100 
DESICCATION OF EAST AFRICA 
It is also interesting to notice that at this time the Red 
Sea was called the Sea of Reeds, and I believe that a certain 
amount of fresh water is necessary for the propagation of 
this plant. Certainly the reeds have ceased to exist. 
This tends to show that at that time the shores of the 
Red Sea were therefore much better watered than they are 
at present. 
Not only that, but the high-water level of the Nile was 
over thirty feet higher than it is at present. 
Now if one proceeds southward up the Nile above Khartoum, 
evidences can be seen which point to the extent of the Sudd 
being at least twice what it is at present. 
If you dig anywhere between the White Nile and the 
Abyssinian plateau, you will dig 120 feet through white 
sand, and not find a stone the size of your finger-nail in it. On 
the top of this sand occurs a layer of about six feet of black 
mud. It is considered that this mud marks the area originally 
covered by the Sudd. 
At many places at the foot of the Western Abyssinian 
escarpment there is a regular formation which reminds one of 
an ancient beach. Numerous streams run down from the 
hills of Western Abyssinia, and when they reach the alluvial 
plain sink in and disappear. A large amount, of water is 
thus continually lost, and must flow away towards the Nile. 
Some authorities* are of opinion that there is a vast amount 
of water stored in the sands in the Nile valley and its vicinity, 
but at a lower level than the river bed and unaffected by the 
rise and fall of the Nile and its tributaries. 
To go back to the country farther south, but north of 
the Kenia-Elgon line, any old native will here point out places 
where in their boyhood they used to water their cattle. Large 
stretches of this country are now bondis or dry watercourses. 
The history of the Euaso Nyiro, which now virtually ceases 
in the Lorian, is too well known to all to note beyond the fact 
that it used originally to run from there into the sea. 
North of that comes a stretch of country called Ingaroni, 
or the waterless district. 
This district ceases at Essery, where again the water of 
the Sayer sinks into the ground. 
