260 SAVAGE SUDAN 



later growths of papyrus and other giant aquatic plants, 

 many of them 20 feet in visible height, but double that if 

 reckoned from their roots. 



By a Sudan Government report, the area of the Sudd 

 is estimated approximately at 35,000 square miles one- 

 third that of the British Isles. 



Through this vast vegetable-barrier the waters of the 

 great river have to percolate, spill over, stagnate. In 

 the result one-half of its effective volume is herein lost by 

 lateral distribution and evaporation the precise wastage 

 is calculated by the engineers to a gallon. It is through 

 this vicious extravagance of life-giving water that the Sudd 

 places itself in stolid opposition to the welfare of millions 

 Nilotic and other. 



After twice traversing its loo-leagues both ways (four 

 times in all), the mental impression left by the Sudd is 

 one long memory of the most melancholy and featureless 

 abomination extant here on earth. Day after day as one 

 crawls southwards through it, the narrow channel 

 laboriously kept open for navigation winds in a ceaseless 

 series of bends, twists, and convolutions like the writhings 

 of a wounded snake. Far as the eye can reach, stretch 

 away to either horizon those drear wastes of grey-green 

 papyrus. Rarely, a vision of trees beyond the sky-line, 

 or the distant smoke of a grass-fire, may arouse illusory 

 promise of a "limit." No, the slender hope vanishes like 

 a mirage it was, in fact, a mirage and soon one is 

 plunged again into that slough of sightless Sudd. 



The tortuous channel forbids advance through the 

 Sudd by sail ; steam is necessary to traverse it, and a 

 stern- wheeler at that. Locally, Nile navigation differs 

 essentially from that art as practised elsewhere. It 

 consists in systematic " cannoning " off one bank, 

 straightening-up on course, then "cannoning" again 

 on the other. The plan involves a constant succes- 

 sion of bumps, violent or otherwise, according as the 

 vessel strikes yielding papyrus or solid mud concealed 



