Washington sentinel., 1898-12-03
- 49, SENTINEL
The Annual Rise OF tn I Nile.
Ney PssHY Nag azigs

OF all the phenomena ptesented |
by this most remarkable oi all |
rivers, the one most fami liar and
the most benehcent by ia , is its |
annual rise and overflow In lower |
Egypt. But though il is the De ia
that mainly benefits by thisS Snunda-
ton, it is clear that the rise OF the
river and the height which it
attains are dependent on uieteoro-
logical conditions OF a region more
than a thousand miles from Cairo.
In short, the question whether
Egypt is to be scourged by famine,
or to wallow in as great plenty
as four thousand years OF grinding
tyranny have until lately permitted,
is all matter Of the rainfall in
AbYssinia and Equatorial Africa.
IL is, to use Professor Huxlev's sim
lie, as if the prosperity OF the agri-
cultural interest in Berkshire de
pended on the state of the weather
in Morocco. In the month Of May
and tn beginning OF June the
Egyptian Nile is little better than
"a great sluggish ditch" which, a
little north OF Cairo, divides into
two branches, one OF them de
bouching into the Mediterranean
at Rosetta. and the other at Dam
ietta, an innumerable series OF
artificial canals, eonstru oted for
irrigating purposes, connecting
these two arms. Beyond these
mouths the complex system Of
watercourses consists OF string Of
marshes and lakes extending from
Mareetis on the west to Menzaleh
on the east. About April the tor
pid stream begins to swell, but the
flood IS not felt in lower Egypt
until the end Of June, Then the
waters take on a green color from
the mass Of stAgnant vegetation.
By and by, as the water begins to
rise, it becomes reddish brown,
turbid, Opaque, and laden with
sediment from coarse sand, that
falls to the bottom Of a vessel at
once, to impalpsble mud that takes
long to settle.
The first rise is mainly due to
the waters Of the Blue Nile from
Abyssinia, where the rain begins
about the middle of May. This is
a sign that the sun has melted the
SHOWS OF Abyssinia, AMI the heavy
intertropical rains have poured a
prodigious volume OF water into
the Blue and later into the White
Nile. This drives before it the ac-
cumulations Of dead and living or
ganic matt,r that have sweltered
in the stagnant pools ofthe Soudan
during the preceding months.
From the Abyssinian highlands
comes much gravel, but this most
likely does not get far below the
Middle Cataract. For three months
the Nile continues to rise and de-
posit its rich sediment on the
parched land, until, the SHOWS
having melted and the tropical
rains abated, the hot sun licks up
the mountain torrents and the des-
ert tributaries and attacks the full
river, until the swelling. which is
at its maximum near the end OF
September, falls; though there is
sometimes a renewal in October.
As the old Egyptian myth has il,
Osiris is dismembered by Typhon,
until by the close of January the
country it has covered is drying
up. Then the crops Of beans, bar
ley, wheat, durra, a d maize, that
have been sown in the semi-liquid
mud and covered up by d toothless
rake or the branch OF a palm tree,
. are appearing green above the
surface, From that date until the
next rise the current gradually re-
treats into its ordinary channel,
sinking lower and lower, until. by
midsummer, Egypt is a parched
and dusty land, the soil hard as
stone. imperVious to plough or hoe.
The Fellaheen meanwhile wait and
watch for the rise, specializing on
the all engTossing question OF
whether the next mile" Is to be
a good, a sufficient, a scanty. or a
superlbundant one which will
break down dykes, burst sluices,
and play havoc generally with the
Delta. But so long as the river is
rising, its probable height IS the
main subject Of conversation.
There is an cid superstition that
the rise began when a miraculous
drop tell into the Nile. Astrolo
gers affect to calculate the precise
moment when the drop" is to tall;
but it is always in the course Of
June II, when many OF the inhabi
tants Of Cairo and its neighbor-
hood were--are Yet-in the habit
OF spending the night on the banks,
and observing various other pecu-
liar rites. In July Cairo is at its
hottest. Europeans go about as
if they were being sufocated, and
even the brown Fellaheen expert
ence something Of the lassitude
N It overtakes every human being.
Rhe air is still, and the sun seems
in the breathless atmos-
2here. The soft Nile water is
wholly unfit to drink without filter
inc; but for this the peasant cares
little. All the time he is hoping
and praying, and speculating over
the ever rising river by which in
a few weeks or months the Delta
will have renewed its life. Day
by day the officials are busy not
ing everyinch of the rise, which
is recorded on the square, gradu-
ated pillar that for more than a
thousand years has been used as a