ii RISE OF NILE SNOW 173 



and Euripides. But many proofs make it plain that 17 

 it is a mistaken one. First of all, the blackened 

 complexion of the people shows that Ethiopia is 

 exceedingly hot. So do the habits of the Trog- 

 lodytes (cave-dwellers), who for coolness have under- 

 ground houses. The rocks glow with heat as if a 

 fire had been applied, and that, not only at mid-day, 

 but even toward nightfall. The dusty ground is so 

 hot that no foot of man can endure it. Silver is 

 unsoldered. 1 The joints of statues are melted. No 

 coating of plated metal will stick on. The south ig 

 wind, too, coming from that tract of country, is the 

 hottest of all winds. None of the animals that go 

 to earth in winter ever hibernates there. Even in 

 midwinter the serpent is seen above ground in the 

 open. At Alexandria, too, which lies far north of 

 this excessive heat, snow does not fall ; but the upper 

 regions have not even rain. 



How then, I ask, could a district exposed to 

 such broiling heat receive a snowfall sufficient to 

 last through a whole summer ? No doubt some of 19 

 the mountains in Ethiopia, as well as elsewhere, 

 intercept snow ; but there can never be a greater 

 fall than in the Alps, or the peaks of Thrace, 

 or the Caucasus. It is in spring, however, or 

 early summer, that the rivers that flow from the 

 European mountains are swollen ; subsequently 

 during winter time they decrease. The reason, 

 of course, is that the rains in spring wash off so 

 much of the snow, and the first heat of summer 

 soon scatters the remnants. Neither the Rhine, 

 nor the Rhone, nor the Danube, nor yet the Caystrus 

 is liable to the catastrophe of an overflow in winter; 

 their increase is in summer, though in those northern 



1 Some render is dissolved and gives off its lead. 



