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portended bad Fortune to two great Perfons, viz. to Antony and Cleopatra, who foon after loft their Empires. Callimachus relates, that the • Nile in former Ages did not overflow for nine • Years.

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NOW I come to enquire into the Cause of the Nile's overflowing in Summer, and I fhall first begin with the Opinions of the Antients. Anaxagoras was of Opinion, that the melted Snow is poured down, from the Mountains of Ethiopia into the Nile, and makes it overflow; and all the Antients believed this to be the Caufe; Æfchylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, have taught the fame. But this is evidently falfe for several Reafons: First, Ethiopia is the • hottest Country upon Earth, as appears from the tawny or Sun-burnt Colour of the Inhabitants, and the Troglodytes who build their Houfes under Ground: the Rocks alfo are as hot as Fire, not only at Noon but even at the clofe of the Day; the Duft under foot is fo hot that • Men cannot walk upon it; Silver is unfoldered; the Joints of Images are disjoined, and what( ever is laid on them for Ornament diffolves or is peeled off; the South Wind, which blows from thefe Places, is immoderately hot, and thofe Creatures, as Serpents, &c. that elsewhere ufe to hide themfelves in the Winter, never withdraw there, but are found in the open Field all the Year. There is no Snow nor heavy Rain falls at Alexandria, which is a great way removed from thefe immoderate Heats. How therefore fhould a Country fubject to fo much Heat, be covered with Snow all the Winter? • Some Mountains indeed may have Snow on them there, but not more than the Ridges of Thracia or Caucafus; and the Rivers that flow from these laft, fwell in the Spring, and the beginning of • Summer,

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SECT. IV. Summer, and are lefs again in Winter; because that in the Spring the Snow is washed down by the Rain, and if any is left it is melted by • the first Heat of the Sun. Neither the Rhine, • Rhone, Ifter, nor Cayfter, are subject to this; they only are out a little in Summer, tho' the Snows are very deep on the northern Mountains. The Phafis and the Borysthenes would also rife at that time, if the Snow could produce great Rivers · against Summer. Moreover, if this were the Caufe of the Increase of the Nile, it would flow most at the beginning of Summer; for then the Snow, being large and entire, is melted in greater Quantities. But the Nile is in it's Grandure four Months, and is then always the fame. If we may believe Thales, the anniversary North • Winds refift the Descent of the Nile, and hinder

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it's Course, by driving the Sea in at the Mouths • of it's Chanels, fo that being repulfed it runs • back upon itself; and is not increased, but be

cause it cannot find a Paffage, it overflows and • breaks out in every Place where it can make

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it's Way. Eutbymenes, of Marseilles, fides ← with him, and gives this Teftimony: I have failed, fays he, in the Atlantic Sea; whence the Nile flows larger as long as the anniversary • North Winds blow, because that then the Sea, being urged by the Winds, replenish it's Stream; but when they ceafe, the Sea grows calm, and the Nile returns with lefs Force. Befides, the Sea-Water is alfo fweet, and the Monsters in it refemble those of the Nile. But where⚫fore then, (fay I) if thefe Winds make the Nile fwell, doth it rife before they begin to blow, and continue after they are over? alfo why ⚫ doth it not grow greater when they blow stronger? for it is not increafed or leffened, when they blow more or lefs, which it fhould be, if

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• it depended upon their Force. Moreover, these Winds blow against the Shores of Egypt, and • the Nile defcends the contrary Way against them, but why thould it not flow from whence they blow, if it hath it's Origin from them? Befides, it would flow from the Sea pure and green, not troubled and muddy as it doth now. Add to this, that innumerable Witneffes contradict this Teftimony, and tho' Men might lie fafely and put any Fables upon us, as long as the Coafts were unknown; but now the foreign Coasts are frequented by Merchant-Ships, yet • none of them mention the green Colour of the • Nile, or that the Sea hath any other Taste than • ufual; which is alfo difagreeable to Nature, for the Sun evaporates the lighteft and freshest Particles. Besides, why doth it not increase in . Winter, when the Sea is fometimes raised with' greater Winds than thefe annual ones, which are commonly moderate; and further, if it proceeded from the Atlantic Sea it would cover' Egypt at once, and not by Degrees as it does." Oenopides of Chios fays, that in Winter the Heat is kept under Ground, and therefore Dens and • Caverns are then hot, and Fountain-Water is warm alfo, that the Veins of the Earth are dried up by the internal Heat; but in other Countries the Rivers are replenished with Rain: only the Nile, which is not fupplied with Rain, is leffened < in Winter, and increases in Summer, when the • interior Parts of the Earth are cold, and the • Fountains are fresh and cool. But if this were true, all the Fountains would increase, and run ⚫ over in Summer. Befides, the fubterraneous • Heat is not greater in Winter, tho' Water, Caves, and Wells, are then warm, because they do not admit the external cold Air; fo that they are not abfolutely hot, but only exclude the cold: for YOL, I.

