Irequently used to decorate the very beautiful personal ornaments of which so many specimens enrich the museums of Europe. The British Museum possesses a fine fibula of silver decorated with a simple pattern in niello and thin plates of repoussé gold. This, though very similar in design to many fibulae from Scandinavia and Britain, was found in a tomb at Kerch (Panticapacum). Several interesting gold rings of Saxon workmanship have been found at different times, on which the owner's name and ornaartmental patterns are formed in gold with a background of niello. One with the name of Ethelwulf, king of Wessex (836-838), is now in the British Museum (see figure). Another in the Victoria and Albert Museum has the name of Alhstan, who was bishop of Sherborne from 823 to 867. The metal-workers of ELHELVI Ireland, whose skill was quite unrivalled, practised largely the art of niello from the roth to the 12th century, and posGold and Niello Ring. sibly even earlier. Fine croziers, shrines, fibulae, and other objects of Irish workmanship, most skilfully enriched with elaborate niello-work, exist in considerable numbers. From the 13th to the 16th century but little niello-work appears to have been produced in England. Two specimens have been found, one at Matlask, Norfolk, and the other at Devizes, which from the character of the design appcar to be English. They are both of gold, and seem to be the covering plates of small pendant reliquaries about 1 in. long, dating about the end of the 15th century. One has a crucifix between St John the Baptist and a bishop; the other, that found at Devizes, has the two latter figures, but no crucifix. It is, however, in Italy that the art of niello-work was brought to greatest perfection. During the whole medieval period it was much used to decorate church plate, silver altar-frontals, and the like. The magnificent frontals of Pistoia cathedral and the Florence baptistery are notable instances of this. During the 15th century, especially at Florence, the art of niello-work was practised by almost all the great artist-goldsmiths of that period. Apart from the beauty of the works they produced, this art had a special importance and interest from its having led the way to the invention of printing from engravings on metal plates (sec LINE-ENGRAVING). Vasari's account of this invention, given in his lives of Pollaiuolo and Maso Finiguerra, is very interesting, but he is wrong in asserting that Maso was the first worker in nicllo who took proofs or impressions of his plates. An important work of this sort, described at length by Vasari and wrongly ascribed by him to Maso Finiguerra (q.v.), still exists in the Opera del Duomo at Florence. It is a pax with a very rich and delicate niello picture of the coronation of the Virgin; the composition is very full, and the work almost microscopic in minuteness; it was made in 1452. Impressions from it are preserved in the British Muscum, the Louvre and other collections. The British Muscum possesses the finest existing example of 15th-century German niello. It is a silver beaker, covered with graceful scroll-work, forming medallions, in which are figures of cupids employed in various occupations (see Shaw's Dresses and Decorations of the Middle Ages, 1858, vol. ii.). AUTHORITIES.-The Archaeological Journal of 1862 (vol. xix. p. 323) has an excellent monograph on the subject, see also vol. xii. p. 79 and vol. iv. p. 247: Archaeologia, xxxi. 404; Merrifield, Ancient Practice of Painting, vol. i. (1849) (gives MSS. of Eraclius and other carly writers); Catalogue of Museum of Royal Irish Academy; Les Nielles à la cath. d'Aix-la-Chapelle (Paris, 1859): Alvin. Nielles de la bibliothèque roy. de Belgique (1857); Duchesne, Nielles des orfevres florentins (1826); Passavant, Le Peintre-graveur (18601864); Ottley, History of Engraving (1816) and Collection of Facsimiles of Prints (1826); Cicognara, Storia della scultura, iii. p. 168 (Prato, 1823), and Storia della calcografia (Prato, 1831); Lanzi, Sioria pittorica, ep. i. sec. iii. (1809); Baldinucci, Professori del disegno (1681-1728) and L'Arte di intagliare in rame (1686); Zani, Origine dell' incisione in rame (1802); Labarte, Arts of the Middle Ages (1855); Texier, Dictionnaire de l'orfevrerie p. 1822 (Paris, the 1 See Proc. Norfolk Archaeo. Soc. iii. p. 97. To 1857): Bartsch Le Peintre-graveur, xiii. 1-35; Rumohr, Untersuchung der Grunde für die Annahme, &c. (Leipzig, 1841); Lessing, Collectancen zur Literatur (vol. xii. art. "Niellum "); C. Davenport, in Journal of Soc. of Arts (1901), vol. xlviii. (J. H. M.) NIEM [NYEM, or NIEHEIM), DIETRICH OF (c. 1345-1418), medieval historian, was born at Nieheim, a small town subject to the see of Paderborn. He became a notary of the papal court of the rota at Avignon, and in 1376 went with the Curia to Rome. Urban VI. here took particular notice of him, made him an abbreviator to the papal chancery, and in 1383 took him with him on his visit to King Charles at Naples, an expedition which led to many unpleasant adventures, from which he escaped in 1385 by leaving the Curia. In 1387 he is again found among the abbreviators, and in 1395 Pope Boniface IX. appointed him to the bishopric of Verden. His attempt to take possession of the see, however, met with successful opposition; and he had to resume his work in the chancery, where his name again appears in 1403. In the meantime he had helped to found a German hospice in Rome, which survives as the Instituto dell' Anima, and had