William E. Garstin and Frank R. Cana

“ BAHR-EL-GHAZAL, the chief western affluent of the river Nile, N.E. Africa, which it joins in 9° 30′ N., 30° 25′ E. The Bahr-el-Ghazal (Gazelle river) is a deep stream formed by the junction of many rivers, of which the Jur (see below) is the most important. The basin of the Ghazal is a large one, extending north-west to Darfur, and south-west to the Congo watershed. The main northern feeder of the Ghazal is a large river, whose headwaters are in the country west of 24° E. where the Nile, Congo and Shari watersheds meet. ”

“ In their upper courses all the southern affluents of the Ghazal flow across a plateau of ferruginous laterite, their valleys having steep banks. North of 7° 20′ N. (where rapids interrupt the currents) the valleys open out and the rivers wind in tortuous channels often choked by sandbanks. This alluvial region, flooded in the rainy season, gives place about 9° N. to a sea of swamps, forming in fact part of the huge swamp region of the Nile (q.v.) ”

“ The most westerly is the Lol or Bahr-el-Arab. It rises, as the Boro or Telgona, in Dar Fertit, and receives from the south and south-west the Raga, Sopo, Chel and Bongo. Dem Zobeir, formerly the chief station of Zobeir Rahama (q.v.) , is near the Biri tributary of the Chel, in 7° 40′ N., 26° 10′ E. The Lol maintains a fairly straight course east to about 28° E., when it turns north-east, and in about 281/2° E., 91/2° N., joins the Bahr-el-Homr. ”