In 1879 the Earl of Mayo (who subsequently travelled with the writer of this book in southwest Africa) made an interesting journey along the Takaze River, which is the upper waters of the Atbara. His sporting expedition was followed by that of the brothers W. and F. L. James (who subsequently explored Somaliland). The Italians began to take an interest in Abyssinia at the end of the seventies, but the first expeditions undertaken by their explorers have no connection with the Nile basin. In 1839 or 1840 one of the most important affluents of the Nile was discovered by the expedition of Turks and Europeans despatched by Muhammad Ali to explore the White Nile. This was the Sobat (as it was named by the Nile Arabs), which enters the White River under the ninth degree of latitude. The word Sobat was evidently an ancient Nubian or Ethiopian term which was in existence two thousand years ago, when it was applied to the White Nile (Asta Sobas), in contradistinction to the Blue Nile (Ast’apos). At the present day the Sobat is known by the name of Kir[114] on its lower portion, and Baro on its upper course. In subsequent years steamers ascended the Sobat from the Nile as far as it was navigable, namely, to a point called Nasr. Johann Maria Schuver, a Dutch traveller in the seventies of the last century, and several Europeans in the service of the Egyptian government, collected a little more information about the Sobat and its tributaries above Nasr, but this river long remained one of the unsolved problems of Nile geography. Schuver did much to explore the western Gala countries between the Sobat and the Blue Nile. On some of these journeys he was accompanied by the Italian explorer Piaggia[115] (who had discovered Lake Kioga on the Victoria Nile). Piaggia, in endeavouring once more to force his way towards the Sobat, died at Karkoj, on the Blue Nile, in 1882. [Illustration: NATIVES OF THE BARO (UPPER SOBAT) SKINNING HIPPOPOTAMUS.] The surcease of the Nile exploration which followed on the Mahdi’s revolt in 1882, closed for a time the exploration of the Sobat and its affluents. But one result of this revolt was to urge European inquirers more and more towards Abyssinia, especially the southern provinces of that empire. A French explorer, Jules Borelli, made remarkable journeys to the south and southwest of Abyssinia at the close of the eighties of the last century, and, besides discovering the river Omo, which flows into Lake Rudolf, he gave much new information regarding the source of the Sobat. The book which he published in 1890--“Ethiopie Méridionale”--is one of the best and most beautifully illustrated works which have appeared on Africa.