The Sobat is full and navigable. Between this and the town of Khartoum, a distance of about 460 miles, the Nile runs in a northerly direction, with a width of from one to two miles, and is joined by several streams from the east side.

Khartoum, the capital of Nubia, is situated at the confluence of the Bahr-el-Azrek (Blue Nile) and the Bahr-el-Abiad (White Nile), 1188 feet above the sea-level, in lat. 15° 35' N. long., 32° 30′ E. The Bahr-el-Azrek, long supposed to be the main branch of the True Nile, is formed by the junction of the Abai and the Blue River. The Abai has its source in Abyssinia, 50 miles from Lake Dembea, which it enters from the south-west; emerging on the south-east of the lake, it flows for about 90 miles in that direction, when it describes a semicircle round the peninsula of Godjam, and continues north-westerly for about 150 miles. It is here joined by the Blue River from the south, and from this point the Blue Nile flows north-west to Khartoum, receiving from the east two large rivers running nearly parallel to each other, the Dender and the Rahad or Shimfa. From Khartoum, the united stream flows north for about 60 miles, passing the town of Halfaia and the ruins of Meroë to the first cataract, and thence north-east past Shendy (q. v.) to its junction with the Atbara, which enters the Nile at El Damer, lat. 17° 45′ N., long. 34 E.

The Atbara, also called Bahr-el-Aswad, or Black River, because it carries down with it the greatest amount of the black mud and slime that manures and fertilises Egypt, is the last tributary received by the Nile. The Goang seems to be the direct source of the Atbara. It rises in the heights to the north of Lake Dembea. About 150 miles from its source it receives the Basalam River, and about 30 miles further on, the Takazze or Setit River, both from the east. The Takazze has a far greater volume of water than either of the preceding rivers. It rises in the Samen Mountains, round which it flows first easterly, then north, till in about lat. 13 30' N., long. 38° 50′ E. it turns north-west, and then almost due west, joining the Atbara at right angles. It has many tributaries.

From its junction with the Atbara, the Nile continues to flow northerly through the populous and fertile district of Berber, full of villages, and then enters the desert. Turning westwards, in lat. 19° N., it forms the large island of Mograt, and makes a curve to the south-westward, known as the 'great bend,' in which there are two cataracts. Entering Nubia, the Nile resumes its northwesterly course, with narrow strips of cultivated land on each bank. Here it forms another cataract, and bends round to the north-east with a fifth cataract, in lat. 21° 40′ N. After this the valley of the Nile narrows, and at Assouan, in lat. 24° 10' N., it forms the last cataract in descending.

From Assouan to the sea, the average fall of the Nile is two inches to a mile, and its mean velocity about three miles an hour. It waters and fertilises the whole length of the land of Egypt. The delta of the Nile extends from lat. 30° 10 N. to 31° 30′ N., and has a base on the Mediterranean of about 150 miles. In it the Nile spreads out into numerous streams, the two principal being those of Rosetta and Damietta. The total length of the Nile, from its exit from the lake to the sea, is about 3300 miles, measured along its course, or 2200 miles direct distance.

A feature peculiar to the river of Egypt is, that from its junction with the Atbara, to its mouth, a distance of upwards of 1500 miles, it receives no affluent whatever, and yet it is able to contend with the burning sun, and scarcely less burning sands of Nubia. With the ancient Egyptians

the river was held sacred: the god Nilus was one of the lesser divinities. Its annual overflow is one of the greatest marvels in the physical geography of the globe, for it has risen to within a few hours of the same time, and to within a few inches of the same height, year after year for unknown ages. At Khartoum it begins to increase early in April, but in lower Egypt the inundation usually begins about the 25th of June, and attains its height in three months. It remains stationary about twelve days, and then subsides. The culti vable soil of Egypt is wholly dependent on the rise of the Nile, and its failure causes a dearth; for, virtually, the country has no rain. Continuous south-wind brings a good, and north-wind a bad year. During a good inundation, the rise is about 40 feet on the Tropic of Capricorn, 36 feet at Thebes, and 4 feet at the Damietta and Rosetta mouths in the Delta. If at Cairo the rise is only 18 or 20 feet, there is a scarcity; up to 24 feet, a deficiency; 25 to 27 feet is good: more than that causes a flood, and fosters plague and murrain. During the inundation, the whole valley is covered with water, from which the villages rise like islands, protected by dykes. Of late years the overflow has been greater than the average of many centuries. The rise and fall of the trunk stream of the lower Nile is owing to the periodicity of the rains on the moun. tains of Abyssinia and in the basin of Lake Nyanza, where, on the equator, it rains, more or less, all the year round, most copiously during the equinoxes. The banks of the Nile swarm with birds, among which are vultures, cormorants, geese, pelicans, quails, and the white ibis; and its sweet, soit waters teem with fish. The average amount of alluvium brought down by the river is estimated at a deposit of 4 inches in a century-by some, it is made as high as 6 inches; the greater part of it is brought down by the Atbara.

