176 
in his journey fouthward, till arrived 
at the Line, in the autumnal equi- 
nox, his influence ceafes on the fide 
of Abyflinia, and goes to extend it- 
felf to the fouthern hemifphere. 
And fo precifely is this ftupendous 
Operation calculated, that, on the 
25th of September, only three days 
after the equinox, the Nile is gene- 
rally found at Cairo to be at its 
higheft, and begins to diminith every 
day after. 
« There aré three remarkable 
appearances attending the inunda- 
tion of the Nile: every morning in 
Abyflinia is clear, and the fun 
fhines. About nine, a fmall cloud, 
not above four feet broad, appears 
in the eaft, whirling violently round 
as if upon an axis, but, arrived near 
the zenith, it firft abates its motion, 
then lofes its form, and extends it- 
felf greatly, and feems to call up va- 
pours from .all oppofite quarters, 
‘Thefe clouds having attained near- 
ly the fame height, rufh again‘ each 
other with great violence, and. put 
me always in mind of Ejitha fore- 
telling rain on Mount Carmel *. 
The air, impelled before the heaviett 
mafs, or fwifteft mover, makes an 
impreffion of its own form in the 
collection of clouds oppofite, and the 
moment it has taken pofieflion of 
the fpace made to receive it, the 
mot violent thunder poflible to be - 
conceived inftantly follows, with 
rain: after fome hours,the {ky again 
clears, with a wind at north, and it 
is always difagreeably cold when the 
thermometer is below 63°. 
« The fecond thing remarkable 
is the variation of the thermometer; 
when the fun is in the fouthern tro- 
pic, 36° diftant from the zenith of 
Gondar, it -is feldom lower than 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1790. 
72°; but it falls-to 60% and 59% 
when the fun is immediately verti- 
cal; fo happily does the approach 
of rairt compenfate the heat. of the- 
too-fcorching fun. : 
«* The third is, that remarkable 
ftop in the extent of the rains north- 
ward, when the fun, that has con- 
duéted the vapours from the Line,* 
and fhould feem, now more than 
ever, to be in pofleffion of them, is. 
here over-ruled fuddenly, till, on its 
return to the zenith of Gerri, again 
it refumes the abfolute command 
over the rain, and re-conduéts it to 
the Line to furnifh diftant deluges 
to the fouthward.’’ 
The fourth volume contains his 
return from the fource of the Nile 
to Gondar—the campaign of Ser- 
braxos, and revolution that follow- 
ed—his return through Sennaar and 
Beia, or the Nubian Defert, and his 
arrival at Marfeilles. We -thall 
mate but-one fhort extract from this 
volume; it is an account of a phe- 
nomenon fo finely defcribed by one 
of our poets : 
So where our wide Numidian waftes . 
extend, 
Sudden th’ impetuous hurricanes de- 
fcend, ; 
Wheel thro’ the air, in circling eddies 
f play, ; 
Tear up whole plains and fweep whole 
fands away. 
The helplefs traveller, with wild fur- * 
prife, 
Sees the wide defert all around him 
rife, : . 
And, fmother’d in the dufty whirl- 
wind, dies, us 
-« On the 14th, at feven in the 
morning, we left Afla Nagga, our 
courfe being due north. .At one . 
o’clock we alighted among fome 
acacia-trees at Waadi el Halboub, ~ 
* 1 Kings, chap. xvill. ver. 43; 
