492 
PASSAGE THROUGH THE DAM. 
[chap. XIX. 
cutting the canal; the graves of these dead were upon 
the dam. The bottom of the canal that had been cut 
through the dam was perfectly firm, composed of sand, 
mud, and interwoven decaying vegetation. The river 
arrived with great force at the abrupt edge of the 
obstruction, bringing with it all kinds of trash and 
large floating islands. None of these objects hitched 
against the edge, but the instant they struck, they 
dived under and disappeared. It was in this manner 
that the vessel had been lost—having missed the 
narrow entrance to the canal, she had struck the dam 
stem on; the force of the current immediately turned 
her broadside against the obstruction ; the floating 
islands and masses of vegetation brought down by the 
river were heaped against her, and heeling over on her 
side she was sucked bodily under and carried beneath 
the dam ; her crew had time to save themselves by 
leaping upon the firm barrier that had wrecked their 
ship. The boatmen told me that dead hippopotami 
had been found on the other side, that had been carried 
under the dam and drowned. 
Two days' hard work from morning till night brought 
us through the canal, and we once more found our¬ 
selves on the open Nile on the other side of the dam. 
The river was in that spot perfectly clean, not a vestige 
of floating vegetation could be seen upon its waters ; 
in its subterranean passage it had passed through a 
natural sieve, leaving all foreign matter behind to add 
to the bulk of the already stupendous work. 
All before us was clear and plain sailing. For some 
days two or three of our men had been complaining of 
severe headache, giddiness, and violent pains in the 
spine and between the shoulders. I had been anxious 
when at Gondokoro concerning the vessel, as many 
persons had died on board of the plague during the 
voyage from Khartoum. The men assured me that the 
most fatal symptom was violent bleeding from the nose ; 
in such cases no one had been known to recover. One 
of the boatmen, who had been ailing for some days, 
