508 N I L N I L gradually attains a maximum of 4^ feet, the river being then 6 to 10 feet deep. On the Kir the rainy season lasts from the first week of March to the close of October; but the 100 inches of rainfall goes largely to flood the swamps. The Bahr al-Ghazdl is at its lowest in March, and begins to rise soon after. The Sobdt is full from June to December. The White Xilc, at Khartoum, begins to rise in May, but only gains 2 or 3 feet till July or August. Its maximum (6 feet) is reached in September. Linant Bey estimated its volume at low level as 10,488 cubic feet, and in flood as 213,450. The Blue Nile, at Khartoum, begins to rise in July, and reaches its maximum (17^ feet) by August 20. Its rise is much more rapid than its decline ; it takes eighty days to lose the gain achieved in fifty-one. Linant Bey estimated its volume at low level as 5615 cubic feet, and in" flood as 220,620. At Famaka it grows turbid about 20th May. The Atbara, for 150 miles above its junction with the Nile, is perfectly dry from March to June. As a waterway leading into the heart of Africa, the Nile at first sight might appear to be of more importance than it is. Steamers, it is true, as well as sailing craft, can pass up from Egypt as far as Bedden, a distance of 2900 miles ; but even at the period of high water (June to August) the ascent of the cataracts between Wady Haifa and Berber is so dangerous for vessels of any size that the river-route is seldom followed throughout. From Wady Haifa the traveller may proceed by camel to El Ordeh (New Dongola), thence take boat to El Dabbeh or to Old Dongola, and again proceed by laud either to Berber, Shendy, or Khartoum. Or, instead, he may leave the river at Korosko, and strike through the Nubian desert direct to Berber. From Berber, which is also the terminus of a route often used from Souakini (Suakin) on the Red Sea, steamers ply up the river, but it sometimes takes nineteen days to reach Khartoum. The difficulties of navigating the Kir have already been described. Above Bedden the steamer again finds a free course from Dufile to the neighbourhood of the Murchison Fall : but the route to Victoria Nyanza is again overland from Magungo. It is found more expeditious to come to the equatorial regions from the east coast than up the Nile valley. For the botanical aspects of the Nile valley the reader is referred to Schweinfurth s papers (Pctcrmann s Mitthcilungcn, 1868) ; for the general zoology to Heuglin s sketch (Ibid., 1869); and for an account of the fish fauna to Dr Giinther s appendix to Mr and Mrs Petherick s Travels in Central Africa (1869). The ancients knew little of the course of the Nile above MERGE (q.v,). Juba, in his Libyca, quoted by Pliny, makes the Nile rise in western Mauretania, not far from the ocean, in a lake pre senting characteristic Nile fauna, then pass underground for several days journey to a similar lake in Mauretania Caisariensis, again continue underground for twenty days journey to the source called Nigris on the borders of Africa and Ethiopia, and thence flow through Ethiopia as the Astapus. This tissue of invention re ceived strange, favour in the eyes of many subsequent geographers, and actually left its traces in some of our maps down to a com paratively modern time. Strabo, who ascended the river as far as Syene, states that very early investigators had connected the in undation of the lower Nile with summer rains on the far south ern mountains, and that their theory had been confirmed by the observations of travellers under the Ptolemies. Nero despatched two centurions on an expedition for the express purpose of explor ing the Nile, and Seneca informs us that they reached a marshy impassable region, which may be easily identified with the country of the White Nile above the mouth of the Sobat. To what they re ferred when they reported a great mass of water falling from between two rocks is not so readily determined. By the time of Ptolemy in formation had somewhat accumulated. Two streams, he says, issu ing from two lakes 1 (one in 6 J and the other in 7 S. lat.), unite in 2 N. lat. to make the Nile which in 12 N. lat. receives the Astapus, a river flowing from Lake Coloe (on the equator). Thus it would appear that he had heard vaguely about the lakes which we know as Victoria Nyanza, Albert Nyanza, and Tana. His two southern lakes, he conceived, were fed by the melting of snows on a range of moun tains running east and west for upwards of 500 miles the Moun tains of the Moon, r b TTJS <TA.7)j/rjs 6pos, Lunss Montcs. To this opinion he was probably led by hearsay about the snow-clad summits of Kilimanjaro and Kenin. On all the subsequent history of the geography of the Nile Ptolemy s theory had an enormous influence. Mediaeval maps and descriptions, both European and Arabian, reproduce the Mountains of the Moon and the equatorial lakes with a variety of probable or impossible modifications. Even Spoke