Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/85

 of the scenery. Nothing meets the gaze except water, rock, sand, and sky, until it is arrested farther down by the bold headland of Mount Burkal.

The "third" cataract, like the others, comprises several partial falls, below an ancient island-studded lake, where the river expands to a width of some seven miles between its two banks. At the first granite reef, that of Hannek, so called from a Nubian castle on its left bank, the stream, divided into a thousand foaming channels, presents a more decided fall. Here blackish rocks of hornblende and feldspar project from twenty-four to twenty-six feet above low water. The river-craft do not venture amid the openings of this irregular barrier; but under the right bank runs a channel broad enough to allow two boats to pass abreast. At the entrance of the cataract a few trees festooned with creepers overhang, in dense arches, reefs which are carefully avoided on account of the venomous snakes which infest them. Lower down more islands are scattered in mid- stream, their verdure contrasting vividly with the black rocks. The Hannek rapids have a total length of 4 miles, and the difference of level between the two extreme points varies from 18 feet at low water to 10 feet during the floods. It is thus evident that the fall is here comparatively slight, as is the case in most of the other cataracts.

Below Hannek the Nile trends sharply east and north towards the Kaibar or Kajbar bank, which during the dry season seems to completely obstruct the stream. It has the appearance of an artificial dyke, which by a peculiar optical illusion, due to the contrast between the dark rock and the greyish water, seems to rise to a considerable height. The rock must be approached quite closely to find the tortuous outlets through which the foaming channels of the Nile escape. During the Hoods the Kaibar barrier is entirely concealed, leaving free passage to the stream between its banks. The "Wadi-Halfa, or "second cataract," is the point where most European and American travellers making the "tour of the Nile" bring their journey to a close. The rock of Abu-Sir, which commands its tumultuous waters and affords a magnificent uninterrupted view of the southern horizon, is scrawled all over with the names of adventurous tourists, proud of having penetrated so far up the mysterious river. Although this cataract stretches over a space of more than fifteen miles, it forms merely the lower portion of the series of rapids known as the Batn-el-Hagar, which have a total length of about eighty miles. The river presents everywhere the same aspect throughout the whole of this section. Its broad bed is strewn with boulders, most of them rounded off like stones polished by glacial action; whilst others are disposed vertically like basalt columns, or else cut up into jagged crests, bristling with sharp and needle-like spines. Between these reefs rush the winding channels, each forming a separate cascade; elsewhere occur landlocked basins, in which the whirling waters seem completely arrested. To these succeed other rapids, falls, and eddies, the cataract thus breaking up into a thousand partial falls. But at low water these minute thread-like streams are scarcely visible, being lost in the vast maze of shoals and channels. Excluding the reefs, the archipelago consists of three hundred and fifty-three islands and islets, each with its Nubian name, more than fifty of them being inhabited and