Beverly banner. [volume] (Beverly, N.J.) 1877-1964, 1924-09-05


prepared by the Nstionsf Geographic So
ciety. Washington. D., CO
The suggestion, pleasing to the
Egyptians no doubt. that Great Brit
ain abandon the Sudan as she had
given up claims to Egypt, has brought
forth the British statement that she
will continue to consider the Sudan
one of her important African protec-
torates.
The Sudan has for long time been
looked upon by the outside world as
sort Of appendage of Egypt. Such
conceptions have had to be somewhat
revamped since the British apron
strings were cut from the old land Of
the Pharaohs and the Sudan has stood
forth to a greater extent on its own
responsibility. This In thinly peo-
pied land of amazing distances. You
can go south from the Egyptian from
tier six hundred miles by rail before
you get to Khartum. From there
south, you can go another thousand
miles on a flat-bottomed, paddle-wheel
Nile steamer before you reach the
southern boundary Of the Sudan,
which is almost on the edge of the
great lakes and a third Of the way
to the Cape Of Good Hope.
Unless you refresh your memory by
look at a map OF Africa you are
likely to overlook the fact that the
Sudan has seacoast. South of Egypt
It cuts across eastward to the Red
sea and extends along that body OF
water for some 400 miles. Britain Is
by no means dependent on Egypt to
furnish door to this huge African
realm. Two ports have been devel-
oped on the Red sea, Port Sudan and
Suakin, and both are connected by
modern railway facilities with hun
dreds of miles of the rich Nile valley
including Khartum.
The White Nile splits the Sudan Tor
nearly 1000 miles from south to north
and is navigable the year round above
Khartum.
The Blue Nile runs down from the
Abyssinian hills and joins the main
river at Khartum, forming an apex
called the Gezireh or island" This
vast fiat island is the granary Of the
Sudan.
1t is In the northern part Of this
Gezireh that the new irrigation prof.
ects are being undertaken. Engineers
say land Is the cheapest thing In the
Sudan. Water Is abundant. but labor
is scarce.
Supplies Egypt With Food.
Egypt depends mainly on the Sudan
for Its meat supply, and thousands OF
acres Of land have been put under
pump irrigation to provide food crops
for Egypt, whose people, as one inves-
tigator said, cannot subsist on bank
notes and cotton.
Slavery, once so common along the
Upper Nile, has been largely put down,
except, perhaps, in the remoter re-
gions The country is almost treeless,
especially north of Khartum; the few
trees found are mostly species Of
acacia, known locally as the samr.
South of Khartum, to about IL de-
grees north, narrow belts Of stunt trees
(another sort Of acacia) line the banks
Of rivers. This sunt-wood Is priced
for bodybuilding, for tanning purposes,
! and Is much used for fuel.
Farther south, on the White Nile
where there Is more rain, forest
growths increase, and over in the Blue
Nile country the giant baobabs (Adan-
sonia iigitata) and the Sudan ebony
(Dalnergia melanoxylon) are found.
The Nile, of course, saves this re-
gion also from becoming an empty
waste. Historic and important as this
river is, its sources were for centuries
shrouded in mystery. Early geogra-
piers advanced various odd theories /;
some said the Nile and the Ganges
rose in the frozen mountains Of north
Asia, and other imaginative folk de-
cIared 1t came from "the Mountains Of
the Moon"
| On it's course through the Sudan the
| Nile Is Joined by the Bahr-el-G hazal,
the Sobat, the Blue Nile and the At
! hara. The Bahr-ei-G hazal flows out OF