Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1904-02-09
Mi5fellancuus 8sading.
THE LIFE OF EGYPT.
How it is Preserved BY tho River
Nile,

How it is Preserved BY tho River
| Nile.
According to recent explorations the
Nile, the most remarkable Of all riv-
ers, is 1900 miles long. The Mississip-
pi is fifty miles longer.
| From the sea to Assuan, the first
cataract, is 750 miles; from Assuan
to Khartum, the capital Of the Sudan,
is 1,130 miles; Lake Victoria, the main
source, is 2,2S5 miles nearer the equa-
tor, in a region Of perpetual rains, with
greater rainfall, probably. than oc-
ours in any other section Of the earth
where records are kept. The Albert
Nyanza Is the source OF another
branch, and there are two great aft1u-
ents 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 sufficient
supply Of water to meet the exhaus-
ton by evaporation in the atmosphere
and absorption by the soil through the
irrigation system.
The fall Of the Nile from Lake Vic
toria to tidewater is 3,675 feet. Khar-
tum is 1870 feet above the sea; the
| first cataract at Assuan Is $50 feet;
from that point to Cairo the fall Is
trife under five inches to the mile, and
from Cairo to the sea 1t averages about
one inch to the mile.
The water has been gagged ever
since history began. At Wady Halfa
are "Nileometers," fixed by the en-
gineers of the kings Of the twelfth
dynasty, 2300 B. c., and they show that
the highest water known in those days
was twenty-three feet above the high
est record of modern times.
In high water it takes fifty days for
float to go from Lake Victoria to
the sea, which shows current Of about
eighty-one miles day, and In low wa
ter it takes ninety days for float to
make the journey.
The width of the river varies from
300 feet to six miles, and averages
about 5000 feet at mean high water
The width Of the valley Of the Nile,
that Is the area between the mountains
that inclose 1t, Is from fifteen to thirty
miles in Egypt and from four to ten
miles in Nubia. The cultivated area
varies from few feet on each bank to
width Of nine miles on either side.
The delta is ninety miles wide. The
area drained by the river Is about g.
100000 square miles.
Richness Of the Nile Valley.
The unparalleled richness Of the soil
of the Nile valley, which produces two
or three crops year, is due to the par
ticles Of sediment brought down from
the mountains, the hills and the tropi-
cal jungles and deposited upon the sur
face of the fields during the annual
inundation. This Is far richer than
any fertilizer that can be found. These
floods or inundations come regularly,
and the farmers Of the valley have ad-
iusted 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 equalize the distribution
of the water among the farms the
whole country Is divided by low cause
ways of earth, which are also used as
roads, into tracts varying in size from
one to twenty acres, and the water
flows into them by bitches dug in the
days of Moses and Joseph.
Lands that cannot be reached by the
| inundation through these canals are
flooded by means Of water wheels, rude
structures with buckets or earthern
jars attached which are turned by man,
mule or OK power and hoist the water
from one ditch and empty it into an
other at a higher grade or into a re-
servoir from which 1t may be distrib-
uted. Upon the smaller farms the
water Is hoisted from the canals and
bitches in buckets by a curious an1 in
genious method. Two ropes are at
tached to a bucket that will hold about
a bushel and a man stands at the end
Of each rope. By the same KIND or q
twist that a sailor uses when he dips
| bucket Of water from the ocean these
Egyptians ill their bucket, hoist 1t and
empty it into the upper channel as
regularly and as rapidly as a man Will
| move the oars Of a boat. 1t Is fas-
cinating sight, and to do the trick re-
uuires years Of training. A gentleman
| who has been among the Egyptian
farms for several years declared that 1t
could not be done by any other people,
which is an exaggeration, for I have
seen the same thing in Syria and Tur-
key.
The river begins to rise in April and
continues 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 gradually flows
into the sea, leaving the earth refresh
ed and renewed with rich loan and Silt
from the equatorial jungles. The
amount of water discharged by the Nile
| into the sea is estimated at $4,000, ,0OO,-
900 cubic yards and 1t Is calculated
that 36,00O,O00 tons Of fertilizer are de-
POSTED upon the soil each year.
This annual renewal of the soil has
occurred ever since the creation of the
earth and explains the fertility Of the
| valley and the enormous crops 1t pro-