Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 17, 2025
At 1 p.m. we started with a light air from the northeast, and travelled till 3.30 p.m. along the lake, which narrowed to the dimensions of a moderate river. We at length arrived at a sudd which the advance boats had cleared for about sixty yards. Having emerged, we were introduced to a deep but extremely narrow channel flowing through the usual enormous grass.
The miserable vessels of the Soudan are without decks, thus one heavy shower creates much damage. The men are busy drying their clothes, &c. Two soldiers died. Steamers far astern in the sudd, regularly fixed. "March 20. A boy died. I sent fresh men to the assistance of the steamers, which have to be literally dug out. "March 21.
Their advance was impeded by the sudd, and, after writing discouraging reports, their attempt was abandoned. Among the Greek merchants who traded on the East African coast was one named Diogenes, who had been informed by an Arab that by a twenty-five days' journey one could gain access to a chain of great lakes, two of which were the headwaters of the White Nile.
We returned to the junction, and passed the night at a sudd half a mile up our old channel. "January 20.-At 7 a.m. I took the dingy, and with much difficulty pushed about a mile through the grass until I found the whole country closed by vegetation.
I think the river has opened a new channel, and that the passage of yesterday will take us to nearly the same spot above the sudd that we reached by another route last year. "Many vessels having arrived, I visited the Englishmen and physicked Ramsall and Mr. Higginbotham. At 4.15 p.m. we started, poling round the angle to enter the new channel discovered yesterday.
I had sounded the channel the whole distance, and I have determined to cut a passage through to-morrow. "January 22.-Cut 350 yards through heavy sudd. Last year this piece was 600 yards. We at length reached the small lake where we last year buried the two artillerymen in an ant-hill.
I went back and found them in a terrible fix, as the water is leaving us rapidly, and we must cut a fresh channel through the sand, about one hundred yards long. "February 6.-I took the diahbeeah a mile and a quarter ahead to a sudd, passing over several shallows of only two feet eight inches, and three feet, which will again cause great delay and labour.
In 1900 the greater part of the sudd had been removed by the strenuous labours of Major Peake, and the Nile again became navigable from Khartum to Rejaf. The sudd was found to be piled up and of almost as close a structure as peat. It was sawn out in blocks ten feet square and carried away by gunboats.
"The steamer and fleet are coming through the sudd as fast as the troops clear the channel. "March 15. The steamer arrived in the lake at 3.30 P.M. "March 16. Thermometer, 6 A.M., 61 degrees; noon, 82 degrees. Eleven vessels entered the lake last night.
A curious accident had happened to Ismail Pacha by the sudden break-up of a large portion of the sudd, that had been weakened by cutting a long but narrow channel.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking