— 92 — 
1.83 metres gave an increased section o£ 732 square metres ; while, if 
the bed had not scoured, it would have been 421 square metres. We 
have here an increase of 311 square metres, or more than 1 metre of 
scour. All this happened in 5 months, and proves that the clear 
water of the lakes, when in volume, has a fine cutting edge. 
In footnote (2) of page 11 6 of his Report, Sir William Glarstin says that 
in the parts of the river where the sudd has been cleared there are indi- 
cations that a scour of the bed has set in. Again, on page 55 of the 
appendix, he says that the removal of the sudds has caused the levels 
of the shallow lakes to fall. All this proves that if the spills and escapes 
from the Albert Nile were closed with ambatch, as proposed by Sir 
William Garstin on page 175, and a few dredgers put into the Albert Nile 
and the Zeraf river the expenditure of a sum of money very moderate 
indeed compared with £5,500,000 would in all probability result in 
the two rivers being so widened and deepened that they could carry 
the full summer supply of the lakes, and so there would be a resulting 
economy of over £4,500,000 in the new channel from Bor which, 
when it began working, might introduce on an aggravated scale all 
the difficulties of to-day in the Albert Nile. 
A good description of certain spills is given on page 112 of the 
Report, a good idea of scour in Plate XXIX., opposite page 110, while 
on page 181 Sir William Garstin makes the remark that the experience 
of American engineers has taught us that though in theory it may be 
possible to shorten or straighten a great river, in actual practice it is 
accompanied with almost insurmountable difficulties. If the new chan- 
nel were dug and set working, in a few years it might be as crooked 
as the Albert Nile itself, unless it were protected with stone along its 
entire length. 
In my project for deepening and widening both the Albert Nile and 
the Zeraf river to enable them to carry 600 cubic metres per second, 
I think I have given very solid reasons against abandoning the Albert 
Nile and sending the whole supply down the Zeraf river at a cost of 
£3,400,000. 
I cannot but think that Sir William Garstin’s recent objections to 
the Albert Nile are founded on an oversight. He has, apparently, 
not kept the flood discharges of the Albert Nile at Gondokoro 
and above the Sobat mouth sufficiently apart from those of low 
supply. It is the Sobat flood, combined with the poor carrying 
capacity of the White Nile, which is the disturbing factor, and 
