Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/463

 NILE 449 which flows almost directly from the west. This tributary, which Schweinfurth believes to be the main stream, is said to be unfordable at a distance of 300 m. above its mouth, while the Dyoor and all the S. W. affluents of the Gazelle are known to be much smaller. The drainage area of the Bahr el-Ghazal and its tributaries is estimated by Schweinfurth at 150,000 sq. m. ; there are great discrepancies, however, between the views of different ex- plorers of the Nile, as to the importance of this western branch and the actual quantity of water which it supplies to the main stream. It is about 1,000 ft. wide at the mouth of the Bahr el-Arab. A few miles N. of its conflu- ence with the Gazelle, the Nile receives from the south the Bahr Giraffe, a river about 70 yards wide and 19 ft. deep in the dry season, once believed to be an independent tributary stream, but now known to be an eastern offset of the Bahr el-Abiad, which it leaves in the Aliab country not far from lat. 6 N., and rejoins at this point, lat. 9 25'. Although densely clogged with water plants, it has some- times afforded a navigable route up the Nile for ivory merchants, when that by the main channel has been impassable by reason of the grass barrier. The junction of the Sobat is 38 m. below, being about 750 m. from Gon- dokoro. Baker regards this as probably the most powerful affluent of the Nile. It is 650 ft. broad, and brings down a vast volume of yellow water, in a swift and strong current from 26 to 28 ft. in depth. It comes from the southeast, and is supposed to rise in the Kaffa country S. of Abyssinia. Little is known of its upper course, which has never been ex- plored, but the earthy matter which it holds in solution indicates a mountain origin. The dis- tance from the mouth of the Sobat to Khar- toom is 684 m. The river increases in width from 1,500 yards to 2 m., flowing between the lands of the Dinkas on the east and those of the Shillooks on the west. The marshy banks and floating islands of aquatic plants are left behind, and the Nile emerges into a perfectly level region, where arboreal vegetation is con- fined mainly to the margin of the river, and consists principally of mimosas. At rare in- tervals the monotonous character of the land- scape is diversified by an isolated elevation, and the right bank of the river, through seve- ral degrees of latitude before reaching Khar- toom, is bordered by a succession of sand banks 30 ft. high. Immense numbers of cat- tle are pastured on the light but rich soil of the shores, and innumerable ducks and geese haunt the stream. From Khartoom the united waters of the White Nile and Blue Nile flow northward about 50 m., and then make a sud- den bend to the east between a thick cluster of islands. At this point there is a rapid ex- tending half way across the river, known as the sixth cataract of the Nile, it being the last which is met in ascending from the sea till the traveller reaches on the White Nile the rapids above Gondokoro, and on the Blue Nile the cataracts by which the river descends from the Abyssinian highlands. Here the Nile is very narrow, being compressed between high hills of naked red sandstone rock. From the sixth cataract it flows in a N. E. direction to Shendy, and is studded with islands covered with a luxuriant growth of palms, mimosas, acacias, sycamores, and other trees. The banks are high and steep and covered with bushes and rank grass. Reefs of black rock make the navigation intricate and dangerous. The country is thickly populated. Shendy is a long straggling town of mud huts, with about 10,000 inhabitants. Thence the river runs N. E. past the ruins of Meroe through a well cul- tivated region. In lat. 17 37', 160 m. below Khartoom, the Abyssinian river Atbara, called also Bahr el-Aswat or Black river from the quantity of black earth brought down by it during the rains, enters the Nile on the right bank, flowing from the southeast. It is the ancient Astaboras. The peninsula between it and the Blue Nile was the ancient kingdom of Meroe, which was called an island by the Greek and Roman writers, who were accus- tomed to give this name to the irregular spaces included between confluent rivers. The At- bara is the last affluent of the Nile, which for the rest of its course presents the unparal- leled phenomenon of a river flowing 1,500 m. without a tributary. It contributes to the Nile the largest part of the slimy mud which fertilizes Egypt. The Atbara is formed about lat. 14 15' by two great streams, the larger of which bears the name of Tacazze, and rises in the table land of Abyssinia ; the other, which is considered the direct upper course of the At- bara, has its sources in the highlands N. and N. W. of Lake Tzana or Dembea. From its con- fluence with the Atbara the Nile flows through Nubia for 700 m. to Syene or Asswan on the frontiers of Egypt. It passes over a series of rapids and cataracts, all formed by granite or kindred rocks. For 120 m. from the At- bara it runs nearly N. through the province of Berber. A strip of arable land about 2 m. in breadth borders the river; beyond it all is desert, the inundation not extending further. At Abu Hammed, where the river is divided by the large rocky island of Mograt, it makes a great bend S. W., and runs in that direction about 150 m., enclosing on its left bank a re- gion called the desert of Bahiuda, which was occupied in ancient times by the Nuba3, from whom Nubia derives its name. The naviga- tion in this part is impeded by rapids, and the land susceptible of cultivation is so small in extent that the inhabitants avail themselves of the patches of loamy soil which the river de- posits in the rocky hollows. Travellers going down the Nile quit the river at Abu Hammed and cross the desert to Korosko, a march of 250 m., while by the course of the river the distance between the same points is upward of 600 m. The banks of the Nile where it