. progres northward. 
ACCOUNT 
Winds, charged with watery par- 
ticles, rafh in upon it from the At- 
Jantic on the weit, and from the In- 
dian Ocean on the eaft. Thé fouth 
wind, moreover, loaded with heavy 
vapour, condenfed in that high ridge 
of mountains not far fouth of the 
Line, which forms a {pine to the 
peninfula of Africa, and, running 
northward with the other two, fur- 
nifh wherewithal to reftore the equi- 
librium. 
« The fun, having thus gathered 
fuch a quantity of vapours as it were 
to a focus, now puts them in mo- 
tion, and draws them after it in its 
rapid progrefs northward. Advan- 
cing to the Line, the fun brings on 
a few drops of rain at Gondar the 
rf of March, being then diftant 5° 
from the zenith; thefe are greedily 
abforbed by the thirfty foil; and 
this feems to be the fartheft extent 
of the fim’s influence, capable of 
eaufing rain, which then only falls 
in large drops, and lafts but a few 
Minutes: the rainy feafon, however, 
begins moft ferioufly upon its arri- 
val at the zenith of every place, and 
thefe rains continue conftant and im 
ereafing after he has’paffed it, in his 
In April, all 
the rivers in Amhara, Begemder, 
and Lafta, firft difcoloured, and then 
beginning to fwell, join the Nile in 
the feveral parts of its courfe near- 
eft them. In the beginning of May, 
_ hundreds of ftreams pour themfelves 
from Gojam, Damot, Maitiha, and 
Dembea, into the lake Tzana, which 
_ had become low by intenfe evapo- 
ration, but now begins to fill infen- 
fibly, and contributes a Jarge quan- 
tity of water to the Nile, clots it 
falls down the cataract of Alata. In 
the beginning of June, the fun hav- 
ing now pafled all Abyflinia, the 
#ivers there are all full, and then is 
OF BOOKS. 175 
the time of the greateft rains in 
Abyfiinia, while it is for fome days, 
as it were, flationary in the tropic of 
Cancer, 
«« Thefe rains are colleéted by the. 
four great rivers in Abyflinia; the 
Mareb, the Bowiha, Tacazzé, and 
the Nile. All thefe principal, and 
their tributary ftreams, would, how- 
ever, be abforbed, nor be able ta 
pafs the burnirg deferts, or find 
their way into Egypt, were it not 
for the White River, which, rifing 
in a country of almoft perpetual 
rain, joins’ to it a never-failing 
ftream, equal to the Nile itfelf. 
«In the firft days of May, the 
fun, in his way to the northern tre- 
pic, is vertical over the {mall village 
of Gerri, the limit of the tropical 
rains. Not all the influence of the 
fun, which has already paft its ze= 
nith, and for many days has been as 
it were flationary within a few de- 
grees of it over Syene, in the tropic 
of Cancer,.can bring them one inch 
farther to the northward. Yet all 
the time that it is in the tropic of 
Cancer at its greateft diftance, thefe 
rains are then at their heaviek 
throughout ali Abyflinia; and. E- 
gypt, and ail its labours, would foon 
be fwept into the Mediterranean, 
did not the fun now begin to change 
its {phere of action, by haftening its. 
progrefs fouthward. 
« From Syene the fun pafies over 
the defert, and arrives at Gerri 
here he reverfes the effects his in- 
fivence had when on his paflage 
northward; for whereas, in his 
whole courfe of declination north- 
ward, from the Line to Gerri, he 
brought on the rains at every place 
where he became vertical, fo now 
he cuts off thofe rains the inftant he 
‘returns to the zenith of each of 
thofe places, pafling over Abyfiinia 
in 
