One of my boatmen is a professional fisherman who
understands the casting-net, but he is the only man who can use it.
"April 7. - The channel is again blocked up; all hands clearing into the
next lake. Another soldier died - making a total of nine; with two
sailors and a boy - total twelve.
"April 8. - Passed into lake No. 2, and by the afternoon reached lake No.
3, where we found our old channel blocked up. I set men to work to open
the passage, but there is no chance of its completion until about noon
to-morrow. Since we passed this lake a change has taken place, the
obstruction through which we cut a channel has entirely broken up. Large
rafts of about two acres each have drifted asunder, and have floated to
the end of the lake. It is thus impossible to predict what the future
may effect. There can be no doubt that the whole of this country was at
some former period a lake, which has gradually filled up with
vegetation. The dry land, which is only exposed during the hot season,
is the result of the decay of vegetable matter. The ashes of the grass
that is annually burnt, by degrees form a soil. We are even now
witnessing the operation that has formed, and is still increasing, the
vast tract of alluvial soil through which we have passed. There is not a
stone nor even a small pebble for a distance of two hundred miles; the
country is simple mud.
"April 9. - Passed the old channel at 11.45 a.m., after much labour, and
we found the long five-mile cutting pretty clear, with the exception of
two or three small obstructions. At 5.30 p.m. we reached the Bahr
Giraffe, from which extremely narrow channel we had first commenced our
difficult work of cutting through many miles of country.
"Who could believe the change? Some evil spirit appears to rule in this
horrible region of everlasting swamp. A wave of the demon's wand, and an
incredible change appears! The narrow and choked Bahr Giraffe has
disappeared; instead of which a river of a hundred yards' width of clear
running water meets us at the junction of our cutting. As far as the eye
can reach to the E.S.E., there is a succession of large open sheets of
water where a few days ago we saw nothing but a boundless plain of marsh
grass, without one drop of water visible. These sheets of water mark the
course of a river, but each lake is separated by a dam of floating
vegetation. The volume of water is very important, and a stream is
running at the rate of three miles an hour.
