Thick deposits of sand and gravel underlie the Nile mud deposits of the Nile Valley. All along the Nile, but especially south of Luxor, river deposits of dark sandy mud exist on either side of the Nile Valley considerably above the level of the deposit of to-day. The best known of these is the plain of Kom Ombos. The thickness of the layer of Nile mud in the valley is as much as 18 metres in places, but the average depth is, I should say, 10 metres. 8. =The discharges of the Nile and its tributaries.=--Reference should be made to tables 24 and 25 which embody the results of an exhaustive examination of the observed discharges, the cross sections, the gauges of the Nile Valley, and the calculated discharge tables made for these gauges. Many of these tables are founded on only two or three discharges and some on only one, but they have been prepared with the greatest care and referred to all the existing gauge observations, and are good working tables, which can be modified and improved as time places more information at our disposal. Until then they may be used as about the best approximations available to-day. In 1902 the Albert Nile discharged 600 cubic metres per second as against 520 discharged by the Victoria Nile. In 1903 the Victoria Nile discharged 730 cubic metres per second and the Albert Nile 800. Leaving a poor year like 1902 which was much below the average, and taking 1903 which was all round a good average year and only slightly below the mean, we have the following results:-- The Victoria Nile was at its highest in July with 840 cubic metres per second, while the Albert Nile at its head was at its highest in December with 1,060 cubic metres per second. Lake Albert took 5 months to fill up. At Gondokoro the Albert Nile was at its lowest in April when it discharged 700 cubic metres per second as against 550 cubic metres in the previous year. Swollen by timely and good rains south of Gondokoro the discharge at Gondokoro rose to 2,100 cubic metres per second in September after the river had scoured out its bed over a metre in depth. The mean discharge for the year at Gondokoro was 1,200 cubic metres per second. The Gazelle river gave no discharge in the first half of the year and about 30 cubic metres per second in the latter half. Its mean discharge was 10 cubic metres per second for the year. The Albert Nile at its tail above the Sobat junction gave as a minimum 350 cubic metres per second in March, which discharge rose to 430 cubic metres per second in September, but could not rise higher as the Saubat river was then in flood and the White Nile could not carry off much more than the discharge of the Sobat without putting the northern part of the Sudd region under 2 metres of water. This held back water helped later to maintain the discharge of the White Nile in January and February.