Latitude, by meridian altitude of sun, 9 degrees 29 minutes.
Difference
of time by observation between this point and the Sobat junction, 4 min.
26 secs., 1 degree 6 minutes 30 seconds distance. Caught some perch, but
without the red fin of the European species; also some boulti with the
net. The latter is a variety of perch growing to about four pounds'
weight, and is excellent eating.
Sailed at 3 P.M. Masses of the beautiful but gloomy Papyrus rush,
growing in dense thickets about eighteen feet above the water. I
measured the diameter of one head, or crown, four feet one inch. _ Jan.
7th. - Started at 6 A.M.; course E. 10 degrees S.; wind dead against us;
the "Clumsy" not in sight. Obliged to haul along by fastening long ropes
to the grass about a hundred yards ahead. This is frightful work; the
men must swim that distance to secure the rope, and those on board
hauling it in gradually, pull the vessel against the stream. Nothing can
exceed the labor and tediousness of this operation. From constant work
in the water many of my men are suffering from fever. The temperature is
much higher than when we left Khartoum; the country, as usual, one vast
marsh. At night the hoarse music of hippopotami snorting and playing
among the high-flooded reeds, and the singing of countless myriads of
mosquitoes - the nightingales of the White Nile. My black fellow,
Richarn, whom I had appointed corporal, will soon be reduced to the
ranks; the animal is spoiled by sheer drink.
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