2 
SAVAGE SUDAN 
thousand miles southward (excepting the interruption of 
the Sudd) fertile plains border the Nile, every mile of 
them deep black “cotton-soil,” the alluvial deposit of age¬ 
long Nile-floods, and all capable —subject to irrigation — 
of producing perennial crops of grain, cotton, and coffee. 
These introduced products, supplemented by the natural 
yields from rubber, fibre, gum, and other indigenous 
tropical plants, will in the years to come reinforce the 
resources of the British Empire. At present the fat years 
must remain a dream of the future; meanwhile the big- 
game hunter may enjoy his passing day. 
The human inhabitants of these vast southern regions 
are exclusively the aboriginal black tribes, still absolutely 
and delightfully “savage,” since Arab colonisation (as 
distinguished from mere slave-raiding) never penetrated 
beyond the southern fringe of the Deserts. 
To the hunter-naturalist the facts set forth convey a 
forceful appeal; for to him they imply nothing less than 
the survival of a Terrestrial Paradise and, in my case, a 
preliminary survey promptly proved that the presumption 
was correct. As a hunting-field, Sudan stands—not first, 
but certainly among the foremost of those still extant, 
and in some respects, unique; while for the study of bird- 
life the basin of Upper Nile forms a focal point hardly 
to be excelled. Even the Deserts possess a fascination 
of their own, though to my regret the interruption of 
the War has prevented a more complete exploration 
of their further recesses. But I have no desire to make 
extravagant claims for the Sudan, and later in this 
chapter have drawn up a careful comparative analysis 
of its advantages and disadvantages in relation to other 
regions of Africa and elsewhere. 
There is, of course, an obverse to every picture. 
Enthusiasm may be content to ignore the fact, but that 
is hardly ingenuous. Africa possesses minor drawbacks 
in infinite variety. Everything is hard: whatever you 
touch is apt to hurt, to pierce and lacerate. Twenty- 
m. 
