In February 1870 Sir Samuel Baker found the sudd in the Albert Nile impossible for his expedition of heavily laden boats and steamers. He found the Zeraf sudded in its southern 100 kilometres, and tried to cut his way through but failed. And yet the slave traders had means of getting slave boats down the Bahr Zeraf (“Ismailia” pages 61, 62 and 29). Baker returned in January 1871 to the Zeriba Kutchuk Ali on the Bahr Zeraf and had before him the 100 kilometres of sudded channel. With the aid of 1200 men he completed the work by March 13. The final operation was a canal through stiff clay 600 metres long (known to-day as Baker’s cut). The fall from the Albert Nile into the Bahr Zeraf was so great that, in order to get the boats and steamers across the final distance, Baker made a dam 120 metres long across the Zeraf by means of a double row of piles, sand bags and fascines of the tall grasses. He thus secured the necessary depth of water, and the flotilla sailed into the Albert Nile. On his way back in June 1873, he thus describes the appearance of the head of the Ziraf river where he had made the cut in March 1871:-- “On arrival at the Bahr Zeraf cut, we found that the canals which we had formerly cut were much improved by the force of the stream. Although these passages were narrow, they had become deep and we progressed with comparatively little trouble.” The rest of the journey down the Bahr Zeraf was easily performed. In January 1874, when the river was low, the sudd in the Albert Nile was removed by Ismail Pacha Ayoub, Governor General of the Soudan. From 1874 to 1878, while Gordon was Governor General, the Albert Nile was clear of sudd, but the wide stream of 1840 had dwindled down to a clear waterway free of weeds on a width of 6 metres over long reaches. The escape of water down numerous spills had deprived the Albert Nile of the power of keeping its channel clear and when the heavy flood of 1878 came down, the river was sudded. In 1880 Gessi was blocked in the Bahr Gazelle. The sudd in this Bahr was cut by Marno, who also cut the sudd in the Albert Nile in April 1880. Emin Pasha mentions the fact that the Albert Nile was free of sudd and navigated from 1880 to 1883. In 1884 he states that no steamers reached Lado, but he attributed that to the Mahdi’s rebellion. During the early years of the Mahdi’s and Khalifa’s rule there was no sudd. In the Khalifa’s time a boat laden with ivory sank in the stream where sudd block No. 15 is, south of Hillet-el-Nuer, and caused the block to form. In 1898 Lord Kitchener found the Albert Nile sudded south of Lake No, and in March 1899 Sparkes bey, of the Egyptian Army, steamed up the Bahr Zeraf to within 30 kilometres of its head. At the same time Sir William Garstin thought the Bahr Zeraf a stronger stream than the Albert Nile. Descending the Albert Nile from Uganda, Colonel Martyr found the Albert Nile sudded 30 kilometres north of Ghaba Shambe.