begun to write a chronicle, of which only fragments are extant. His chief importance, however, lies in the part he took in the controversies arising out of the Great Schism. He accompanied Gregory XII. to Lucca in May 1408, and, having in vain tried to make the pope listen to counsels of moderation, he joined the Roman and Avignonese cardinals at Pisa. He adhered to the pope elected by the council of Pisa (Alexander V.) and to his successor John XXIII., resuming his place at the Curia. In view of the increasing confusion in the Church, however, he became one of the most ardent advocates of the appeal to a general council. He was present at the council of Constance as adviser to the German "nation." He died at Maastricht on the 22nd of March 1418. Niem wrote about events in which he either had an intimate personal share or of which he was in an excellent position to obtain accurate information. His most important works are the Nemus after the breach with Gregory XII., is a collection of documents unionis and the De schismate. Of these the first, compiled at Lucca which had fallen into his hands during the negotiations for union: papal pronouncements, pamphlets, letters written and received by himself, and the like. The De schismate libri III., completed on the 25th of May 1410, describes the history of events since 1376 as Nicm himself had seen them. It was continued in the Historia de vita Johannis XXIII. Other works are De bono regimine Rom. pontificis, dedicated to the new pope John XXIII.); De modis uniendi ac reformandi ecclesiam and De difficultate reformationis in the pope is to bow; Contra dampnatos Wiclivitas Pragae, against the concilio universali, advocating the convocation of a council, to which Hussites; Jura ac privilegia imperii, a glorification of the empire in view of the convocation of the council of Constance; Avisamenta pulcherrima de unione et reformatione membrorum et capitis fienda, a programme of church reform based on his experiences of the evils of the papal system. For bibliography see Potthast, Bibl. hist. medii aevi (2nd ed., Berlin, 1896), p. 1051, s.v. "Theodoricus de Niem "; and generally see the article on Niem by Theodor Lindner in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (Leipzig, 1886); and Erler, Dietrich von Nieheim (Leipzig, 1887). NIEMCEWICZ, JULIAN URSIN (1758-1841), Polish scholar, poet and statesman, was born in 1757 in Lithuania. In the earlier part of his life he acted as adjutant to Kosciusko, was taken prisoner with him at the fatal battle of Maciejowice (1794), and shared his captivity at St Petersburg. On his release he travelled for some time in America, where he married. After the Congress of Vienna he was secretary of state and president of the constitutional committee in Poland, but in 1830-1831 he was again driven into exile. He died in Paris on the 21st of April 1841. Niemcewicz tried many styles of composition. His comedy The Return of the Deputy (1790) enjoyed a great reputation, and his novel, John of Tenczyn (1825), in the style of Scott, gives a vigorous picture of old Polish days. He also wrote a History of the Reign of Sigismund III. (3 vols., 1819), and a collection of memoirs for ancient Polish history (6 vols., 18221823). But he is now best remembered by his Historical Songs of the Poles (Warsaw, 1816), a series of lyrical compositions in which the chief heroes are of the golden age of Sigismund I., and the reigns of Stephen Bathori and Sobicski. & yunan His collected works were published in 12 vols. at Leipzig (18381840). 9 to dents aft NIENBURG ON THE SAALE, a town of Germany, in the duchy of Anhalt, situated at the influx of the Bode into the Saale, 6 m. N. of Bernburg on the railway Calbe-Könnern. Pop. (1905) 5748. It contains a beautiful Gothic Evangelical church, an old castle, once a monastery (founded 975, dissolved 1546), and now devoted to secular uses, and a classical school. The industries embrace iron-founding and machine-making, malting and tanning NIENBURG ON THE WESER, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hanover, situated on the Weser, 33 m. N.W. from Hanover by the railway to Bremen. Pop. (1905) 9638. It has an Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a classical school and an agricultural college. Its industries consist chiefly in glass-blowing, distilling, biscuit-making and the manufacture of manures. The town is mentioned as early as 1025. It was fortified in the 12th century, obtained municipal rights in 1569, and passed in 1582 to the house of Lüneburg. It was occupied by the imperialists from 1627 to 1634, and by the French during the Seven Years' War. The walls were dismantled by order of Napoleon I. in 1807. See Gade, Geschichte der Stadt Nienburg an der Weser (1862). NIEPCE, JOSEPH NICÉPHORE (1765-1833), French physicist, and one of the inventors of photography, was born at Châlonsur-Saône on the 7th of March 1765. In 1792 he entered the army as a sub-lieutenant, and in the following year he saw active service in Italy. Ill-health and failing eyesight compelled him to resign his commission before he had risen above the rank of lieutenant; but in 1795 he was nominated administrateur of the district of Nice, and he held the post until 1801. Returning in that year to his birthplace, he devoted himself along with his elder brother Claude (1763-1828) to mechanical and chemical researches; and in 1811 he directed his attention to the rising art of lithography. In 1813 the idea of obtaining sun pictures