310 
CHAP. XL VIII. 
THE TWO RIVERS. ENTRANCE INTO BAGIRMI. 
It was ten o'clock in the morning when 
March 16th. f f ° 
I left Karnak Logon in order to penetrate 
into unknown regions, never before trodden by 
European foot ; and a short time afterwards I was 
sitting in the boat, while our horses, the camel, and 
the bullock were partly swimming across and partly 
fording the river. The water was in general shallow, 
though in the deepest place it measured eight feet 
and a half. The current was about three miles an 
hour. The country at that period had a very dif- 
ferent appearance from what it presented on my return 
from Bagirmi. At present all those low grounds, 
which later in the season are entirely inundated, 
had a swampy, cheerless aspect, and I hastened on- 
wards in order to escape from the unhealthy locality, 
heated by the rays of the mid-day sun. Only now 
and then a small patch of cotton-ground was seen 
between the tall jungle. Close to the river there is 
scarcely a single tree ; but further on, where the 
country becomes more cultivated, isolated karage- 
trees, together with straggling groups of cottages, 
