“With annual pomp,
Rich king of floods! o’erflows the swelling Nile!”—THOMPSON.
Though the river Nile is properly to be classified with the wonders of
nature, rather than with those of art, yet as it is so intimately and
constantly associated with the wonderful ruins that everywhere line its
banks, it may be well to notice it before passing from the wonders of
Egypt and of the regions south of it. This celebrated river, which
divides Egypt into two parts, and passes on south through Nubia,
Ethiopia, &c., is formed mainly by two streams, the Blue Nile and the
White Nile. The Blue Nile, the sources of which were discovered by
Bruce, rises near latitude eleven degrees north, in the mountains of
Godjam, on the south-western frontier of Abyssinia, and flows with a
winding course some eight hundred miles to Khartoum, where it unites
with the western branch of the river, thus forming the main stream. The
sources of the White Nile (so called from the light brown, muddy color
of its waters, as the Blue is from the dark bluish-green of its stream)
are as yet undiscovered. Twelve hundred miles above its junction, and
thirty-three hundred above the Mediterranean, it is still a broad and
powerful stream, of whose source even the tribes that dwell in those far
off regions are ignorant. Taylor is confident, that when its hidden
fountains shall at last be reached, and the problem of twenty centuries
solved, the entire length of the Nile will be found to be not less than
_four thousand miles_, and that it will take rank with the Mississippi
and the Amazon, as one of the three great streams of the world. In some
respects, he says, “there is a striking resemblance between the Nile and
the former river. The Missouri is the true Mississippi, rolling the
largest flood, and giving its color to the mingled streams. So the White
Nile, which is broad and turbid, pollutes the clear blue flood that has
usurped his name and dignity. In spite of what geographers may say, and
they are still far from being united on the subject, the Blue Nile is
not the true Nile. There, at the point of junction, his volume of water
is greater, but he is fresh from the mountains and constantly fed by
large, unfailing affluents, while the White Nile has rolled for more
than a thousand miles on nearly a dead level, through a porous, alluvial
soil, in which he loses more water than he brings with him.” The two
rivers meet at right angles, but do not mingle their waters till they
have rolled some eight or ten miles in their common bed. Both rivers are
of about the same breadth at the point of confluence, but the current of
the Blue branch is the strongest. On this account, the native boatmen
speak of the Blue river as _he_, and of the White as _she_. And it is
remarkable that the name Nile, which is never heard in Egypt, (where the
river is called _el-bahr_, “the sea,”) is retained in Ethiopia, and
there applied to the Blue Nile, probably for the same reason.
The White Nile has been traced up by Dr. Knoblecher and his associates
further than by any one before him. In January, 1850, he passed the
furthest point reached by any previous expedition; and on the sixteenth
of that month reached the village of Logwek, which takes its name from a
solitary granite peak about six hundred feet high, which stands on the
left bank of the Nile. This is in latitude four degrees and ten minutes
north, and is the most southern point which has yet been reached on the
White Nile. Dr. Knoblecher ascended the mountain, which commanded a view
of almost the entire Bari country. Toward the south-west the river wound
out of sight between the mountains Rego and Kidi, near which is the
mountain of Kereg, containing rich iron mines which are worked by the
natives; and to the south, on the very verge of the horizon, rose a long
range of hills, whose forms could not be observed with exactness, owing
to the great distance. Beyond the Logwaya range, which appeared in the
east, dwell the Berri tribes, whose language is distinct from the Baris,
and who are neighbors of the Gallas, that warlike race, whose domain
extends from Abyssinia to the wilds of Mozambique, along the great
central plateau of Uniamesi. The natives of Logwek knew nothing whatever
of the country to the south. The furthest mountain range was probably
under the parallel of latitude three degrees north, so that the White
Nile has now been traced nearly to the equator. At Logwek, it was about
six hundred and fifty feet wide, and from five to eight feet deep, at
the time of Dr. Knoblecher’s visit, which was during the dry season.
Such an abundance of water allows us to estimate with tolerable
certainty the distance to its unknown sources, which must undoubtedly
lie beyond the equator. The great snow mountain of Kilimandjarò,
discovered in 1850 by Dr. Krapf, the German missionary, on his journey
inland from Mombas, on the coast of Zanzibar, has been located by
geographers in latitude three degrees south. It is therefore most
probable that the source of the White Nile will be found in the range of
mountains, of which Kilimandjarò is the crowning apex. The geographer
Berghaus, in a long and labored article, endeavors to prove that the
Gazelle river is the true Nile, and makes it rise in the great lake
N’Yassi, in latitude thirteen degrees south. Dr. Knoblecher, however,
who examined the Bahr el-Ghazàl at its mouth, says it is an unimportant
stream, with a scarcely perceptible current. He considers the White Nile
as being, beyond all question, the true river.
[Illustration: THE NILOMETER.]
Following the river on to its mouth, the greater part of lower Egypt is
contained in a triangular island, formed by the Mediterranean sea, and
the two great branches of the Nile, which dividing itself five or six
miles from Old Cairo, flows on the one side to the north-east, falling
into the sea at Damietta; while the other branch runs to the north-west,
and enters the sea at Rosetta. What is called the Delta, resembling the
Greek letter of that name, and constituting a triangle, is thus formed.
