386 GOSA TO WANDI. 



good sign that such a thing can happen in the country with- 

 out a disturbance. 



The Aire, or Ire, as the Yalo is called here, is about sixty- 

 five feet broad and three and a half feet deep at the ford. 

 The banks, which are not wooded, slope gently down to the 

 rushing water, which is broken by ledges of rock. 



Gosa, the central station of the Abukaya country, was only 

 raised to the rank of a station a few months ago. It is ad- 

 mirably situated for watching the road from Monbuttu to the 

 north, and those leading to the district of Rol and to the 

 Bahr-el-Ghazal. My experiences last year in Amadi proved 

 the necessity of this surveillance. Cotton has thriven so well 

 here that it has given rise to the industry of weaving, which 

 will probably be of considerable importance in the future. 

 The inhabitants — at present only the Danagla and their ser- 

 vants — weave the light cotton stuff known throughout the 

 Sudan as damur, which is so very well suited to our climate. 

 It is better made here than I have ever seen it in Khartum. 

 Gosa lies so low that I was unable to obtain views of either 

 mountains or hills, and a platform which I constructed for the 

 purpose proved of no use. The surrounding land had been 

 denuded of trees, and the steppe was covered with burnt grass, 

 so that I could not add to my collections. Even the birds which 

 I noticed or obtained were hardly worth taking trouble about. 



13. From Gosa vil Abukaya and Makeaka-Sugaibe 



to Wandi. 



THE PArAW-TREE — A ROUNDABOUT WAT — TROOPS OF MONKEYS — GRANITE 

 HILLS — EXTENSIVE DURRAH-FIELDS — AFRICAN STILL-LIFE. 



Climbing slowly out of the depression in which Gosa lay, and 

 passing through a very wild bushwood and by many scattered 

 villages, we reached the first of the low ranges of hills of 

 which the highest point is named Luttu ; it lay at a short 

 distance to the left of our path, and near the small village 



