I thought that the river made a bend to the S., because I saw water there; but they tell me from the mast, that this water is a broad gohr, or Birke, (land-lake). It shews itself a gun-shot distance from the river, and quite parallel to it from E. to W., and is, at this moment, only divided from it by the reeds under water, and an ambak-thicket. A water-course meandered through the rushes to the eastern end of the lake. The crew affirmed that the lake receives its water from the river by this road (sikka): this, indeed, is not _impossible_, but it is _improbable_, for the river must propel its current against the water from W. to E. I believe rather that the lake feeds itself from S.W., where incisions are remarked in the reeds, and behind, a long and broad marsh-land. The lake and the river have now an equal level, and there is neither an influx nor outflux to be seen in the so-called little water-road. If it be not an outlet of the lake, discharging its higher surface of water through the reeds, it is a road for crocodiles and river-buffaloes. The broken rushes and the scattered borders of the lower vegetation, &c. make me believe the latter supposition. I have also remarked, at this moment, a large hippopotamus wallowing about there. There can scarcely be a doubt that this waterpath serves the fishing-boats as a channel. The lake is from E. to W. about an hour long. There may be numbers of such collective lakes and tributaries which the reeds hide from us; for these waters, when the Nile is _at its height_, do not rush into it, and cannot force a road through the luxuriant and strongly articulated world of plants. These plants perhaps allow a conjunction of water; but no open tributary stream for the rise and fall of the waters takes place at the same time. Fadl tells me that the lake is only twice as broad as the Nile, which is here three hundred paces; and the head of the lake is said to draw towards the south, thereby shewing itself to be an old bed of the river. No large fish are found here; for if there were any we must have heard them at times in the evening splashing up; that is, supposing they were very abundant in these lakes. However, in the land of the Shilluks several fish of uncommon size, such as are seen in the markets at Kàhira and Khartùm, floated towards us, dead. The crew eat them, although they stank. Standing at the helm, above the cabin, I noticed, before sun-set, seven elephants, with two young ones, feeding on the right in the reed-grass, and, for this once, unmolested by their feathered friends. We halt on account of the faint breeze, towards the west, in order to wait for the vessels, the sun going down before us and throwing all its charms on the limitless watery expanse. Throughout the whole day it had never shone through those misty veils, which appeared so lightly floating.