The water of the Nile is here, for the most part, thick and muddy, more
particularly when the river is swollen by the heavy rains which
constantly fall within the tropics in the beginning of the summer
season, and which are doubtless the principal cause of its overflowing
the low lands of Egypt. A similar phenomenon is found in the Ganges; and
it is the same with all the rivers which have either their rise or
course within the tropics: they annually break their bounds, and cover
the lands for many miles on each side, before they reach the sea. They
likewise leave prolific mud, which, like that of the Nile, fertilizes
the land; beside which, the north winds prevailing about the latter end
of May, drive in the waters from the sea, and keep back those of the
river, in such a manner as considerably to assist the swell. The
Egyptians, and the Copts more especially, are persuaded that the Nile
always begins to rise on the same day of the year; as, indeed, it
generally commences about the same time in June. Its rise was observed
for three successive years by Dr. Pococke, who found it to ascend during
the first five days from five to ten inches; and it thus continued
rising till it had attained the hight of nine feet, when the canal of
Cairo was cut. It then rose from three to five inches only in the day;
for, having spread over the land and entered the canal, although more
water might have descended than before, its rise was less considerable.
The other canals were now laid open at stated times, and those which
water the lower grounds the last. These canals are carried along the
highest parts of the country, so that from their elevation the water may
be conveyed to the valleys. So important is this matter of the rise and
fall of the river to the whole country, that a thin column or pillar,
called the _Nilometer_, has been erected, to mark the elevation or
depression of its waters. A view of it is given in the cut following. It
is situated in the middle of a round tower, on the island of Rhoda, not
far from Cairo, in the middle of the river. In this tower is a marble
cistern, through which the Nile flows; its bottom and the bottom of the
river being on the same level. From the center of this cistern rises a
slender pillar, as seen in the engraving, marked off into twenty
divisions of twenty inches each; the entire space marked on the column
being somewhat more than thirty-six feet. This column is of the greatest
interest to the people, as connected with their prospects of a harvest;
and of the greatest importance to the government, as enabling it to fix
the tribute, or tax, according to the hight of the inundation. The tower
in which it is placed, is lighted by some eighteen or twenty windows,
which form a belt around the base of the dome; and beneath these, and
above the cistern, are rooms or apartments for those who come to see the
hight of the waters, from which rooms a flight of some thirty stone
steps leads to the marble pavement in the center of which the cistern
and Nilometer are placed. As soon as the attendants ascertain that the
overflow will be such as to fertilize all the land, the large canals are
all opened with great ceremony and rejoicing. And as soon as the waters
retire again from the fields, they are sown with all kinds of grain, so
that in a short space of time the whole face of the country is
variegated with the rich hues of the flowering plants and the ripening
grain.
The Nile has one peculiar characteristic. Other rivers being supplied by
rivulets, the ground is lowest near their banks; but as no water flows
into the Nile in its passage throughout Egypt, and as it is necessary
that this river should overflow the land, the country is generally lower
at a distance from, than near to it; and, in most parts, the land has a
gradual descent from the river to the foot of the hills, which terminate
the sandy plains most benefited by the irrigation. Among other
remarkable appearances, the celebrated Bruce notices a very singular one
attendant on the inundation of the Nile. In Abyssinia, the early part of
the morning is constantly clear in that season, with a fine sunshine.
About nine, a small cloud, not above four feet in apparent breadth,
appears in the east, whirling violently round as if on an axis; but
having approached nearly to the zenith, it first abates its motion, and
then loses its form, extending itself greatly, and seeming to call up
vapors from all the opposite quarters. The clouds thus formed having
attained nearly the same hight, rush against each other with great
violence, and remind the spectator of Elisha foretelling rain on Mount
Carmel. The air being impelled before the heaviest mass, or swiftest
mover, makes an impression of its form on the collection of clouds
opposite; and the moment it has taken possession of the space made to
receive it, the most violent thunder possible to be conceived follows
instantly, attended by rain. After some hours the sky again clears, with
a wind at north; and it is always disagreeably cold when the thermometer
is below sixty-three degrees.
Dr. Clarke, in his travels, draws the following elegant picture of this
most interesting river.
“Here we were unexpectedly greeted with an astonishing view of the Nile,
the Delta, and the numerous groves in the neighborhood of Rosetta. The
scene is beyond description. The sudden contrast it offers, opposed to
the desert we had traversed, the display of riches and abundance poured
forth by the fertility of this African paradise, with all the local
circumstances of reflection excited by an extensive prospect of the
Nile, and of the plains of Egypt, render it one of the most interesting
sights in the world. The beautiful boats of the Nile, with their large,
wide-spreading sails, were passing up and down the river. Unable to quit
the spot, we dismissed our guides, and remained some time contemplating
the delightful picture. Afterward, descending on foot, close by the
superb mosque of Abu-Mandur, we continued our walks along the bank of
the river, through gardens richer than imagination can portray, beneath
the shade of enormous overhanging branches of sycamore and fig trees,
amid bowers of roses, and through groves of date, citron, lime and
banana trees, to Rosetta.”