congratulated himself on identifying the old Ptolemean range with the high lands to the north of Tanganyika, and connected the name with that of Unyamwezi, the "country of the moon." 1 The two lakes afterwards received the names Lake of Crocodiles and Lake of Cataracts. Attacking the lake region from the eaet coast, the Portuguese ex plorers gained a good deal of information which found its way into such maps as those of Pigafetta (1580); but it was not till the present century that the geography of those parts was placed on the basis of fully accepted observations. On November 14, 1770, Bruce reached Lake Tana, and considering, as he did, that the Blue Nile was the main branch, very fairly claimed for himself the honour of being the discoverer of the long-sought caput Nili. The following are a few of the chief dates in the progress of knowledge since 1800 in regard to the river system: 1807. Completion of Jacotin s Atlas de I figypte (surveys from the Mediterranean to Assuan). 1814. Burckhardt goes up the Nile, partly by land, as far as Shendi, crosses to the Atbara, and skirts the east side to Gos Rajeb. 1819. Cailliaud is the first to visit Meroe. 1820. Steamers first ascend the cataracts to Korosko. 1822. Cailliaud and Letorzec ascend the Blue Nile with Ibrahim Pasha s military expedition as far as Fazokl. 18 27. Linant Bey ascends White Nile 132 geographical miles to Al Ais, in 13 43 N. lat. Prokesch von Osten surveys the Nile between Assuan and Wady Haifa. 1839. Mehemet Ali sends up White Nile an expeditioi^ usually known as the First Egyptian Expedition, under Selim Bim- bashi, which (28th January 1840) reaches an island Badelik, in 6 30 N. lat. , but adds little information. Thibaut (Ibrahim Effendi) was a member of this expedition. 1840-41. A second Egyptian expedition (D Arnaud, Sabatier, Werne) reaches island of Janker near Gon- dokoro, about 4 42 N. lat. 1841-42. Third Egyptian expedition (Selim Bimbashi, D Arnaud, Sabatier, Thibaut). 1845. Brun- Rollet founds trading post not far from subsequent site of Heili- genkreuz. 1846. First steamboat on White Nile. 1849. Baron Von Muller surveys the Nile from Handak to Ambakol in province of Dongola. 1850. Rnotlecher (of Austrian mission) reached Log- wek. 1855. Kebmann (missionary at Kisulutini, north-west of Mombasa) sends home map showing Lake Ukerewe, extending from 30 N. lat. to 13 30 S. lat. 1858. Speke, twenty marches north of Kazeh, where he had left Burton, reaches shore of Victoria Ny anza. 1859. Miani reaches mouth of Unyama. 1860. Prnyssenaere starts from Khartoum up the White Nile. 1862. Speke reaches Ripon Falls. Steudner passes down the Ra ad and Blue Nile to Khartoum. The Tinne expedition goes five hours journey beyond Gondokoro on the White Nile. 1864. Sir Samuel Baker reaches Albert Nyanza. Petherick closes a long series of wanderings in the White Nile and Bahr al-Ghazal districts. 1868-71. Schweinfurth explores the western affluents of White Nile. 1871-73. Baker in the White Nile region. 1874. Watson and Chippendall survey the river from Khartoum to Rejaf, and J. Kemp from Rejaf to Dufile. 1875. Stanley circumnavigates Victoria Nyanza. 1877. First voyage across Victoria Nyanza by Rev. C. T. Wilson and Lieutenant Shergold Smith. 1881-82. Schuver in the source- district of the Tumat. (H. A. W. ) NILGLTII, a petty state in Orissa, Bengal, India, bounded on the 1ST. and W. by Morbhanj state and on the S. and E. by Balasor district, with an area 278 square miles, of which only one-third is under cultivation. Valuable quarries of black stone are worked, from which cups, bowls, platters, &c., are made. The population in 1881 was 50,972. Nf LOIRE HILLS, or NEILGHERKY HILLS, a district and range of mountains in the Madras presidency, India, lying between 11 12 and 11 37 N. lat. and between 76 18 and 77 5 E. long., and bounded on the N. by Mysore, E, by Coimbatore, S. by Coimbatore and Malabar, and W. by Malabar. The district until recently consisted exclusively of a mountain plateau lying at an average elevation of 6500 feet, with an area of about 725 square miles. In 1873 this was increased by the addition of the Ochterlony valley in the south-east Wainad, and again, in 1877, by other portions of the Wainad, making a total area of 957 square miles. The administrative headquarters is at Utakamand, which is also the summer capital of the Government of Madras. The summit of the Xilgiri Hills is an undulating plateau, frequently breaking into lofty ridges and steep rocky eminences. The descent to the plains is sudden and abrupt, the average fall from the crest to the general level below being about 6000 feet, save on the north, where the base of the mountains rests upon the elevated land of Wainad and Mysore, standing between 2000 and 3000 feet above sea-level. The Ochterlony valley and Wainad country consist of a series of broken valleys, once forest- clad throughout, but now studded with coffee-gardens,
