The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-10-01

~ >-AAs h1~N
Goddess Of Isis, far up the Nile val
ley. or the edge of Lower Nubia, I
write lhese lines for my American
readers. I am in the heart of the
desert. 700 miles south of the Medi-
terranean sea. at the point where the
great river drops down over the first
cataract. [ have come here to de-
scribe the Assouan dam, which the
British have built to harness the Nile
and thereby save Egypt from famine.
The Nile in Harness.
We all look upon this as the oldest
Of rivers, but the Nile god of 1907 has
many new aspects. For ages he has
been ramping n charging at his own
sweet will, but he is now being har-
messed and will have to work in the
traces like an old pillow mule. In the
past he has been feeding his daughter,
Egypt, or not, as he pleased. He has
sometimes stuffed her to repletion,
and at others has held back his sup
plies of water and mud, causing a
min This was the case during the
seven hungry years Of Joseph's time,
and the fat years of that time were
undoubtedly produced by high Niles.
Such changes ave occurred in
Egypt from time to time since the
DAYS of the Pyramids, and it is only
within the past generation that man
has attempted to control the old liver
and by a system of dams to hold back
the waters, and let them out over the
twenty years. something like $50, 000,-
600 has been spent in this way, and
there are now great barages at Cairo,
at Assiout. and more important than
all. away up here at Assouan.
How Egypt is Watercd.
But first. let me tell you in a nut
shell how Egypt is Watered. The
try is almost rafnless and the Nile
gives both land and people their food
and drink. You have all heard Of
the wonders of the stream itself. 1t is,
with the exception of the Mississippi,
the longest river in the world, so long
that If it We're stretched out in one
straight line it would reach from the
Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico,
and then turning across our country
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 1t
rises in Lake Victoria, in the heart
Of Central Africa, and drops a distance
greater than the altitude of the high
est Alleghanies before it flows into the
Mediterranean Sea. During the up
per part of it's course it is known as
the White Nile, and this should be
called the main stream of the river.
At Khartum, 1, $50 miles from the
Mediterranean. the Blue Nile, which
rises in the Abyssinian mountains,
comes in. and about lao miles further
north the Atbara, or Black Nile,
Y Isl 10 1lOIIl 1NIS III ~
the main stream. From the mouth of
the Atbara to the sea there is not a
branch or stream of any kind connect
ed with the river. It plows its way
through the desert valley, in which 1t
has built up Egypt, narrowing and
widening. until a few miles below
Cairon, where it divides into two great
branches and flows off into the Medit-
The Nile Flood.
The volume of The Nile is enormous.
At food times, here at ASSouan, a bill
lion tonS of water go by every day.
The river then rises twenty-five feet
at Cairo. thirty-eight at Old Thebes
and alomst fifty at the first c~atraact
where | now am. There is SO much
water then that no dam could hold it
and all of these great works have tc
be made so that the water can be let
I'm and cut and allowed to pass
through at Will.
1t is at flood time that the Nile val
ley gets its rich feed OF Abyssinian
mud. This is brought down in part
by the Blue Nile. but more
a~0undantly by the Atbara or Black
Nile. 1t is carried by the floods all
'rer Egypt and by means of irrigation
anaIs and by various pumps. some
#orked by men, some by animals, and
some by machinery, it is conducted
fo nearly every farm. After the floods
Subside the waters grow clear again.
Tho Blue Nile and the Black Nile be-
come almost dry and the white water
"i the main. or Victoria Nile about
an that Egypt has. 1t is this white wa
Ter that is stored up by the Assouan
dam, and it feeds the country in much
the same way as our irrigation canals
Co, with water only. and not with a
thick mixture of water and mud as
in times of flood.
\ Vast Series of Basins.
For thousands of years these rivers
have been pouring down through this
Nile valley; but whenever the rains
have been scanty in the highlands of
Habysinil and in Central Africa the
main stream has not been high enough
fH reach the whole country. The most
0E the lands could be flooded only once
ear. and if the Nile was especially
low some could have no water at all.
fE the new system it is planned to
-@ Egypt water all the year round.
Ta" to supply enough to make it pro-
'."e two or three crops every year.
nave neen much interested in the
'sdil"n works of the past. Toe
..ni" of the Nile valley above Cairo is
Qp into q series Of basins. For
NV O+ 4Uy miles north of this point