low lands, advancing
little by little to the very edge of the desert. Egypt is then one sheet
of turbid water spreading between two lines of rock and sand, flecked
with green and black spots where there are towns or where the ground
rises, and divided into irregular compartments by raised roads
connecting the villages. In Nubia the river attains its greatest height
towards the end of August; at Cairo and in the Delta not until three
weeks or a month later. For about eight days it remains stationary, and
then begins to fall imperceptibly. Sometimes there is a new freshet
in October, and the river again increases in height. But the rise is
unsustained; once more it falls as rapidly as it rose, and by December
the river has completely retired to the limits of its bed. One after
another, the streams which fed it fail or dwindle. The Tacazze is
lost among the sands before rejoining it, and the Blue Nile, well-nigh
deprived of tributaries, is but scantily maintained by Abyssinian
snows. The White Nile is indebted to the Great Lakes for the greater
persistence of its waters, which feed the river as far as the
Mediterranean, and save the valley from utter drought in winter. But,
even with this resource, the level of the water falls daily, and its
volume is diminished. Long-hidden sandbanks reappear, and are again
linked into continuous line. Islands expand by the rise of shingly
beaches, which gradually reconnect them with each other and with the
shore. Smaller branches of the river cease to flow, and form a mere
network of stagnant pools and muddy ponds, which fast dry up. The main
channel itself is only intermittently navigable; after March boats run
aground in it, and are forced to await the return of the inundation for
their release. From the middle of April to the middle of June, Egypt is
only half alive, awaiting the new Nile.

[Illustration: 034.jpg ASSIOUT]

Those ruddy and heavily charged waters, rising and retiring with almost
mathematical regularity, bring and leave the spoils of the countries
they have traversed: sand from Nubia, whitish clay from the regions
of the Lakes, ferruginous mud, and the various rock-formations of
Abyssinia. These materials are not uniformly disseminated in the
deposits; their precipitation being regulated both by their specific
gravity and the velocity of the current. Flattened stones and rounded
pebbles are left behind at the cataract between Syene and Keneh, while
coarser particles of