first suggested itself to him in this connexion; and in 1826 he learned that L. J. M. Daguerre was working in the same direction. In 1829 the two united their forces, pour coopérer au perfectionnement de la découverte inventée par M. Niepce et perfectionnée par M. Daguerre " (see also PHOTOGRAPHY). Niepce died at Gras, his property near Châlon, on the 3rd of July 1833. A nephew, CLAUDE FÉLIX ABEL Niepce de SaiNTVICTOR (1805-1870), served with distinction in the army, and also made important contributions towards the advancement of the art of photography; he published Recherches photographiques (Paris, 1855) and Traité pratique de gravure héliographique sur acier et sur verre (Paris, 1866). NIEREMBERG, JUAN EUSEBIO (1595-1658), Spanish Jesuit and mystic, was born at Madrid in 1595, joined the Society of Jesus in 1614, and subsequently became lecturer on Scripture at the Jesuit seminary in Madrid, where he died on the 7th of April 1658. He was highly esteemed in devout circles as the author of De la afición y amor de Jesús (1630), and De la afición y amor de María (1630), both of which were translated into Arabic, Flemish, French, German, Italian and Latin. These works, together with the Prodigios del amor divino (1641), are now forgotten, but Nieremberg's version (1656) of the Imitation is still a favourite, and his eloquent treatise, De la hermosura de Dios y su amabilidad (1649), is the last classical manifestation of mysticism in Spanish literature. Nieremberg has not the enraptured vision of St Theresa, nor the philosophic significance of Luis de León, and the unvarying sweetness of his style is cloying; but he has exaltation, unction, insight, and his book forms no unworthy close to a great literary tradition. NIERSTEIN, a village of Germany, in the grand duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, on the left bank of the Rhine, 8 m. S. from Mainz by the railway to Worms. Pop. (1905) 4445. It contains a Roman Catholic and a Protestant church, an old Roman bath-Sironabad-and sulphur springs. It is famous for its wines, in which a large export trade is done. Nierstein was originally a Roman settlement, and was a royal residence under the Carolingian rulers. Later it passed from the emperor to the elector palatine of the Rhine. ་་ master NIETZSCHE, FRIEDRICH WILHELM (1844-1900), German philosopher, was the son of the pastor at Röcken, near Leipzig, where he was born on 15th October 1844. He was educated at Schulpforta, and studied the classics at the universities of Bonn and Leipzig. In 1869, while still an undergraduate, he was, on F. W. Ritschl's recommendation, appointed to an extraordinary professorship of classical philology in the university of Basel, and rapidly promoted to an ordinary professorship. Here he almost immediately began a brilliant literary activity, which gradually assumed a more and more philosophical character. In 1876 eye (and brain) trouble caused him to obtain sick leave, and finally, in 1879, to be pensioned. For the next ten years he lived in various health resorts, in considerable suffering (he declares that the year contained for him 200 days of pure pain), but dashing off, at high pressure, the brilliant essays on which his fame rests. Towards the end of 1888, after recovering from an earlier attack, he was pronounced hopelessly insane, and in this condition he remained until he died on the 25th of August 1900. Nietzsche's writings must be understood in their relation to these circumstances of his life, and as the outcome of a violent revolt against them on the part of an intensely emotional and nervous temperament. His philosophy, consequently, is neither systematic in itself nor expounded in systematic form. It is made up of a number of points of view which successively appeared acceptable to a personality whose self-appreciation verges more and more upon the insane, and exhibits neither consecutiveness nor consistency. Its natural form is the aphorism, and to this and to its epigrammatic brilliance, vigour, and uncompromising revolt against all conventions in science and conduct it owes its persuasiveness. Revolt against the whole civilized environment in which he was brought up is the keynote of Nietzsche's literary career. His revolt against Christian faith and morals turns him into a proudly atheistic "free-thinker," and preacher of a new morality, which transposes the current valuations, deposes the "Christian virtues," and incites the "over-man" ruthlessly to trample under foot the servile herd of the weak, degenerate and poor in spirit. His revolt against the theory of state supremacy turns him into an anarchist and individualist; his revolt against modern democracy into an aristocrat. His revolt against conventional culture leads him to attack D. F. Strauss as the typical "Philistine of culture"; his revolt against the fashion of pessimism to demand a new and more robust affirmation of life, not merely although, but because, it is painful. Indeed, his very love of life may itself be regarded as an indignant revolt against the toils that were inexorably closing in around him. He directs this spirit of revolt also against the sources of his own inspiration; he turns bitterly against Wagner, whose intimate friend and enthusiastic admirer he had been, and denounces him as the musician of decadent emotionalism; he rejects his "educator" Schopenhauer's pessimism, and transforms his will to live into a "Will to Power." Nevertheless his reaction does not in this case really