THE PASSAGE OF LAKE CHAD loi 



course, I luckily picked up the direction of Jose's boat, for 

 on finding that I was not following he had placed sticks with 

 pieces of paper tied to them in the water at intervals. Round 



KUKI CUTTING NEAR SHAM MOUTH 



the south-east corner of the Lake the country becomes 

 marshy in a depression that was once the mouth of the 

 Bahr-el-Ghazal, a river that has been choked by the drifts 

 of sand blown westwards from the Soudan. The same 

 influence is seen in the sand-dunes that are gradually being 

 piled up in the country between Dikwa and the south shore 

 of the Lake. We were now following a path through the 

 reeds that had once been cut by the Kuri for the French, 

 who use it as a means of communication by water between 

 the Shari and their station at Bui. 



About fifteen miles before reaching the Shari mouth, we 

 left the great belts of sombre maria behind and came out of 



