04-2 T R A VE L S T O D I S G O V E H 



"T 



T'ha-d ■• procured from the Englifh mips, while at Jidda, 

 fome quick-fdver, perfectly pure, and heavier than the com- 

 mon fort ;. warming therefore the tube gently at the fire, I 

 filled it with this quick-filver, and, to my great furprife, 

 found that it Hood at the height of 22 Englifh inches : fuf- 

 pecting that fome air might have infmuated itfelf into the 

 tube, I laid it by in a warm part of the tent, covered till 

 morning, and returning to bed, llept there profoundly till 

 fix, when, fatisfied the whole was in perfect order, 1 found 

 it to ftand at 22 Englifh inches ; neither did it vary fenfibly 

 from that height any of the following days I ftaid at Geefh ; 

 and thence I inferred, that, at the fources of the Nile, I was 

 then more than two miles above the level of the fea ; a pro- 

 digious height,, to enjoy a fky perpetually clear, as alfo a hot 

 fun never over-cad for a moment with clouds from riling 

 to fetting.. 



On the 6th of November, at a quarter paft five in the 

 morning, Fahrenheit's thermometer flood at 44 , at noon 96% . 

 and at fun-fet 46 . It was, as to fenfe,.cold at night, and flilli 

 more fo an hour before fun-rife. .. 



The Nile, keeping nearly in the middle of the marfh, runs - 

 eaft for thirty yards, with a very little increafe of ftream, 

 but perfectly vifible, till met by the graffy brink of the land 

 declining from Sacala. This turns it round gradually to 

 the N. E. and then due north ; and, in the two miles it flows 

 in that direction, the river receives many fmall contributions 

 from fprings that rife in the banks on each fide of it: there 

 &re two, particularly one on the hill at the back of St Mi- 

 shael Geefh, the other a little lower than it on the other fide, 

 on the ground declining from Sacala, Thefe laft-mention- 



ed 



