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446 NIKOLAYEV NILE the last and greatest dynasty of shoguns, which held the military power of Japan from 1603 to 1867. The highest mountain of the range is Nan-Taizan. The sanctity of Nikko dates from A. D. 767, and from the most ancient times it was the seat of one of the many Shinto deities whom the early Buddhists transferred to their pantheon, under the general title of Gongen. It contains a vast number of temples, shrines, pagodas, monuments, and religious edifices of all kinds, and has long heen the favorite resort of thousands of pilgrims. The village of Ha- chiishi lies at the entrance to the holy places. At the decease of lyeyasu two nobles were commissioned to select a suitable burying place for his body. In 1617 the shrine and many of the surrounding edifices were completed, the corpse deposited, the Buddhist high mass cele- brated, and the title of Dai Gongen conferred, whence lyeyasu is often called Gongen Sama. lyemitsu, grandson of lyeyasu, and the third prince of the line, is also buried at Nikko. From an early date the chief priest of Nikko was a prince of the imperial blood. The gifts of vassal daimios and of pious pilgrims have so beautified and sanctified the place as to make it, both as to nature and art, the most attractive in all Japan. Seven miles from the tombs are the lake of Chiuzenji, and the famous waterfall of Kiri-furi (falling mist), which is more than 700 ft. high. NIKOLAYEV, or Nieolaiey, a town of Eussia, in the government and 36 m. N. W. of the city of Kherson, near the confluence of the rivers Bog and Ingul; pop. in 1867, 67,972. It occu- pies a large extent of ground, and is fortified. Nikolayev. The streets are of enormous width ; the houses are generally of one story, and have large gar- dens attached to them; and there is a fine boulevard planted with trees along the Bog. The principal public edifices are the cathedral, town hall, observatory, admiralty, navy bar- racks, naval hospital, and hydrographical seminary. The dockyards are very extensive. The town was founded in 1790, and for a time grew very rapidly, but its commercial prosperi- ty was hindered by its proximity to Kherson. After the fall of Sebastopol it was made one of the principal stations of the Russian navy. In 1867 474 vessels, of 58,255 tons, cleared from the port, with cargoes valued at $5,500,000. NIKOLSBURG, a town of Austria, in the prov- ince of Moravia, 45 m. N. by E. of Vienna ; pop. in 1869, 8,758. It has a gymnasium conducted by the Piarists, a Jewish school, an industrial school, a beautiful Gothic collegiate church, and two synagogues. In the centre of the town, on a rock, is the castle of Prince Dietrichstein, with a library of more than 20,000 volumes. Near it is the village of Voitelsbrunn, with a sulphur bath. In December, 1805, negotia- tions were conducted here which led to the peace of Presburg. On July 26, 1866, a truce and preliminary peace was concluded here be- tween Austria and Prussia, and on July 28 a truce between Prussia and Bavaria. NILE (Gr. NeUoc; Lat. Nilus ; Arab. En- NiT), the principal river of Africa, and one of the largest and most famous rivers of the world. The name is of Semitic origin, and is applied to rivers that periodically overflow and irrigate their banks. Near the city of Khar- toom, in the Egyptian province of Soudan or Sennaar, in lat. 15 36' N., Ion. 32 38' E., two great rivers unite, the larger of which comes from the southwest, and is called in Arabic Bahr el-Abiad or White river, and in English is commonly known as the White Nile. This appellation is derived from the color given to its waters by the clay with which they are saturated. The other river flows from the southeast, and is called in Arabic Bahr el-Azrek, Blue river, and in English is commonly termed the Blue Nile. It is the Asta- pus of ancient geography, and was long regarded as the true Nile. It is form- ed by the junction of the Abai and Dedhesa rivers, about lat. 10 30' N. ; and the question which of these is the main stream of the Blue Nile, and which the tributary, has been a subject of contro- versy among geographers. The weight of opinion is in favor of regarding the Dedhesa as the principal river, which if this view is correct rises in the Galla country S. of Abyssinia. On the other hand, the sources of the Abai were vis- ited, as being those of the Nile, in the 16th century by the Portuguese missionary Paez, and in 1770 by the celebrated Scottish travel- ler James Bruce, who traced them to a point