carry him beyond the ground of Schopenhauerian philosophy, and his own may perhaps be most truly regarded as the paradoxical development of an inverted Schopenhauerism. Other influences which may be traced in his writings are those of modern naturalism and of a somewhat misinterpreted Darwinism ("strength" is generally interpreted as physical endowment, but it has sometimes to be reluctantly acknowledged that the physically feeble, by their combination and cunning, prove stronger than the "strong"). His writings in their chronological order are as follows: Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik (1872); Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen (1873-1876) (Strauss-Vom Nutzen und Nachteil der Historie für das Leben-Schopenhauer als Erzieher— Richard Wagner in Bayreuth); Menschliches, Allzumenschliches (1876-1880); Morgenrôle (1881); Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (1882); Also sprach Zarathustra (1883-1884); Jenseits von Gut und Böse (1886); Zur Genealogic der Moral (1887); Der Fall Wagner (1888); Götzendämmerung (1888); Nietzsche contra Wagner, Der Antichrist, and Poems first appeared in the complete edition of his works, which also contains the notes for Wille 673 zur Macht, in which Nietzsche had intended to give a more | also largely grown. Much land is given over to pasture and systematic account of his doctrine (1895-1901), An edition of Nietzsche's complete works began to appear in 1895; of cattle is a thriving agricultural industry. The Nivernais there are also two popular editions, 1899 ff. (15 vols. have been pub- and Charolais are the chief breeds. The rearing of sheep and (F. C. S. S.) the cultivation of various kinds of forage, and the fattening lished) and 1906 (10 vols.). In 1900 Nietzsche's Briefe began to be published. An English translation in 18 vols., edited by Oskar draught-horses is also of importance. Levy, reached the 13th vol. in 1910. His biography, by his sister, valley of the Loire and in the neighbourhood of Clamecy. The Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche (Das Leben Friedrich Nietzsches, 1895 ff.), white wines of Pouilly on the Loire are widely known. reached its third volume in 1907. There are also lives by D. Halévy abounds in forests, the chief trees being the oak, beech, hornbeam, Vines are grown in the (1909) and M. A. Mügge (F. Nietzsche: his Life and Work, 1908), the latter of a somewhat popular character. G. Brandes first drew elm and chestnut. Coal is mined at Decize, and gypsum, building European attention to Nietzsche by his famous essay in 1889; since stone, and kaolin are among the quarry products. The bestNièvre then an enormous literature has grown up round the subject. See known mineral springs are those of Pougues and St Honoré. especially L. Andreas Salomé, F. Nietzsche in seinen Werken (1894); Of the iron-works for which Nièvre is famous, the most important A. Riehl, F. Nietzsche (1897; 3rd ed., 1901); F. Tönnies, NietzscheKultus (1897); H. Ellis, F. Nietzsche (in Affirmations, 1898); H. are those of Fourchambault. At Imphy there are large steelLichtenberger, La Philosophie de Nietzsche (1895; German trans., works. The government works of La Chaussade at Guérigny 1899); E. Horneffer, Vorträge über F. Nietzsche (1900); T. Ziegler, make chain-cables, anchors, armour-plates, &c. There are also F. Nietzsche (1900); J. Zeitler, Nietzsches Asthetik (1900); P. Deussen, Erinnerungen an F. Nietzsche (1901); R. Richter, F. manufactories of agricultural implements and hardware, potteries, Nietzsche, sein Leben und sein Werk (1903); G. Simmel, Schopenhauer manufactories of porcelain, and faïence (at Nevers), tile-works, und Nietzsche (1907). For an estimate of his moral theory see chemical works, paper-mills and saw-mills, as well as numerous ETHICS, ad fin. tanneries, boot and shoe factories, cask manufactories and oil part of the population is engaged in the timber industry; the works (colza, poppy and hemp). In the Morvan district a large logs carried down by the streams to Clamecy are then put into boats and conveyed to Paris. left bank of the Loire runs through the department for 38 m., A great deal of the traffic is by water: the canal along the and the Nivernais canal for 78 m. The chief railway is that of the Paris-Lyons-Méditerranée Company, whose main line the department. Nièvre is divided into 4 arrondissements to Nîmes follows the valley of the Loire and Allier throughout (Nevers, Château-Chinon, Clamecy and Cosne being their capitals), 25 cantons, 313 communes. It forms the diocese of Nevers, of the VIII. corps d'armée. Its court of appeal is at Bourges. and part of the educational district of Dijon and of the region The most noteworthy towns are Nevers, the capital, Clamecy, Fourchambault, Cosne, La Charité and Decize. Varzy and Tannay have fine churches of the 14th, and the 12th, 13th and 16th centuries respectively, and there is an interesting church, chiefly Romanesque in style, at St Pierre-le-Moûtier. 