CATABACTS, AND INUNDATIONS. 213 



SECTION IX. 

 Cataracts and Inundations. 



1. Cataracts of the Nile, 



THE bed and course of this river we have described in a previous 

 chapter. Through its long and fertile range of about two thou- 

 sand British miles, it has often to wind through abrupt and preci- 

 pitous countries; and is not unfrequently strengthened by other 

 rivers, as well as occasonal lakes and rapids. In consequence of 

 which it often exhibits very considerable cataracts or water-falls. 

 With respect to the number of these the different travellers are not 

 agreed, some having placed in the catalogue, several of not more 

 than seven or eight feet of perpendicular height, which others have 

 rejected as too diminutive to deserve notice. We may safely affirm, 

 however, that it contains not less than ten or twelve whose descent 

 may be estimated at upwards of twenty feet before it reaches the 

 level cf Egypt. One of the chief occurs to the north-east of Mor. 

 cho, where the Nile, having traversed a long and rugged chain of 

 mountains, throws itself down to a considerable depth in a wide 

 precipitous sheet, and forms the cataract of Jan Adel at Janadil, 

 constituting the seventh fall in its regular course. But that which, 

 by way of eminence, is called the Cataract of the Nile, occurs iu 

 a different country and a very different part of the river, at the 

 village of Atalata, near Dara. It constitutes the eighth cataract, 

 and is thus described by Mr. Bruce : 



Our horses were immediately fed ; bread, honey, and butter 

 served : Ali had no occasion to cry v Drink ; it went about plenti- 

 fully, and I would stay no longer, but mounted my horse, thinking 

 every minute that I tarried might be better spent at the cataract. 

 The first thing they carried us to was the bridge, which consists of 

 one arch, of about twenty-five feet broad, the extremities of which 

 were strongly let into, and rested on, the solid rock on both sides ; 

 but fragments of the parapets remained, and the bridge itself seemed 

 to bear the appearance of frequent repairs, and many attempts to 

 ruin it; otherwise, iu its construction, it was exceedingly commo- 

 dious. The Nile here is confined between two -rocks, and runs in a 

 deep trough, with great roaring and impetuous velocity. We were 

 told no crocodiles were ever seen so high, and were obliged to re- 

 mount the stream above half a mile before we came to the cataract, 



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