The New British Empire of the Sudan 265 



instead of round, and the "whorl" at the 

 top spreading in all directions and seed- 

 less. As the boat pushes its way, the rip- 

 ples of the water set the stalks swinging 

 and the spray-like heads swaying in a 

 picturesque manner ; but other than this, 

 motion is unknown. Of course, under 

 the tropical sun the growth is rapid, and 

 decay equally speedy. So the process of 

 reproduction goes incessantly on, and all 

 the activity and energy of man is re- 

 quired to keep the navigable channels 

 open. 



The course of the river through the 

 swamps is tortuous in the extreme, and 

 that the right channel can be kept, where 

 there are two or three others which, to 

 the untrained eye, look exactly like it, 

 seems little short of marvelous. The dis- 

 tance traveled by the steamer from Khar- 

 tum to Gondokoro, 1,150 miles, is about 

 300 miles more than that of the air line, 

 the greater part of the excess being ac- 

 counted for by the winding channels of 

 the great swamps. 



Cutting out the sudd, the blocks of 

 papyrus, and other vegetable growths has 

 been vigorously prosecuted by the Sudan 

 government, and this season will see the 

 last obstruction removed and the true 

 channel opened from end to end. 



At Bor, 1,071 miles from Khartum, es- 

 tablished by Gordon thirty years ago as 

 an Egyptian outpost, and now a wooding 

 station, dry land appears, and one realizes 

 how Noah must have felt after his 

 memorable experience. The banks are 

 low, not more than ten or a dozen 

 feet high, but the everlasting papy- 

 rus disappears, tall reeds and waving 

 grasses line the river, here not more than 

 50 yards wide, and in the near distance, 

 •over the rank vegetation, can be seen the 

 tops of the forest trees. Conditions be- 

 come more definitely tropical, and the 

 shores often look like the true jungle. 

 Wide-spreading trees droop festoons of 

 vines, the queer inverted umbrella-shaped 

 euphorbia becomes frequent, great cacti 

 show themselves on the dryer spots, and 

 altogether a world of wholly new flora 

 is opened. The current is swifter, but 



the channel no straighter, the Dal and 

 her two barges often lurching up like a 

 drunken man unsteady in the gale against 

 the bank, compelling her to back off and 

 pull out as best she may. Less than a 

 hundred miles remain of the journey 

 after Bor, but it is all interesting and 

 along a historic course. 



LADO 



The morning approach to Lado is par- 

 ticularly impressive when the sun lights 

 up the great pyramidal Lado Mountain, 

 which rises sheer from the plains 3,000 

 or 3,500 feet, a sight doubly welcome 

 after the dead levels of the river country 

 and the watery wastes of the swamps. 

 Beyond Lado 20 miles through a pleasing 

 and apparently fertile land the Dal 

 pushes against the swift current until 

 she moors against the steep banks and 

 under the overhanging trees of Gondo- 

 koro, Baker Pasha's old Ismailia of more 

 than 40 years ago. We are at the head 

 of navigation on the Nile, unless that dis- 

 tinction may be allowed to Redjaf, the 

 Belgian post 20 miles farther up, which 

 runs a little military dispatch boat, with 

 a flag several sizes' too large for it, to 

 Lado once or twice a week for officers 

 and mail. Beyond Gondokoro east and 

 south the mountains rise, outposts of the 

 great Central African ranges, from 

 which come the streams feeding Albert 

 and Victoria lakes, and one really turns 

 again toward the North Star and home 

 with a sense of regret that the inviting 

 journey southward may not be at- 

 tempted ; for there is a perfectly practi- 

 cable post road for mails and porters 120 

 miles to Nimule; thence by boat to the 

 head of Albert Edward Lake, and again 

 on foot overland to the western terminal 

 of the Uganda Railway, by which the 

 Indian Ocean and all the ships that sail it 

 may be reached at Mombasa. 



By an arrangement which seems gen- 

 erous to the verge of safety and more lib- 

 eral than precedent warrants, Great Brit- 

 ain during the remainder of the reign of 

 King Leopold waives jurisdiction over 

 the Lado enclave and yields to Belgium 



