The whole subject of the geology, inundation, levels, volume of water, deposits, and agricultural action of the Nile in the northern portions of its course, has been so very fully treated of in the article EGYPT (see vol. viii., pp. 424-6), that we shall confine ourselves in the present article to the southern and less known portions of this great river, and endeavour to throw some further light upon its probable sources and course—that great problem which has puzzled the geographers and men of science in all ages, and baffled the attempts of the ancient priests of the Nile, of the Pharaohs, of the Phoenicians, the Greeks under the Ptolemies, the Romans under the Caesars, and, in much later times, of Bruce, and the numerous expeditions under Mohammed Ali and Ibrahim Pasha.

The general features of the Nile, as you ascend it from Wady Halfa to the second cataract at Wady Halfa to the junction at Khartoum, undergo no material change. From time to time the Khartoum river flows through high rocks of dark syenite, and four cataracts (more properly called rapids) impede its smooth course for a few miles; but a detailed description of its banks would be uninteresting: desert wastes and fertile islands—sandy hills surmounted by doum palms (here taking the place of date trees), and narrow strips of luxuriant vegetation—villages deserted by a too-heavily taxed population, and large towns, the capitals of their provinces,—characterize the scenery. The crocodile increases in number, as in size, and the ibis begins to appear. Near Berber, about 100 miles north of Khartoum, the hippopotamus ceases to be a rarity, and the white crocodile is occasionally to be seen.

In Lat. 21° N., the river makes a great bend to the eastward, and the traveller southwards crosses the desert of Bayuda. Bayiouda, which skirts the western banks of the Nile, a most beautiful ride of 250 miles through a garden rather than a desert. The path lies through woods of good-sized trees—mimosas, myrtles, acacias, hung with tropical parasites; while the ground is covered with the senna, colocynth, ice-plant, and many strongly-scented shrubs. From the dead roots of fallen trees rich orchids spring, and an infinite variety of gay-coloured birds are flitting about over head. Partridges and gazelles of several descriptions abound, and the whole country is thickly peopled with many tribes, who are in the habit of travelling from well to well, accompanied by large herds of sheep, goats, and camels, in search of pasture.

The great desert of Nubia borders the eastern bank of the Nile, and is of a very different description. With the Koruko exception of some high rocks of quartz and granite, near the well of El-Morah, the route from Aboahamed to Koruko, a distance of 350 miles, lies through a perfectly level, hard, gravelly plain; no vegetation of any sort exists, save on the immediate banks of the river, and the only well is that of El-Morah, above mentioned.

After a journey of twenty-five to thirty days from Wady Halfa, partly in boats, but chiefly on camels, the traveller reaches Khartoum, the capital of Nubia, and the seat of government of the "provinces of the Soudan." The town contains about 30,000 inhabitants; but with the exception of the governor's palace, and one or two harem connected with it, there are no buildings in it of any importance. The gardens are most prolific: pomegranates, lemons, limes, oranges, grapes, cream-fruit, bananas, prickly pears, figs (two crops), and garden vegetables of great size and luxuriance (salads, cucumbers, potatoes, radishes, &c.), are to be had here in abundance. The trade in gum and slaves is the only very important one. There is also a small export trade in gold, ivory, and ostrich feathers; while glass beads, gunpowder, and Manchester cotton goods are the principal imports of this city, which supplies the vast territories of Sennar, Darfur, and Fazokl. The net revenue of these provinces is said to amount to from L200,000 to L250,000 per annum, which is remitted to Cairo, after deducting the various expenses of government, collection, and of the standing army. The latter consists of 15,000 infantry, 5000 cavalry, and 24 pieces of artillery. The governor enjoys a more than viceregal power,—at once commander-in-chief of the army, and chief judge over these provinces. Latif Pasha, who was the governor in 1850, told the writer that he was in direct or indirect communication with 30,000,000 subjects; but as we found him ignorant of the number of tribes inhabiting the immediate districts round Khartoum, no great reliance can be placed on these figures, except in so far as they confirm all the accounts we have of the immense population of the banks of the White Nile. There is no reason to suppose that these nations are badly governed, though they appear somewhat over-taxed in certain districts; for the rulers of the southern provinces of Egypt are all men of great ability,—and, for Turks, of rare intelligence,—in fact, they have, almost without exception, received these high preferments as a species of transportation for being too European and civilized in their ideas. Latif Pasha was an intimate friend of Linant Bey, Clot Bey, and Lambert Bey, all of whom were in great disgrace, and some of them in the same sort of honourable banishment, during the latter part of the reign of Abbas Pasha, the late viceroy of Egypt.

