THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. * 37 



•though far diftant from Idumea. This is true, but when 

 we confider, as we fhall do in the courfe of this hiftory, that 

 the matters of that fea were ftill the Edomites, who went 

 from the one fea directly in the fame voyage to the other, 

 we fhall not difpute the propriety of extending the name to 

 .part of the Indian Ocean alfo. As for what fanciful people* 

 have faid of any rednefs in the fea itfelf, or colour in the 

 bottom, the reader may allure himfelf all this is fiction, the 

 Red Sea being in colour nothing different from the Indian, 

 or any other Ocean. 



There -is greater difficulty in affigning a reafon for the 

 Hebrew name, Yam Suph ; properly fo called, fay learned 

 authors, from the quantity of weeds in it. But I muft con- 

 fefs, in contradiction to this, that I never in my life, (and I 

 have feen the whole extent of it) faw a weed of any fort in 

 it ; and, indeed, upon the flighted consideration, it will oc- 

 cur to any one, that a narrow gulf, under the immediate 

 influence of monfoons, blowing from contrary points fix 

 months each year, would have too much agitation to pro- 

 duce fuch vegetables, feldom found, but in ftagnant waters, 

 and feldomer, if ever, found in fait ones. My opinion then 

 is, that it is from the f large trees, or plants of white coral, 

 fpread every where over the bottom of the Red Sea, per- 

 fectly in imitation of plants on land, that the fea has ob- 

 tained this name. If not, I fairly conrefs I have not any 

 -other conjecture to make. 



No 



* Jerome Lofo, the 5 reateft liar of the Jefuits, ch. iv. p. 46. Englifh tranflation. 

 t I fav one of thefe, which, from a root nearly central, threw out ramifications in a 

 'nearly circular form, meafuring twenty-fix feet diameter cvtry way. 



