io6 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



moon, but had at last to give in. The depth was 

 still eighteen to twenty feet, however, in mid-stream, 

 while the banks, which we steamed over for many 

 yards inland in search of a passage, were four feet 

 under water. A screiv launch is almost useless in 

 grass, which at once winds itself round the propellers. 

 We had still one more shot in our locker ; that 

 was to leave the sandal (barge) behind. I removed 

 everything I could from it, fastened friction tubes to 

 all bits of iron, &c., and steamed off next morning. 

 On our return I found the barge intact, save that two 

 of the tubes had exploded, showing that it had been 

 visited and left as uncanny. 



The gunboat, of three feet draught, having shed 

 half its bulk, did not find the circumnavigation of the 

 sudd a terrible task. We could just pass, breaking the 

 branches on both sides of the waterway when back in 

 the stream. After a bit we ran under a high wall of 

 dense foliage, and soon found ourselves again in a 

 magnificent river eighty yards broad. Here the water 

 appeared whitish, no doubt owing to a heavy storm. 

 I do not think we passed a branch stream unawares. 

 The trees, too, changed from the large kuk, nebbuk, 

 &c., to talh. 



We had seen no natives by the time we halted, 

 i.e. at 1 1 P.M. I slept, but my crew did not, for shortly 

 after that time, I was told, the river, twenty yards in, 

 began to swarm with natives shaking their spears as 

 they stood waist-deep in water. The depth of water 

 between us (nine feet), and the energetic policing of 

 the elders, appeared to be the reason that they came 



