The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22

is not far from the equator, and the tropical sun beats down upon it, so that a steam is always rising. It soaks Up the waters of the Nile and gives them out into the air The evaporation is so great that an amount equal to half the capacity of the Assouan reservoir is lost every day and in the summer fully 50 per cent of the water supplied by the great lakes does not get into the main stream of the Nile The water of this swamp IS nowhere much over a mans head, and in most places, except where the main streams flow through, it is only about as deep as his waist The evaporation in- creases at the time of the floods, when more land is covered, and no matter how much water flows into the swamp, only about the same amount flows out. This is so throughout the year.
 The Sudd.
 sfhis vast region is known as tlle Sudd. It is now being explored, and attempts have been made to cut channels through It. I have met some of the surveyors who have attempted to penetrate it and some who have broken away parts of 1t to open up channels for the Nile. They de- scribe it as d vast sheet of brilliant green made up of papyrus. feathery reeds ana sword grass. These rise from five 10 To feet above the water and are broken here and there by patches of ambatch trees and by channels, pools and lagoons The greater part of it has no human inhabi- tants, and this is especially so of that region along, tho Bahr el Ghazal There are sontc Dinlxa villages near Bor and few tribes on tic edge of the Belgian Kongo Farther south at Lado and Con dokoro the region Is populated.
 It is only at the south of the swamp re- gons that big game is to'be seen There ,ferha phants, giraffes ana buffaloes inhabt the edges of the swamps In the heart of 1t, and. in fact, Tn ali parts of it, there are vast numbers of hlppopotami, ard there are all sorts of swamp birds eVeryWhere From the reeds and mud banks clouds or wild cranes. geese, storks, herons, pen- ! cans and ducks of every description rise up as the boats approach, and there 'fe insects by millions. re ere are all sorts of mosquitoes, moth spiders and t'es' and there are uther Insects which carry levers and the tsetse HT which causes the sleeping sickness. Among the queer birds is the whale-headed stork, one of which may be seen here in the palace grounds at Khartum The wild geese are black, white and brown.
 It is impossible to conceive how closely the vegetation of the Sudd is matted to- gether The roots of some of the plants 90 down into the beds of the swamps, others float on the water and the whole is one great united mass. Sometimes section goes loose and becomes a fiof ting island until it reaches a shallow place, where the roots will grow fast again. Such islands often block up the channels | of the river and some of the main trtDu- taries have so much vegetation that 1t IS impossible for boat to make It's way through them.
 Opening Up the Tributaries. Nevertheless one of the projects con- templates the opening up of these tribu- taries of the Nile. It is believed that the , Rahr el Zaraf could be so banked up that if would carry the volume of the Nile and keep 1t out of the swamps, and thus save the enormous amount of water vast ed by evaporation, The river would have to be banked up between Bor and Lake No and in that case it could probably carry the Niles summer water supply. The Bahr el Jebel will also be opened up for navigatio and by some means or other a great part of the river water will be held in it's course. These schemes would mean an expenditure of millions of dollars 1 think the estimate is about l SIS. GOO.
 Shortening the Nile.
 Another project, which seems to be | more feasible, is the digging of canal 1 on the Nile, beginning at Bor and running ] south across to where the Sobat river l flows in. Such a canal would carry the waters of the Nile along on the high lands above the swamps and prevent their flowing into them except when de- sired This canal would need to be little over 200 miles long, and 1t could be controlled at Bor by a regulator across