The city of Khartoum is situated in Lat. 15° 37' N., and Long. 33° E. from Greenwich, within 250 yards of the confluence of the White and Blue Niles, the Bahr-el-Abid, and the Bahr-el-Azrek. From this point the Nile flows 1500 miles ere it reaches the Mediterranean; and with one exception, that of the small tributary the Atbara or Tacazzé (a stream which may be waded across in the dry season), not one drop of water falls into it; while it supplies the innumerable shadowy of Nubia, the thousands of salsas which water the land of Egypt, and the hundreds of canals which irrigate the country below Assiout; and, after its long journey of 1500 miles, moving along at the rate of from 1½ to 3 miles an hour, exposed to the evaporating influence of the rays of a never-clouded sun, pours into the sea, through the Damietta and Rosetta branches alone, a volume of water amounting to from 151,000,000,000 cubic metres to 706,000,000,000 cubic metres per diem according to the season.

The most superstitious and uneducated of the Arabs at Cairo still believe that one drop of water falling upon some particular rock in Abyssinia causes the inundation of the Nile; but the real cause of the annual overflow is well known to be the very heavy rains which take place in the south during the months of June, July, and beginning of August. The traveller, ere he reaches the junction of the two Niles, will have already seen some traces of these heavy falls of rain. In the desert of Bayiouda, 150 miles from the river, the sides of each ridge of ground are marked with miniature river-beds; every little valley has a damp spot, where, for a few weeks, a small lake was collected; and his path is often traversed by deep water-courses, now long since dried up. At Khartoum the rains are described as lasting for four or five weeks without intermission, the streets are turned into rivers, the public square into a lake, and many of the mud-walled houses fall in, though the river does not overflow its bank on that side. In 1850 the Azrek rose at Khartoum as much as 18 inches in one night. Violent as these rains seem to be, there is no doubt that further south they are much more violent, and of much longer duration. The two branches of the Nile rise at about the same time. The Blue Nile, during its tortuous course, is fed by the various streams which flow from the mountains of Abyssinia, and the Atbara collects the rain which falls on the high ground situated to the N.E.; but by far the largest body of water comes down by the White Nile from the marshes and lakes in Lat. 6° to 10° N., and from the original mountain sources yet farther S.

The sources of the Blue Nile, or Bahr-el-Azrek, as we know by the discoveries of Bruce, consist of three large springs among some mountains 6000 feet above the level of the sea, situated, according to his calculations, in 10° to 11° N. Lat., and 36° to 37° E. Long.; thence the river flows through the Lake of Izana or Dembea, known to Ptolemy by the name of Kaloe, and pursuing a most circuitous course (at one time almost returning to its original source), collects all the streams running down from the mountainous regions of Gojam, and flowing northward through a series of cataracts or rapids, descends into the district of Fazoki, where the gold mines of the Paisha of Egypt are situated. There, having been enlarged by the influx of the Jumet from the S.W., the river reaches the plains of Sennar by another series of cataracts and rapids. The natural bed of the river at Khartoum is half a mile in width, and the water in the dry season from 400 to 500 yards wide. In the inundation it rises from 18 to 24 feet in height, and is from 1 to 1½ mile in width. The water flows very rapidly when compared with the White Nile, and opposite Khartoum is clearer, fresher, and sweeter, than after its junction with the latter.

