48 
BAHR GIRAFFE. 
[CIIAP. Ii 
resembling high sugar canes, which conceal the true 
extent of the river. About six miles west-from the 
Sobat junction on the north side of the river, is a kind 
of backwater, extending north like a lake for a dis¬ 
tance of several days’ boat journey : this is eventually 
lost in regions of high grass and marshes; in the wet- 
season this forms a large lake. A hill bearing north 
20° west so distant as to be hardly discernible. The 
Bahr Giraffe is a small river entering the Nile on the 
south bank between the Sobat and Bahr el Gazal—my 
reis (Diabb) tells me it is merely a branch from the 
White Nile from the Aliab country, and not an inde¬ 
pendent river. Course west, 10° north, the current 
about one mile per hour. Marshes and ambatch, far 
as the eye can reach. 
At 6.40 p.m. reached the Bahr el Gazal; the junction 
has the appearance of a lake about three miles in 
length, by one in width, varying according to seasons. 
Although bank-full, there is no stream whatever from 
the Bahr el Gazal, and it has the appearance of a back¬ 
water formed by the Nile. The water being clear and 
perfectly dead, a stranger would imagine it to be an 
overflow of the Nile, were the existence of the Bahr el 
Gazal unknown. 
The Bahr el Gazal extends due west from this point 
for a great distance, the entire river being a system 
