23' i 



NIGRINE NILE. 



without producing any deleterious eflwts. The 

 deadly-nightshade (atropa belladonna) is, on the 

 other hand, a dangerous plant, and frequently pro- 

 duces fatal effects, where it grows abundantly in waste 

 places. The stem is about three feet high, a little 

 hairy, herbaceous, and branching. The leaves are 

 large, oval, acute, and softly pubescent. The flowers 

 are solitary, bell-shaped, and of a dull purple colour. 

 They are succeeded by black berries, which are so 

 much the more dangerous, as their taste is sweetish 

 and rather agreeable. The extract, dissolved in 

 water and applied to the eye, possesses the remark- 

 able property of dilating the pupil, and is, in conse- 

 quence, employed in surgical operations for that 

 purpose. The plant belongs to the solanacea, the 

 same natural family with the preceding. 



NIGRINE. See Titanium. 



N1GRITIA, SOUDAN, or TAKROUR ; a gene- 

 ral name for the Ulterior parts of Africa, some por- 

 tions of which are yet unknown, and some have been 

 only recently explored by Clapperton, Caille, Lander, 

 &c. It contains a great number of kingdoms, or 

 countries, among which are Bambarra, Timbuctoo, 

 and Kong on the west; Houssa, Borgou, Yarriba, 

 Nyffe, Funda, Bournou, Mandara, Begharmi, and 

 Knnem in the centre ; Bergoo, Darfur, Kordofan, 

 Donga, and the country of the Shillooks, to the east. 

 It lies between 6" and 17 N. lat., and 8 W. and 

 32 E. Ion. It is bounded on the north by Sahara, 

 on the east by Nubia, on the south by the Mountains 

 of the Moon and Lower Guinea, and on the west by 

 Senegambia. As thus described, it is about 2500 

 miles from west to east, 500 from north to south, 

 with a superficial area of 1,250,000. It contains 

 some lofty mountains ; some of the summits of the 

 Mountains of the Moon being covered with perpetual 

 snow ; the Kong range is in the south-western part of 

 the country. In the centre is lake Tchad, into which 

 the Yeou and the Shary, two large rivers from the 

 south-west, empty themselves ; the north-eastern 

 borders of the lake have not been examined. The 

 Niger (q. v.) rises in the western part of Nigritia, 

 and, after an easterly course, flows south into the 

 gulf of Guinea. During eight or nine months, the 

 heat is very great. In the rainy'season (from June 

 to September), the country is covered with a most 

 luxuriant vegetation. The soil, in general, is fertile, 

 producing maize, rice, millet, cotton, hemp, melons, 

 indigo, dates, the gooroo, or Soudan, nut, &c. The 

 gigantic baobab, the butter-tree, various resinous 

 trees, &c., are found in the forests. Camels, drome- 

 daries, asses, horses, sheep, goats, and horned cattle 

 nre numerous. Lions, leopards, hyaenas, wolves, 

 jackals, rhinoceroses, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, 

 crocodiles, &c., are found in the woods or rivers. 

 A great portion of the country being populous, 

 we may suppose it to contain about 20,000,000 in- 

 habitants. They are more advanced in civilization 

 than the negroes of the coast, to whom our know- 

 ledge has, till lately, been principally confined. They 

 exercise some of the mechanical arts with skill, and 

 an important commerce is carried on with the Bar- 

 bary states, Egypt, and Nubia, by Moorish merchants, 

 in caravans. Slaves, ivory, gum, ostrich feathers, 

 &c., are the most considerable articles of export. 

 The discovery of a great navigable river, running 

 through the heart of the country, and accessible to 

 Europeans from the sea, must have a mosli important 

 influence on the condition of this country, Park, 

 Clapperton, and Caille have furnished us with nearly 

 all the information which we possess concerning 

 these regions, which were but indistinctly known to 

 the ancients under the general name of Ethiopia. 

