€6o TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



fertile, the Delta, is under the dominion of variable winds,, 

 which lafl long, from one point, at no time. 



I shall trefpafs upon my reader's patience, on this head,, 

 by no more than one additional obfervation. If the Etcfian 

 winds, by oppofing the ftream, occafioned the inundation, 

 they could effev5t this no longer than they continued to 

 blow. Now, it was an obfervation we made when on the 

 Nile, and it was almoft without exception, that as often as 

 the Etefian winds blew throughout the day, the night was 

 either calm, or the wind blew gently from the fouth or eaft, 

 fo that it is morally impoffible the river could have over- 

 flowed at all, without a much more powerful and corw 

 llant agent than the Etefian winds : — ■ 



Zephyros quoque vana vetujlas 



His adfcripfit aquis, — — — — LuCAN. 



Vain, indeed ! A philofopher of the prefent age would be 

 thought mad who mould rely on a fyftem fo contrary to 

 experiment and obfervation ; though Thales, the propa- 

 gator of this now mentioned, was fo highly efteemed for 

 his knowledge. 



The next opinion quoted is that of Anaxagoras, who 

 attributes the inundation of the Nile to fnow melting in 

 Ethiopia ; and this Diodorus contradicts, for a very fubftan- 

 tial reafon, that there is no fnow in Ethiopia to melt. Bur 

 fuppofing all the mountainous part of Ethiopia north of 

 the Line, that is all Abyffinia, were covered with fnow, then 

 the inundation mull happen in other months, as it mull 

 begin in January, for the fun being then within few de- 

 2 grees 



