94 TlMEHRI. 
on every day. The description given by Col. Gordon 
of how this goes on in the Nile is so applicable to British 
Guiana that I copy it. The following description might 
have been written of the Lamaha, barring the hippopotami. 
We disturbed some fine alligators and camoudi : — 
" I have made enquiries, and find that Baker cut through some 80 
miles of the " sudd" or vegetable barrier ; the other day my steamer 
found tins quite closed up. 
A curious little cabbage-like aquatic plant comes floating down, 
having a little root ready to attach itself to anything: he meets a 
friend and they go together, and soon join roots, and so on. When 
they get to a lake the current is strong, and so, no longer constrained to 
move on, they go off to the sides ; others do the same, idle and loitering, 
like everything up here. After a time winds drive a whole fleet of 
them against the narrow outlets of the lake and stop it up. Then no 
more passenger plants can pass through the outlet, while plenty come 
in at the upper end of the lake ; these eventually fill up all the passage 
which may have been made. Supposing I cut through the vegetation, 
I may have it closed any day by a wind blowing a floe of these weeds 
from one side of the lake to the other ; so that the only way would be 
to clear out the lake of vegetation altogether, or to anchor the banks 
of " sudd" so as to prevent the winds blowing them together. Below 
Gondokoro it spreads out into lakes ; on the edge of these lakes an 
aquatic plant, with roots extending five feet into the water, flourishes. 
The natives burn the top parts when dry ; the ashes form mould, and 
fresh grasses grow, till it becomes like terra firma. The Nile rises and 
floats out the masses; they come down to a curve and there stop. 
More of these islands float down, and at last the river is blocked. 
Though under them the water flows, no communication can take place, 
for they bridge the river for several miles. Last year the Governor 
went up, and with three companies and two steamers he cut large 
blocks of the vegetation away. At last one night the water burst the 
remaining part and swept down on the vessels, dragged the steamers 
down some four miles, and cleared the passage. The Governor says the 
scene was terrible. The hippopotami were carried down, screaming and 
snorting; crocodiles were whirled round and round, and the river was 
covered with dead and dying hippopotami, crocodiles and fish which 
