Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 8, DIA-England

512 EGYPT.
Egypt, bank, which is only the crest of a rock covered with sand,
presents the appearance of a mound or causeway. In short,
let the reader imagine on one side a narrow sea and rocks,
on the other immense plains of sand, and in the middle
a river, flowing through a valley of a hundred and fifty
leagues in length, and from three to seven in width, which
at the distance of thirty leagues from the sea separates into
two arms, the branches of which wander over a soil almost
free from obstacles and void of declivity, and he will be
enabled to form a tolerable idea of this singular country.
At the same time, the change of the seasons communicates
variety even to the narrow valley of the Nile. Towards
the winter solstice vegetation appears ; the verdure of the
meadows delights the eye; a multitude of odoriferous
shrubs perfume the air; and Egypt forms then a delici¬
ous garden. At the vernal equinox tire soil, subjected to
all the influence of a sky without clouds, and of continual
winds, which often blow with great violence, becomes dry
and dusty; whilst, at a still later period, namely, after
the periodical inundation, by which it is almost entirely
renovated, it is only a vast marsh.1
The Nile, which is the largest river of the old world,
and may be described as the great artery of Egypt, has
its true sources in a region to which the restless foot of
adventure has not yet penetrated ; and little more is
known of them now than in those days when they excited
the curiosity of Ca;sar, and occupied the researches of
Eratosthenes. The learned librarian of Alexandria, indeed,
distinguished three principal branches of the Nile. The
first or most easterly, being identical with the Tacaze
of the moderns, flows down the northern side of the table¬
land of Abyssinia; the second known branch, or the Bahr-
el-Azrek, after making a circuit or detour on the table-land
of Abyssinia, descends through the plains of Sennaar ; and
both are tributaries of the Bahr-el-Abiad or White River,
which is the true Nile, and probably has its sources in
the elevated chain to the south of Darfur, called Djibel-
el-Kumri or Mountains of the Moon. The hypothesis of
a connection between the Niger and the Nile has been
destroyed by recent discoveries, which leave no longer
any doubt that the former discharges itself into the sea by
several mouths between the Bights of Benin and Biafra.
Browne, indeed, has positively asserted that the rivers
Misselad and Bar-koolla run from south to north ; but even
this fact, which is generally admitted, does not allow us
to suppose any other communication between the Nile and
the Niger than may be formed by canals, like those of the
Cassiquiari in Guiana, winding along a table-land, where
the sources of the Misselad and Bar-koolla are at a short
distance from each other and from those of the Nile; or,
perhaps, as it has been affirmed that travellers have passed
by water from Timbuctoo to Cairo, it may be supposed
that the sources of all these rivers are sufficiently near to
admit of intercommunication by means of temporary lakes
formed during the rainy season. But the Bahr-el-Abiad, or
true Nile, whatever be its source, receives two large rivers
from Abyssinia, and then turning to the southward, makes
an extensive sweep through the country of Dongola. But at
three different points of its course it is intersected by moun¬
tains, and at each it has forced a passage for itself through fV
the rocky barrier. The second cataract in Nubia is the ^
most violent and the most difficultly navigable. The third
is at Syene or Assouan, the point where the Nile enters
Egypt. The height of this cataract, which has been greatly
exaggerated bysome travellers, varies according to the sea¬
son, and is generally about four or five feet. The Cataracts
are in fact rapids rather than falls; and at the second of
which an admirable description has been given by Belzoni
the water rushes onward with great velocity. The ridges of
rock which formerly crossed the line of the river, and gave
rise to the celebrated falls the sound of which was heard at
the distance of many a league, and stunned the neighbour¬
ing inhabitants, have been insensibly worn down by attrition,
until the falls have disappeared, and rapids only remain.2
From Syene to Cairo the river flows along the valley, be¬
tween two mountain ridges, one of which extends to the
Red Sea, and the other terminates in the deserts of Libya.
The river occupies the middle of the valley as far as the
strait called Djibbel-Silsili, about forty miles in length, at
the mouth of which it runs along the right side of the
valley, which is bounded by a steep line of rocks cut into
peaks, whilst the ridge on the left is accessible by a slope
of varying acclivity. The mountains which confine the
basin of the Nile in Upper Egypt are intersected by defiles,
which on one side lead to the shores of the Red Sea, and
on the other to the Oases. Near Benisouef, the valley,
already much widened on the west, presents on that side
an opening, through which is obtained a view of the fertile
plains of Fayoum, forming a sort of table-land, separated
from the mountains on the south and west by a wide val¬
ley, a portion of which, being always laid under water, is
hence called Birket-el-Karoun. Near Cairo, the chains
which limit the valley diverge on both sides, whilst in
front opens the vast plain of the Delta; and at Battu-el-
Bahara the river separates into two branches, one flowing
to Rosetta, the other to Damietta, and forming together
two side, of the equilateral triangle called the Delta;
which, however, was larger in former times, being bounded
on the east by the Pelusiac branch, which is now choked
up with sand, and on the west by the Canopic branch,
which is partly confounded with the canal of Alexandria,
and partly lost in Lake Etko.3
In ancient times the Nile discharged itself into the sea
by seven different mouths or embouchures. The first of
these was the Canopic mouth, which flowed into the sea
near Canopus, a town situated 120 stadia or fifteen miles
to the east of Alexandria, and corresponds with the pre¬
sent outlet of Lake Etko, or, according to others, with that
of the Lake of Aboukir or Maadieh, through which the Nile
then flowed ;4 the second was the Bolbitic or Bolbitine,
from Bolbitine, a towm on its banks, near the place where
Rosetta now stands; the third, the Sditic, from Sais, con¬
founded by Strabo with Tanis, probably the opening into
the present Lake Burlos; the fourth, the Sebennytic, from
Sebennytus, the course of which is supposed to be marked
by the canal of Shibin-el-koum ; the fifth, the Phatnitic,
Pathmetic, dr Bucolic, which passes by Damietta, and now
forms the eastern branch of the Nile ; the sixth, the Men-
1 liifaud, Tableau dc VEgypte ct de la Nubie, p. 3, 4.
A similar effect, which time will produce on the cliffs of Niagara,” says Dr Russell, “ will be attended with a similar result
on the chain ot lakes that terminate in Erie, the contents of which will at length find their way to the ocean along the bed of the
St Lawrence. In the remote ages of the future, the immense valleys now occupied by the Superior, Michigan, and those other
inland seas which form so striking a feature in North America, will be covered with flocks, herds, and an agricultural population, and
^ a ^ne r^ver passing through their centre. In this way the interior of every continent is drained, while new tracts
of alluvial land are added to its extremities.” {View of Ancient and Modern Egypt, p. 43.)
3 ^!^Ee‘Brun, Geography, vol. iv. p. 20, Eng. transl. Girard, Memoires sur VEgypte, tom. iii. p. 13.
This was also called the Ilcraclcotic and Eaucratic mouth; the one from a Ileracleion or temple of Hercules, and the other from
Naucratis, a town on its banks. (See Coote’s Plan du Nouveau Canal d'Alexandria dit Mahmoudyeh, annexed to Mengin’s Hist, de
1'Egypt e.)