This Morning Is One Of Those
Days Of Blowing Hard, With The Accompaniments Of Screaming And Shouting.
Course S.E. Waited Half A Day For The "Clumsy," Which Hove In Sight Just
Before Dark; The Detentions Caused By This Vessel Are Becoming Serious,
A Quick Voyage Being Indispensable For The Animals.
The camels are
already suffering from confinement, and I have their legs well swathed
in wet bandages.
This marsh land varies in width. In some portions of the river it
appears to extend for about two miles on either side; in other parts
farther than the eye can reach. In all cases the main country is a dead
flat; now blazing and smoking beyond the limit of marshes, as the
natives have fired the dry grass in all directions. Reeds, similar in
appearance to bamboos but distinct from them, big water-grass, like
sugarcanes, excellent fodder for the cattle, and the ever-present
ambatch, cover the morasses. Innumerable mosquitoes.
Jan. 12th - Fine breeze in the morning, but obliged to wait for the
"Clumsy", which arrived at 10 A.M. How absurd are some descriptions of
the White Nile, which state that there is no current! At some parts,
like that from just above the Sobat junction to Khartoum, there is but
little, but since we have left the Bahr el Gazal the stream runs from
one and three-quarters to two and a half miles per hour, varying in
localities. Here it is not more than a hundred yards wide in clear
water.
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