Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-01-16
How It is Preserved by the
River Nile.
IT'S YEARLY OVERFLOW
FERTILE VALLEY ANNUALLY EN-
RICHED.
Size of Crops Depend Upon the Height
tion-Profts Of Irrigation.
BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star ana
Chicago Record-ffera
CAIRO, December 30. 1905
According to recent explorations, the
Nile. the most remarkable Of all rivers, Is
400 miles long. The Mississippi Is fifty
miles longer.
From the sea to Assuan. the first cata-
ract. is $50 miles; from Assuan to khar-
tum, the capital of the Sudan, is l,l5O
miles; Lake Victoria, the main source, Is
2 ,2S5 miles nearer the equator. in region
of perpetual rains with a greater rainfall
probably, than occurs in any other section
of the earth where records are kept. Inc
Albert Nyanza is the source of another
branch, and there are two great afhuents IN
Abyssinia called the Blue Nile and the
Black Nile In addition to these there are
numerous lesser streams and many springs,
but the lake sources maintain the life OF
Egypt throughout the year with suf-
flcient supply of water to meet the exhaus-
ton by evaporation in the atmosphere and
absorption by the soil through the 1rriga-
ton system.
to tidewater is 1875 feet. Khartum Is 10
feet above the sea; the first cataract at
Assuan is $50 feet; from that point to Cairo
the fall is a trifie under Ave inches to the
mile and from Cairo to the sea 1t averages
about one inch to thecmile!
The water has been gauged ever since
history began. AT Wady Halfa are Niie-
ometers." fixed by the engineers OF the
kings of the twelfth dynasty, $500 B. e..
and they show that the highest water
known In those days was twenty-three feet
above the highest record Of modern times
In high water it takes fifty days for
float to go from Lake Victoria to the sea-
which shows a current of about eighty-one
miles day, and in low water 1t taxes nile
ty days for float to make the journey.
The width of the river varies from go feet
to six miles, and averages about 3,OU 1eet
at mean high water. The width OF the val
lev of the Nile, that Is the area between the
mountains that inclose it, is from fifteen TO
thirty miles in Egypt, and from -FOUR 10 zen
from a few feet on each bank to width OF
nine miles on either side. The delta is
ninety miles wide. The area drained oy
the river is about 100000 square miles.
Richness Of the Mile Valley.
The unparalleled richness Of the soil OF
the Nile valley, which produces two or
three crops a year, is due to the particles
of sediment brought down from the noun
tains, the hills and the tropical jungles and
deposited upon the surface of the fields
during the annual inundation. This Is lar
richer than any fertilizer that can be found.
These floods or foundations come regularly.
and the farmers of the valley have adjusted
their lives and habits to them. They are
as exact and arbitrary as our seasons, as
the sunshine of summer and the SHOWS OF
winter upon the Iowa farms. To equaiize
the distribution Of the water among. the
farms the whole country is divided by low
causeways of earth. which are also used
as roads. into tracts varying IN size from from
into them by bitches dug In the days or
Moses and Joseph.
Lands that cannot be reached by the
inundation through these canals are flooded
oxyy Of ar VIZ
with buckets or earthern jars attached
which are turned by man, mule or OK
power and hoist the water from one ditch
and empty 1t into another at a higher grade
or into reservoir from which it may be
distributed. Upon the smaller farms the
water is hoisted from the canals and
bitches in baskets by a curious and fngenf-
Gus method. Two ropes are attached to a
bucket that will hold about a bushel, and
man stands at the end of each rope By
the same kind of a twist that a sailor uses
when he dips a bucket of water from the
ocean. these Egyptians ill their bucket,
hoist it and empty 1t into the upper chan
mel as regularly and as rapidly as a man
will move the oars of boat 1t Is
fascinating sight, and to do the trick re-
quires years of training. gentleman who
has been among Egyptian farms for sew
eral years declared that it could not be
done by any other people. which Is an ex-
aggeration, for have seen the same thing
in Syria and Turkey.
The river begins to rise in April and con-
tinues to do so during the summer. which
Is the rainy season in upper Egypt and
Abyssinia. High water is reached about
the middle of September. and will remain
stationary for a week or ten days, when
the entire valley is flooded. 1t begins to
subside about the first Of October and grad
refreshed and renewed with rich loan and
silt from the equatorial tungles. The
amount of water discharged by the Nile
into the sea is estimated at $1,000, OO0 90
cubic yards, and 1t is calculated that 49,
10000 tons of fertilizer is deposited upon
the soil each year.
and explains the fertility of the valley and
the enormous crops 1t produces.
Distribution Of Water.
Writing about the year Is AID, Strabo
tells us about the system of regulating and
distributing the water, which was about
the same at that time that it Is now. and
he says that it was Inherited from the an
clients. The seasons of high and low water
were also the same then as now-high
water In September and the lowest level In
April. The ancient records show also that
there has been comparatively little change
In the foundations or the area irrigated by
them The Nileometers at AssuAn are the
tests When the water rises only twenty
five feet above the mean level there Is q
crop and twenty-eight feet a big one. II
there is less than twenty-four feet OF water
there is a famine in Egypt like those which
occurred seven years in succession during
the time of Joseph
We do not know how many thousands
or hundreds of thousands of years the Nile
has fed the soil of Egypt, but without 1t
| the country would be an uninhabitable des-
ert. and it's benefits and blessings have ex-
| cited the wonder, the admiration. the graf
itude and reverence of countless genera
| tons of men. 1t Is no wonder that the an
| Gent Egyptians worshiped the river. for
| they have not only been dependent upon
| II for existence for thousands of years, but
| il has been the highway for the transpor-
| tation of their products and for communt-
| cation with the world
! To extend the blessings of this river to a
| larger number of inhabitants. to increase
\ the cultivated area Of the Nile valley, the
| great dam at Assouan. Of which you have
/ doubtless read and of which shall give
| YOU a fuller description in another letter.
| has been constructed. There are limits to
| all things but the Egyptian desert Is laden
! with the chemical properties which produce
| cotton. sugar and other staples in guam
| tity that is unknown elsewhere. The sandy
| soil needs only moisture, and wherever 1t
| can be supplied with water the most bounti-
| full crops can be produced. 1t Is surprising
| to see rich fields that yield two and three
| ornps n war side nv side with sandy wastes