24. The Nile in flood.

—We are now in a position to apply our knowledge of the Nile and its tributaries to an examination of the behaviour of the rivers in flood and in time of low supply. Lake Victoria, the Victoria Nile, and Lake Albert may all be considered as the great equatorial regulators of the Nile. The river, as a river, begins at the outlet of Lake Albert, i.e., at the head of the Albert Nile. Generally at its lowest in April, it rises gradually and reaches its maximum in November. The mean minimum of 600 cubic metres per second is gradually increased to its mean maximum of 900 cubic metres. The regulating effect of the lakes is very evident.

Between Lake Albert and Gondokoro the heavier rains begin late in April and with a break in June and July continue to November. The mean minimum discharge of 600 cubic metres per second in April is increased by alternating rises and falls to the mean maximum of 1600 cubic metres per second in September, which has disappeared by the end of November, when the water of Lake Albert alone remains in the river.

The Gazelle river in no way affects the flood or the low supply. Its great function is to maintain the levels of the great swamps between latitudes 7° and 9°, saturate the soil, and prevent the complete disappearance of the waters of the Albert Nile between January and May. The functions this river performs are humble ones, but deprived of its aid, the Nile north of Khartoum would frequently be dry in April and May.

The Albert Nile at its tail just upstream of the mouth of the Sobat is at its lowest in April and May with a mean low discharge of 375 cubic metres per second, when it is joined by the Sobat river with an approximate mean low discharge of 125 cubic metres per second; making a joint discharge for the head of the White Nile of 500 cubic metres per second as a mean minimum. Now begins one of the most interesting operations of any in the whole valley of the Nile, exceeded only in interest by what happens at Khartoum lower down. The Albert Nile and the Sobat river both rise together, the Albert Nile on a very gentle slope freely overflowing its banks in the Sudd region, and the Sobat river confined within its channel during its highest floods. The White Nile has a very gentle slope, little carrying capacity and is quite incapable of taking on both floods. The water rises at the junction and the Sudd region becomes a reservoir flooded to a depth of 3 metres. As the Sobat river increases its discharge gradually from 75 cubic metres per second in April to 1000 cubic metres per second in October and November (for it is confined to its channel), the Albert Nile decreases the actual discharge it sends down the White Nile and increases what it spreads over the Sudd region. The Albert Nile, having increased its quota for the White Nile from 375 in April to 450 cubic metres per second in September, gives less in October and November and gradually passes on its waters in December, January and February when the Sobat has fallen.

The White Nile at its head near Tewfikieh has its mean minimum of 500 cubic metres per second in April, and increases slowly to its mean maximum of 1500 cubic metres per second in December. During this interval its water surface is raised by 3·50 metres. This water travels very slowly on to Khartoum, where the mean minimum is 450 cubic metres per second in May, the slope is very insignificant, and the trough of the river is 1500 metres wide.

At Khartoum the White Nile meets the Blue Nile. No greater contrast exists in the world. If maximum discharges are alone considered, the little finger of the Blue Nile is thicker than the loins of the White Nile.

The Blue Nile is at its lowest on the 1st May with a mean minimum supply of 200 cubic metres per second rising to a mean maximum flood of 10,000 cubic metres per second on the 1st September. The flood has fallen to 2000 cubic metres per second by the middle of November.

Up to the middle of July the Blue and White Niles keep increasing their discharges steadily at Khartoum, but after that date the Blue Nile gauge and discharge rise rapidly together, and the Blue Nile not only feeds the Main Nile, but flows up the White Nile and arrests its discharge, so that at Duem, 200 kilometres above Khartoum, the White Nile discharge decreases in July and August while the Blue Nile is steadily flowing up the White Nile valley and converting it into a reservoir for the Nile in winter. It is only after the 15th September, when the Blue Nile has begun to fall steadily and continuously that the White Nile discharge really commences and reaches its mean maximum of some 2000 cubic metres per second in October.

The mean minimum discharge of the Nile of 650 cubic metres per second at Khartoum is obtained on the 1st May and the mean maximum of 9000 cubic metres per second on the 1st September. Fed by the White Nile reservoir the river falls comparatively slowly. Whether this peculiar relation of the two rivers to each other could not be taken advantage of to increase the supply in December, January and February, and decrease it in October and November by means of a regulating dam built across the White Nile at Khartoum is worthy of study.

