RIVERS. 307 



a diagonal direction across its own channel, to another curve of the same regularity upon 

 the opposite shore. Instead of calculating distances by miles or leagues, the boatmen 

 and Indians estimate their progress by the number of bends which they have passed. 

 This conformation, which distinguishes most of the streams of the Mississippi valley, 

 must have transpired under the operation of some law, but hitherto no solution of the 

 problem has been given which is quite satisfactory. Geological appearances indicate 

 that this stream, like the Orinoco, had in former ages a much broader volume, though a 

 shorter course ; that, in fact, it once found its estuary not far below the present mouth 

 of the Ohio, the alluvial country now stretching from thence to the south, near a thousand 

 miles, being then an arm of the sea. " No thinking mind," says Flint, " can contemplate 

 this mighty and resistless wave, sweeping its proud course from point to point, curving 

 round its bends through the dark forests, without a feeling of sublimity. The hundred 

 shores, laved by its waters ; the long course of its tributaries, some of which are already 

 the abodes of cultivation, and others pursuing an immense course without a solitary 

 dwelling of civilised man on their banks ; the numerous tribes of savages that now roam 

 on its borders ; the affecting and imperishable traces of generations that are gone, leaving 

 no other memorial of their existence, or materials for their history, than their tombs, that 

 rise at frequent intervals along its banks; the dim, but glorious anticipations of the 

 future; these are subjects of contemplation that cannot but associate themselves with the 

 view of this river." 



Though far inferior to these streams of the western world, in point of length and 

 volume, the Nile of the ancient continent may be placed at the head of remarkable rivers. 

 One of its chief peculiarities is the solitary grandeur of its flow, for not a single 

 affluent enters it, from the junction of the Tacazze to the sea, a distance of 1500 miles, a 

 circumstance without a parallel in the physical condition of rivers. Another of its 

 striking features is its long course through a desert, dry, barren, and hideous, depositing 

 by its annual inundation, the richest soil on those portions of it which lie contiguous to 

 its banks ; and hence has originated the apt comparison of its career to the path of a good 

 man amidst an evil generation. Egypt would be completely sterile, were it not for the 

 periodical overflow of its only stream, which both covers a large part of its surface with 

 a layer of alluvion, and imparts to it the requisite moisture. 



" Rich king of floods ! o'erflows the swelling Nile 



glad to quit 



The joyless desert, down the Nubian rocks 

 From thund'ring steep to steep, he pours his urn, 

 And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave." 



It requires the river to attain a medium rise in order to benefit the country ; too little, 

 involving scarcity and famine ; too much, compromising the safety of the people and their 

 dwellings. Wilkinson calls a rise of 19 cubits tolerable ; 20 good; 21 sufficient, while a 

 rise of 22 cubits is abundant enough to fill every canal ; and a rise of 24 cubits would 

 overwhelm and ruin the villages. A cubit is rather more than 21 inches, so that in order 

 fully to meet the wants of the country, a perpendicular rise of 38 feet is necessary. The 

 Nile is also distinguished among rivers for the pleasant taste and salubrity of its waters, 

 when not in flood ; properties highly extolled by the ancients, and acknowledged to belong 

 to it by modern travellers. It is a commpn saying with the Egyptians, that if Mahomet 

 had tasted of its stream, he would have sought a terrestrial immortality in order to enjoy 

 it for ever. The physical circumstances of the river easily account for the possession of 

 this attribute. The air above is pure and serene. But little rain falls upon the country 

 through which the greater part of its course is prosecuted, and no snow or hail. Hence 

 there is little drainage into it from the surrounding land, and its waters are kept free 



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