The question of the source of the Nile is at once the oldest and the most recent of geography. It was a puzzle in the time of Moses, and long before his time. That the sources of a river, at whose mouth one of the earliest and most civilised peoples was established, should have been so long veiled in obscurity, is unparalleled in geographical research. The want of success in exploring the upper basin of the Nile may be attributed to the great length of the river, to the difficulties which beset the traveller in the physical nature of the countries he must pass through, the climate, and the jealousy, ignorance, and barbarism of the native tribes. This problem of centuries has now been in so far satisfactorily solved, for the question remains, whether there may not yet be found feeders of the White Nile carrying back its source to a still greater distance in the interior; a question which further research alone can answer. The journeys of Krapf and Rebmann to the foot of Kilimandjaro and the other snowy mountains in the east of Africa, believed by them to be the ancient and almost fabled Mountains of the Moon,' and the explorations of travellers up the White Nile, pointed to the conclusion that it was among these that the sources of the great Egyptian river would ultimately be discovered.

There was, however, another theory. Rumours gathered from the natives pointed to lakes in the regions south of the equator, as the true sources of the Nile. To explore this country, the distinguished traveller Captain Richard Burton, accompanied by Captain Speke, started from the Zanzibar coast in 1857. Their enterprise was so far successful that they discovered Lake Tanganyika, in lat. 5° S., long. 36° E., and a large crescent-shaped mass of mountains, overhanging the northern half of the lake, and 10,000 feet high, considered by Captain

of the Victoria Nyanza (q. v.). In his journal he says of this immense sheet of water: I no longer felt any doubt that the lake at my feet gave birth to that interesting river, the source of which has been the subject of so much speculation, and the object of so many explorers.' The idea of descending the Nile from the Nyanza seems at once to have struck him; but as at that time his preparations were quite insufficient, he was reluctantly compelled to return to Europe.

Judging that he was in a fair way to solve the great African problem, Captain Speke, taking with him Captain Grant, returned to the lake region in 1861. The expedition approached the Victoria Nyanza again from the coast of Zanzibar; and the first place from which they obtained a view of it during the second expedition, was the town of Mashonde on its western side. Thence they pursued their way along the shore northwards. The land above the lake was found to be composed of low sandstone hills, covered with gigantic grass of unsurpassed verdure, and by dells of trees as tall

and straight as the blue gums of Australia. Crossing the equator, they reached streams which are said to flow out of the lake, and further on, in the centre of its northern coast, the parent stream of the Nile, 150 yards in breadth, flowing over rocks of an igneous character, and forming falls 12 feet high, which Captain Speke christened the Ripon Falls,' in honour of the president of the Royal Geographical Society at the time of his starting on the expedition. It is from the west that the lake receives its largest supplies of water through the medium of smaller lakes. These derive their moisture from the so-called 'Mountains of the Moon,' which are situated in the middle of the rainy zone, where Captain Speke observed that no fewer than 233 days in the year were more or less wet days.

In the kingdom of Karagwé, Captain Speke found a very superior negro race, much better disposed to strangers than any of the tribes he had formerly passed through. The country occupied by this race, and that of Uganda, stretches along the Nyanza, and covers half of its western and northern shores, the Uganda being bounded on the east by the main stream of the Nile. The sultan of Uganda exercises an absolute power over his people. He (the sultan) had a knowledge of the navigation of the N. by white men, and was desirous of establishing a commercial intercourse with Gondokoro, but was prevented by the hostility of the tribes to the north of his own. Speke was detained a prisoner for five months in this kingdom, but was treated with the greatest hospitality, though his movements were closely watched until he got into the neighbouring kingdom of Unyoro.

