drought, saline; it is infested with crocodiles, and swarms with
fish.

NIAGARA, a section of the St. Lawrence River, in N. America,
extending between Lakes Erie and Ontario, having a descent throughout its
course of 36 m. of 326 ft., the Falls, preceded and succeeded by rapids,
being the largest in the world, the Canadian or Horse Shoe Fall being
2640 ft. wide, with a descent of 158 ft., and the American Fall being
one-third of the width of the Canadian, and with a descent of over 162
ft.

NIAM-NIAM, a people of the E. Soudan, SE. of Darfur, occupying
territory between the basins of the Nile and the Congo.

NIBELUNG, king of the Nibelungen, a mythical Burgundian tribe, the
fabulous possessor of a hoard of wealth so inexhaustible that "twelve
waggons in twelve days, at the rate of three journeys a day, could not
carry it off," and which he bequeathed to his two sons on his deathbed,
by the vanquishing of whom the hoard fell into the hands of the
redoubtable hero Siegfried.

NIBELUNGEN LIED (i. e. Lay of the Nibelungen), an old German epic,
of date, it is presumed, earlier than the 12th century; it consists of
two parts, the first ending with the murder of Siegfried by Hagen, his
wresting of the hoard (see _SUPRA_) from his widow, Kriemhild, and
burying it at the bottom of the Rhine, and the second relating the
vengeance of Kriemhild and the annihilation of the whole Burgundian race,
Kriemhild included, to whom the treasure had originally belonged; to the
latter part the name of the Nibelungen Not (or Distress) has been given.

NICARAGUA (313, mostly mulattoes and negroes), the largest and
richest of five republics occupying Central America, stretches across the
isthmus from the Pacific to the Caribbean Sea, between Honduras (N.) and
Costa Rica (S.); the Cordilleras traverse the heart of the country, and
the immense valleys of the W. are remarkable for the two great southern
lakes, Nicaragua and Managua, which are studded with volcanic islands;
rich in gold, silver, copper, and coal, with vast forests of mahogany,
rosewood, &c., splendid pastures and a fertile soil; the country has
through misgovernment and a bad climate remained in a backward state; in
recent times more has been done; hides, bananas, coffee, and india-rubber
are the chief exports, and a considerable deal of mining goes on; the
great ship-canal from the Pacific to the Caribbean, begun in 1889 by a
U.S. company, is not yet completed; Managu