At Hellet Abbas, on the White Nile, it was found that if the rains were good the colonists would prepare the ground and sow the crop, but if it came to artificial irrigation and shadoof work they soon tired of this heavier labour and left the crops to wither. Happily, a much better account comes from Kassala. The Mudir of that province reported: ‘The colony of blacks established at Kassala continues to thrive, and in every way justifies its existence. They have a well-laid-out village, and are eager to cultivate along the Gash, and have also a fair amount of rain crops. Labourers can nearly always be obtained from amongst them for public works, and there are some very fair masons who are permanently employed. I wish we had the means of teaching some of them carpentry and blacksmith’s work as well. They have acquired a good deal of small stock. ‘Those of Gedaref are not so thrifty, and are lazy; they do not cultivate so much or so well, but I hope for improvement.’ Transport and communications are indeed vastly better than they were in Egyptian days. The railway from Halfa to Khartoum makes an all-important difference. It has already given an immense stimulus to the export trade; without it there would have been quite another tale to tell of the last five years. But except in the province of Berber it does not tap any local resources. Great part of it lies in an uninhabited desert. Every train leaving Halfa has to carry with it 1,520 cubic feet of water. And there are 200 miles of river between Halfa and the outer world at Assouan, and then 700 miles more to the sea. Carriage of goods over such a mileage, with its necessary transhipments, is a long and costly business, nearly prohibitive for bulky articles. Coal, for example, is seldom less than £4 a ton at Khartoum, and often nearer £6. No one who had to build a railway in the Soudan for commercial purposes only would think of crossing the desert to Halfa; his first thought would be to connect Khartoum with the sea-board at Suakin.