North of Unyoro, the dialects belonging to the language of South Africa, and which up to this point are used by the various tribes, suddenly cease, and give place to those of the language of North Africa.

honest man.

With regard to the civilisation of these three kingdoms of Karagwé, Uganda, and Unyoro, Speke does not hesitate to give the preference to the first, and represents the king, Rumanika, as an intelligent, Mtésa, the sovereign of Uganda, is an amiable youth, taking pleasure in field exercises; but one rule of his court requires that a human sacrifice be offered daily for the good of the state. The king of Unyoro, Kamrasi by name, is represented as a harsh, suspicious, and pitiless creature, his principal occupation being the exercise of his unbridled authority.

The travellers spent a whole year in making their way through these three kingdoms, into which no white man had ever before penetrated, and only succeeded in getting away by making numerous presents, and still more numerous promises. Besides ascertaining the latitude and longitude of all the important points on the route, the travellers made numerous meteorological observations.

NILO'METER (the measurer of the Nile), the name of two buildings existing in Egypt, one in the island of Rhoda, opposite to Cairo, the other at Elephantine, close to Assouan, in 24° 5' 23" N. lat. The first consists of a square well, in which is placed a graduated pillar of marble, and is called a mekkias or measure; the pillar contains 24 devakhs or cubits, each of which measure 21-386 inches, or according to Greaves, 1824 feet, and contains 24 digits; but in its present state, it does not appear to have been intended to mark a rise of more than 16 cubits. This pillar is exceedingly slender. The building formerly had a dome, bearing a Cufic inscription, dated 847 A.D., and is said to have been erected by the Calif Mamun, or his successor Wathek Billáh. The first-mentioned monarch is said to have erected another nilometer at the village

of Banbenouda, in the Saeed, and to have repaired an old one at Ekhmin. The Calif El Motawukkel built the present one. The mode of calculating the increase at the nilometer is rather complex, and to a certain extent arbitrary, political and financial reasons rendering the process a mystery even to the natives. At the present day the Nile is supposed to have risen to 18 cubits when the canals are cut; this is the height of the lowest inundation; 19 cubits are considered tolerable, 20 excellent, 21 adequate, and 22 complete, 24 are ruinous. In the time of Edrisi, however, 16 cubits were considered sufficient. The object of these nilometers was to measure the amount of taxation to be imposed on the country. The nilometer at Cairo is, however, much more recent than that existing at Elephantine, which consists of a staircase between two walls descending to the Nile. One of these walls has engraved on it a series of lines at proper intervals marking the different elevations to which the river rose under the Cæsars. The cubits here are divided into 14ths or double digits, and measure 1 foot 8625 inches. This nilometer is described by Strabo. The probability is, that many nilometers.existed in the days of the Pharaohs, probably one in each city. In the days of Maris, 8 cubits were sufficient, but 15 or 16 were required in the time of Herodotus, 456 B.C., and this was the mean under the Romans. According to Pliny, if the inundation did not exceed 12 cubits it produced a famine, 13 starved the country, 14 rejoiced it, 15 was safety, and 16 delight, and this number is symbolically represented by the number of children playing round the river god on statues of the Roman period. The oldest nilometer appears to have been erected at Memphis, and it was transferred by Constantine to a church in the vicinity of the Serapeium; but Julian sent it back to this temple, where it remained till its destruction by Theodosius. At the present day, the rise is watched for with anxiety, and proclaimed by four criers.- Herodotus, ii. 13; Strabo, lib. xvii.; Wilkinson, Topogr. of Thebes, pp. 311–317. Hekekyan Bey, Siriadic Monuments (Lon. 1863), p. 145.

