Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/540

498 N I G N I G in October, falls rapidly in November, and slowly in the next three months, and reaches its lowest in March and April, when it is ford- able in many places, has no perceptible flow, and at the confluence begins to be covered with the water-weed Pistia Stratiotcs. The flood rises with great rapidity, and reaches 50, 60, or even 75 feet above the low-watermark. The two confluents being so unlike, the united Niger differs from each under the influence of the other. Here the river is at its lowest in April and May; in June it is sub ject to great fluctuations; about the middle of August it usually begins to rise ; and its maximum is reached in September. In October it sinks, often rapidly. A slight rise iu January, known as the yangbe, is occasioned by water from the Kworra. Between high and low water-mark the difference is as much as 35 feet. As a highway of commerce the Niger has been little used, trad ing steamers having mainly confined their operations to the river below the confluence. But since 1857 the area of supply has been considerably extended, the quantity of goods (chiefly o il and shea butter) collected has greatly increased, and steamers five or six times the size of the vessels formerly used have been introduced. The delta region has become more populous, and trading posts more frequent. The Church Missionary Society, which, except the British Government, has done more than any other agency for opening up the lower Niger, has stations at four places on the coast, at Osamare (120 miles inland), Onitsha (20 miles farther), Lokoja (90 miles), Kipo Hill, Egan (90 miles), Shonga (94 miles farther, and only 12 or 15 short of Rabba). Lokoja is near the site of the experimental farm maintained by the Government for some years from 1841. Pliny mentions a river Nigris of the same nature with the Nile separating Africa and Ethiopia, and forming the boundary of Gcetulia ; and it is not improbable that this is, in fact, the same with the modern Niger. In Ptolemj , too, appears along with Gir a certain Nigir (Nfyeip) as one of the largest rivers of the interior ; but so vague is his description that, while D Anville and Leake strongly maintain that this, also, is the Niger, Walckenaer and Vivien St Martin insist on the negative view, and Mr Bunbury is almost inclined to follow them. When the Arabian geographers became acquainted with the river near Timbuktu they called it the Nile of the Negroes, and down to the present century European authorities (such as Jackson in his Empire of Morocco, 1800) fought zealously for the identity of this Nile with the river of Egypt. The following dates show the progressive exploration of the river. 1788. Formation of the African Association iu England. 1795. Mungo Park (African Association) saw the Niger near Sego "glittering in the morning sun as broad as the Thames at West minster, and flowing slowly to the eastward." In this first expedition he went down the river as far as Sella and up as far as Bammako; in his second he sailed down to Bussa, where he was drowned. Park adopted the opinion that the Niger and the Congo were one. Major Peddie s expedition to the Niger, and Tuckey s expedition to the Congo, threw no light on the relation of the rivers. 1802. Reichard, a German, suggested that the Rio Formoso was the mouth of the Niger. 1822. Laing learned that the sources of the Niger lay not far from Sulima. 1826. Caillie sailed down the river from Jenne to the port of Timbuktu. Clapperton and Richard Lander visited Bussa. 1830. Richard and John Lander passed down from Yauri to the mouth of the Rio Nun, thus settling the doubt as to the outlet of the river. 1832. Macgregor Laird established the African Steamship Company, and Richard Lander and Oldfield (as members of its first expedition) ascended the Niger to Rabba and the Benue (or, as it was then called, the Shary or Tchadda) as far as Dagbo (80 miles). 1840. Consul Beecroft ascended beyond Rabba in the " Ethiope." 1841. An expedition, consisting of three steamers of the royal navy, under Captain (afterwards Admiral) H. D. Trotter, went up to Egga (Egam), but was forced to return owing to sickness and mortality. 1851. Barth crossed the Benue at the junction of the Faro, and conjectured it to be the upper part of the Tchadda. 1854. Barth sailed down from Saraiyamo to Kabara (port of Timbuktu), and then skirted the left bank to Bornu and the right thence to Say. The "Pleiad" expedition (Baikie, Crowther, D. J. May) advanced up the Benue 400 miles to Dulti or Jin. 1857-59. Expe dition (Baikie, Glover, &c. ) up to Bussa; steamer "Dayspring" wrecked on a rock above Rabba. Mission stations founded at Onitsha, Gbebe, and Rabba. 