If we take 3,000 cubic metres per second as the average annual flow past Assuân we may say that the White Nile supplies 24% off more than half the area of the whole basin, the Blue Nile 65% off 1⁄10 the area, and the Atbara 11 % off 1⁄12 the area. The Gazelle river drains about 1⁄6 the total area and adds practically nothing to the discharge. [Table 24] should be very carefully studied by any man who wants to understand the Nile. It does not pretend to exactitude, but embodies the best information I have been able to obtain.
6. The climate of the Nile valley.
—This paragraph would have been much more complete if Capt. Lyons’ monograph on the Meteorology of the Nile valley had been published. In considering the climate I shall follow the subdivisions of the catchment basin of the Nile contained in [Table I].
In the catchment basins of Lakes Victoria and Albert, the mean annual rainfall may be taken as 1.25 metres, with great fluctuations between good and bad years. Neglecting here and through this paragraph, the light occasional falls of rain which are trying to travellers but which have no effect on the rivers, it may be said that in these basins there are two rainy seasons, the greater in March, April and May, and the lesser in October, November and December. The former are followed by dry southern winds, while north winds blow in the winter.
Along the whole of the Albert Nile, the mean annual rainfall may be taken as 1 metre, with severe famines in occasional years and heavy rainfall in others. The principal rains are between May and November, with the maximum between August 15 and September 15. In years of deficient rainfall, the June, July and August rains seem to fail. The catchment basin of the Gazelle river may be credited with a mean annual rainfall of 75 centimetres between May and October, while the mean annual rainfall on the Arab river cannot be more than 30 centimetres between June and September. The Sobat river in its upper reaches enjoys an annual rainfall of about 1.25 metres and of ·75 metres in its lower reaches. The time of rain is between March and September. The lands draining into the White Nile north of Tewfikieh have an annual rainfall of about 20 centimetres between June and September.
The Abyssinian part of the catchment basin of the Blue Nile enjoys a good rainfall throughout nine months of the year from February to October, with generally heavy rain between May and September, and very occasionally in October. The rainfall here may be taken as 1.25 metres per annum. In the plains of the eastern Sudan traversed by the lower reaches of the Blue Nile and the Atbara the rainfall is very much lighter and may be considered as 30 centimetres between July and September; fairly constant and heavier in the south, and very inconstant and lighter in the north. The Atbara and its tributaries in their upper reaches on the northern slopes of Abyssinia, have rain from May to the end of August and occasionally into September. There are great fluctuations in the rainfall. The mean annual rainfall may be taken as 75 centimetres.
The desert area between Khartoum and Cairo has occasional winter rains especially in the parts near the Red sea, but as these rains are nearly all soaked up by the desert, and very little, here and there, reaches the Nile, we may neglect them altogether. Railways have to be provided with culverts and bridges where they cross the terminal reaches of the khors and wadis which run considerable bodies of water for a few hours after rain; but the effect on the Nile is practically nothing. Along the sea-board of the Mediterranean there are a few inches of rain every winter, sufficient as a rule to raise poor crops of barley.
In the catchment basins of Lakes Victoria and Albert the direction of the winds may be taken as north-east in winter and south-east in summer. The maximum monthly temperature may be taken as 35° and the minimum as 12°, with a mean for the year of 21°.
Along the Albert Nile the north wind blows through the winter, and southerly winds prevail from about the 15th of April to October. The temperature may be taken as ranging from a monthly maximum of 38° to a monthly minimum of 16°, with a mean of 27°.
[Tables 75] to [81] give the principal meteorological data for many places in the Nile valley and compare the Bombay rainfall with the Assuân gauges. The latter show how closely the Assuân gauge in flood follows the rainfall at Bombay.