Kordofan can enumerate no running streams; the fula (ponds) and small lakes nearly all dry up during the hot season, and yet fish, differing in variety and size, are to be found in this province. At first, I could not understand this apparent anomaly, and the explanation given me by the natives, that the fish hide themselves in the mud, appeared to me very unsatisfactory, for it becomes in time, so hard that a heavily laden waggon might pass over it, and the spawn of the fish remaining would, of course, be soon destroyed by the rays of the sun. The natives, however, firmly believe that the fish are preserved under ground, and come to life again in three or six months’ time, when the rain has softened their bed. I, of course, could not give credence to this version of the story, but casually made a discovery likely to throw a light upon the subject. I one day shot a wild duck, and having gutted it, proceeded to prepare it for dinner; in examining the intestines, I found a quantity of fish eggs. Is it not, therefore, probable that the aquatic birds, which set out on their migration immediately after having gorged themselves with spawn on the White Nile, and take to the water again on their arrival in Kordofan, discharge one half of their prey in an undigested form, and that thus the fish are shortly hatched? The horses are not very excellent, or of pure Arabian blood, but a half-breed between Dongola horses and those of Berber and Darfûr; they are not, indeed, as well built as the pure Arabians, but are, nevertheless, fleet, and exceedingly hardy. The natives, more especially the Bakkari, pride themselves on their steeds, and give them milk to drink as long as they live, which they say renders them very strong, and capable of enduring the greatest fatigue. The other inhabitants of Kordofan also offer their horses milk until they are four years old, and not until they have attained that age do they feed them on grass. The dockn forms their substitute for oats. The sheikhs of the Bakkara, seem nearly grown to their horses, and are scarcely ever seen without them. They are of the utmost service to them, in their wars among themselves, and against their neighbours; but more especially in capturing slaves. Their remarkable fleetness renders them very useful in catching giraffes, and ostriches even; but on the whole there are not so many horses to be met with in this country as in the other provinces under the sway of the Viceroy.