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The level of the Nile is so far below the surface on both sides of its own flood-plain that its waters cannot be used for the reclamation of any part of the Libyan Desert, and the same is practically true of the Niger, which barely more than touches the borders of the Sahara.
Here the canyon is again wider, and we find a flood-plain along which we can walk, now on this, and now on that side of the stream. Gradually the canyon widens; steep rapids, cascades, and cataracts are found along the river, but we wade only when it is necessary to cross. We make progress with very great labor, having to climb over piles of broken rocks.
It has been estimated that each inundation of the Nile leaves a layer of fertilizing silt three hundredths of an inch thick over the flood plain of Egypt. Flood-plain deposits of great thickness may be built by aggrading rivers even in valleys whose rock floors have never been thus widened.
Pause for a moment on the broad open flood-plain of the river, the winter fields and meadows stretching away in gentle slopes on either side. There are but few trees, but they have had room for full development and are noble specimens. All is gaiety. A blue-jay screams from a broad-topped white ash which is so full of winged seeds that it looks like a mass of foliage.
Sometimes it hastens down a pebbly speedway, then slackens its pace and wanders off from its course until suddenly it seems to grow alarmed, whips around a bend and comes hurrying back. Sometimes its level flood-plain is a quarter mile wide, bounded on either side by steep timbered hills which stretch on and on down the valley until the sky receives them in a glory of blue haze.
Were the dwellers on the pampas of Argentina where a railroad can go for 250 miles in a straight line, except for the curvature of the earth to see this little bit of flood-plain called Mandor Pampa, they would think some one had been joking or else grossly misusing a word which means to them illimitable space with not a hill in sight.
"Why, you told me a moment ago that the river brought down great quantities of dirt and left it all along the shores," said Uncle Robert. "But it wouldn't bring down enough to make all that field, would it?" asked Donald. "The river is a great worker," said Uncle Robert. "It is at work now, and has been working for many, many long years. It has not only made this flood-plain, but many others.
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