Africa . d sandstone through which the Nile breakshere is less capable of resisting the action of the torrent;still the Wady Haifa Cataract, with its numberless cliffsand islets of red and yellow stone framed in a border ofunlimited desert, presents a wild picture of irresistiblecharm. From Wady Haifa, the head of the free naviga-tion of the Nile for larger vessels, a Nubian railroad isnow being constructed along the river-bank to El Ordehor Dongola, whence the Nile is again navigable to theimportant station of El Dabbeh, at the terminus of theshortest route to Darrur. This work now (July 1877
Africa . d sandstone through which the Nile breakshere is less capable of resisting the action of the torrent;still the Wady Haifa Cataract, with its numberless cliffsand islets of red and yellow stone framed in a border ofunlimited desert, presents a wild picture of irresistiblecharm. From Wady Haifa, the head of the free naviga-tion of the Nile for larger vessels, a Nubian railroad isnow being constructed along the river-bank to El Ordehor Dongola, whence the Nile is again navigable to theimportant station of El Dabbeh, at the terminus of theshortest route to Darrur. This work now (July 1877)employs upwards of 6000 men. The whole journey by the Nile from Cairo to WadyHaifa, a distance which may be compared to a voyagefrom the Thames along the east coast of Britain to thePentland Firth, is less than half the entire distance toKhartum, and only two-fifths of the Nile proper, reckoningfrom the confluence of the Sobat with the Bahr el Abiad,and only a fourth of its whole length from the northern. EGYPT. 219 extremity of the Albert Nyanza to the above Wady Haifa the pleasant trip by water ischanged for the wearisome caravan, the ship of thedesert here taking the place of the dahabieh or riverboat. 220 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTEE XVI. REGIONS OF THE UPPER KILE. 1. The Nubian Desert By Nubia or Dongola was formerly and is even yetunderstood the country south of Assuan. But it is diffi-cult to attach any definite geographical notion to theseterms, which, at least in the south of the region inquestion, are being now gradually superseded by theexpression Egyptian Sudan. The most direct southerly route towards Khartum isthe track across the Nubian Desert, from Korosko, at theknee formed by the jSTile between Assouan and WadyHaifa, to Abu Hamecl at the corresponding northern bend,250 miles farther south. This camel route winds througha succession of bare gorges covered with gravel or sand,and walled in by high rocks, over stony plateaux andac
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Keywords: ., bookauthorkeaneaha, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1878
