The New British Empire of the Sudan 249 



mirage of noonday as if "the ships of the 

 desert" were actually sailing on the 

 glassy surface of a vast inland sea. 



THE BERBER-SUAKIN RAILWAY 



This distant region has been brought 

 within three or four weeks of New York 

 by the completion of the Suakin-Berber 

 route, the "old line" from Egypt to the 

 Sudan. For centuries camel trains and 

 traffic went in and out this way, and it 

 was along this route, not less than up the 

 Nile, that Gordon looked in vain for his 

 relief. By the completion of this com- 

 paratively short section of 250 miles from 

 Suakin to Damen, the actual point of 

 junction, Khartum and the Sudan have 

 secured their own port on the Red Sea, 

 with direct access thence to all the world, 

 and the problem for transportation for 

 interior Africa is solved. Today a pas- 

 senger may travel from New York to 

 Gondokoro, in Uganda, all the way by 

 water, except for the 270 miles from 

 Suakin to Khartum ; and then, if he has a 

 mind to walk 120 miles farther to Ni- 

 mule, he may sail into the waters of Lake 

 Albert, the very heart of the continent 

 and the source of the Nile. 



It is impossible to exaggerate the com- 

 mercial importance to the Sudan of the 

 new line. Its opening has been hailed with 

 eagerness as the beginning of a new era, 

 not so much because it will reduce the 

 time of passengers and mails from home 

 as because it will solve the fuel question 

 and permit Welsh coal to be laid down at 

 living prices in Khartum — a condition 

 which will at once affect the whole ques- 

 tion of interior transportation. All classes 

 of freight will feel the effects of the 

 change. Politically also the consequences 

 will be momentous, though just how 

 soon they become effective is a matter 

 for Lord Cromer and his associates. 

 The new line will minimize, if not 

 wholly eliminate, the Nile as the way to 

 the Sudan, and will accelerate that sub- 

 stantial autonomy and independence of 

 the provinces which is so much to be de- 

 sired. 



A Water-carrier, Khartum 



TRAVELING UP THE NILE EROM KHARTUM 



Like ancient Gaul, the White Nile and 

 its country readily divides itself into 

 three parts. The first, longer and larger 



A Fruit Seller, Oindurmau 