1545), Italian philosopher and commentator, was born at Japoli NIFO, AGOSTINO [AUGUSTINUS NIPHUS] (c. 1473-1538 or in Calabria. He settled for a time at Sezza and subsequently proceeded to Padua, where he studied philosophy. He lectured at Padua, Naples, Rome and Pisa, and won so high a reputation that he was deputed by Leo X. to defend the Catholic doctrine of Immortality against the attack of Pomponazzi and the Alexandrists. In return for this he was made Count Palatine, with the right to call himself by the name Medici. In his early thought he followed Averroes, but afterwards modified his NIEUPORT (Flem. Nieuwpoort), a town of Belgium in the province of West Flanders. Pop. (1904) 3780. It was the port of Ypres, and is situated on the Yser about 10 m. S. of Ostend. It was strongly fortified in the middle ages and its siege by the French in 1488-1489 is an episode of its heroic period. Under its walls in 1600 Maurice of Nassau defeated the Archduke Albert and the Spaniards. It contains an ancient cloth market, a fine town-hall and an old church, and outside is a lighthouse dating from 1289. Nieuport Bains, 2 m. from the town, is a fashionable seaside resort dating only from 1869. It has a fine pier extending 1500 yds, out to sea and flanking the entrance to the Yser, which has been canalized. The bathing is excellent, and in the season the place is largely frequented by visitors. NIÈVRE, a department of central France, formed from the old province of Nivernais with a small portion of the Orléanais. It is bounded N.W. by Loiret, N. by Yonne, E. by Côte d'Or, E. and S.E. by Saône-et-Loire, S. by Allier and W. by Cher. Pop. (1906) 313, 972. Area, 2659 sq. m. Nièvre falls into three regions differing in elevation and in geological formation. In the east are the granitic mountains of the Morvan, one of the most picturesque portions of France, containing Mont Prénclay (2789 ft.) and several lesser heights. The north and centre are occupied by plateaus of jurassic limestone with a maximum elevation of 1400 ft. The west and south-western part of the department is a district of plains, composed mainly of tertiary formations with alluvial deposits, and comprising the valleys of the Loire and the Allier. The lowest level of the department is 446 ft., at the exit of the Loire. Nièvre belongs partly to the basin of the Loire, partly to that of the Seine. The watershed dividing these two basins follows the general slope of the depart-views so far as to make himself acceptable to the orthodox ment from S.E. to N.W.-from Mont Prénelay to the Puisaye, the district in the extreme north-west. Towards the west the limits of Nièvre are marked by the Allier-Loire valley-the Loire striking across the south-west corner of the department by Decize and Nevers and then continuing the line of its great affluent the Allier northwards by Fourchambault, La Charité, Pouilly and Cosne. Secondary feeders of the Loire are the Nièvre, which gives its name to the department, and the Aron, whose valley is traversed by the Nivernais Canal. The largest tributary of the Seine in Nièvre is the Yonne, which rises in the south-east, passes by Clamecy, and carries along with it the northern part of the Nivernais Canal. The Cure, the principal affluent of the Yonne (with which, however, it does not unite till after it has left the department), is the outlet of a lake, Lac des Settons, which serves as a reservoir for the regulation of the river and the canal. Owing to its greater elevation and the retention of the rain-water on its impermeable surface in the shape of ponds and streams, Morvan shows a mean temperature 6° F. lower than that of the western district, which, in the valley of the Loire, is almost identical with that of Paris (52° F.). At Nevers the annual rainfall amounts to only 21 in., but in Morvan it is nearly three times as great. The principal cereals are oats and wheat; potatoes are Catholics. In 1495 he produced an edition of the works of Averroes; with a commentary compatible with his acquired orthodoxy. In the great controversy with the Alexandrists he opposed the theory of Pomponazzi that the rational soul is inseparably bound up with the material part of the individual, and hence that the death of the body carries with it the death of the soul. He insisted that the individual soul, as part of absolute intellect, is indestructible, and on the death of the body is merged in the eternal unity. (1518 and 1524); De intellectu et daemonibus; De infinitate primi His principal philosophical works are De immortalitate animi commentaries on Aristotle were widely read and frequently reprinted, the best-known edition being one printed at Paris in 1654 in fourteen motoris quaestio and Opuscula moralia et politica. His numerous volumes (including the Opuscula). same name in the Konia vilayet of Asia Minor, situated on the NIGDEH (Arab. Nakidah), the chief town of a sanjak of the Kaisarieh-Cilician Gates road. It is remarkable for the beauty of its buildings, dating from almost all ages of the Seljuk period. After the fall of the sultanate of Rum (of which it had been one of the principal cities), Nigdeh became independent, and, according to Ibu Batuta, ruinous, and did not pass into Ottoman town, but, with Bor, has inherited the importance of Tyana, hands till the time of Mahommed II. It represents no classical The birth place of whose site lies aboutro m. S.W. A Hittite-inscribed monument, Great River) and Kworra or Quorra. By the last name the Niger brought perhaps from Tyana, has been found at Nigdeh. The was known in its lower reaches before its identity with the upper population (20,000) includes a large Greek and a small Armenian river was established. The stream considered the chief community. The Orthodox metropolitan of Iconium resides source of the Niger is called the Tembi. A narrow here. watershed separates it from the headwaters of the the river. NIGEL (d. 1169), bishop of Ely, head of the exchequer in the streams flowing south-west through