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SECT. IV. this Reason they are cold in Summer, because the hot Air is kept from them. Diogenes Apollo-, niates fays, that as the Sun draws Moisture to it,. fo the dry and parched Earth draws it from the Sea and other Waters; for it is impoffible that one Part of the Earth fhould be dry, when ano-. ther is moist, because it is all over perforated and. full of Intercourfes, thro' which the dry Places: draw Moisture from the wet, otherwise they would long fince have been burnt up. For this, Reason, the Sun draws the Waters to it, and the meridian Places that have moft need of it; also where the Earth is moft dried, it draws moft, Moisture to it. As in Lamps, the Oil runs to<wards the Place where it is confumed, fo the Water runs towards that Place where the Earth is, parched up with, Heat. From whence therefore fhould it come but from the cold northern Parts? Does not the Propontis for this Reafon conftantly flow into the lower Seas, not as others do by a Flux and Reflux, but by a conftant and rapid Course towards the fame Point? And unless by these Intercourses, Places that wanted were replenished from those that abounded, the Earth would be foon dried to Duft, or laid under Water, I would willingly afk Diogenes, why, fince the Sea and all Rivers meet together, they are not larger in all Countries in the Summer? The Sun fcorches Egypt more, ⚫ than other Countries, and therefore the Nile increases more: and in other Parts of the Earth there is alfo fome increase of the Rivers. But I ask him, why then is there any Part of the Earth without Moisture, fince the hotter it is in, any Place the more Moisture it draws from other Countries? And laftly, why is the Nile fo fweet, if it receives it's Water from the Sea? For, no Water is fo fweet as the Water of the Nile."

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FROM this Paffage of Seneca we gather the Opinions of the Antients (efpecially of the Greek Philofophers) about the Caufe of the Inundation of the Nile. But none of them are true, because in thofe times no Body had travelled out of Europe, fo far as the Springs of the Nile, or had vifited the Nations that border on them, which are very remote from Egypt. But the Matter is now well fearched into, and the true Cause is found out, fince the Portuguese, and alfo the English and Dutch, trade with the Nations that border upon these Springs, in the Kingdoms of Congo, Angola, Sofala, Mozambique, &c. (g). Fromi

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(g) Since we feem to have a better Account of the Nile than our Author had in his Time, it will not be amifs New Description of it from Mr

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and the other to the Weft, fall
into the Mediterranean; the
two Mouths being about a
Hundred 1 Miles afunder.
for any other Branches of this

A's

Salmon's Prefent State of all Na-Rivér our Modern Travellers;

tions, Vol. 5. Pag. 19, 11.

The River Nile, or Abancs, which in the Abyffine Language fignifies the Father of Rivers, hath it's Sources as is generally held, in 11 or 12 Degr. of northern Latitude in the Empire of Abyffinia: but whether the Portuguese Jefuits, as is pretended, or any other • Perfons have discovered the < very Fountains it iffues from, is very much queftioned. I perceive, the Country where it rifes, as fome of the Natives relate, is covered with vaft impenetrable Woods. This • River runs a Course of about Fifteen hundred Miles from South to North for the most Part, and a little below Cairo, ⚫ dividing itself into two Branshes, one inclining to the Eaft

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take no Notice of them, and probably those that have been mentioned by antient Writers were only Canals cut from one of thefe, particularly the Canal which was made to convey the . Water from the River to Alexandria feems in our Maps to be . laid out for one: However cer

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tain it is, that there are no o⚫ther Branches navigable at this Day than those of Damietta, and Roffetto. While the River is contained within the Bounds of the ordinary Chanel, I do not find it is broader at Old Cairo than the Thames at London, and in the dryeft Season of the Year is fordable in many. Places. In the upper Parts of the Stream there are seven • Cataracts, where the Water. falls in fheets from a very great

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