purpose. As soon as it has risen to the height of sixteen cubits, this
is announced by the cry of wafaa ullah, ‘ God has given us abundance:’
if it rise to twenty, which is sufficient to render the whole
of the land fit for cultivation, the cry is men jibbel alia jibbel,
‘ from mountain to mountain;’ implying, that the water suffices to
inundate the country up to the foot of the mountains on either
side.
To some of our readers, perhaps, this may require explanation.
The vale of lower Egypt is nearly flat, but the banks of the Nile
are it’s highest parts, from which it slopes gently toward the
mountains. The whole of this land, parched with almost perpetual
drought at other seasons, requires to be deluged by the
annual inundation of the river, the turbid waters of which furnish
it at the same time with manure, in the sediment it deposites, and
the recrements of the preceding crop, which it renders subservient
to the purpose of promoting vegetation by the putrefactive process
it induces in them. The height of the banks of the Nile is such,
as to prevent the water from having access to the land behind
them, unless on extraordinary occasions; such indeed as would
threaten a general famine. Accordingly canals were formed by
the care of the ancient inhabitants, to convey the water over the
whole face of the country, when it had risen to a proper height;
and others to carry it off, when too abundant, into the lakes in
the deserts of Libya. The mouths of these canals were closed by
mounds, which were broken down, when the water had attained
the requisite degree of increase. I f the inundation were too copious,
the superfluous water was diverted to the lakes, and thus
prevented from doing injury; if it were precisely sufficient, to
cover the whole of the land, the banks of the river excepted, an
abundant harvest was produced, with very little labour; and if the
lower grounds alone were covered by the: natural influx of the-
water, the aid of mechanics was called in, when the inundation
was at it’s height, to extend the influence of the stream by means
of engines, and thus dispense fertility to fields, which indolence and
ignorance would have left unproductive. Now, that it was extremely
desirable, to know the proper times for opening the- canals,
and the extent to which the water would overflow the plains, that
the business might be conducted most to the advantage of the
community, was presently obvious.. For this the Nilometer was
invented. I t required much less science, than the ancient egyp-
tians possessed, to know, that a graduated column, fixed in the
bed of the Nile, would indicate with certainty the limits of the
inundation; and probably they employed one differing very little
from that which is at present used by the government at Cairo,
for an accurate delineation of which, with an internal and an external
view of the building that contains it, we refer our readers
to the plates annexed, and which we shall proceed to describe, in
the words of Mr. Brace, who appears to have examined it with
care, and given an account of it with accuracy. Though this is
not to be considered as the sole instrument throughout the course
of the Nile for measuring it’s rise, since we are informed by Mr.
Langles, that there are no less than fifteen nilometers between the
island of Elephantina and the mouth of the river.