The Daily bulletin., 1893-04-27
THE MIRACLE OF THE NILE.
A Sterile Desert Transformed at Its
Overflow into a Fruitful Para
disc.

oVernoW into fruitful Para-
disc.
BY no one, perhaps, have the i'm
pressions produced by the various
phases of the river been so poetic
ally described as by Osburn, who
thus describes the low Nile:
"The Nile has shrunk within its
banks until its stream is contracted
to half its ordinary dimensions, and
it's turbid, Shiny, stagnant waters
scarcely seem to flow in any direc-
ton. Broad flats or steep banks of
black, sun-baked Nile mud form
both the shores of the river. All
beyond them is sand and sterility,
for the hansen, or sand wind of
fifty days duration, has scarcely yet
ceased to blow. The trunks and
branches of trees may be seen here
and there through the dusty, hazy,
burning atmosphere, but so entirely
are their leaves coated with dust,
that at distance they are not dis
tinguishable from the desert sand
that surrounds them. 1t is only by
the most painful and laborious oper-
alton of watering that any tint ap-
proximating to greenness can be
preserved at this season even in the
pleasure gardens of the Pasha. The
first symptom of the termination of
! this most terrible season is the rising
of the north wind (the Etesian wind
of the Greeks), blowing briskly,
often fiercely during the whole Of
the day. The foliage of the groves
that cover Lower Egypt is soon dis
encumbered by it of the dust and
resumes its verdure. The fierce
fervors of the sun, then at his high
est ascension, are also most season
ably mitigated by the same power
full agency, which prevails for this
and the three following months
throughout the entire land Of
Egypt"
Then at last comes the inunda-
ton:
'Perhaps there is not in nature a
more exhilarating . sight, or one more
strongly exciting to confidence in
God, than the rise of the Nile. Day
by day and night by night its turbid
tide sweeps onward majestically over
the parched sands of the waste, howl
ing wilderness. Almost hourly, as
we slowly assembled it before the
Etesian wind, we heard the thunder,
ing fall of some mud bank and saw by
the rush of all animated nature tC
the spot that the Nile had overlept
another obstruction, and that its
bounding waters were diffusing life
and joy through another desert
There are few impressions l ever re,
ceived upon the remembrance OF
which l dwell with more pleasure
than that of seeing the first burst ol
the Nile into one of the great chan
nels Of its annual overflow. All ma
ture shouts for joy. The men, the
children, the butfaloes, gambol in it:
refreshing waters, the broad wave:
sparkle with shoals of fish, and fow
of every wing futter over them il
clouds. Nor is this jubilee of nature
confined to the higher orders O
creation. The moment the sand be
comes moistened by the approach o
the fertilizing' waters, it is literally
alive with insects innumerable. L
is impossible to stand by the side OF
one of these noble streams, to see i
every moment sweeping away some
obstruction to it's majestic course
and widening as it flows, without
feeling the heart to expand with love
and Joy and confidence in the great
Author of this annual miracle O.
mercy"
The effects of the inundation, as
Osburn shows in another place, "ex
hibit themselves in scene of fertil
ity and beauty such as will scarcely
be found in another country at any
season of the year--the vivid green
of the springing corn, the groves o.
pomegranate trees ablaze with the
rich scarlet of their blossoms, the
fresh breeze laden with the perfumes
of gardens of roses and orange
thickets, every tree and every shrul
covered with sweet-scented flowers
/ These are few of the natural beau
ties that welcome the stranger te
the land of Ham. There is con
, siderable sameness in them, it il
true, for he would observe littl'
variety in the trees and plants
whether he first entered Egypt b,
the gardens of Alexandria or tn
plain of Assouan. Yet is it the SAM
everywhere, only because it woult
be impossible to make any addition
to the sweetness of the odors, tn
brilliancy of the colors, or the OK
quisite beauty of the many forms o
vegetable life, in the midst of whicl
he wanders. 1t is monotonous, bu
it is the monotony of paradise.
"The food reaches Cairo on da,
closely approximating to that of th'
summer solstice. 1t attains it's great
est height and begins to decline nea
the autumnal equinox. By the win
ter solstice the Nile has again sub
sided within it's banks and resumed
) its blue color. Seed time has oc
Cured in this interval. The year il
Egypt divides itself into three sea
sons-four months of sowing ant
growth, corresponding nearly will
our November, December, Januar,
and February; four months of har
vest from March to June; the fou
months of the inundation complet
ing the cycle. .'--London Nature.