The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1897-12-30
NILE CANNOT BE DIVERTED.
silly Talk About Draining 1t in Order to
Ruin Egypt.

silly Talk About Draining 1t in Order to
Ruin Egypt.
From the London Chronicle.
There is a good deal of loose talk just
now concerning the possibility of some
power possessing itself of a position on
the head waters of the Nile. and then
cutting the banks in such way that
the water would be drained away from
Egypt and the latter left without the
overflow which now gives her life.
What are the head waters of the Nile?
First, the basin catch of the Victoria
NyanZa, which joins the basin catch of
the Albert Edward Nyanza running on
as a joint stream to the north of Con-
dokorox All this way 1t is cabined,
cribbed confined between walls of rock
never less than 1.500 in height. After
that 1t runs on toward Khartoum
through a great open alluvial valley,
receiving on the left bank the mighty
waters of the Bahr-el-Arab. the Bahr
el-Gazal and number of other
streams. Here would be place to tap
the Nile so as to keep the waters away
from Egypt? No doubt. for about one
year at the most But this very valley
lis itself surrounded by elevations of
1880 feet, and consequently after the
first soakage every drop of water led
out of the Nile will flow back to the
Melt cannot possibly get away. At
khartoum runs in the Blue Nile from
the mountains of Abyssinia. and thence
right away. At Khar-Suef, close to
Cairo, there is a ridge never less than
1900 feet high and with a minimum
breadth of 100 miles, sufficient, surely,
to prevent anybody turning the Nile
into the Red sea, and we have not
heard yet of any power with money
enough to spare to cut a canal 1,500
feet deep and $50 miles long, or to drive
tunnel at similar depth for like
distance.
So far for the right bank of the Nile.
The left is bounded by the Libyan
desert Iilere, of course, is the coun-
try into which the enterprising Egypt
runner is to divert the Nile. But all
the Libyan desert watersheds is toward
the Nile. The Wadies all make for the
Nile. not from it. At various distance
from the Nile is a range of not less
than 1,500 feet trending northwest and
southeast to the very latitude of Cairo
itself. so that on this side also the Nile
is shut in by the Libyan desert, which
lis itself shut in by the Tarso and Tum-
mo and Black mountains. and the chain
of which they form part and which runs
east until 1t reaches the cases fed UNI
foreground from the Nile to the north of
Assuan.
Therefore the entire Nile basin is held
in an unbroken chain of mountains,
with a minimum elevation of 1.500 feet.
obviously to break the banks some
where in this great area and let off
the water for the temporary injury of
Egypt is possible. but it Is not possible
to prevent the water returning to the
bed of the Nile. And a careful exami-
nation of the maps shows that there is
no place where the cut would not have
to be several hundred miles in length
to produce any perceptible effect even
temporarily.
But there is a safeguard even against
this outrage. The Nile is not one
stream, but collection of streams. If
the waters of the Bahr-e -Gazal and its
neighbors We're suddenly subtracted
from those of the whole river there
would remain the true head waters in
the great lakes, the Sobat, the Blue Nile
and the Atbara. The CONFORMATION of
the river makes it impossible If it
should be materially tapped at any one
district. Even If Abyssinia, cutting off
her nose to spite Egypts face, were to
divert the supply from the Lake Tana
and Amhara district she would only
have hurt herself, and then would not
have prevented two-thirds of the
stream of the Blue Nile running past
Famaska to Khart 1t is the Blue
Nile and the Atbara which bring down
the great bulk of the fertilizing alluvial
matter, but their course can no more
be altered during the lower part of
their streams than the Tay could be
made to discharge itself into the Gale
DOMAIN canal.