The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

The Desert Zone.

Between the coast and the Nile lies the Nubian desert, a rugged, rocky, barren waste, scored with khors or wadis, along whose beds there is scanty vegetation. Along either bank of the Nile is a narrow strip of cultivable land. West of the Nile, except for a few oases, the country is even more desolate than the Nubian desert.

The Intermediate Zone and the Fertile Districts.—The country enclosed by the Nile, the Atbara and the Blue Nile, the so-called Island of Meroe, consists of very fertile soil. The fork between the White and Blue Niles, the Gezira, is also fertile land. South of the Gezira is Sennar, a well-watered country of arable and grazing lands. West of the Nile, Kordofan, which comes between the desert and the plains of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, is largely barren and steppe land. South of io° N. there is every where abundance of water. Darfur is mainly open, steppe-like country, with extensive tracts of cultivable land and a central mountain massif, the Jebel Marra.

Climate.

The country lies wholly within the Tropics, and as the greater part of it is far removed from the ocean and less than 1,5oo ft. above the sea, it is extremely hot. The heat is greatest in the central regions, least in the desert zone, where the difference between summer and winter is marked. Neverthe less, the dryness of the air renders the climate healthy. The steppe countries, Kordofan and Darfur, are also healthy, except after the autumn rains. At Khartoum (Khartum), centrally sit uated, the minimum temperature is about 40° F, the maximum 113°, the mean annual temperature 8o°. January is the coldest and June the hottest month. Violent sandstorms are frequent from June to August. Four rain zones may be distinguished. The north ern (desert) region is one of little or no rain. There are, perhaps, a few rainy days in winter and an occasional storm in the sum mer. In the central belt, where "the rainy season" is from mid June to September, there are some io in. of rain during the year. The number of days on which rain falls rarely exceeds, however, 15. The rainfall increases to about 20 in. per annum • in the eastern and south-eastern regions. In the swamp district and throughout the Bahr-el-Ghazal, heavy rains (4o in. or more a year) are experienced. The season of heaviest rain is from

April to September. In the sudd region the temperature averages about 8° F, the air is always damp, and fever is endemic. Flora.—In the deserts north of Khartoum, vegetation is almost confined to stunted mimosa and, in the less arid districts, scanty herbage. Between the desert and the cultivated Nile lands is an open growth of samr, hashab (Acacia verek) and other acacia trees. Between Khartoum and 12° N. forest belts line the banks of the rivers and khors, in which the most noteworthy tree is the sunt (Acacia arabica). Farther from the rivers are open woods of heglig .(Balanites aegyptiaca), hashab, etc., and dense thickets of laot (Acacia nubica) and kittr (Acacia mel lifera). These open woods cover a considerable part of Kordofan, the hashab and talh trees being the chief producers of gum arabic. On the Blue Nile the forest trees alter, the most abundant being the babanus (Sudan ebony), and the silag (Amogeissus carpus), while gigantic baobabs, called tebeldi in the Sudan, and tarfa (Sterculia cinerea) are numerous. In southern Kordofan and in the higher parts of the Bahr-el-Ghazal the silag and ebony are also common, as well as African mahogany (homraya, Khaya senegalensis) and other timber trees. In the Ghazal province also are many rubber-producing lianas, among them the Lan dolpliia owariensis. There are also forest regions in the Bahr-el Jebel, in the Mongalla Mudiria and along the Abyssinian-Eritrean frontier. East of the Bahr-el-Jebel and north of the Bahr-el Ghazal are vast prairies covered with tall coarse grass. Cotton is indigenous in the valley of the Blue Nile, and in some districts bamboos are plentiful. The castor-oil plant grows in almost every province.

Fauna.

Wild animals and birds are numerous. Elephants are abundant in the Bahr-el-Ghazal and Bahr-el-Jebel forests, and are found in fewer numbers in the upper valley of the Blue Nile. The hippopotamus and crocodile abound in the swamp regions, which also shelter many kinds of water-fowl. The lion, leopard, giraffe and various kinds of antelope are found in the prairies and in the open woods. In the forests are numerous bright-plumaged birds and many species of monkeys, mostly ground monkeys—the trees being too prickly for climbing.