THE COUNTRY BETWEEN SOUAKIM AND THE NILE.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1537, 20 April 1885, Page 3

THE COUNTRY BETWEEN SOUAKIM AND THE NILE.

Should fche Ne«r South Wai. 1 * contingent, on landing at Sauakini, receive orders to ni*rch across the country ffon that part to B-vber or Kl Mekheyr, n " the Nil's ifc will fallow the rout« taken by Hi'-ks Pasha and the trooua nnd?r r< co u.uuvi ia the campaign of 1883. This ha* h«<3n ko graphic-wily described by Colonel CoUtome in a book recently i»ubliah**d, containing his notes and the correspondence which he 9npp'ied to the. "Daily ti«vrs" and "Graphic," that We cannot do better than a^fii! ourselves of the authentic particulars therein furnished for the information of our re.ad-TS, who will w^toh the proceedings «f th« Auitralian co:»tin<»eutin Africa with the. liveliest int. 1 rest, not miuii .g!*d>with anxiety. The fir-it twelve miles of the jjoaniey from S'uakim to Be her, which em only be aocornohshp.l 0:1 cvu-b, lie ftcroiw a white plain stivwn with Mack bduMers, and the h.»Uing-plac? is at the welU of Bir H^ndnk, which are situated at tb^ foot of the spur of a rooky raug* of incouanl-rabl* elevation running to the north <.v*rds. Tiiis is ■ncoeedecl hy a stretch of equally arid eonntry, Bpnnki.-r with dry tushes,' and thorny mimosa bush?-? ; h.n dHh monotony of *he s^uo-id day's ma. -ah is broken I » y crossing a ran^ of 10-v mountains cove-red with aro natic her l*ftge, aftwr which the W^dy Otan, vfh'ich j'ee.ms to be enclosed by an amphitheatre of rugir^d roonntsius, has to bs ti'avnrs«c. vValy. iL uv-iy '•»« re-ja.irk-'d, is an Ara'tic name, sisjnifyi »g a valley, or d^prr-saion, hollowed out bv the action of a win tor torrent, and it is in su'ili i>!aeos that tin- heat is mast s»»vGi-ely Ms for in the open plains the<-* i« gO'ierally a breeze xn tin evo'uaj?, Tje w^y ont of thf Wad y Qtan lies thi-on^h a narrow gap or defile, in a ran«»e. of mountains known a* tiin Ox'»ai Lmgia, wliieh follows the contouv of the cotmt of the R«d Sea at a distance of sixty miles for five degrees of liititune, find attains an cleraf ion i" places of 6000 f*»*t. On th« coast side th«se l*iiti^<;s ar^ covered with dragon trees, and euphurioe and gam« is plentiful ; but the western slop«»s are l;airen as the sandy plains into winch tliey sink, and bnnvly the desert becomes more d^BoJate, and vpj»^tat.ioh disappears. The wellg of DjiHsil are th« haltinj? plae.- ef the second day's march, which lie* through a labyrinth of mounraiHs, with hern and ther* vast niass-a of |>or^hyry, oorered with son« accretion that mali»B them look as black as ink, risin" up in solitary grandeur lik« «tap«iuii'J3 obelisk*. Oor of l he«B is a thonsand feet hijrh. 0 -hed is the gaol of the third day's journey, and the fewo deep Welta at Maratree that »f the fdur'b. " Thi*,'* o'>3*rveg Colonel Ool'M>ni», "is thy hi^liest point between Sonakim tud B -W, and the watershed butvefn the Niic-* and the Red Sea. We app <>a<rhed it through a ravine, or rather a labyrinth of ravines. Indeed, the road from this point to Aria'» tvae nothing bat a mountain pass, altem*-

ting with basin likn valleys, HuiToanded by amphitheatres of mountains. And flucb mountains — bold, ja#?t,d am) split with deep gorip.s and ravmie*. filled with dark, mysterious sh».d "wa. We toiled through a Baee«HsifM of b»»in« and along, stofy piths thaf would gwm to off*,' a seiio js iup-di nj«Dt,. to tH* appareu tly soft , vel v»»t v gloved feet of our camel* ;'»»!it ]y>\'V>- 1 «4g«« or rougl» y cover«d boul .e.

