The river ceased to exist.
It may readily be imagined that a dense spongy mass which completely
closed the river would act as a filter: thus, as the water charged with
muddy particles arrived at the dam where the stream was suddenly
checked, it would deposit all impurities as it oozed and percolated
slowly through the tangled but compressed mass of vegetation. This
deposit quickly created mud-banks and shoals, which effectually blocked
the original bed of the river. The reedy vegetation of the country
immediately took root upon these favourable conditions, and the rapid
growth in a tropical climate may be imagined. That which had been the
river bed was converted into a solid marsh.
This terrible accumulation had been increasing for five or six years,
therefore it is impossible to ascertain or even to speculate upon the
distance to which it might extend. The slave-traders had been obliged to
seek another rout, which they had found via the Bahr Giraffe, which
river had proved to be merely a branch of the White Nile, as I had
suggested in my former work, and not an independent river.
I was rather anxious about this new route, as I had heard conflicting
accounts in Khartoum concerning the possibility of navigating such large
vessels as the steamers of thirty-two horse-power and a hundred feet
length of deck. I was provided with guides who professed to be
thoroughly acquainted with the river; these people were captains of
trading vessels, who had made the voyage frequently.
On 18th February, at 10 A.M., the rear vessels of the fleet arrived, and
at 11.40 A.M., the steamers worked up against the strong current
independently. Towing was difficult, owing to the sharp turns of the
river. The Bahr Giraffe was about seventy yards in width, and at this
season the banks were high and dry. Throughout the voyage on the White
Nile we had had excellent wild-fowl shooting whenever we had halted to
cut fuel for the steamers. One afternoon I killed a hippopotamus, two
crocodiles, and two pelicans, with the rifle. At the mouth of the Bahr
Giraffe I bagged twenty-two ducks at a right and left shot with a No.
10-shot gun.
As the fleet now slowly sailed against the strong, current of the Bahr
Giraffe, I walked along the hank with Lieutenant Baker, and shot ten of
the large francolin partridge, which in this dry season were very
numerous. The country was as usual flat, but bearing due south of the
Bahr Giraffe junction, about twelve miles distant, is a low granite
hill, partially covered with trees; this is the first of four similar
low hills that are the only rising points above the vast prairie of flat
plain.