Sierra Leone. The reigns of Henry I. and Henry II., was brought into the exchequer birthplace of the Niger is in a deep ravine 2800 ft. above seain early life (1130). Soon after his uncle Roger of Salisbury level. From a moss-covered rock a tiny spring issues and has secured him the bishopric of Ely, much to the disgust of the made a pool below. This little stream is the Tembi, which monks. Nigel was at first retained in Stephen's service; but, within a short distance is joined by two other rivulets, the like his uncle and his brothers, incurred the suspicion of leaning Tamincono and Falico, which have their origin in the saine towards the Angevin interest, when Roger of Salisbury and mountainous district. After flowing north for about 100 m., Alexander of Lincoln were arrested by Stephen (January 1139). the river turns eastward and receives several tributaries from Nigel attempted to maintain himself in his see by force of arms, the south. At its confluence with the Tankisso (a northern but he was forced to fly to the empress at Gloucester He tributary), 210 m. from its source, the river has attained dimenwas reconciled to Stephen in 1142 and restored to his see; but sions sufficient to earn for itself the title Joliba. Taking at he now became involved in a quarrel with the powerful Henry this point a decided trend northward, the Niger, 100 m. lower of Winchester. Ranulph, his first treasurer and representative down, at Bamako-the first considerable town on its banksat Ely, had been extortionate and dishonest, and the monks has a depth of 6 ft. with a breadth of 1300 ft. Seven or eight accused Nigel, probably with some justification, of spending miles below Bamako the Sotuba rocks mark the end of what may the estates and treasures of the see in maintaining knights and be considered the upper river. From this point the navigable gaining court influence. Henry of Winchester, who can have portion of the Niger begins. Thirty miles below Sotuba are the had little sympathy with bishops of Nigel's type, took up their rapids of Tulimandio, but these are, navigable when the river quarrel, and Nigel was forced to go to Rome. Fortunately, is at its highest, namely from July to October. A little lower both in these quarrels and in all his difficulties with Stephen, down is Kulikoro, from which point the bed of the stream for he secured the strong and uniform support of the Roman Curia. over 1000 m. is fairly free from impediments. At the accession of Henry II. (1154) Nigel was summoned to reorganize the exchequer. He was the only surviving minister of Henry I., and his knowledge of the exchequer business was unrivalled. This was the great work of his life. It is to the work of his son Richard, the Dialogus de Scaccario, that we are indebted for our knowledge of the procedure of the exchequer as it was left by Nigel. The bishop took little part in politics, except as an administrator. In 1166 his health was broken by a paralytic seizure. Except for another quarrel with his monks, who accused him of despoiling their church and gained the ear of Pope Adrian, the last part of his life was laborious and uneventful. See Dr Liebermann's Einleitung in den Dialogus de Scaccario; J. H. Round's Geoffrey de Mandeville. NIGER, GAIUS PESCENNIUS, governor of Syria under the emperor Commodus. On the death of Pertinax (A.D. 193), he was saluted emperor by the troops at Antioch, but unaccountably delayed marching on Rome until he learned that Septimius Severus, one of the rival claimants, had assumed the offensive. He then strongly garrisoned Byzantium and the principal towns of Asia Minor, but after his legate Aemilianus had been defeated and slain near Cyzicus he himself was driven from Nicaea and routed near the Cilician Gates. Having failed in an effort to escape towards the Euphrates, he was brought back and put to death in 194. Aelius Spartianus, Pescennius Niger; Dio Cassius lxxii. 8; Ixxiii. 13. 14. NIGER, a great river of West Africa, inferior only to the Congo and Nile among the rivers of the continent, and the only river in Africa which, by means of its tributary the Benue, affords a waterway uninterrupted by rapids, and available for shallow-draught steamers, to the far interior. Rising within 150 m. of the sea in the mountainous zone which marks the N.E. frontiers of Sierra Leone and French Guinea, it traverses the interior plateaus in a vast curve, flowing N.E., E. and S.E., until it finally enters the Gulf of Guinea through an immense delta. Its total length is about 2600 m. About 250 m. from its mouth it is joined by the Benue, coming from the east from the mountainous region of Adamawa. From its mouth to the limit of navigability from the sea the river is in British territory; above that point it flows through French territory. The source of the Niger lies in 9° 5' N. and 10° 47′ W., and the most northerly point of the great bend is about 17° N. The area of the Niger basin, excluding the arid regions with a slope towards the stream, has been calculated by Dr. A. Bludau at 584,000 sq. m. The river is known locally under various names, the most common being Joliba (a Mandigo word meaning Niger and lake region. The river here turns more directly to the east and increases in volume and depth. At Sansandig the stream is deep enough to permit of steamers of considerable size plying upon the river. After Sansandig is passed the banks of The the stream become low and the Niger is split up into middle a number of channels. Mopti is at the