The sources from which we might draw our information as to the White Nile are very numerous, but as very few of those who have ascended this branch of the Nile above Khartoum have taken reliable observations, and as no two accounts are easily reconciled, our task of selection is no easy one. We shall, however, briefly glance at the travels and opinions of the most trustworthy pioneers.

Browne penetrated to the south of Darfur, and believes that the actual sources of the Bahr-el-Abid are situated in 7° N. Lat., and consist of many streams flowing from the Mountains of the Moon, which he places in 6° N. Lat., 4 degrees N. of the point to which the Nile has since been ascended. This is a revival of the opinion of Ptolemy, and we believe the correct one.—"The Ethiopian Anthropophagi dwell around this gulf, which is skirted on the west by the Mountain of the Moon, from the snows of which the superabundant waters of the Nile are drawn." (Ptol., Geogr. iv. 8.)

Linant Bey, travelling for the African Association in 1827, surveyed the course of the river a direct distance of 132 geographical miles, from Khartoum to about Lat. 10° N. He describes the river as in many places 1½ mile wide, while its banks seemed often as much as 4 miles apart; and asserts that when the river is at its greatest height it overflows its banks a distance of 20 miles on each side. The general appearance of the country is flat; the eastern side is desert, while the western banks are covered with vegetation, stretching inland. Farther south, the river becomes narrower, and the depth increases to from 6 to 8 fathoms. From information obtained at the most southern point of his journey, he seems to be of opinion that the White Nile rises from a system of lakes, and he advances, in defence of this view, two facts,—1st, That neither gravel nor sand, indicative of its being fed by torrents, are found in it, and that the clayey nature of its shoals proves that it does not come from mountains; 2d, That the prodigious quantities of fish which arrive at Khartoum by the first freshes could only have come from lakes, where they had been imprisoned during the low water, and from which they escape when the heavy rains commence.

Mr Hoskins believes that the source of the Nile could only be discovered by means of an armed force, and that it would require a large army to subdue the great extent of country through which the Bahr-el-Abid passes. He thinks that not only the chiefs, but the whole population, instead of any of them joining the standard of the invader, or furnishing him with provisions, would resolutely oppose him; each man would fight for the preservation of his property, family, and liberty.

Colonel Leake observes that, if man-stealing had not been the principal object of the numerous Egyptian expeditions up the White Nile, they would have been more successful in penetrating to its sources. He seems to be of opinion that a route by water in the direction of the sources of the Nile is afforded from the westward by means of the newly-discovered branch of the Quorra (the Shary), which is a mile and a half wide at its junction with the Quorra, and is navigable for a great distance above the confluence. As the Shary, where crossed by Dr Barth, in Lat. 9.2. N., Long. 14. E., was found to be about half a mile wide, this hypothesis is not an unnatural one. The most ancient authorities uniformly maintain that the Niger and the Nile are connected together; and it has ever been a favourite opinion with the Egyptian race that the Nile flows from the sea through the centre of Africa, is lost in the sands of the great desert, and re-appears in the country of the Shellucs.

Mr Werne, in his work on the White Nile, gives a most detailed account of his travels southward to about 4.30. N. Lat. He formed part of the great expedition in 1840 of which Ahmed Pasha and Suliman Kashef were the chiefs, and MM. Armand, Thibaut, and Sabatier the principal Europeans. The expedition consisted of 10 vessels mounting 10 guns in all, and manned by 260 Negro, Egyptian, or Syrian sailors and soldiers. They set sail for the southwards from Khartoum on the 23rd November 1840. As they proceeded, they found the left shore wooded with a girdle of copsewood and large trees, extending just as far as the annual inundation; while on the right shore the bare stony desert extended to the horizon. In Lat. 14.35. N., the river, now 3 miles broad, becomes studded with fertile islands. They sail past the islands of Genna, Sial, and Salahsheh, swarming with three distinct tribes of monkeys; in the mud where they anchor, large river snails and oysters are found; the low banks of the islands are trampled with hippopotamus footprints; among the trunks of the trees, still standing in the water, large white aquatic flowers glisten, and the beautiful double lotus, sacred to the temples of Lower Egypt, here first appears; the sun sinks behind the mountains of Hassanieni, and the roar of the lion resounds on the eastern bank.