 The Journal of the Landers gives some further mate- 

 rials relating to the south-western part. 



NIHIL ALBUM ; a name formerly given to the 

 white oxide of zinc. 



NILE; a large river of Africa, which flows 

 through Nubia and Egypt. Below Cairo, where it 

 is 1000 yards wide, it divides into two main 

 branches, which again separate into several arms, 

 the extreme eastern and western of which give to 

 the lower part of Egypt the form of a delta (q. v.). 

 There were anciently reckoned seven principal 

 mouths by which its waters were poured into the 

 Mediterranean ; only those of Damietta and Rosetta 

 are at present navigable ; the others have been 

 choked up. The sources of the Nile have never 

 been accurately determined. Among the Greeks 

 and Romans, this river excited the greatest interest ; 

 from its being the largest known to them, from its 

 inundation, of which they had no other examples, 

 and were ignorant of the cause, and from its unknown 

 origin. The name Nile, according to Spineto (Lec- 

 tures on Hieroglyphics), is Greek ; the Egyptians 

 calling it merely Jaro, which means river. The true 

 Nile is formed by the confluence of the Bahr-el Abiad 

 (white river) and the Eahr-el-Azrek (blue river), in 

 lat. 15 40' N. The former, rising in Abyssinia, to 

 the south-west of lake Dembea, conies from the 

 south-east, and was considered by Bruce as the Nile. 

 The latter, however, which comes from the south- 

 west, and is supposed to rise in the Mountains of the 

 Moon, brings down the greatest mass of water, and is 

 considered by Cailliaud as the true Nile. (See Me- 

 roe. ) This is a mere dispute about words. In lat. 

 17 40 7 , it receives the Tacazze from the east, enters 

 Egypt in 24, following nearly a northern course, 

 and below Cairo (30 15' N.) divides into the two 

 main arms above-mentioned, the Damietta, or the 

 eastern, and the Rosetta, or western branch. The 

 distance from the confluence of its two head branches 

 to the sea is about 1500 miles ; from its highest 

 sources, probably not far from 2500 miles. The 

 cataracts so much celebrated by the ancients, mod- 

 ern discoveries have shown to be insignificant ; they 

 appear to be hafdly any thing more than what in 

 America are called rapids. In Upper Egypt, it is 

 confined between two ranges of mountains, which 

 leave only a narrow strip on each side of the river. 

 Near Cairo, the river valley widens, and the level 

 nature of the country below allows it to spread itself 

 over a wide plain. The seven mouths were called, by 

 the ancients, the Canopic, the most western (probably 

 to lake Edko or Mareotis), the Bolbitic (the Rosetta 

 branch), the Sebennitic (probably terminating in lake 

 Bourlos), the Phatnitic or Bucolic (now the Damietta 

 branch), the Tanitic, the Mendesian, and the Pelu- 

 siac (the most easterly), which entered the sea at 

 different points of what is now lake Mewzaleh. 

 In Upper and Middle Egypt, there are great num- 

 bers of canals on the left bank of the river, which 

 serve to irrigate the country : the principal, called 

 the canal of Joseph, communicates with lake Moeris. 

 (q. v.) The inundations of the Nile are owing to 

 periodical rains, which fall to the south of the seven- 

 teenth degree. They begin in March, but have no 

 effect upon the river until three months later. To- 

 wards the end of June, it begins to rise, and con- 

 tinues rising at the rate of about four inches a day, 

 until the end of September, when it falls for about 

 the same period of time. Herodotus informs us that, 

 in his time, a rise of sixteen cubits was sufficient to 

 water the country : at present, twenty-two cubits are 

 considered a good rise. A rise of twenty-six cubits, 

 in 1829, destroyed a great many villages, with their 

 inhabitants. The lower part of Egypt has, there- 

 fore, been very much raised since the time of Hero- 

 dotus, by the accumulated deposits of rich slime 

 [ brought down by the river. (See Egypt.) This 