were alike passed over without inconvenience or lamenes. . . . Sometimes isolated rocks would vise in the glare like fortresses of mediaeval structure. Sometimes huge boulders, tossed hither and thitber, would start up like giant idol heads in all direo, , tions." A plain, in which strips of coarse herbage alternate with bands of Ware stone, intervenes between the foot of the mountains and the well of Balalaat, the next halting plaee. From thence to the 6rst of the three welJs m the Wady Kokrib is •i biir m«rc!i of twenty four mileg. The s«<*ond of these, Bir Abd-el Hah, i»4*.*nothc«r sleeping place, after which [ the Wady Yumga and another moun-t-in rang* have to H# travelled before reaching Ariab, where two deep wells and the shade of some luxuriant acacia trees in a small oasis furnish a w«!eome camping place for the h«at opnressed troops. For even the middle of February is as hot ther* as the dog days hi England. Several nivrow valleys converge upon A ria'», which Colonel CoM.orne (Inscribes as th« prettiest «asis botwe?»i Sou.ikim *ml Berber. It is expedient t« take a dav's rest here before resuming th« journey westward, and then, if there shouWhappffn to be a full«*»uoo!i, to mxreh by night instead of by day, for the routs lays across a region disti ute. «f water until 0 Bak is reached at a distance of 70 miles; and even there the supply is limited and brackish. Two days more are consumed in crossing AM^ther watevleas tract, from O Bak to BirMohabe: and, after quitting the former, the traveller enters :i;)f>n a plai'i of shifting sand«, blown ipiito d'inps 100ft high, and resgm bling, artificial entrenchments. There is >io tva-e of vegetation, and not a v*»*ticjß of organic life. But here and tVre ai-e io se black bouldera, which 'ook as if they had come out of a. furnace. In fact, writes our authority, " the entire region seems to be the debris of a vast conflagration — the ciuders of a burnt up world. Tbo sc?ue;*y is of tha type that astronomers teli us ia presented by the moon — th< j remains of a worn out volcano." And htsv, too, the mirage of the desert taita lists the thirsty traveller by allowing him verdurous islands, bright with feathery palms aud blooming flowers, and visions of coolness, freshness, ii'id beauty — While lakes that shine in mockery nigh, Are fading oft, untouched, tfntnsted He is fortunate, too, if lie escapes %n introduction to the- simoom, which sweeps torrents of burning 6»nd before it, spreads a thick veil of darknesp over the sky paralyses the stveagth 't mivi and animah, and tills tlie o}>3, ears, and ni'gans of respiration with hn almost impalpable dust. The !nst »s ly crossed before reaching Bir Mohabe i« that of Aboo Salab. The desert is now at an end, the camels can be dis pensed with, aud the rest of the journey to the Nile, accomplished on honsebfrrk. The descent into Berber is over a gravelly plain, and the first. <jlia»;<se of the river, to elyes accus tomed to the intolerable glare of Wy i blinding sand and the hare whH<* I mountains, is unspeakably ■welcooi" asvi refreshing. Berber, to judge from the desevip tions of it, is not a prcpossossiu^ place. It is 'a collection of adobe, huts, built on the right bank of the Nile, and embosomed in tall palms and umbrageous acacias. There is a narrow strip of fertile and highly cultivated land " close t« the river, thickly studded with palms, bananas, orange, lemon, fig, lime and pomegranate trees and grape vines." The bsziar in which, as in most eastern towns, the trade of the place is concentrated, is composed of rows »f uncovered shops flanking the principal thoroughfare*. The houses are pla<it*«red externally with manure, and the ( windows are anglazed, Between Berber and Korti — a line drawn p U-tween which two places would be ' the chord of an aru formed by the I semi -circular sweep of the Nile — is ( enclesed the. upper portion of the ( Desert of Bahronda, the character of ( which closely resembles that of the „ country between Barber and the Red ( S^a. Two ranges of stony mountains, t one of which follows pretty closely th« i \v>h bank of the rivef, alternate with wndys, contitiniu^, iu some instanoes, r welU and vegetation ; while the plains t are sterile, treeless, and heaped up in } place* with extensive sand drifts. j Fl>Te, alfso, are to be found some of j those remarkable petrified forests which &<e peculiar to thin desert, and s cmnoiatiicate such a weird appearance bo Uin !iinds»«apo.

A descent of the Nile from Berher to K'lU by the Nila involves the shooting °f' two «ataraotß or the haulagi« of the s* earners.

It only remuttis to He added that Colonel O.ilburne was strongly of opinion that the rout* from Sonnkim to Briber w\<j the. one. which should have been taken by any expedition f»r the reH«f of Gordon. It is perfectly opan, he says, to the passage of cart« or horseu. There are springs at the end of almost every day's march, and post after post could be. held and protouted by cavalry, while the long narrow pass conld be cleared hy native levies from the Cape, or by ludian irregulars, if the Imperial Govtrniuoent chose to ush them.