Los Angeles herald., 1909-06-07
TWENTIETH CENTURY EGYPT
VEA-The Waters of the Nile
By Frederic il HaSkin

aocl,ed NV the white sails of boats that
suggest the pattern of the bafges OF the
Pharaohs, has no affluents below the
mouth of the Atabara, which Is l6OO
miles from the sea.
throughout this much of its entire
length. which is 4062 miles, or but fifty
miles less than that of the Mississippi,
the river flows through desert trans
formed into a garden by water diverted
from the stream. For thousands OF
years Egypt has bloSsomed as the rose
because volcanic upheavals sent the
torrents of Central Africa toward the
Mediterranean sea. The practically of
irrigation in the arid areas OF the
American west was, singularly enough,
doubted by many Americans some
years ago, although the pyramids were
builded by a race whose antecedents
lived by converting dry sand into farm
ing land.
Advocates of reforesting denuded
areas about the sources of American
rivers, now more or less reduced dur
ing the summer as a result of deple-
ton of storage reservoirs, say it is
possible to regulate the variation of
the volume of q river by regulating its
source of supply. They believe that
the area of forests so directly atfects
the volume of a stream that 1t might
be possible to create a river in an ara
1llll country DY ClOlHliS lilC lliiio WIN
timber 1t is interesting to reflect that
the sources of the Nile are in region
where there has been no civilization
and no deforestation. Its rising and
falling remain as regular today as they
were many centuries ago.
From the bridge that connects cairo
proper with the island of Ghizereh or
from the deck of a dehabeah, the Nile
looks yellow, causing the American or
European to whom mile green" has
been a familiar phrase since his child
hood, to express surprise. The water
is green at one time in the year. Just
before the annual inundation green
water arrives. 1t is offensive to the
taste and has a bad odor 1t is well
coined only because of it's significance.
High Nile is preceded by heavy rains
along the tributaries. 1t was formerly
believed that the appearance of green
water" in Egypt meant that decaying
vegetable matter from the swamps OF
Uganda was swept down the river
ahead of the flood. Now it has been
decided by Investigators that green
water is due to the presence Of d
microscopic vegetable growth, similar
to seaweed, which forms in the tropical
rivers. AS long as this growth drifts
northward in clear water it increases
in volume, and it sometimes covers the
river for 300 miles. When the flood
brings muddy water the growth is
killed and swept down stream.
Nature has fortunately distributed
the rainfall in Central Africa so that
Egypt's water supply is fed into the
Nile as it is needed The Sobat flood
rises in April and is felt at Khartoum
late in May. The rains continue till
November and the crest reaches
Khartoum in September. The Blue
Nile begins to rise early in July and a
little later the Atabara rises. 1t has
been estimated that if the floods from
these three sources poured into the Nlle
simultaneously about $4,000 tons of
water would pass Assouan each second
at high Nile. This would render stor-
age and perennial irrigation more dlt-
ficult than it is.
The problem of irrigating Egypt up
on modern scientific plans is somewhat
simplified by the fact that the Nile is
more regular in its fluctuations than
any other river. Along its course the
unexpected rarely occurs, yet there
are occasional periods of low Nile dur
ing which agriculture suffers. The
years 1900 to 1908 wtre years of poor
floods. The 1907 inundation was one
of the poorest ever recorded. 1t is com
pared by Egyptian farmers to that OF
1877, but because of superior methods
of irrigation the famine of 1877 was not
repeated Sir Elden Gorst, successor
of the earl of Cromer as British con-
sui general, says that there could be
no better illustration of the progress
made in the direction of minimizing
the effects of a poor flood than the
fact that about ten times as much TIL
liable soil was affected by a lack of
water in 1877 as in 1907.
AS in ancient times Egypt is the Nile.
Modern irrigation, by enlarging the
scope of the influence of the river, has
enlarged Egypt Seven successive low
Niles in the eleventh century, like the
seven lean kline of Pharaoh's dream,
meant famine. Even the Caliph's fam
ily fled to Syria for refuge and human
flesh was eaten by the people. The
seven low Niles preceding the satisfac-
tory flood of 1908 did not cause catas-
trophe. improvements in irrigation
will doubtless make fat kline of the
years to come, even when Father Nile
fails to bestow liberal floods upon the
coil
Copyright, 1909, by Frederic J. Haskin')
TomorrOw-Twentieth Century Egypt.
IX-Arresting the Tears of Isis.