Twelve days' sailing brings them to where the great population of the banks of the White Nile begins. At one moment 15 to 18 villages, with their round mud houses, each containing from 6 to 8 inhabitants, are in sight; a few minutes after, a bend of the river opens 20 to 25 more to the view—many of them containing from 200 to 300 houses. As far as the eye can reach, vast fields of corn stretch to the eastward, speckled with habitations; while the western side continues flat, and forms an immeasurable grassy sea, the limit of which is undiscernible from the masthead. A few hours farther on, they sail through a perfect sea of lotus, the whole river for many miles being white with these beautiful flowers. Flocks of guinea-fowls fly overhead, and geese, ducks, and many varieties of fresh-water fowl abound. They proceed past forests of tamarisks and lately covered pasture land, thickly peopled with the dark handsome Shelluc or Bakhara tribes, to where (Lat. 10 N.) the river winds in two vast streams round a large island of marshy meadow land, 6 miles from side to side, and nearly 20 long—forming no doubt the bed of the river in the inundation season. When again on the united stream, they find the number of villages undiminished, but they are now shaded by the African giant-tree (*Adansonia digitata*), and in the woods the gum-bearing mimosa seems crushed by the slender aspiring Dhelieb palm, here taking the place of the Doum palm of Berber. At one moment six ostriches are in sight on the western bank, and sixteen white crocodiles are seen basking on the mud islands in the middle of the stream. As they reach the River Saubat (Lat. 9. N.), near the mouth of which 17 new Shelluc villages appear, they see a large city 9 miles off, on the confines of a fertile grassy plain, covered with huts and cattle. On the western bank, two giraffes are quietly browsing; and 35 villages, containing from 120 to 600 inhabitants each, are remarked at one moment.

In Lat. 9.4. N. all this population and fertility ceases, and the marshes begin. The bottom of the river is covered with black moss, the current falls to half or even a quarter of a mile an hour, and the air is alive with every species of mosquito and gnat; not a breath of air fills the sails; the heat is most oppressive, every sign of firm ground vanishes, no tree, no village is in sight, and for days they row on in a sea of grass, the burning sky above them. The only sounds are the trombone grunting of the numerous hippopotami, as they wallow among the dank grasses. The gnats are merciless—no protection from them can be devised, and there is no rest night or day from their attacks; sickness appears—many of the crew die, and Mr Werner is himself insensible for four days. The papyrus, 16 to 20 feet high, and 2 inches thick, bearing on the top a corolla or tuft, branching out in rays, as depicted in the temples, though found in no other part of Egypt, is abundant here. This is the part of the journey up the White Nile which has proved fatal to the success of so many expeditions. The crews have generally revolted, and refused to proceed any farther, or the chiefs of the party have fallen ill, and ordered a return.

At last they emerge into a canal 100 yards broad, surrounded by high reeds; the banks seem to be of a soft green colour, formed by pale green aquatic plants—like convolvulus, moss, water-thistles, and a kind of hemp—in which the yellow ambae tree flourishes, hung round with luxuriant deep-yellow creepers. Few land birds are to be seen, but the pelican, the black ibis, and the dark-red stork are not uncommon. The river winds so much (Lat. 7.48. N.), that a boat which is four hours ahead seems to be moving along parallel with the rest of the expedition, and the progress is thought good when they make 2 miles due south in 24 hours. Again (Lat. 6.42. N.) villages appear, and city succeeds city in the pasture land in the interior on both sides of the river, and the shores are lined with an innumerable population. A small army of elephants, with the white paddy birds sitting on their backs, are shaking the branches of the Dhelieb palm for its fruit; and the giraffe watches them from the borders of the desert.

