22. =The Nile from Assuân to the Barrage.=--From Assuân to the Barrage, the length of the river is 973 kilometres in summer and 923 in flood. The slope in summer is ¹⁄₁₃₀₀₀ and in flood ¹⁄₁₂₂₀₀ The mean fall of the valley is ¹⁄₁₀₈₀₀. The slopes vary in the different mean reaches, the least being ¹⁄₁₄₈₀₀ in the Kena Mudiria and the greatest ¹⁄₁₁₄₀₀ in Beni Suef. In a high flood with a rise of 9 metres at Assuân, the rise in Kena will be 9.5 metres and only 8.2 in Beni Suef. Table 42 gives the mean areas of cross sections of the Nile, while table 44 gives the mean widths. Neglecting spill channels, we may state that in a high flood the mean area of the section of the Nile is 7,500 square metres and the mean width 900 metres. In the Kena Mudiria, the area is 7,000 square metres and the width 800 metres, while in Beni Suef the mean area is 8,000 square metres and the mean width 1,000 metres. Speaking generally it may be stated that where the Nile valley is narrow the slope of the river is small, its depth great and width contracted; while where the valley is broad the slope is great, the depth small and the width enlarged. The mean velocity in flood ranges between 2.0 metres and 1.0 metre per second, while the velocity in summer varies from 0.5 to 0.9 metre per second. We may say that the Nile in soil has a natural section whose width in flood is 110 times its depth, while its mean velocity is 1.50 metres per second. The natural canals, which take off the river and which never silt, have a mean velocity of some 65 centimetres per second, while the proportion of width to depth is about 12 to 1. Artificial canals of this section do not silt if their velocities are 80 centimetres per second, while silting takes place as readily when the velocity is greater as when it is less than the above. In muddy streams, like the Nile in flood, certain velocities demand certain proportions of width to depth, and if these are not given to it, they will make it for themselves by eating away the sides if they can, or, if they cannot eat away the sides, by silting up and raising the bed. To the north of Assiout is situated the Assiout weir or barrage across the Nile with 111 openings of 5 metres and 10 metres depth of water in high flood. It was regulated on for the first time in August 1902.