CHAPTER II. 



THE NILE BASIN. 



The Kiver. 



ESCENDING from the south to the north, and in its lower course 

 traversing broad open plains, the Nile gives, as it were, a general 

 inclination to the whole of North-East Africa towards the Mediter- 

 ranean basin. Notwithstanding a difference of outline, its delta 

 corresponds to another opening at once maritime and fluvial, that of 

 the Dardanelles and Bosphorus, through which the regions watered by the streams 

 of East Europe also slope towards the Mediterranean. Thus like an inner within 

 an outer circle, there is developed in the centre of the Old World a zone of riverain 

 lands, forming, so to say, a little world apart, and comprising such famous 

 historical cities as Memphis, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Tyre, Antioch, Ephesus, 

 Miletus, Smyrna, Athens, and Constantinople. 



In the length of its course the Nile is one of the great rivers of the world, and 

 by many of the tribes along its banks the earth is supposed to be divided into two 

 parts by this mysterious stream, coiled like a snake round the globe and grasping 

 its tail in its mouth. It certainly exceeds all the other rivers of the eastern 

 hemisphere, not excepting the Yangtze-Kiang or the three great Siberian arteries. 

 In this respect it even surpasses the Amazon itself, and probably yields to the 

 Missouri-Mississippi alone. Yet the chief river falling into the Victoria Nyanza, 

 and thus forming the true upper course of the Nile, has not yet been determined 

 with absolute certainty. It may even be larger than has been supposed, so that 

 calculating from its farthest source south of the equator, the African river may 

 possibly be superior in length to its North American rival. But taking it from the 

 Nyanza alone, it is at least 3,750 miles long, and in a straight line along the 

 meridian from lake to sea the distance is thirty-one and a half degrees of latitude, 

 or about 2,100 miles.* But to reach the farthest headstreams of the Nile basin we 



* Length of the Missouri-Mississippi. 



,, Nile, with the Nyanza headstream 

 ,, Amazon, with the Apurimic . 



Irtish-Ob 



,, Selenga-Angara-Yenisei . 



„ Vitim-I.ena .... 



„ Yangtze- Kiann^ 



4,230 miles. 



4,200 „ 



3,600 „ 



3,410 „ 



3,300 „ 



3.280 „ 



2,790 „ 



