THE SOUDAN.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12476, 1 March 1909, Page 4

THE SOUDAN.

i.- ■ . ' — ■«> : — ■ . '■- ■ • The revenue of the Soudan in 1898, when the British took it over, was ■estimated at £8000. though it proved to be £35,000. Eight years later it was estimated at over £800,000 Lasi year ir exceeded a million. "There was in 1907 an increase of more than 40 per cent over the preceding year in the area under cultivation, although the Nile was one of the lowest ever/known. The journey across the desert is an interesting one. The effect of sunset on the vast stretch of sand, which at such a time is transformed into a lake of gold, is. something which can only be seen in the Soudan. Twenty-three miles beyond Berber the Atbara river is readied, over which the railway is carried by mean's of an iron bridge.. Between the Atbara"and Sliendi are the pyramids of Merge, tombs of the rulers of the island "of- Meroe. Fifty miles beyond Shendi -begins the sixth cataract, where the Jfile at the entrance to the gorge narrows down to a width ' of only 300 yards. From this- point the line run)? to Khartoum North, whence the traveller is conyeyed to the town across the river by a steamer in about fifteen minutes. Khartoum stands at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, on the tongue of land between' the two rivers.- In- the palace of the Governor-General is wnat for Englishmen is a sacred spot, the room, which has been built into the new palace, _where Gordon met his death". Among the sightß are the cantonments, where contingents of 20 Soudanese tribes are encamped, so that the curious may see them living under their own conditions, the fierce Baggara Arabs', the Jaalin, the cannibal Nyam Nyams and others. At Omdurman can be seen remains of the Mahdi's tomb destroyed after the occupation, the Khalifa's bouse exact_ly as he left it, the gream tarket,-and Gebel Surgham, the hill on which the Khalifa sat arid watched the battle which broke up his power. -