I greatly prefer the idea of storing the flood waters of the White Nile at Khartoum to any storage of the Albert Nile water above the junction of the Sobat river. A regulator above the Sobat junction would store up a very considerable quantity of water, but the quality would be very doubtful and possibly dangerous to health.

At El Damer, south of Berber, the Atbara flows into the Nile. Dry from January to May, the flood begins in June and is at its maximum as a rule in the last week of August; with a mean high flood discharge of 3500 cubic metres per second. This water cannot come on to Assuân without filling up the 200 kilometres downstream of the 6th cataract where the slope of the Nile is gentle and the river lends itself to being used as a reservoir. It is owing to the fact that none of the main feeders of the Nile flow in immediately below cataracts that the rise and fall of the Nile in Egypt, is so regular and constant. If the Sobat, Blue Nile and Atbara all flowed into the White or Main Niles below cataracts we should have floods in Egypt whose sudden changes of level and fluctuations would be an unending source of danger to the country.

It is owing to the earliness of the Atbara high flood and the comparative lateness of the Nile high flood, that the ordinary maximum discharge of the Nile at Assuân is only 10,000 cubic metres per second. This is generally on the 5th September. When the monsoon is early the maximum at Assuân is reached before or on the 5th September; when the monsoon is late the maximum is reached about the 20th September. An early maximum at Assuân is generally followed by a low summer, while a late maximum is generally followed by a high summer supply. Only once has this rule been broken and that was in 1891 when there were two maxima, one on the 4th September and another on the 27th. In this year there must have been an extraordinary fall of rain in Abyssinia in September, for the flood of the 27th September was very muddy, while as a rule the river at Assuân is very muddy in August, less so in September, still less so in October and much less in November when the White Nile is the ruling factor in the supply of the river.

If the September rains in Abyssinia are very heavy, an ordinary flood passes Assuân at the end of September and is disastrous for Egypt. This happened in 1878. Table 26 contains details of this flood, of the minimum flood year 1877 and the mean of the 20 years from 1873 to 1892.

At Assuân the Nile enters Egypt, and it now remains to consider it in its last 1,200 kilometres. The mean minimum discharge at Assuân is 590 cubic metres per second and is reached about the end of May. The river rises slowly till about the 20th July and then rapidly through August, reaching its maximum about the 5th September, and then falling very slowly through October and November. The deep perennial irrigation canals take water all the year round, but the flood irrigation canals are closed with earthen banks till the 15th August, and are then all opened. These flood canals, of which there are some 45, are capable of discharging 2,000 cubic metres per second at the beginning of an ordinary year, 3,600 cubic metres per second in a maximum year, and have an immediate effect on the discharge of the Nile. The channel of the Nile itself and its numerous branches and arms consume a considerable quantity of water (the cubic contents of the trough of the Nile between Assuân and Cairo are 7,000,000,000 cubic metres), the direct irrigation from the Nile between Assuân and Cairo takes 50 cubic metres per second, 130 cubic metres per second are lost by evaporation off the Nile, and 400 cubic metres per second by absorption. Owing to all these different causes, there is the net result that, from August 15th to October 1st, the Nile is discharging 2,400 cubic metres per second less at Cairo than Assuân. During October and November the flood canals are closed, and the basins which have been filled in August and September discharge back into the Nile, and in October the Nile at Cairo is discharging 900 cubic metres per second in excess of the discharge at Assuân and 500 cubic metres per second in excess in November.

The mean minimum discharge at Cairo is 500 cubic metres per second and is attained on the 15th of June; the river rises slowly through July and fairly quickly in August, and reaches its ordinary maximum on the 1st October when the basins are full and the discharge from the basins is just beginning. The ordinary maximum discharge at Cairo is about 7,600 cubic metres per second. Through October the Nile at Cairo is practically stationary, and falls rapidly in November.

North of Cairo are the heads of the perennial canals which irrigate the Delta proper. The canals, with their feeders lower down, discharge 1,200 cubic metres per second, and the ordinary maximum flood at Cairo of 7,600 cubic metres per second is reduced by this amount between Cairo and the sea. Of the 6,400 cubic metres per second which remain, 4,100 cubic metres per second find their way to the sea down the Rosetta branch, and 2,300 cubic metres per second down the Damietta branch. During extraordinary floods the Damietta branch has discharged 4,300 cubic metres per second and the Rosetta branch 7,000 cubic metres per second.