Lieutenant Dyé, in his description, divides the estuary or drainage channel of the Bahr-al-Ghazal below Mashra-ar-Rak into three sections, each with its particular characteristics, the general trend of the estuary, however, below Mashra-ar-Rak being north, then northeast, and lastly east. The first section near Mashra-ar-Rak is at times of great width, as at the expansion known as Lake Ambady or Ambach. There is much floating vegetation, and the channels frequently change with the winds. The depth is nowhere greater than thirteen feet in this section, which is distinguished as the region of lakes, lagoons, and reed-beds. In the second section, characterised by the growth of papyrus, the channel becomes much narrower, and reaches depths of twenty feet and more, though the figures given by former travellers seem somewhat exaggerated. The width becomes greater again in the last section, the banks of which are, as a rule, marked by ant-hills covered with brushwood. Schweinfurth was mistaken in saying that the current of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is imperceptible, for, except in expansions and side branches, some movement can always be traced, and in the narrowest section it reaches a speed of one mile and a quarter an hour. A remarkable characteristic of the region is the small variation of water-level between the seasons, owing to the impounding of the water in the marshes. The maximum flood-level occurs on the Bahr-al-Ghazal in November and December, or two months later than that on the Sue, and various facts are quoted showing the slight effect which a rise in the upper courses of the streams has on the water-level of the swamp region. [Illustration: A STERNWHEEL STEAMBOAT. Forcing its way up the Jur (Sue) or main affluent of the Bahr-al-Ghazal.] Given their resources and the distance they had to traverse (from Loango on the West Coast to Fashoda on the Nile, and afterwards to Abyssinia and Somaliland via the Congo, Ubangi, Mbomu, Sue, and Bahr-al-Ghazal), the enemies they had to encounter, the allies they had to win, the privations they had to endure: the journey of Marchand and his companions is one of the most splendid feats in African exploration, and well deserves the admiration accorded to it in France and England. CHAPTER XXI JOSEPH THOMSON, MT. ELGON, AND KAVIRONDO BAY