(Hugh Miller's Test, of the Roch% p. 412, 413). The bed of the Nile is cut through these layers of rock, which in some places confine it on both sides, and even obstruct its course, causing the formation of rapids and cataracts. For scarcely have the waters of the White Nile, which come from the very heart of Africa to the westward, become confluent with those of the Blue Nile, which flows down from the mountains of Aljyssinia to the eastward, when their united torrent is opposed by the sands and rocks of the great Sahara desert, and from that point the Nile flows along a devious course of 2300 miles imtil it reaches the Mediterranean Sea, without receiving a single tributarj'. Thus it dif- fuses fertility and life over vast districts, always ex- panding its waters, and never receiving any accession to them from the heaven above or the eartli beneath ; so that when it reaches Cairo the bulk and volume of its tide is scarcely one half of that which foams amid the rocks and cataracts of Sj-ene (Osburn's Mon, Hist, ofErjypt, i, 3).
In Upper Egypt the Nile is a very broad stream, flowing rapidly between high, steep mud banks, that are scarped bj' the constant rush of the water, wliich from time to time washes portions away, and stratified by the regular deposit. On either side rise the bare yellow mountains, usually a few hundred feet high, rarely a thousand, looking from the river like cliffs, and often honeycombed with the entrances of the tombs which make Egypt one great city of the dead, so that we can understand the meaning of that murmur of the Israelites to Moses, " Because [there were] no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us a^^■ay to die in the wilder- ness?" (Exod. xiv, 11). Frequently the mountain on either side approaches the river in a rounded promon- tor}', against whose base the restless stream Avashes, and then retreats and leaves a broad bay-like valley, bounded by a rocky curve. Rarely both mountains confine the river in a narrow bed, rising steeply on either side from a deep rock-cut channel through which the water pours with a rapid current. Perhaps there is a remote allusion to the rocky channels of the Nile, and especially to its primeval bed wholly of bare rock, in that passage of Job where the plural of Yeor is used. •' He cutteth out rivers (Q^IX^) among the rocks, and his eye seeth every precious thing. He bindeth the floods from overflowing" (xxviii, 10, 11). It must be recollected that there are allusions to Egypt, and es- pecially to its animals and products, in this book, so that the Nile may well be here referred to, if the pas- sage do not distinctly mention it. In Lower Egypt the chief differences are that the view is spread out in one rich plain, only bounded on the east and west by the desert, of which the edge is low and sandy, unlike the mountains above, though essentially the same, and that the two branches of the river are narrower than the undivided stream. On either bank, during Low Nile, extend fields of corn and barley, and near the river-side stretch long groves of palm-trees. The villages rise from the level plain, standing upon mounds, often an- cient sites, and surrounded by palm -groves, and yet higher dark-brown mounds mark wliere of old stood towns, with which often ''their memorial is perished" (Psa. ix, 6). The villages are connected by dikes, along which pass the chief roads. During the inunda- tion the whole valley and plain are covered with sheets of water, above which rise the villages like islands, onl}' to be reached along the half-ruinetl dikes. The as- pect of the country is as if it were overflowed by a de- structive flood, while between its banks, here and there broken through and constantly giving way, rushes a vast turbid stream, against which no boat could make its way, excepting by tacking, were it not for the north wind tliat blows ceaselessly during the season of the in- undation, making the river seem more powerful as it beats it into waves. The prophets more than once al- lude to this striking condition of the Nile. Jeremiah says of Pharaoh-Necho's army, "Who [is] this [that]
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Cometh up as the Nile [Yeor], whose waters are moved ?.s the rivers? Egypt riseth up like the Nile, and [his] waters are moved like the rivers; and he saith, I will go up, [and] will cover the land ; I will destroy the city and the inhabitants thereof" (xlvi, 7, 8). Again, the prophecy "against the Philistines, before that Pharaoh smote Gaza," commences, " Thus saith the Lord ; Be- hold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall be as an overflowing stream (iiachal), and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein ; the city, and them that dwell therein" (xlvii, 1,2). Amos, also, a prophet who especially refers to Egypt, uses the inundation of the Nile as a type of the utter desolation of his country. "The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholh' as the Nile ("IN3) ; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as [by] the Nile (D';>^2-a IIX""?) of Egypt" (viii, 7, 8; see ix, 5).