paltry two thousand 

 are cultivated. It follows that practically the Anglo- 

 Egyptian Sudan remains to-day an "unspoilt wilderness" 

 abandoned to wild men and wild beasts and that 

 vocal fact symbolises its attraction to the author. 



A second outstanding character lies in the fact that 

 the Sudan is divided physically and geologically into two 

 distinct and approximately equal halves. The northern 

 half (600 miles) is all desert' that is, Sahara : the 

 southern, largely alluvial plains. 



THE NORTHERN DESERTS are simply the eastern 

 terminus of the Great Sahara which, commencing some- 

 where beyond Timbuctoo, traverses the entire continent, 

 thence to the Red Sea. In depth extending to 600 miles, 

 these Deserts actually enclose Khartoum itself; and the 

 whole of this area (whether the sandy plains of the 

 interior or the barren mountain-ranges that fringe the 

 Red Sea littoral) is virtually useless save only to nomad 

 Arab tribes. 



THE SOUTHERN PLAINS commence where Sahara 

 ends, 100 miles south of Khartoum (or, say, about the 

 1 3th or 1 4th degree of North latitude). Thence for a 



A 