junction of the main stream with a large right-hand backwater or tributary, the Bani or Mahel Balevel, on which is situated the important town of Jenné. The banks of the Niger below Mopti become swampy and treeless, and the first of a series of lakes (Debo) is reached. These lakes are chiefly on the left of the main stream, with which they are connected by channels conveying the water in one direction or the other according to the season. At high water most of these are united into one general inundation. The largest lake, Faguibini, is nearly 70 m. long by 12 m. broad, has high shores and reaches a depth exceeding, in parts, 160 ft. It is not until Kabara, the port of Timbuktu, is reached, a distance of 450 m. from Sansandig, that the labyrinth of lakes, creeks and backwaters ceases. Below Kabara the river reaches its most northerly point. At Bamba it is shut in by steep banks and narrows to 600 to 700 yds., again spreading out some distance down. At Barka (200 m. from Timbuktu) the stream turns south-east and preserves that direction throughout the remainder of its course. At Tosaye, just before the bend becomes pronounced, the Baror and Chabar rocks reduce the width of the river to less than 500 ft., and at low water the strength of the current is a serious danger to navigation. Below Timbuktu for a considerable distance the Niger receives no tributaries; from the north none until the region of the Sahara is passed. In places the desert approaches close to the river on both banks and immense sand dunes fill the horizon. Bussa rapids and lower river. At Ansongo, 430 m. below Timbuktu, the navigable reach of the middle Niger, in all 1057 m., ends. Four huge flint rocks bar the river at Ansongo and effectually prevent further navigation except in very small vessels. From Ansongo to Say, some 250 m., the river flows through several rocky passes, the current attaining great velocity. Throughout this distance the river is a hopeless labyrinth of rocks, islands, reefs and rapids. Say, where the stream is about 700 yds. in breadth, to Bussa, there is another navigable stretch of water extending 300 m. After the desert region is past the Niger receives the waters of the river Sokoto, a considerable stream flowing from the northcast. Some distance below this confluence are the Bussa rapids, which can only be navigated with considerable difficulty. These From The name signifies in the Batta tongue. Mother of Waters." rapids-though not such a hindrance to navigation-are of a | Sapele. The other western mouths of the Niger have as a rule more dangerous character than any encountered between Ansongo shallow and difficult bars. The delta is the largest in Africa and Say. "In one pass, some 54 yds. wide, shut in between and covers 14,000 sq. m. two large reefs, a good half of the waters of the Niger flings itself over with a tremendous roar" (Hourst). The rapids extend for 50 m. or more; in a less obstructive form they continue to Rabba, but light-draught steamers ascending the stream during flood season experience little difficulty in reaching Bussa. A little above Rabba the river makes a loop south-west, at the head of the loop being (right bank) Jebba. Here the river is bridged by the railway from Lagos. Sixty miles lower down is the mouth of the (left hand) tributary the Kaduna, a river of some magnitude which gives access to Zungeru, the headquarters of the British administration in Northern Nigeria. The head waters of the Kaduna are not far from Kano. Below the mouth of the Kaduna, on the right bank of the Niger, is Baro, the starting-point of a railway to Kano. In 7° 50' N. 6° 45′ E. the Niger is joined by its great tributary the Benue. At their confluence the Niger is about three-quarters of a mile broad and the Benue rather more than a mile. The united stream forms a lake-like expansion about 2 m. in width, dotted with islands and sandbanks; the peninsula at the junction is low, swampy, and intersected by numerous channels. On the western bank of the Niger at this point is situated Lokoja (q v.), an important commercial centre. The stream, as far south as Iddah (Ida), a town on the east bank, rushes through a valley cut between the hills, the sandstone cliffs at some places rising 150 ft. high. Between Iddah and Onitsha, 80 m., the banks are lower and the country flatter, and to the south of Onitsha the whole land is laid under water during the annual floods. Here may be said to begin the great delta The Delta. of the Niger, which, extending along the coast for about 120 m., and 140 or 150 m inland, forms one of the most remarkable of all the swampy regions of Africa. The river breaks up into an intricate network of channels, dividing and subdividing, and intercrossing not only with each other but with the branches of other streams, so that it is exceedingly difficult to say where the Niger delta ends and another river system begins. The Rio Nun is a direct continuation of the line of the undivided river, and is thus the main mouth of the Niger From the sea the only indication of a river mouth is a break in the dark green mangroves which here universally fringe the coast. The crossing of the bar requires considerable care, and at ebb tide the outward current runs 5 knots per hour. For the first 20 m. (or as far as Sunday Island, the limit of the sea tide in the dry season) dense lines of mangroves 40, 50, or 60 ft in height shut in the channel; then palm and other trees begin to appear, and the widening river has regular