CHAPTER IV 



VOYAGE UP WHITE NILE Continued 



(n) THE FOREST-REGION 

 {Kordofan} 



ROUGHLY speaking, it is at a point about 1 50 miles south 

 of Khartoum that the last vestiges of the Eastern Sahara 

 gradually peter out ; we enter a new geological region and 

 the Nile assumes a totally fresh character. Instead of 

 a broad shallow stream as hitherto, flowing through 

 desert and low islands, devoid of distinctive bounds, the 

 river is now restricted to a fixed and narrower channel 

 with solid banks fringed and beautified by abounding 

 tropical vegetation. The scene has changed. 



At once the traveller is confronted with many new 

 things. I will specify four : the papyrus, with, its million 

 mosquitoes ; the seroot-fly, and the sacred ibis in its true 

 home. By these indices the traveller may know that 

 here he is entering upon a new "zoological zone." The 

 Palaearctic region he is leaving behind : in front lies that 

 of Ethiopia. 



A fifth object can never be passed unnamed by any 

 who feels the pride of British race that wondrous railway 

 bridge, a tracery of latticed girders, that here spans White 

 Nile, no whit less a world's wonder than the Barrage of 

 Assouan, and surrounded by nothing but Afric's starkest 

 wilderness. The bridge itself is all the passing voyager 

 sees; yet it is a symbol, a single link in the chain of 

 tremendous works that British enterprise in its silent, 



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