The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-06-09
TWO GREAT RIVERS.

New light has Just been shed on the his
tory of the Delta Of the Nile by DR.. John
Janks, who has published an interesting
paper en- bodying the result of his recent
studies of the great river. His views may
be proftably compared with the accounts
of the story of the Mississippi.
The latter flows in a trough carved out
of the soft eocene tertiary layers on which
the present alluvial beds rest. The carv-
ing was evidently done during the drift
period which followed one OF the glacial
ages, and the river was larger then than
it is now. What its course was is matter
OF pure conjecture, as the banks are often
on level or below the surface of the
river. ana no traces OF former beaches are
visible. The records of the Nile are more
easily traced. Bursting from the valleys
of Libya, and receiving the overflow of
the lakes of equatorial Africa, it pursued
nOrtherly course and emptied into the
sea at the base of the MOkattan Range,
near the present city of Cairo. From this
mouth the river DETECTED eastwardly, car
ryiDg its banks with il, and in all proba-
bility the first mouth of the Delta was
near the present Ismaila. while soon alter
ward another mouth seems TO have been
in the Bay Of Aboukir, few miles east of
Alexandria. These two seem to have been
the chief mouths in the time of the an
clients; the Delta was Enclosed between
them. Gradually. within the historic
period, other mouths were formed, and
the whole Delta was covered with the rich
slime which makes Northern Egypt the
garden of the Mediterranean.
The two rivers do not differ widely in
length. From the source of the Missouri
to the passes of the Mississippi River men
count 1000 miles; from the outlet of Vic
toria NyanZa to the Nile Delta is 1870
miles. But the area drained by the Mis-
sissippi is far larger than that drained by
the Nile and the volume of water carried
much greater. For $50 miles from the en-
bOuchure Of the Atbara the Nile passes
through Tainless torrid desert without
a single sffiuent; the Mississippi receives
streams every few miles, and the average
rainfall in its valley is 80 inches. The cur
rent Of the Nile is so sluggish that the
river carries nothing but the finest particles
of mud and sand without pebbles or
gravel; the current Of the Mississippi
sweeps along with it large objects, such as
decayed trees and even bouders.
begins to rise in February and rises till
June, then it fails and reaches its lowest
point in October. The Nile begins to rise
In June and swells gradually till Oc-
tober, when it begins TO decline. But the
overflow of the Mississippi is rarely bene-
fetal and often devastating, whereas the
overflow OF the Nile is the source of
Egypt's fertility. Part of the silt carried
by the American river contains elements
of fertility. but that is generally carried
off by the swift current into the gulf; the
corresponding material which is scraped
by the Nile from its banks in Upper
Egypt is deposited as it goes along wher-
ever the water becomes still. The Nile
silt is destitute of organic matter, but is
strongly impregnated with carbonate of
barYta and oxide of iron.
The clay bed over which the Mississippi
flows. with an alluYal deposit between
them. belongs. as has been stated, to the
tertiary period. The bed and banks of the
Nile and the land inclosed between the
arms of the Delta are quaterDary, much
younger in the history Of creation than
the land through which our river flows.
The Mississippi was probably a mighty
river like the Amazon, emptying, as now,
into the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps some
where near the present embouehure of the
Arkansas, when the Nile was no larger than
it is now, and disembogued into the Mediter-
ranesn near the city of Cairo. Chronology
fails to grasp such vast spaces OF time.
The laud of Goshen, where the 5sraelites,
according to Exodus, lived 400 years, did
not exist al the time when IsmaIla was the
chief N Cuth. and in the early dynasties.
long before the advent of the children OF
Israel. the city OF Bubasus appears 10
have flourished.
Critics smile at the vast antiquity
claimed by psychologists for some OF the
ancient ruins or monuments OF Egypt.
Some day party of scientific men will dig
into the clay under the present alluvial
bed Of the Mississippi. If they should
therein fnd-as they may-remains which
indicate that when that clay was being
secured by the diluVial drift human beings
lived on this continent, Egypt may be put
on her mettle 10 maintain her claim to
superior antiquity.