From its mouth to 20 m. above Bardera, where at 2° 35´ N. rapids occur, the Juba is navigable by shallow-draught steamers, having a general depth of from 4 to 12 ft., though shallower in places. Just above its mouth it is a fine stream 250 yds. wide, with a current of 2½ knots. Below the mountainous region of the headstreams the Juba and its tributaries flow through a country generally arid away from the banks of the streams. The soil is sandy, covered either with thorn-scrub or rank grass, which in the rainy season affords herbage for the herds of cattle, sheep and camels owned by the Boran Gallas and the Somali who inhabit the district. But by the banks of the lower river the character of the country changes. In this district, known as Gosha, are considerable tracts of forest, and the level of flood water is higher than much of the surrounding land. This low-lying fertile belt stretches along the river for about 300 m., but is not more than a mile or two wide. In the river valley maize, rice, cotton and other crops are cultivated. From Gobwen, a trading settlement about 3 m. above the mouth of the Juba, a road runs S.W. to the seaport of Kismayu, 10 m. distant. The lower Juba was ascended in 1865 in a steamer by Baron Karl von der Decken, who was murdered by Somali at Bardera, but the river system remained otherwise almost unknown until after 1890. In 1891 a survey of its lower course was executed by Captain F. G. Dundas of the British navy, while in 1892-1893 its headstreams were explored by the Italian officers, Captains Vittorio, Bottego and Grixoni, the former of whom disproved the supposed connexion of the Omo (see RUDOLF, LAKE) with the Juba system. It has since been further explored by Prince Eugenio Ruspoli, by Bottego's second expedition (1895), by Donaldson Smith, A. E. Butter, Captain P. Maud of the British army, and others. The river, from its mouth to the confluence of the Daua and Ganale, forms the frontier between the British East Africa protectorate and Italian Somaliland; and from that point to about 4° 20´ N. the Daua is the boundary between British and Abyssinian territory.