218 NORTH-EAST AFllICA. 



powerful Britannia, Sudan is henceforth to enjoy full independence, and regulate 

 its own affairs, without the undue interference of any foreign Government." 



At present the Mussulman states in this region, of Sudan are entirely destitute 

 of strategical routes, although at first sight the country seems to be completely open 

 to the Abyssinians occupying the pfateaux. They could easily descend by their 

 riverain valleys, but as they cannot long breathe a mephitic atmosphere, the climate 

 of the lowlands is a far more formidable enemy to them than the natives ; such 

 conquests as they do effect are transitory, and by the very force of circumstances 

 are again soon lost. On the other hand, if they are prevented by nature itself from 

 seizing these lowlands, they would still be a great obstacle to invaders of Upper 

 Nubia wishing to penetrate along the route over the fertile slopes to Massawah and 

 the countries of the Mensas and Bogos. The Egyptians learnt to their cost the 

 dano-ers of venturing on this route, exposed, as they were, to the attacks on their 

 flanks from the Abyssinian warriors. Farther north, from Suakin to the Nile, 

 the water in the wells is barely sufficient for the nomad tribes, and owing to this 

 cause the operations of the British troops in this region were greatly impeded during 

 the campaigns of 1884 and 1885. Pending the opening of the railway from Suakin 

 to Berber begun in 1885, the plains of the Blue Nile and Atbara can be reached 

 only by the three traditional northern routes — that which follows the Nile from 

 cataract to cataract ; and those avoiding the great curves of the Nile by running 

 across the desert of Bayuda, between Debbeh and Khartum on the west; and 

 through the Nubian wilderness between Korosko and Abu-Hamed on the east. 

 These three routes were closed to the Egyptians by the late Mussulman insurrec- 

 tion, and re-opened by the English under General Wolseley in 1884-5. 



The Gumu, Berta, and Leg a Mountains. 



Beyond the Abyssinian plateaux the East Sudanese provinces have also their 

 isolated mountain masses, forming veritable archipelagos in the midst of the plain. 

 Many of these lofty hills which are delineated on the maps as forming part of the 

 orographic system of Abyssinia, are, in reality, separated from it by plains. Such 

 are the Gumu Mountains, commanding to the east the valley in which the Abai, or 

 Blue Nile, in its upper course completes its semicircular bend before reaching the 

 plain. A few escarpments close to the river form, together with the projecting 

 promontories of the opposite watershed, the last gorge of the Abyssinian Nile. 

 Farther up the river, and near its confluence with the Jabus, stands an isolated 

 rock, the Abu-Danab of the Arabs, the Tulu-Soghida of the Gallas, which is the 

 " Mountain of Salt," whose abundant resources have not yet been analysed by 

 Europeans. Beyond this point to the south-west the Tumat and Jabus, two large 

 aflluents of the Blue Nile, skirt the eastern base of other mountains or of an ancient 

 plateau, which running waters have completelj^ furrowed in every direction. These 

 are the Berta Mountains, famous for their gold washings, which determined the 

 Egyptian invasion. 