banks. East of the Nun the estuaries known as the Brass, Sombrero, New Calabar, Bonny, Opobo (or Imo), &c. (with the exception, perhaps, of the first-named), seem to derive most of their water from independent streams such as the Orashi, rising in about 6° N., which is, however, linked with the Niger by the Onita Creek in 51° N. Behind the town of Okrika, some 30 m. up the Bonny river, the swampy ground gives place to firm land, partially forest-clad West of the Nun all the estuaries up to the Forcados seem to be true mouths of the great river, while the Benin river, though linked to the others by transverse channels, may be more properly regarded as an independent stream. (See BENIN.) In this direction the largest mouth is the Forcados, a noble stream with a safe and relatively deep bar Its banks in its lower course are densely wooded, but the beach is sandy and almost free from marsh and malaria. The mouth is 2 m. wide. It has supplanted the Nun river as the chief channel of communication with the interior. There are 17 to 19 ft. of water over the Forcados bar, as against 13 ft. at the Nun mouth. Moreover the Forcados bar shifts little laterally, and within the bar is a natural harbour with an area of 3 to 4 sq. m. having a depth of 30 ft. at low water spring tides. From the mouth of the Forcados to the main stream is 105 m., with a minimum depth in the dry season of 7 ft. A northern arm affords ocean-going vessels access to Wari and Below the Kebbi confluence the Benue, now a considerable river, turns from a northerly to a westerly direction and is navigable all the year round by boats drawing not more than 2 ft. For some 40 m. below the confluence the river has an average width of 180 to 200 yds., and flows with a strong steady current, although a broad strip of country on each side is swampy or submerged. It is here joined by the Faro, which, rising in the Adamawa Mountains S.E. junction of the Faro is Yola, the capital of Adamawa. It lies on the of Ngaundere, flows almost due north. About 50 m. below the southern side of the Benue, some 850 m. by river from the sea and at an altitude of 600 ft. Here the width of the stream increases at flood time to 1000 or 1500 yds., and though it narrows at the somewhat dangerous rapids of Rumde Gilla to 150 or 180 yds., it soon expands again. About 50 m. below Yola the Benue receives, on the right bank, the Gongola, which rises in the Bauchi highlands and after a great curve north-east turns southward. It is over 300 m. long, and at flood time is navigable for about half of its course. The Benue receives several other tributaries both from the north and the south, but they are not of great importance. It flows onwards to the Niger with comparatively unobstructed current, its valleys marked for the most part by ranges of hills and its banks diversified with forests, villages and cultivated tracts. But though exception. ally free from obstruction by rapids, the river falls very low in the dry season, and for seven to eight months is almost useless for navigation. The Benue lies within British territory to a point 3 m. below the mouth of the Faro, in about 13° 8' E. East of that point the river is in the German colony of Cameroon. Flood and low seasons. As the Niger and the Benue have different gathering grounds, they are not in flood at the same time. The upper Niger rises in June as the result of the tropical rains, and decreases in December, its breadth at Turella expanding from between 2000 and 2500 ft. to not less than 14 m. The middle Niger, however, reaches its maximum near Timbuktu only in January; in February and March it sinks slowly above the narrows of Tosaye, and more rapidly below them, the level being kept up by supplies from backwaters and lakes; and by April there is a decrease of about 5 ft. In August the channel near Timbuktu is again navigable owing to rain m the southern highlands. The Benue reaches its greatest height in August or September, begins to fall in October, falls rapidly in November and slowly in the next three months, and reaches its lowest in March and April, when it is fordable in many places, has no perceptible flow and at the confluence begins to be covered with the water-weed Pistia Stratiotes. The flood rises with great rapidity, and reaches 50, 60, or even 75 ft. above the low-water mark. The two confluents being so unlike, the united river differs from each under the influence of the other. Here the river is at its lowest in April and May; in June it is subject to great fluctuations; about the middle of August it usually begins to rise; and its maximum is rise in January, known as the yangbe, is occasioned by water from reached in September. In October it sinks, often rapidly. A slight the upper Niger. Between high- and low-water mark the difference is as much as 35 ft. The geological changes which have taken place in the Niger basin are imperfectly known. The French scientists E. F. Gautier and R. Chudeau, summing up the evidence available in 1909, set forth the hypothesis that the existing upper Niger Geological and the existing lower Niger were distinct streams. changes. According to this theory the upper Niger, somewhat above where Timbuktu now stands, went north and north-west and emptied into the Juf, which in the beginning of the quaternary age was a salt-water lake, the remnant of an arm of the sea which in the tertiary age covered the northern Sudan and southern Sahara as far east as Bilma. Lake Fagubini is regarded as a remnant of the |
