From East Bank - The Sobat, First Class; Full From June To December.
The Bahr Giraffe I omit, as it is admitted by the natives to be a branch
of the White Nile that leaves the main river at the Aliab country and
reunites in lat.
9 degrees 25 minutes between the Bahr el Gazal and the
Sobat. The latter river (Sobat) is the most powerful affluent of the
White Nile, and is probably fed by many tributaries from the Galla
country about Kaffa, in addition to receiving the rivers from the Bari
and Latooka countries. I consider that the Sobat must be supplied by
considerable streams from totally distinct countries east and south,
having a rainfall at different seasons, as it is bank-full at the end of
December, when the southern rivers (the Asua, &c.) are extremely low.
North from the Sobat, the White Nile has no other tributaries until it
is joined by the Blue Nile at Khartoum, and by its last affluent the
Atbara in lat. 17 degrees 37 minutes. These two great mountain streams
flooding suddenly in the end of June, fed by the rains of Abyssinia,
raise the volume of the Nile to an extent that causes the inundations of
Lower Egypt.
The basin of the Nile being thus understood, let us reflect upon the
natural resources of the vast surface of fertile soil that is comprised
in that portion of Central Africa. It is difficult to believe that so
magnificent a soil and so enormous an extent of country is destined to
remain for ever in savagedom, and yet it is hard to argue on the
possibility of improvement in a portion of the world inhabited by
savages whose happiness consists in idleness or warfare.
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