18th April.—Long before daybreak we proceeded on our voyage, without any oxen having been brought to us. At first we passed by several islands, and then left the island of Gùbescha at our right; several Sagiën fallen to ruin, and some chains of buckets being visible on the left shore. The village of Hedjasi lies in the neighbourhood, but not a person was to be seen, although we remained there the afternoon; even onions were not to be got. Suliman Kashef thinks that he is not much beloved here, which I can very readily believe. Thousands of camels were being led to water on the left shore, by the Kabbabish Arabs who come from the interior, and are said to possess more of these animals than all the other Arabs put together. This occurs every eight or ten days, and the tribe take back with them what water they need. Suliman Kashef wanted to make friends with them, because he saw that they had some cows and goats; but they trotted off as if a storm were coming on, keeping themselves in troops like an army, whilst they are said to have shouted “Abu Daoud!”
The colony of Hedjasi lies in a good situation, and might become a granary for Kordofàn. The soil is somewhat light; the ground formerly ascended, which declination might have been gradually lost, when the terraces were in the act of formation; at present it is all fallen away.
19th April.—After we had navigated the whole night, we found ourselves this morning in the country called Tura, from whence various roads lead to Kordofàn. The flat shores are sandy, and rise, having a bad and meagre growth of trees. On the right and left are some hills of downs, on which we find reddish pieces of granite, such as I met with near the Sagiën. Whence this poverty of humus, for Nature ought to be more fertilizing, as she washes away sand from the ground first, and then brings the lighter humus just as we see at the Delta? We saw nothing of the mountain group of Araskòll, for the vessels go now too low. Suliman Kashef continues his voyage, whilst Selim Capitan and Arnaud have landed on the left shore, the latter to seek for gold in the Araskòll. The shores continue in sandy downs, especially on the right side, but an immeasurable level plain extends on the left, of which we have an extensive view, by reason of the shores being scarcely elevated above the water. This character of the country passes also subsequently to the right side. The entirely flat margin of the broader part of the stream, which we sail through with a favourable east wind, following Suliman Kashef, is not pure sand; yet we observe upon it thin tracts of underwood standing back a little, and dwarf mimosas.
This part is, as it were, the mouth of the river, and formed, in ancient times, a shallow lake by the conflux of the White and Blue streams, as the downs on the right prove, which are in connection with those at Khartùm, and formed the very same embankment; for the more violent pressure of the Blue river clearly opposes the broad stream of the White one, as we see plainly near the island of Tuti, and perhaps only subsequently broke through the angle of land at the right side of this island; if it made previously, as the Arabs believe, a bend from the city of Soba to the west into the White river, and thus surrounded, with the latter, the desert rocks of Omdurman lying at the side. An investigation, however, would be necessary to ascertain this point. The Downs continue again afterwards at the right shore, alternating even with downs of earth.
If a shallow lake of such dimensions existed here at one time, the north wind drove its waves and billows to this side, and piled up these irregular heights, which are not arranged in a row like a chain, but sometimes advance, sometimes retreat. The lake withdrew, and the river levelled, took and gave, so that in many places long tracts of continuous sandy shores existed, having, however, a fertile substratum, because otherwise there could not be the vegetation that there is. This subjacent soil is also frequently visible as humus or morass, and under it an adhesive blue clay is found, as I ascertain plainly by the sailors’ poles, which are continually being pushed into the deep. Thermometer 22° 29° to 30° 28°.
20th April.—We halted yesterday at sunset, near the mandjeras of Khurdshid Basha on the right shore. These docks (there is a similar one on the blue river at Kamlin) are still used, and two new ships have just been built, whilst ten barks are in dock for repairs. The workmen live in the village immediately behind the high shore of the downs, and I saw, in my excursion there, several fowls walking cheerfully with a number of turtle-doves in the shade of the sunt trees, although the people would not sell me a fowl. There is also a corn magazine here, with overseers and soldiers.
The neighbouring sheikh and Arabs came to kiss Suliman Kashef’s hand: he never once looked at them, but went on speaking with the other Turks. Such conduct, with many other things of the same kind, is practised deliberately; although it may seem to the inexperienced only to arise from forgetfulness. In short, the Turks do everything to make themselves disliked. It is most advisable for a person who is not dependent on them, to treat them with a certain kind of indifference, to seat himself immediately close to them, stretch his legs here and there in all possible ways, and ask for a pipe, without waiting for this favour from the swaggering fools; otherwise the Jaur or Kaffr will always be neglected and despised by the Musselmen.
I examined this morning the nature of the downs, and found that they are rather deposited earthen walls or dikes, fruitful humus strongly impregnated with shingle or rubbish, (dissolved particles of stone) and sand. A covering of sand overlays these hills of earth, being thick, and accumulated by water and wind towards that part of the river-side which is more broken and washed away. The hills lose themselves towards the land side, gently descending in a wide plain (galla) covered with scanty mimosas, which still remain tolerably elevated above the river and the left shore. We observe here far beyond the lower trees, a second dam of downs, which may surpass the former one in height, and perhaps is the old border of the right side of the Nile.
Now, when I see from these heights of downs, which are sufficiently elevated to enable me to look over a low surface of earth, the left shore lying level with the water-line itself, I am no longer surprised at not having found any limits for the border of the Nile, on our ascent. But it is exactly on this account that I take it to be impossible, with the present state of the Nile, that those morass hills (for the constituent parts are and remain nothing else but morass, mixed and rolled on by other powers than the present), could be formed, even at the highest water-mark, under present circumstances. Yet the latter have been always the same since the land became dry, and the left shore was still lower than it is at present. But now the river has full play, and it cannot therefore rise high, as the appearance of the hills of earth teach us themselves. If there lay here, however, a shallow lake, through which the current of the Nile flowed, then morass-hills might have been formed to the height of the highest water-mark. And this is what I believe. The Downs still continue for a good tract, and are lost imperceptibly, again to emerge under the very same appearance.
Arnaud wants to have the hippopotamus-skin dressed again; it is extended on the sand, but it diffuses a very bad smell, and he retains therefore only its head. We must remain here till noon for the sake of this important business, and because Arnaud will make observations. Then a somewhat favourable but faint wind gets up: we navigate henceforth almost N. and N.W. In the afternoon the piles of earth, thrown up by the waters of the lake, are visible on the right side of the Nile, similar to those I have seen in the lake-caldron of Taka.