THE EARTH. 



windings; but,forabove three hundred leagues 

 from the sea, runs in a direct line. Its an- 

 nual overflowings arise from a very obvious 

 cause, which is almost universal with the 

 great rivers that take their source near the 

 line. The rainy season, which- is periodical 

 in those climates, floods the rivers ; and as 

 this always happens in our summer, so the 

 Nile is at that time overflown. From these 

 inundations, the inhabitants of Egypt derive 

 happiness and plenty; and, when the river 

 does not arise to its accustomed heights, they 

 prepare for an indifferent harvest. It begins 

 to overflow about the seventeenth of June; 

 it generally continues to augment for forty 

 days, and decreases in about as many more. 

 The time of increase and decrease, however, 

 is much more inconsiderable now than it was 

 among the ancients. Herodotus informs us, 

 that it was a hundred days rising, and as 

 many falling ; which shows that the inunda- 

 tion was much greater at that time than at 

 present. Mr. BufTon" has ascribed the pre- 

 sent diminution, as well to the lessening of the 

 Mountains of the Moon, by their substance 

 having so long been washed down with the 

 stream, as to the rising of the earth in Egypt, 

 that has for so many ages received this ex- 

 traneous supply. But we do not find, by the 

 buildings that have remained since the times 

 of the ancients, that the earth is much raised 

 since then. Besides the Nile in Africa, we 

 may reckon the Zara, and the Coanza, from 

 the greatness of whose openings into the sea, 

 and the rapidity of whose streams, we form 

 an estimate of the great distance from whence 

 they come. Their courses, however, are 

 spent in watering deserts and savage coun- 

 tries, whose poverty or fierceness have kept 

 strangers away. 



But of all parts of the world, America, as 

 its exhibits the most lofty mountains, so also 

 it supplies the largest rivers. The foremost 

 of these is the great river Amazon, which, 

 from its source in the lake of Lauricocha, to 

 its discharge into the Western Ocean, per- 

 forms a course of more than twelve hundred 

 leagues. 11 The breadth and depth of this 

 river are answerable to its vast length ; and, 

 where its width is most contracted, its depth 



Buffon, vol. ii. p. 82. 



is augmented in proportion. So great is the 

 body of its waters, that other rivers, though 

 before the objects of admiration, are lost in 

 its bosom. It proceeds, after their junction, 

 with its usual appearance, without any visible 

 change in its breadth or rapidity ; and, if we 

 may so express it, remains great without os- 

 tentation. In some places it displays its whole 

 magnificence, dividing into several large 

 branches, and encompassing a multitude of 

 islands ; and, at length, discharging itself into 

 the ocean, by a channel of a hundred and 

 fifty miles broad. Another river, that may 

 almost rival the former, is the St. Lawrence, 

 in Canada, which rising in the lake Assini- 

 boils, passes from one lake to another, from 

 Christinaux to Alempigo; from thence to 

 lake Superior; thence to the lake Hurons; 

 to lake Erie; to lake Ontario; and, at last, 

 after a course of nine hundred leagues, pours 

 their collected waters into the Atlantic Ocean. 

 The river Mississippi is of more than seven 

 hundred leagues in length, beginning at its 

 source near the lake Assiniboils, and ending 

 at its opening into the gulf of Mexico. The 

 river Plate runs a length of more than eight 

 hundred leagues from its source in the river 

 Parana, to its mouth. The river Oroonoko 

 is seven hundred and fifty leagues in length, 

 from its source near Pasto, to its discharge 

 into the Atlantic Ocean. 



Such is the amazing length of the greatest 

 rivers ; and even in some of these, the most 

 remote sources very probably yet continue 

 unknown. In fact, if we consider the num- 

 ber of rivers which they receive, and the little 

 acquaintance we have with the regions through 

 which they run, it is not to be wondered at 

 that geographers are divided concerning the 

 sources of most of them. As among a num- 

 ber of roots by which nourishment is con- 

 veyed to a stately tree, it is difficult to de- 

 termine precisely that by which the tree 

 is chiefly supplied ; so among the many 

 branches of a great river, it is equally difficult 

 to tell which is the original. Hence it may 

 easily happen, that a similar branch is taken 

 for the capital stream ; and its runnings are 

 pursued, and delineated, in prejudice of some 

 other branch that better deserved the name 



b Ulloa, vol. i. p. 388. 



