Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/663

* NIKON. 563 NILE. iiatc. He tried to uplift the people, pro- iiioled educalion. and alteinpted to inlroduce many rcfuiius into the C'lmicli, the most impor- tant of which was the ellurt to revise the Church books and correct them according to the old East- ern liturj;ics. This cli'urt met with opposition from some who were opposed to ehan)i<', and led to a division in the C'hureh. Sec! Ka.skoi.- NIKS. Consult I'almer, The I'utriurch and the Tnur (London, 1S71-7(J). NIKOP'OLI, or NICOP'OLIS. An ancient an<l fortilied town in the north of Bul<;aria, situ- ated on the right bank of the Danube, about 24 miles north-northeast of Plevna (Map: Bal- kan Peninsula, E 3). It is commanded by a citadel and has an old castle and a Byzantine church. The surrounding country produces good wine, and there is some trade between Nikopoli and Wallachia. Nikopoli is noted for the de- feat here in 13!»G of a large Christian army un- der Sigismund of Hungary by the Turks under Bajazet I. The fortress was occupied by the Russians in 1810, and the fortifications were partly demolishe<l. In 1829 a Turkish fleet was defeated by the Russians near Nikopoli, and iu 18V" the town was nearly destroyed by the Rus- sian army. The Nikopolis ad Istruni, foiuided by Trajan, with which Nikopoli is sometimes iden- tified, is now believed to have been .situated a few miles down the river. NILE (Lat. Nil us, from Gk. NciXos, Xeilos, Nile; possibly connected with Heb. nahal, stream, Eg^'ptian U'pi). The. The largest river of Africa, and the longest in the world excepting the Missouri-Mississippi, its length from the Vic- toria Nyanza to the Mediterranean being about 3670 miles. Authorities have definitely ascer- tained that the fountainhead of the Nile is a little stream situated just north of latitude 3° S.. in longitude 2(1° 30' E., near the northern ex- tremity of the mountains bordering the north- east coast of Lake Tanganyika. This stream, rising among the mountains at a height of 6114 feet above the sea, gives birth to the Ruvuvu River, which is the mother branch of the Kagera or Alexandra Nile, eni])tying into Victoria Nyanza on its west coast. The area of the Nile's basin has been estimated at from 1.082.000 to 1,780.000 square miles. The general course of the river is from south to north, and though it ha.s some largely developed sinuosities, its delta is almost directly north of the Albert Nyanza. which the Nile enters and from which it emerges, the dclt.a an<l lake being separated by a distance of about 2000 miles. The Nile has some special features that may be mentioned before describing it. While the river and its tributaries bring down from the tropics an enormous quantity of water, little of it reaches the sea, except at high flood, as nearly all the water that does not evaporate in the long journey northward is sprea<l over the fields of Egypt, where it serves the double purjiose of supplying moisture and fertilizing sediment. Its up|ier and its lower courses are navigable. Its midille course is not navigable except at very high flood, and then only with ditliculty. The six cata- racts of the Middle Nile extend along 1100 miles. with long stretches of smooth water between them ; but this entire section of the river may be regarded as unavailable for very important navigation. These Nubian cataracts "afford abun- dant water power, but it has never been utilized. Like all large rivers flowing north and south, the Nile tends to impinge more strongly upon its right bank, owing to the revolution of the earth from west to east. The l)oundary of the Nile basin is more clearly outlined in the south than in the north. The river dill'er^ from all other great African rivers in that it ])asses through various climatic zones and departs very little from its main direction. The Nile may be divided into four sections — the Upper, Middle, and Lower Nile, and the Delta, each having its distinctive aspects. The Upjier Nile extends from the lakes to the confluence of the Blue and White Nilos at Khartum. It is distinguished as being the region of tril)utaries, all of them being included excepting the Atbara, which is not perennial. It is also the region of heavy tropical rains. Three great reservoirs re- ceive the numerous affluents in the equatorial re- gions. The Nile issues from the largest of these reservoirs, the Victoria Nyanza, which is nearly equal to Scotland in area, and lies 3000 feet above the sea. The river, issuing from the middle of the north shore of the lake, plunges 13 feet over Ripon Falls, and is 1200 feet wide where its waters start on their journey north. This is the Victoria or Somerset Nile. It flows to the north- west, passes through the .small Gita and Kioga lakes, down the Karuma rapids, thimders over Murchison Falls (120 feet high, 270 miles from the outlet ), and then pursues a peaceful course for about 30 miles till it empties into the north- east corner of Alliert Nyanza, only to emerge at the northern apex of the lake as the Bahr-el- .lebel, a deep and majestic stream, bound on its long journey to the ilediterranean. South of Albert Nyanza is Lake Albert Edward, sending its waters, collected chiefly from the great moun- tain mass of Rowenziui, through the Semliki River to Albert Nyanza, which is 1000 feet below the level of the Victoria Nyanza. The headwaters of the Upper Nile are thus collected in the Albert Nyanza. From the Albert Nyanza the river de- scends with slow current and scarcely any slope to Dufile. where it passes between two mountain walls. Soon after leaving the mountains the slope becomes greater, the river foams over the Fola Rapids, leaves the plateau of Central Africa, enters the grass lands, and below Bor its banks are lost in the wide-s))reading swamps on either side, and the channel s]dits into several branches, the Bahr-cl-.Jebel. the Bahr-el-Seraf. and others, which meet again in Lake No or farther down the river. In Lake No. the Bahr-el-.Iebel meets the large tributary from the west, the Bahr-el-tJhazal (Gazelle River), and they leave the lake as the Bahr-el-Abiad or White Nile, which owes its name to the fact that in the sluggish current through the swam]) region and in Lake No the sediment settles, leaving the river light in color, and this is accentuated farther down by the white waters of the Sobat tributary. This area of swamps and branches is the vast region of the suchl (barrier), where all the channels are often comidetely choked by dense masses of vegetation. The current brings down fresh masses of weed ami the sectional area of the river channel is quickly reduced. The velocity of the current is consequently increased, and the succeeding portions are sucked under the original block, thus adding to its thickness. By degrees, under the severe action of the water.