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On the Nile, and the present and former Levels of Egypt.* By 

 Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson. (With a Plate.) 



The nature and character of the Nile, and the peculiar laws 

 which govern the land of Egypt, ai'e questions which, in all 

 times, have been looked upon with considerable interest. Nu- 

 merous conjectiu'es were formed by ancient Avriters respecting 

 the probable cause of the inundation. Some attributed it to 

 the continued force of the Etesian or annual winds, which, 

 blowing from the northward during that season of the year, 

 were supposed to check the course of the stream, and to occa- 

 sion it to overflow ; an opinion readily refuted by Herodotus. t 

 Others explained it by the melting of snow in the lofty moun- 

 tain-ranges of Ethiopia ; and some were disposed to believe, 

 that periodical rains falling there accounted for this pheno- 

 menon. 



Though the reasoning of Herodotus on the subject is not 

 very philosophical, it is evident that he attributes the rise of 

 the Nile to the rains which fall near its source, an opinion 

 common, as Strabo informs us,+ to many, and one that Homer, 

 from his calling the river bnmrrig, or " fallen from heaven," 

 appears to have adopted. Modern discoveries have shewn the 

 truth of this conjecture ; and, as far as regards the cause and 

 sources of the Blue River, or eastern branch, and its tributary 

 streanis, our knowledge is tolerably accm-ate. The White 

 River, its sources, and the extent of its course from its head 

 until it joins the Blue River at Kliartiim, in Lat. 15° 38', are 

 still a desideratum ; and the only part of the stream hitherto ex- 

 amined is a distance of thirty days' march above the junction. 

 It is, however, to be hoped, that a native of Ethiopia, lately 

 sent from England for the purpose, will clear up this import- 

 ant question, and add to our geographical knowledge by as- 

 certaining the course and sources of the White River. That 

 this last is the main stream, is universally allowed by every one 

 who has visited it, from Bruce till the present day ; but the 



* From Journal of Uio Koyal Geographical Society of London, vol. ix. 

 part iii. p. 431, et icq- 



t Hcrodot. ii. 20. X Stvabo, xvii. p. 543, 



