262 SAVAGE SUDAN 



the ' morning-flight ' each dawn, and the whole show was 

 limited to an odd string or two of whistling-teal and a 

 few of those black-and-white things that in Ethiopia pass 

 for geese (spurwing and comb). I did, however, notice 

 this morning several shelducks that differed from the 

 ordinary Casarca in having conspicuously dark flanks." 



Of course in a stretch of 400 miles there occur 

 nameless spots where the stream opens out a bit and 

 where the dull, dead monotony of lifelessness is suspended. 

 Such a place is Shambe, whence sets forth the long 

 overland trail to Rumbek, Wau, and Meshra-el-Rek, 



388 miles away in 

 the Bahr-el-Ghazal. 

 In the open waters by 

 Shambe huge croco- 

 diles (accompanied by 

 packs of pelicans, 

 plovers, scissor - bills, 

 stilts, and sand-pipers 

 of sorts) lie slumber- 

 GOLIATH HERON ON WING. ing on slimy mud- 



banks, while hippos 



in hundreds gambol, grunt, and blow in the lateral 

 lagoons. Even in the Sudd itself there occur occasional 

 oases of solid ground (fragments, it may be, of old- 

 time banks) whereon for a space trees grow and a normal 

 animal-life appears. With these exceptions, there occurs 

 nothing, hour after hour, to relieve the dead blank of 

 dismal swamp nothing, unless it be the flop-flop of 

 some heron's flight, or the subaquatic activities of 

 darters. 



One fine animal - prize unquestionably inhabits the 

 Sudd; that is the Situtunga, a swamp-antelope specialised 

 for semi-amphibian existence, and provided with immensely 

 elongated hoofs enabling it to traverse quaking-bog, 

 oozes, and the thin scum of floating vegetation that 

 conceals impassable deeps. In the Sudd, where non- 



