On The Contrary, The White
Nile And The Sobat, Although Not At Their Highest, Are Bank-Full, While
The Former
Two are failing; this proves that the White Nile and the
Sobat rise far south, among mountains subject to a
Rainfall at different
seasons, extending over a greater portion of the year than the rainy
season of Abyssinia and the neighbouring Galla country.
It is not surprising that the ancients gave up the exploration of the
Nile when they came to the countless windings and difficulties of the
marshes; the river is like an entangled skein of thread. Wind light;
course S. 20 degrees W. The strong north wind that took us from Khartoum
has long since become a mere breath. It never blows in this latitude
regularly from the north. The wind commences at between 8 and 9 A.M.,
and sinks at sunset; thus the voyage through these frightful marshes and
windings is tedious and melancholy beyond description. Great numbers of
hippopotami this evening, greeting the boats with their loud snorting
bellow, which vibrates through the vessels.
Jan. 9th. - Two natives fishing; left their canoe and ran on the approach
of our boats. My men wished to steal it, which of course I prevented; it
was a simple dome palm hollowed. In the canoe was a harpoon, very neatly
made, with only one barb. Both sides of the river from the Bahr el Gazal
belong to the Nuehr tribe. Course S.E.; wind very light; windings of
river endless; continual hauling. At about half an hour before sunset,
as the men were hauling the boat along by dragging at the high reeds
from the deck, a man at the mast-head reported a buffalo standing on a
dry piece of ground near the river; being in want of meat, the men
begged me to shoot him. The buffalo was so concealed by the high grass,
that he could not be seen from the deck; I therefore stood upon an
angarep (bedstead) on the poop, and from this I could just discern his
head and shoulders in the high grass, about a hundred and twenty yards
off. I fired with No. 1 Reilly rifle, and he dropped apparently dead to
the shot. The men being hungry, were mad with delight, and regardless of
all but meat, they dashed into the water, and were shortly at him; one
man holding him by the tail, another dancing upon him and brandishing
his knife, and all shouting a yell of exultation. Presently up jumped
the insulted buffalo, and charging through the men, he disappeared in
the high grass, falling, as the men declared, in the deep morass. It was
dusk, and the men, being rather ashamed of their folly in dancing
instead of hamstringing the animal and securing their beef, slunk back
to their vessels.
Jan. 10th. - Early in the morning the buffalo was heard groaning in the
marsh, not far from the spot where he was supposed to have fallen. About
forty men took their guns and knives, intent upon beefsteaks, and waded
knee-deep in mud and water through the high grass of the morass in
search.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 35 of 343
Words from 17787 to 18313
of 178435
