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In 1898 Lord Kitchener found the Albert Kile sudded south of Lake 
No, and in March 1899 Sparkesbey, of the Egyptian Army, steamed up 
the Bahr Zeraf to within 30 kilometres of its head. 
At the same time Sir William Garstin thought the Bahr Zeraf a 
stronger stream than the Albert Kile. 
Descending the Albert Kile from Uganda, Colonel Martyr found the 
Albert Kile sudded 30 kilometres north of Ghaba Shambe. 
In 1900 and 1901 Major Peake, C. M. G., R. A., and Lieut. Drury, 
R.K., removed sudd blocks Kos. 1 to 14, and 16 to 19, between Lake 
Ko and Ghaba Shambe. There now remains only block Ko. 15 south 
of Hillet-el-Kuer. 
The condition of the channel to-day has been described under the 
heading of the Albert Kile. It is a very fair channel except at the 
diversion round block Ko. 15, which Sir William Garstin is very eager 
to see removed. 
18. The White Nile. — The White Kile stretches from the Sobat 
mouth to Khartoum and has a length of 838 kilometres and very little 
fall. It everywhere bears traces of having been the channel of the 
Blue Kile when in ancient times the Gebel-Royan hill had not been 
cut through by the Kile, and the Blue Kile itself flowed south into 
the great lake which is to-day the sudd region of the Albert Kile. If 
the Blue Kile discharged, as it does to-day, about 2500 cubic metres per 
second throughout the year, the Sobat 600 cubic metres, the Albert 
Kile 1000, the Gazelle tributaries 700, and the rainfall on the lake 
itself was 1 metre per annum, while the evaporation was 2^ metres, 
(all reasonable figures), the water entering the lake was 300 cubic 
kilometres per annum and the evaporation was the same, provided the 
lake had an area of 120,000 square kilometres, which is, moreover, 
reasonable when we examine the plan. During the whole of this 
period, the valley of the Kile in Egypt received its water from the 
Atbara alone. 
The waters of the Sobat river in flood give its name to the White 
Kile. At Tewfikieh, near the head of the White Kile, is a gauge. For 
the first 500 kilometres the river is described by Sir William Garstin as 
having a waterway of from 300 to 500 metres in width with numerous 
islands. The depth of water in summer is 5 metres and 7 metres in 
flood. On either side of the waterway is a low ridge swamped in flood, 
and beyond that on either side is a deep depression, deep in the centre 
and rising to the ridge on one side and to the high land and forest on 
