60 CURRENT OF WHITE NILE. [chap. i. 
This marsh land varies in width. In some portions 
of the river it appears to extend for about two miles 
on either side ; in other parts farther than the eye 
can reach. In all cases the main country is a dead 
flat; now blazing and smoking beyond the limit of 
marshes, as the natives have fired the dry grass in all 
directions. Reeds, similar in appearance to bamboos 
but distinct from them, high water-grass, like sugar- 
canes, excellent fodder for the cattle, and the ever- 
present ambatch, cover the morasses. Innumerable 
mosquitoes. 
Jan. 12th .—Fine breeze in the morning, but obliged 
to wait for the “Clumsy,” which arrived at 10 a.m. How 
absurd are some descriptions of the White Nile, which 
state that there is no current ! At some parts, like 
that from just above the Sobat junction to Khartoum, 
there is but little, but since we have left the Bahr el 
Gazal the stream runs from, one and three-quarters to 
two and a half miles per hour, varying in localities. 
Here it is not more than a hundred yards wide in 
clear water. 
At 11.20 a.m. got under weigh with a rattling 
breeze, but scarcely had we been half an hour under 
sail when crack went the great yard of the “ Clumsy ” 
once more. I had her taken in tow. It is of no use 
repairing the yard again, and, were it not for the 
