THE BARRAGE OF THE NILE 

 By Day Allen Willey 



THE most historic and one of the 

 greatest inland navigation water- 

 ways is the Nile, the river and its 

 tributaries affording- over 4,000 miles 

 suitable for the passage of steamers and 

 other craft between North and East 

 Africa and Cairo. 



The head of the navigable waterways 

 may be said to be the town of Gondo- 

 koro, on the White Nile, about 1,000 

 miles above the city of Khartum. Gon- 

 dokoro is the terminus of several caravan 

 routes extending into the Congo, as well 

 as Uganda and Unyoro. Small steam- 

 ers ply upon the water-courses between 

 Khartum and Gondokoro, connecting 

 at the former city with steamers for 

 Cairo. In recent years tourists have ex- 

 tended their trips from the Lower Nile 

 as far as Gondokoro, but the rivers are 

 utilized principally for the transporta- 

 tion of products from the territory be- 

 yond Gondokoro and to Khartum. 



There is one very serious obstacle on 

 the section of the Nile between Khartum 

 and Gondokoro which has at times ob- 

 structed the channel so that continuous 

 navigation has been delayed months at a 

 time. This is the vegetation growth 

 known as sudd, which is a translation 

 from the Arabic term El Sett. 



On one occasion the channel was 

 blocked by a bar of sudd which actually 

 measured 25 miles along the channel, 

 while within a distance of 150 miles were 

 three more growths aggregating no less 

 than 60 miles. A fleet of vessels espe- 

 cially equipped and a large force of men 

 w^ere working continually for nearly six 

 months before an opening large enough 

 for the smallest river steamer could be 

 made through the mass. 



In studying the growth the investiga- 

 tors have found that it is more rapid 

 under certain conditions. For example, 

 it spreads very rapidly after an unusually 

 extensive flood in the upper rivers, which 

 carry down such an amount of sediment 



and vegetation, while when the rainy- 

 season is short the growth is checked 

 considerably, and the current in the 

 upper rivers is usually" strong enough to- 

 carry out the young vegetation before it 

 becomes dense enough to be able to re- 

 sist the action of the water. 



Since the obstruction of the Nile has 

 such a serious effect in interrupting the 

 transportation between upper and lower 

 Egypt and in cutting off what is really 

 a route between Cairo and Mombasa, the 

 Egyptian government has built a fleet of 

 steamers and barges especially con- 

 structed for removing the sudd and re- 

 tains a large force of men in removing 

 and destroying the vegetation. These 

 vessels are stationed at dift'erent points 

 on the Upper Nile, so that they may 

 reach an obstruction without delay. 



In clearing the river channel of sudd 

 the engineers have devised several 

 schemes. The top growth frequently be- 

 comes so dry that they can burn it over 

 like so much grass. This removes much 

 of the weight of the plants, but they are 

 so matted together that saws are actually- 

 used to separate the growth, as it cannot 

 be removed in any other way. The ves- 

 sels employed for sudd clearing, while 

 light-draft boats, are strongly built and 

 have blunt bows, so that they can be 

 forced against the bank of vegetation. 

 Thev are provided with steel cables or 

 hawsers, saws, and axes, and carry crews 

 of natives who are experts in working" 

 upon the sudd. 



The way in which the channel is 

 cleared is as follows : Often the water is 

 so completely hidden that the first diffi- 

 culty when you are encountered by a 

 barrier of sudd is to discover where in 

 this sudd the river bed runs. This is 

 done by "soundinsr" through the sudd 

 with long poles. The average depth of 

 water in the sudd may be only a few 

 feet, but when the actual river bed^ is- 

 reached this suddenly increases to a 



