i2o The National Geographic Magazine 



heroic efforts of March and and his party 

 in dragging to the very heart of Africa 

 the boats and barges which they would 

 need on the Nile. The Kongo and 

 its tributaries and sub-tributaries, the 

 Ubangi and the Mbomo, are cut by fre- 

 quent rapids. To pass these barriers 

 the boats were carried through the for- 

 ests, sometimes dismantled, sometimes 

 dragged just as they were. Troops of 

 negroes, 1,800 in all, would take hold of 

 the boats and push them along on tree 

 trunks stretched across the yielding 

 earth. Thus the party advanced to 

 Brazzaville, the chief French post on 

 the Kongo, situated at the head of navi- 

 gation of the Ubangi, sometimes travel- 

 ing in their boats on the river, but very 

 often dragging and pushing them along 

 instead. The distance they traveled 

 thus was 2, 187 miles. Between thebasins 

 of the Kongo-Ubangi, and the Nile, 

 the water-divide consists of a slightly 

 undulating plateau, in which the streams 



A vScout in the Desert 



Photo by Flamaud 



follow an uncertain course, so gentle is 

 the slope of the divide. In order to 

 carry the boats across this region, the 

 soldiers of the expedition and the ne- 

 groes opened a road one hundred miles 

 long, over which they shoved the boats 

 and barges. The party reached the 

 basin of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, a tributary 

 of the Nile, in 1897 ; the low water 

 prevented them from continuing their 

 march ; it was not till 1898 that they 

 gained Fashoda on the Nile. From 

 Fashoda, Colonel Marchand continued 

 his march eastward and through Lobat 

 and the lofty Ethiopian plateau, reached 

 Jibuti, on the Red sea, after a complete 

 crossing of the continent. 



In the country of Bahr-el-Ghazal, 

 Commander Roulet, who was sent to 

 join Marchand, gathered much inter- 

 esting geographic information. Ac- 

 cording to this officer, Souet, Iba, and 

 Ruwa, tributariesof the Bahr-el-Ghazal, 

 are dry from December to May. From 

 June to November they rise to a height 

 of 15 to 24 feet, submerging the sur- 

 rounding land and forming between the 

 8th and 9th parallels of north latitude 

 an immense lake hundreds of miles in 

 length. 



The expedition that left Abyssinia 

 before Marchand has brought back a 

 survey of those upper tributaries whose 

 union forms the Sobat. This survey 

 was later completed by the Marchand 

 party. 



This expedition encountered terrible 

 difficulties. While following the valle} T 

 of the Baro toward the Nile in Novem- 

 ber, 1897, they fell into a country of 

 morasses and tall grass, through which 

 they toiled almost buried. One da3' 

 ten hours of unceasing labor advanced 

 them only three and one-half miles. 

 The county was barren and gave no 

 sustenance to the column. Worn with 

 fever, with hunger, and fighting the 

 morasses, deserted by the natives, the 

 little French company were obliged to 

 stop at the Sobat, at the junction of 



