KHARTOUM 
455 
CH„ Xv] 
ul Allah.” As we went down the Nile we kept seeing 
more and more of the birds which I remembered, one 
species after another appearing ; familiar cow herons, 
crocodile plover, noisy spurwing plover, black and white 
kingfishers, hoopoos, green bee-eaters, black and white 
chats, desert larks, and trumpeter bullfinches. 
At night we sat on deck and watched the stars and 
the dark, lonely river. The swimming crocodiles and 
plunging hippos made whirls and wakes of feeble light 
that glimmered for a moment against the black water. 
The unseen birds of the marsh and the night called to 
one another in strange voices. Often there were grass 
fires, burning, leaping, lines of red, the lurid glare in 
the sky above them making even more sombre the 
surrounding gloom. 
As we steamed northward down the long stretch of 
the Nile which ends at Khartoum, the wind blew in our 
faces, day after day, hard and steadily. Narrow reed- 
beds bordered the shore ; there were grass flats and 
groves of acacias and palms, and farther down reaches 
of sandy desert. The health of our companions who 
had been suffering from fever and dysentery gradually 
improved; but the case of champagne, which we had 
first opened at Gondokoro, was of real service, for two 
members of the party were at times so sick that their 
situation was critical. 
We reached Khartoum on the afternoon of March 14, 
1910, and Kermit and I parted from our comrades of 
the trip with real regret. During the year we spent 
together there had not been a jar, and my respect and 
liking for them had grown steadily. Moreover, it was 
a sad parting from our faithful black followers, whom 
we knew we should never see again. It had been an 
interesting and a happy year; though I was very glad 