1864. Crowther made bishop of the Niger. 1877. Rev. Henry Johnson journeyed up the river to Bida. 1879. "Henry Venn," steamer (Ashkroft, Kirk, Flegel), passed up the Benue to Gurua (145 miles beyond Jin), and her boats 8 miles farther to Reborn or Ribago. Zweifel and Moustier, sent out by M. Verminck, a Marseilles merchant, discovered the sources of the Falico, &c. 1880-81. Flegel went up from Rabba to Gompa. Besides the reports of expeditions published by Laird and Oldfield, Allen, Baikie, Crowther, Ac., see Barth s Travels, vols. iv. and v., and his paper in Z. fur ally. Erdkunde, Berlin, 1863; Cole, Life on the Niger Crowther, The Gospel on the Niger; The Church Missionary Intelligencer; MMheilungen der Afrikan. Oes. in Deutichland, 1882 and 1883; and Hutchinson s paper in Jour of Hoc. of Arts, I860. (HAW) NIGEE, C. PESCENNIUS, governor of Syria under the emperor Commodus, and one of the rivals of Septimius Severus for the succession after the murder of Pertinax, belonged to an Aquinum family of equestrian rank, and owed his promotion to the Syrian command not only to the interest of Narcissus, the favourite of Commodus, but also to his known merits as a soldier. He was saluted emperor by the troops at Antioch as soon as the death of Pertinax became known, in the spring of 193 A.D., but he unaccountably delayed marching on Eome until he learned that Severus had assumed the offensive. He now strongly garrisoned Byzantium as well as the principal towns of Asia Minor, but after his legate ^Emilianus had been defeated and slain near Cyzicus he himself was driven from Nicaea and decisively routed, with great slaughter, in the neighbourhood of the Cilician Gates. Having failed in an effort to escape towards the Euphrates, he was brought back and put to death in 194. NIGHTINGALE (Anglo-Saxon, Nihtegale, literally " singer of the night "), the bird justly celebrated beyond all others by European writers for the admirable vocal powers which, during some weeks after its return from its winter-quarters in the south, it exercises at all hours of the day and night. The song itself is indescribable, though several attempts, from the time of Aristophanes to the present, have been made to express in syllables the sound of its many notes ; and its effects on those that hear it depend so much on their personal disposition as to be as varied as are its tones. To some they suggest melancholy ; and many poets have descanted on the bird (which they nearly always make of the feminine gender) leaning its breast against a thorn and pouring forth its melody in anguish. It is accordingly to be observed that the cock alone sings, and that there is no reason to suppose that the cause and intent of his song, unsurpassed though it be, differ in any respect from those of other birds songs (see BIRDS, vol. iii. p. 770). Sadness, therefore, is certainly the last impelling sentiment that can be properly assigned in this case. In great contrast to the Nightingale s pre eminent voice is the inconspicuous coloration of its plumage, which is alike in both sexes, and is of a reddish- brown above and dull greyish-white beneath, the breast being rather darker, and the rufous tail shewing the only bright tint. The range of this bird in Europe has already been so fully described (BIRDS, vol. iii. p. 756, 757) as to render a further account of it needless. The Nightingale reaches its English home about the middle of April, 1 the males (as is usual among migratory birds) arriving some days before the females ; and, often stopping on their way, letting their song be heard in places they do not habitually frequent, pass to their proper breeding-quarters. At this time they run very great danger from birdcatchers, for their capture is effected with facility, and it is painful to add that of those then caught nine-tenths are said to die within a month. Fortunately for the species, it receives great protection from the practice of game-preserving, which guards from intrusion so many of the localities it affects, and there is probably no country in which the Nightingale breeds more abundantly and in greater security than in England. - On the cocks being joined by their partners, the work for which the long and hazardous journey of both has been undertaken is speedily begun, and before long the nest is completed. This is of a rather uncommon kind, being placed on or near the ground, the outworks 1 Poets and novelists are apt to command at will the song of this bird, irrespective of season. If the appearance of truth is to be regarded, it is dangerous to introduce a Nightingale as singing in England before the 15th of April or after the 15th of June. The "Early Nightingale" of newspaper paragraphs is generally a Song- Thrush.