Wood stations for steamers are established at different points along the banks, at distances usually sufficiently near to obviate steamers taking too heavy a load, but there is a long gap between Khor Attar wood station and Kanisa (about 380 miles), which necessitates steamers carrying a large amount of firewood to enable them to cross the sudd region. As there is a heavy tax on the forests at these wood stations, the fellings are getting farther and farther away from the bank, and tramways are necessary to work the more remote portions of the forest. 3. THE SUDD.—A full description of the formation of and methods of dealing with the sudd are given in Appendix B. The Nile was blocked by the sudd from 1870-4, 1878-81, in 1884, and from 1895 to 1900. The Nile, before it flows into Lake No, appears to be a channel varying from 100 yards to a mile in width, but, from the masthead of a steamer, it would be seen that there is a sea of papyrus grass, bulrushes, and reeds on either side of this water channel, and that the real banks of the river are 4, 8, or even 12 miles distant on either side. Under all this vegetation is water, which is slowly making its way down to fill up the void caused by the absorption of the water by plants and sun. The matted vegetation which floats on the top of the water is so thick that it is possible to walk on it; and, were it not for this covering, the evaporation over such a vast area would greatly diminish the supply of water to Lower Egypt. A considerable part of the Nuer tribe actually live on the floating mass of vegetation, fish and the stalks of a water-lily forming their only food. The surface of the water is covered by a dense tangled mass of papyrus, ambach, and other water plants, which in places grow to a height of from 15 to 30 feet. At the rise and fall of the Nile, quantities of the grass get torn away and float down stream. If the season is unusually wet, the stream increases in bulk and rapidity, and innumerable large masses of the grass, hurried and packed by the wind, are sent floating down; these jamb in the channels and form the sudd blocks. The channel of the river is very tortuous; at Lake No, for instance, where the Bahr El Ghazal flows into the Nile, there is a sharp turn to the east. If the water contributed simultaneously by the Bahr El Ghazal happens to be insignificant and incapable of sweeping away the floating masses, a block is the result at this point. 4. SANDBANKS.—They are not as a rule any considerable obstacle, but are, of course, more troublesome at low than at high Nile, and shift about every year. Steamers with no encumbrances, and with fuel ready cut for them to pick up, take about 12 days up stream from Khartoum to Gondokoro, and about 8 days down stream. (Record journey in 1903: 11 days up and 7 down).