Little has been recorded of the actual navigation of the river and the description of its banks between Abu Hamed and Khartoum, and especially of the stretch between Abu Hamed and Berber.
Between these two latter places the desert is broken by numerous ravines and studded with acacias and “dom” palms; the river channel is full of reefs and rapids, and navigation is at all times difficult and somewhat dangerous; cultivation only exists in scanty patches, and the inhabitants are poor and few in number. The inhabitants and cultivation are, however, increasing on both banks.
Mograt Rapid.A couple of miles above Abu Hamed is the Mograt Rapid, consisting of a few miles of bad passages (at low Nile). After clearing the Mograt Rapid, the navigation of the river is unimpeded for about 32 miles, until Mero Island, opposite Abu Hashim, is reached.
Bagara Rapid.As an obstacle to navigation the Abu Hashim Rapid is unimportant, and from the Mograt Rapid there exists a reach of about 50 miles of practically open water to the rapid of Bagara.
The Nile here takes a bend to the west, and for the space of 2 or 3 miles the bed of the river is filled with masses of black rocks, in some places forming dams, over which the river roars in its swift descent (December). This rapid is passable at high Nile, but impracticable at low or even mean Nile.
The cataract of Bagara is not long, but during low or even medium water it is rather rapid.
The banks of the river present no features of interest, and the country on the eastern shore is an almost uninhabited desert, the usual “doms,” which fringe the shore being the only vegetation to be seen, with here and there a scanty patch of cultivation; but, as the Bagara Rapid is approached, an improvement takes place on the western shore.
5th Cataract.The 5th Cataract, or Shellal el Homar, 24 miles from El Bagara, is a system of tortuous rapids running through irregular dangerous rocks. It is formed by a ridge of black rocks, broken up into islands, of which the main one is termed Draka. Here there are really two distinct cataracts—one to the north, which has two rather dangerous and difficult passages, in consequence of the banks being covered with brushwood rocks and mimosa trees, which prevent the tow rope being employed; the other to the south, called Shellal el Homar. These cataracts, like those that precede them, are dangerous and impracticable during low water.
They were successfully surmounted by the gunboats of the Nile Expedition in September, 1897 (high Nile).
From the 5th Cataract, where the Dar Robatab is quitted and the Dar Berber commences, a path exists on both banks for 30 miles to the town of Berber. About half-way the nature of the soil changes from the primitive desert to sandstone, and ranges of hills formed of the latter begin to show themselves on both banks, but more prominently on the western shore, where, opposite El Hasa, the edge of a stony plateau, about 100 feet high, known as Jebel Nakam, advances to within 200 yards of the water’s edge; thence the road follows the western shore at a distance of about ¾ of a mile, the intervening land being well cultivated and acacias and “dom” palms fairly abundant.