CHAPTER XXI 



BEYOND THE SUDD 



(i) A STRONGHOLD OF THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT 



THE 150 miles that lie beyond the Sudd (say from 

 Bohr to Rejaf, where Nile -navigation ends) consist 

 partly of grass-prairies, partly of tropical forest, but 

 both often set back from the river by belts of intervening 

 marsh. The main feature, however, is that here after 

 more than 1000 miles of dead-flat plain- we enter a 

 region where rocks, crags, and mountains once more 

 rejoice unwonted eyes. Not since passing the insignificant 

 koppies of Jebelein and Jebel Ahmed Agha (now left 

 800 miles behind) have we encountered a rock nor even 

 a pebble. Here, at last, the tiresome monotony of level 

 contours gives place, first to low rolling ridges, gradually 

 developing into actual hills, till at Lado and Gondokoro 

 great mountain-ranges converge on Nile. This iso-mile 

 stretch represents to-day one of the remaining strongholds 

 of the African elephant. Nowhere else in the Dark 

 Continent do these pachyderms exist in such abundance 

 as may still be seen along the course of Mountain-Nile. 



Now that Khartoum is linked up with London by 

 steam ocean-liners and "tropical trains" all the way 

 while from Khartoum onwards the mail-steamers of the 

 Sudan Government carry passengers right through to 

 Uganda (a i2OO-mile voyage), even the most timid of 

 tourists may reckon upon seeing such spectacles as herds 

 of wild elephants, and that within some three weeks from 

 leaving Charing Cross ! The journey can be made either 



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