380 NOUER COUNTRY BAHR-EL-GHAZAL. 
from the south, and brought our fleet together again. 
They had been alarmed, and expressed a wish for 
gunpowder, as the tribe of Shillock had lately killed a 
trading party three hundred strong, and were bent on 
attack. Some traders' boats we met "hedging" up 
stream conveyed us this news. It must be extremely 
tedious going up the Nile where the shores do not 
admit of landing to tow the boat. The plan adopted 
is this, — ten men being engaged, a row-boat goes 
ahead with a cable and anchors, and the large boat is 
then pulled up to the smaller, much in the same way 
as they " kedge " on the Ganges. We observed that 
the huts in the Nouer country were numerous and 
large ; they lie in open plains, which are dotted with 
cattle and goats, at some distance from the river bank. 
The papyrus, the pith-tree, or ambadj, and reeds, line 
the sides of the river, and beyond them was a forest 
of acacias, which afforded us an opportunity of laying 
in a supply of firewood. The tracks of elephants were 
numerous ; and the damage done by the gigantic 
brutes in eating the pods of the trees and breaking 
down the branches is very great. While in the Nouer 
country we had the extreme pleasure of seeing the 
polar star for the first time after nearly three years, 
as bright as ever, and in the old place ! 
On reaching the Bahr-el-Ghazal, an affluent of the 
Nile, our boatmen fired a single gun as a salute. 
They told us this was done both on the up and down 
voyage. Our river, which had lately been averaging 
eighty and a hundred yards wide, kept its course, not 
mingling its waters with the Bahr-el-Ghazal, which 
here was without debris or apparent current, looking 
more like a back-water or still pond half a mile 
