501 



NILE 



expands into lakes. From Dufilo to Lado (120 



xpan 

 iles) 



miles) the bed is contracted by rocky hills from a mile 

 to a quarter of a mile in wutfa : ami the stream is 

 forced over the YarUirah Kapids. At Ijidol.V N. 

 lat.) the river enter- tin* plains, an<l moves thence 

 slowly ami sluggishly down to Khartoum, 900 miles 

 t<> the north. The whole of this stretch is navi- 

 gable for river-steamers of fairly large size. In "4" 

 N. lat., however, the main channel divides. ; whilst 

 the right arm, the Bahr-el Zeraf, goes almost due 

 north, the left arm, which still continues to he 

 called the liahr-el-Jehel, trends .-lightly to the 

 west. Both streams How, at no great distance 

 apart, through a low swampy region, that is dining 

 the rainy season generally inundated for milee wide. 

 The batiks are lined with tall reeds and papyrus, 

 the abode of numerous aquatic liirds, and* the 

 shelter of swarms of gnats and other insect 

 Since the year 1863 lioth these channels 



have been at times rendered wholly or in part im- 

 passable by vast accumulations of vegetable debris 

 completely choking them. In 9J N. Tat. the Bahr- 

 el-Jel>el js met uy the Bahr-al-Uhazal, which, 

 coming directly from the west, 

 gives the united stream, now called 

 the White Nile, a due easterly 

 course. Although this tributary, 

 navigable for some 200 miles above 

 the confluence, runs nearly dry in 

 the dry season, it gathers to itself 

 the contributions of a very large 

 nninber of rivers, some of them 300 

 rmd 400 miles long, which have 

 their sources to the south and south- 

 west in the country of the Ninm- 

 N i;an tril>es ; one only, the Bahr-al- 

 Arab, comes from the northern side 

 from Darfur, to the north-west. 



Sixty miles east of the conflu- 

 ence the White Nile receives the 

 Bahr-el-Zeraf, and 30 miles further 

 east the navigable Sobat from 

 the. Ctilla country. Some (io miles 

 down stream from the Sobat mouth 

 is Fashoda, whose occupation by 

 Man-hand in 1 "98 threatened to 

 lead to war between France and 

 England. From Fashodathe White 

 Nile Hows almost directly north to 



rendered extremely dangerous by the cataracts 

 hirh obstruct the bed of the river, the sixth 

 occurring not far north of Khartoum, the- liist 

 near Assouan, in Egypt, just H)HIM- -24" N. hit. 

 The coiuse of the river from Assouan to I 

 is siillicicntly descrilied under Eg\ pt iq.v. ), where 

 also a map of the entire coins.- is iketebed. 

 The total length of the river eannot l>e staled 

 pieeisely ; Mom Victoria N.Min/a it i- estimated to 

 measure 34(K) miles. The Nile begins to 

 GondokOTO ill April, tin- Ilaln al Cha/.al pel Imp* 

 a week or two earlier. At Khartoum the n-e 

 begins in May, ami reaches its maximum ill Scp- 

 lemlM'r, whilst the Blue Nile rises from July to 

 the third week in August (see NII.OMUI.I: i. 

 Irrigation is largely regulated by barrages at 

 Kosetta and Damietta, constructed by I 

 engineers in 1843-61, and practically reconstructed 

 in 1886-90 at a cost of 405,000. A vast reservoir 

 is to be made near I'hihe (q.v.). 



The ancients had little knowledge of the Nile 

 alx>ve Meroe, lietween Berber and Khartoum. 

 The place of accurate knowledge was taken by 



The Nile. The First Cataract, looking down the river towards Assouan. 



Khartoum without beim' augmented by a single 

 tributary stream. At Khartoum (in l"5 37' N. 

 lat) the White Nile, or Bahr-al-Ahiad, is joined 

 from the south-east by the Blue Nile, the Bahr-al- 

 Aziak, the water of the respective streams Iwing 

 of the colour indicated in trie mimes. The Blue. 

 Nile, 950 miles long, gathers its volume principally 

 from Lake Tzana (">(>.").S feet aliove sea-level), situ- 

 ated nn the Abyssinian plateau, in which region 

 it i* knon-n as the Abai. It leaves the lake to- 

 wards its southern end, and, after running south- 

 east, curves right round by way of the south till 

 it comes to (low north-west. After leading the 

 mountains it traverses an extremely fertile plain, 

 the capital of which is Sennaar. From Khartoum 

 the Nile flows north-north-east, and 200 miles 

 below that city is joined from the right by the 

 .ubar.i. called also the Bahr-al-Aswad, or Black 

 Nile. It i- the black sediment brought down by 

 this river I hut settles in the Nile delta, and makes 

 it so extraordinarily fertile. This affluent, too, has 

 its source on the Abyssinian plateau, and its volume 

 is increased by two large tributaries, the Takazze 

 ami Mareli, Ixith striking into it from the right. 

 During its course from the confluence of the Atbara 

 through the Nubian Desert the great river makes 

 two deep bends, first round by the north, then 

 round by the south, ami subsequently resumes its 

 northerly flow. Below Khartoum navigation is 



myth, to the effect that the river hod its origin in 

 Mau ret ania (now Morocco), and flowed several 

 <la\s' journey underground until it came to the 

 south of Ethiopia; thence it passed northwards 

 as the Astapus. The Emperor Nero IM'^JUI tin- 

 fascinating work of searching for the sources of 

 the Nile by sending two expeditions, which seem 

 to have ascended U-yond the confluence of the 

 Sobat and White Nile. Ptolemy speaks of two 

 streams issuing from two lakes 6 and 7 degrees 

 south of the equator and uniting in 2 N. lat., 

 and being joined in 12 N. lat. by (he Astapus, 

 which likewise flowed from a lake (Coloe)- The 

 two lakes in the far south were fed by the melting 

 snows of a great range of mountains, the Mountains 

 of the Moon (which Stanley now identifies with 

 Ituwcn/ori. Cordon Iteiineti, :iinl the adjoining 

 peaks). This remained the sum total of informa- 

 tion aliout the river down to the lilth century, 

 except that in 1770 Bruee discovered that the Blue 

 Nile issued from Lake Tana. The Egyptian 

 government in the years 1839-42 sent three expedi- 

 tions up the river, which got as far as Ooodokoro, 

 In 18")8 Speke reached the Victoria Nyan/ii, ami 

 in !Mi:2 discovered Ki|M>n Falls. Two years later 

 Sir Samuel Baker discovered Albert Nyanza, and 

 in 1868-71 Sehwcinfurth explored the western 

 feeders of the White Nile. Stanley, in IS75, sailed 

 all round Victoria Nyanza, and in 1889 traced the 