Shortly after entering the kingdom of Bary the expedition was guilty of a rash brutality, which, had there not been a good wind at the time, enabling them to push forward, might have led to the most disastrous consequences. The Turks quarrelled about some exchanges with the defenceless natives, and fired among them, killing and wounding 20 or 30 men and women. The natives are of course not able to distinguish between the Turkish soldiery and Europeans; and as each Turkish expedition robs and murders without scruple, the natural timidity of the Negroes daily increases, and thus casts further difficulties in the way of peaceful traders. The European portion of the expedition seem to have behaved pretty well towards the natives, but were, as we see from the three published accounts, quarrelling with one another the whole time, and would never have proceeded as far southwards as they did, had they not been under the command of a stolid, obstinate, and indifferent Turk. From Lat. 6. to Lat. 4.30. N., the river winds among fertile fields covered with habitations, and the horizon is bounded on the east, west, and south by high mountain-ranges—the Alps of Central Africa. In 4.30. N. Lat., on the sixtieth day's sail from Khartoum, their progress was arrested by ridges of gneiss rock running across the river, and forming a rapid not unlike the second or third cataracts in Nubia, and which it would have been in vain to attempt to pass without unloading their *diabichies*. In a country rendered hostile by their own misdeeds, this would have been very dangerous; and having stayed at this point for three days, they made sail northwards. The river was at this point 328 feet across, and seemed to stretch S.S.W.

During their stay, Lakono, the King of Bary, one of the most powerful rulers of Central Africa, and his wife, paid a visit to the commander, Selim Capitan. He arrived escorted by about 1500 Negroes, all armed, naked, painted red with ochre, and wearing plumes of ostrich, guinea-fowl, or cocks' feathers among their hair. Lakono wore a long and wide blue cotton shirt, and on his head an oval network cap covered with black ostrich feathers; his neck, arms, and legs were ornamented with rings of iron, red and yellow copper, ivory, and glass beads. In height 7 feet; the face oval; the forehead arched; the nose straight or curved, with rather wide nostrils; the mouth full, like that of the ancient Egyptians, as sculptured in the temple of Aboo-simbol; the orifice of the ears large; and the temples a little depressed: he may be taken as a type of his tribe. His queen was most simply attired in two red leather aprons; the head was close shaved; and she wore her usual ornaments of iron, copper, and ivory round her neck, arms, and ankles. The king, and indeed most of the court, towered above the heads of their Turkish and Christian entertainers, being all from 6 feet 6 inches to 7 feet high.

This tribe do not believe in a future life, but acknowledge one great invisible spirit, the creator of all things. They believe that he sometimes visits a particular tree or rock in the shape of a bird or lizard, and here a dervish or hermit priest dwells, to whom the tribe come, laden with presents, to consult as to their domestic, commercial, or warlike affairs.

Lakono told Mr Werne, that in thirty days (travelling) from this point, the Abiad separates into four shallow arms, and the water only reaches up to the ankles; but whether these four brooks flow from the mountains or spring from the ground, he could not say. He seemed positive that there was no snow on these mountains, and they had great difficulty in making him understand what snow was. This seems to upset the theory that the melting of the snow on the mountains is a cause of the inundation.

On the 28th of January the expedition began their return, and after eighty-three days' sail they arrived at Khartoum.

M. Brun Rollet, whom the writer of this article had the pleasure of seeing in Khartoum, has on several occasions penetrated as far as the 5th and 6th degrees N. Lat., and once reached the mountain of Garbo (3° N. Lat.), the highest point to which the Nile has been ascended.

From this place (he says) there is every reason to believe that the river, becoming less and less, could be traced about 3 or 4 degrees to the southward, to the foot of the mountains of Komberat, on the equator. The Kuendas, inhabitants of these latitudes, say, that from this chain of mountains flow two small streams which unite in the village of Lokaya, S. of Robenza, at which spot the river may be crossed on the trunk of a fallen tree. These natives could not be made to comprehend what snow was.

