LAKE NO 
257 
when it fails, . . . words fail likewise. Thrice this year 
(1914) we suffered grievous disillusionment, and the 
torments and tortures endured under such circumstance 
are indescribable. My diary records, “The very air is 
damp and deadly enervating; yet we stick to our work. 
We take ten grains quinine nightly (instead of the 
normal five).” 
During the period we lay anchored at Moghrem—the 
water-meeting of the two great river-systems—we enjoyed 
opportunity of watching the process by which Sudd is 
formed and consolidated. Down the main stream came 
drifting along the perky little water-cabbages (Pistia 
stratiotes ), singly, or in groups of two, three, or a dozen. 
Each individual voyager was no bigger than a saucer, 
but its prehensile roots reached down a couple of feet 
below. Slowly one by one they would circle round the 
semi-stagnant confluence, the various groups gradually 
coalescing till, in some shallow, the long pendent tendrils 
found root-hold and the voyage ceased. Within an hour 
several other units—perhaps a small “raft”—had drifted 
alongside and joined forces, till a consolidated islet of 
floating plants, each securely moored, had formed as 
big as a billiard-table. I particularly remember the size 
because, at sundown, two jacanas thought it worth their 
while to paddle out to investigate what game (in the 
shape of aquatic insects) the new covert might shelter. 
Next morning, since Nature’s processes go on all night, 
the islet had completely joined up with the shore and 
occupied a space like the site of a cottage. Twenty-four 
hours later, five or six cottages might have found room, 
and the whole accumulation, as I found on examination, 
was firmly anchored by root-hold to the river-bed beneath. 
If such results be accomplished in a couple of days, one 
ceases to wonder that, during centuries, the whole channel 
of Nile should be blocked for 400 miles by an insignificant 
water-cabbage. 
R 
