The sudd is of three kinds:—
(1) Sudd growing up from bottom and immovable.
(2) Small low floating sudd in large patches, but loosely hanging together, and easily broken up or pushed away.
(3) Patches of high sudd floating and connected by very fibrous roots, and very difficult to separate or clear; very liable to entangle in the stern wheel of steamer.
The first and second can be steamed through with difficulty. The latter has to be cut to pieces by hand and disintegrated.
Wood.Between 30th and 148th miles there is no place where wood can be cut, except by cutting it in water (October, 1898). Beyond that, there is no wood at all.
Inhabitants.The inhabitants of the island formed by the Zeraf, Jebel, and White Nile are Nuers, who also occupy the right bank of the Zeraf from its mouth to about opposite Shambe. The right bank appears to have been originally inhabited by Dinkas, of whom a few are still to be found living among the Nuers, whilst the hinterland of the right bank of the Zeraf is still occupied by them. They, however, live in dread of the Nuers, and many of them have left their villages and have sought safety on the river Sobat.
The Nuers are very shy, but having got over their first timidity on meeting strangers they are cheery and open-hearted, evincing none of that suspicion and churlishness which is such an ever-present characteristic of the Dinkas, even in the more northern districts, nor that inexpressible laziness, a trait of both Dinkas and Shilluks.
The men, boys, and unmarried women are, of course, naked. The married women wear loin cloths of skin, and a few of the men leopard skins. They all affect the long red-dyed hair, the universal custom of the Nuer tribes.
The following is a detailed description of the various Nuer districts on both banks of the Bahr El Zeraf as far as is at present known (taken from a report by Captain H. H. Wilson, 1903):—