52 
CHARACTER OF BAER El GAZAL. 
[chap. I. 
There are two varieties of convolvolns growing here ; 
also a peculiar gourd, which, when dry and divested of 
its shell, exposes a vegetable sponge, formed of a dense 
but fine network of fibres; the seeds are contained in 
the centre of this fibre. The bright yellow flowers of 
the ambatch, and of a tree resembling a laburnum, 
are in great profusion. The men completely done : I 
served them out a measure of grog. The “ Clumsy ” 
not in sight. 
Jan. 8th .—Waited all night for the “ Clumsy.” She 
appeared at 8 a.m., when the reis and several men 
received the w r hip for laziness. All three vessels 
now rounded a sharp turn in the river, and the wind 
being then favourable, we were soon under sail. The 
clear water of the river from the Bahr el Gazal to this 
point, does not exceed a hundred and twenty yards in 
width. The stream runs at one and three-quarter 
miles per hour, bringing with it a quantity of floating 
vegetation. The fact of a strong current both above 
and below the Bahr el Gazal junction, while the lake at 
that point is dead water, proves that I was right in my 
surmise, that no water flows from the Bahr el Gazal 
into the Nile during this season, and that the lake and 
the extensive marshes at that locality are caused as 
much by the surplus water of the White Nile flowing 
into a depression, as they are by the Bahr el Gazal, the 
