At twelve o’clock, we proceed with libàhn to N.E., where our Bach’r el Makàda winds again to the right. Half-past twelve. The shores, with few exceptions, attain a height of fifteen to eighteen feet: the upper surface of the soil consists of humus to two or three feet deep (which may be deeper in the low ground, old gohrs, and several tracts), and under it nothing is seen but clay or mud, having a yellowish colour on the shore, from the iron oxyde, with which it is strongly impregnated, and generally more so than on the White Nile, where this is only the case in layers. A fertile country, but requiring human hands, canals, and sakiën. We see from its shores, and in the dried-up pools, which receive very little nourishment here from vegetable matter, particularly on the upper land, that the Sobàt brings down fruitful earth or slime. From half-past twelve to two, in a bend to the left, S.E., where we go again left in N.E. by N. On the same side there is a tolerably well built little village on the shore. A quarter before three, still further to the left, N. by E. Four o’clock, we wheel to the right in E.N.E., where we get the view of a genuine low forest, and notice on the left a village in the winding to S. by E. Half-past four, also further; a hamlet on the right with straw tokuls, the first on this side. We see here also reed-boats, as among the Nuèhrs and Shilluks on the Nile. At five o’clock to S., where we at first halt at the right shore, before the bend to the left. Two large villages lie from half to three-quarters of an hour distant, and I see an immeasurable bare plain cracked from drought,—a summer shallow lake without any verdure. We go then to the left shore, the soil of which is less mixed with sand than that of the right, and gives us some hope of shooting and fishing. The huntsman Sale returned, however, disconsolate, for he had seen nothing at all. The left shore is still more precipitous and higher here than the right one, because the stream forces itself into this bend. When we disembark, we find that the land again rises to a gentle acclivity, and we have the prospect of a large lake about three quarters of an hour distant, which overflows perhaps deeper into the Sobàt. Many lakes of this kind must be found in the country of the Dinkas, because springs, as in the Taka country, are not sufficient for the watering of the cattle of this merissa-loving, dancing and singing tribe; and besides, the drawing of the water would cause too much trouble. The Sobàt is stagnant here in the proper sense of the word, and no log can determine anything else.