M. Rollet has devoted himself for many years to trading with the natives on the banks of the Misslad or Keilak, Saubat, and White Nile. Adopting their costume and speaking their language, he has resided among them year after year, exchanging beads and iron, against gum, ivory, and gold-dust. He has a very high opinion of most of the tribes with whom he came in contact, and believes much in the value of the commercial relations which might be established with them. Once promote commerce (says M. Rollet), by protecting the navigation of the river and the property on the banks, and vast pecuniary advantages would accrue to the Egyptian government; for the three principal tributaries of the Nile are navigable almost to their sources. By the Saubat, the foot of the mountains of Imadon, on the southern confines of the kingdom of Cafa, may be reached; there a large trade in ivory, gold-dust, gum, cotton, and feathers, might be established with the nations living on the banks of the river, the Gallabs, and the tribes living to the S.E. of the Adebs.

The exchange of iron for ivory, which amounted to 20 tons in 1845, has risen to 100 tons in 1851; the export of gum has increased much more. When once the Keilac Nilmeguen, has been ascended to Lake Fitry, will not (asks M. Rollet) the route of the White Nile monopolize and treble the vast export and import trade which has now to pass through the great desert from the sea at Tripoli and Morocco to Boronou, Ouaday, and Bagharmi? The cataracts of the lower Nile will always prove a barrier to any very large extension of commerce, but a railway from Assuan through the desert of Korosko would bring those rich countries to within ten days' journey of Cairo. All these vast tribes—the Denkas, Shellucis, and Barys—would sooner or later become tributary to Egypt, the slave trade raging between them would be abolished, and the ancient country would regain the high rank which she enjoyed under the most powerful and prosperous of the Pharaohs. If this sounds enthusiastic, we must remember that these are the opinions of a quiet middle-aged man, a clever and successful merchant, who has lived for twenty years in Southern Africa engaged in the trade, and living among the people of whom he speaks.

Much hope was entertained by all those who are interested in the subject, either on commercial or on geographical grounds, of the success of the great expedition for the discovery of the sources of the Nile, which left Cairo last spring with flat-bottomed steamboats, and all necessary appurtenances; but the premature return of Mr A. W. Twyford, the only Englishman of the party (June 1857), with the news that the expedition was stopped by orders from Said Pasha at Meros, near the Fourth Cataract, has disappointed all the expectations that had been formed.

The source of the Nile is therefore still unvisited; but after reading the interesting travels of Messrs Werne and Rollet, we can almost answer the question asked by Tibulus 1400 years ago—

"Nil pater quamnam te diseare causa? Ant quibus in terris accolluisse caper?"

We may assume that the sources of the Nile consist of two or more mountain streams, flowing from the mountains of Kombirat, on the equator, or half a degree south of it; thence it flows northward to Lat. 9° N.; there it receives the tributary streams of the Misslad or Keilak from the westward, and the Saubat from the eastward; thence, stretching in a north-easterly direction, it reaches the city of Khartoum, about 1500 miles from its source, where it is joined by the Bahr-el-Azrek, or Blue Nile; a few miles further on it is increased by the waters of the Athara, whence it flows onward through Nubia; thence past the First Cataract into Upper Egypt at Assuan, past Cairo to the Barege; whence, diverging into two great branches, it falls into the Mediterranean through the Damietta and Rosetta mouths.

The writer of this article has drawn his information from personal observation, and from the following works, especially from the last three named:—Miss Martineau, Eastern Life; Captain Neel, Nubian Desert; Wilkinson, Modern Egypt; John Kendrick, Ancient Egypt; Clot Bey, Aperçu Général sur l'Egypte; Journal of the Geographical Society; Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia; A. Melly, Lettres d'Egypte et de Nubie, 1852; M. Brun Rollet, Le Nil Blanc et Le Soudan, Paris, 1855; Ferdinand Werne, Expedition to discover the Sources of the White Nile, London, 1849.