186 DRAINAGE TOWARDS THE SOBAT. [chap. y. 
the ford. The banks were very abrupt and about 
fifteen feet deep, the bed between forty and fifty 
yards wide; thus a considerable volume of water is 
carried down to the river Sobat by this river during 
the rains. The whole drainage of the country tends 
to the east, and accordingly flows into the Sobat. The 
range of mountains running south from Ellyria is the 
watershed between the east and west drainage; the 
Sobat receiving it on the one hand, and the White Nile 
on the other, while the Nile eventually receives the 
entire flow by the Sobat, as previously mentioned, in 
lat. 9° 22 '. 
Having scrambled up the steep bank of the Kanieti 
river, we crossed a large field of dhurra, and arrived 
at the village of Wakkala. The village, or town, is 
composed of about seven hundred houses, the whole 
being most strongly protected by a system of pali¬ 
sades formed of “babanoose,” the hard iron wood of 
the country. Not only is it thus fortified, but the 
palisades are also protected by a hedge of impervious 
thorns that grow to a height of about twenty feet. 
The entrance to this fort is a curious archway, about 
ten feet deep, formed of the iron-wood palisades, with 
a sharp turn to the right and left forming a ziggag. 
The whole of the village thus fenced is situated in 
the midst of a splendid forest of large timber. The 
