At Khartoum

Many years have gone by since I first flew up the valley of the upper Nile， starting the journey at Khartoum， in the Sudan， and ending it nearly two thousand miles away， at the source of the river， in Uganda. I was a war correspondent at the time， on my way from one campaign， in the western desert of Egypt， to another， in Ethiopia. Even then， when planes did not fly nearly so high as they do today， there was not very much to be seen from the air except the endless desert and the meandering green and these I remember just as distinctly as one remembers the islands on a long ocean voyage.

　　Before we started， we were held up for three or four days at Khartoum with engineer trouble. It was April， the hottest time of the year - so hot， in fact that it was slightly painful just to touch the porcelain sides of your bathtub when you got up in the morning. A fearsome sandstorm known as a haboob was blowing， and it was only at the very end of the long， torpid day that the town woke up at last. Each evening， about an hour before the light began to fail， I used to walk down to the zoo with a book. The Khartoum Zoo is quite unlike any other zoo in the world. It lies on the left bank of the Blue Nile， just upstream from the point where the White Nile comes I from the southern Sudan， and it covers hardly more than two or three acres.

　　The animals and the birds do not have that vacant and dispirited air that seems to overtake tropical creatures then they are transported to cold climates in the north. They have all been born here in this hothouse atmosphere， and many of them are not kept in cages； they simple roam about in their natural state， grazing on the grass and the bushes or wading in the pond. At the hour when I used to go to the zoo， there were hardly any visitors， and as I sat there reading， the zebras， the antelopes and many kinds of long-legged bird would gather around in a quiet and hesitating way that was something between curiosity and fear.

　　（from The White Nile by Alan Moorehead） The Way to Rainy Mountain

　　campaign 战役，战斗

　　meandering 蜿蜒的，曲折的

　　porcelain 瓷的

　　bathtub 澡盆，浴缸

　　torpid 毫无生气的，不活泼的

　　acre 英亩

　　vacant 空虚的，茫然的

　　dispirited 垂头丧气，没有精神的

　　overtake 侵袭，压倒

　　roam 闲逛，溜达

　　graze 放牧，吃草

　　wade 涉水而过，在水中行走

　　zebra 斑马

　　antelope 羚羊