500 Rivers cf [Book VI I. 



inconfiderable now than it \vas among the ancients. 

 Herodotus informs us, that it was an hundred days 

 riling, and as many falling ; which fhews that the in- 

 undation was much greater at that time than at pre- 

 fent. M. Buffon * has afcribed the prefent diminu- 

 tion, as well to the leflening of the mountains of the 

 Moon, by their fubdance having fo long been wafhed 

 down with the dream, as to the riling of the earth in 

 Egypt, that has for fo many ages received this extra- 

 neous fupply. But we do not find, by the buildings 

 that have remained fince the times of the ancients, that 

 the earth is much raifed fince then. Befides the Nile 

 in Africa, we may reckon Zara, and the Coanza, from 

 the greatnefs of whofe openings into the fea, and the 

 rapidity of whofe dreams, we form an edimate of the 

 great diftance whence they come. Their courfes, 

 however, are fpent in watering deferts and favage coun- 

 tries, whofe poverty or fiercenefs have kept ftrangers 

 away. 



But of all parts of the world, America, as it exhi- 

 bits the mod lofty mountains, fo allb it fupplies the 

 largeft rivers. The principal of thefe is the great 

 river Amazons, which, from its fonrce in the lake of 

 Uauricocha, to its difcharge into the Weftefn Ocean, 

 performs a courfe of more than twelve hundred 

 leagues f. The breadth and depth of this river is 

 anfwerable to its vaft length -, and, where its width is 

 mod contracted, its depth is augmented in proportion. 

 So great is the body of its waters, that other rivers, 

 though before the objects of admiration, are lod in its 

 bofom. It proceeds after their junction, with its ufual 

 appearance, without any vifible change in its breadth 



'* Buffon, vol. ii. p. 82. 

 f Ulloa, vol. i. p, 388. 



or 