NI'MBUS, in Art, especially in Sacred Art, is the name given to the disc or halo which encircles the head of the sacred personage who is represented. Its use is almost universal in those religions of which we possess any artistic remains-the Indian, the Egyptian, the Etruscan, the Greek, and the Roman. In the Hebrew scriptures, we trace, in the absence of representations, the same symbolised idea in the light which shone upon the face of Moses at his return from Sinai (Exod. xxxiv. 29–35), and in the light with which the Lord is clothed as with a garment, Ps. ciii. 1, Vulg. (civ. 1, auth. vers.); and in the New Testament in the transfiguration of our Lord (Luke ix. 31), and in the 'crowns' of the just, to which allusion is so often made (2 Tim. iv. 8; 1 Peter v. 4; Apoc. iv. 4). Nevertheless, the nimbus, strictly so called, is comparatively recent in Christian art, appearing first towards the end of the 5th century. Later in Christian art, it became almost a necessary appendage of all representations of God or of the saints. Its ordinary form is the circular or semicircular; a form, indeed, in which later symbolists discover an emblem of perfection, and of eternity; but the nimbus of the Eternal Father is often in the form of a triangle, and that of the Trinity an emanation of light, the rays of which form the three arms of a cross. The nimbus of the Virgin is sometimes a simple ring, and sometimes a crown or diadems; occasionally it is encircled by an ornamental border, on which twelve stars are sometimes represented. Her nimbus, as well as that of

the Divine Persons, is commonly of gold; but that of the Virgin Mary is occasionally in colours, as blue, red, purple, or white. The nimbus of the saints is ordinarily the semicircle or lunula. Dedron mentions the curious instance of a picture of the traitor Judas with a black nimbus! In later art, the nimbus became lighter and more aërial, melting, as it were, into the picture; and in Raphael's saints it occasionally fades into the very faintest indication of a golden tinge around the head. In connection with the nimbus may also be mentioned two analogous forms-the Aureole and the Glory. The former is an illumination surrounding, not the head only, but the entire figure. If the figure be upright, the aureole is commonly oval, when it is called the vesica piscis, and is supposed to contain an allusion to the icthys. With a seated figure it becomes circular, and is occasionally divided by radiating bands, in the form of a wheel; sometimes it takes a quatrefoil form. It is commonly of gold, but occasionally also is in colours. The Glory is a combination of the nimbus and the aureole, and is chiefly seen in Byzantine pictures, and those of the early South German school.

NIMEGUEN. See NIJMEGEN

It consists of the town

NÎMES (anc. Nemausus), a town of France, capital of the department of Gard, stands in a fertile plain surrounded by vine-clad hills, 30 miles north-east of Montpellier, with which it is connected by railway. proper (ill built and dirty), and of three handsome suburbs. In the vicinity are the beautiful remains of the Roman aqueduct called the Pont du Gard. The chief of the modern edifices are the Palais-deJustice, the theatre, and the hospitals. The Grande Place is embellished with one of the most magnificent fountains in France. N. contains numerous and variously-constituted educational institutions, an important public library, Maria Theresa's Museum (in the Maison Carrée), a museum of natural history, &c. It is the general entrepôt for the silks produced in the south of France, and its manufactures are principally silk and cotton fabrics. More than 10,000 looms are constantly in operation in the city, and about 6000 in the immediate vicinity. Shawls, Within the town are numerous and beautiful Roman handkerchiefs, lace, brandy, wines, &c., are made. remains, the chief of which are the amphitheatre; the Maison Carrée (Square House), a fine specimen of Corinthian architecture; a temple and fountain con rated to Diana; La Tour Magne (Great Tower); the baths, and two Roman gates. See Menard's Histoire des Antiquités de la Ville de N. et de ses Environs (1838). Pop. 50,882.

Previously to the Roman invasion, N.-which is supposed to have been founded by a colony from Massilia (Marseille) was the chief city of the Volca was one of the great cities of Gaul. It surrendered Arecomici. It flourished under the Romans, and to the rule of the Visigoths between 465 and 535,

and afterwards to that of the Franks. Subsequently, it became a possession of Aragon; but was finally restored to France in 1259 by the treaty of Corbeil. The inhabitants adopted Calvinism in for their religious principles. In 1791 and 1815, the 16th C., and on many occasions suffered severely bloody religious and political reactions took place

here.

NIMROD. See BABYLON.

NI'NEVEH, or NINUS, a very ancient and famous city, the capital of the great Assyrian empire, said in Scripture (Gen. x. 11) to have been founded by Ninus or Nimrod. It was situated on the east bank of the Tigris, opposite to the present