THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 66t 



grees of being vertical, it mud have been the very height 

 of flood when the fun patted over that country in April ; 

 whereas its increafe is not difcerned till about June, when 

 the fun has left the zenith of all Abyflinia, having then 

 patted over Nubia, and is Handing vertical to Syene, or as 

 far to the northward as it can proceed. 



It is not my meaning to maintain that there never was 

 mow in Abyflinia, as climates have wonderfully changed. 

 In Csfar's time, the greateft rivers in the Gaul almoft every 

 year were frozen over for months, fo that armed nations, 

 with their families, cattle, and incumbrances, patted regu- 

 larly over them upon the ice without fear ; an event that 

 happens not now once in a century. In Pruflia* alfo were 

 found white bears, an animal now confined to the fevereft 

 fnowy regions of the north ; and, what comes ftill nearer to 

 the prefent fubject, in the infcription found in Abyflinia by 

 Cofmas Indoplauftes, Ptolomams Evergetes, fpeaking there, in 

 the firft perfon,of his own conquefts in Ethiopia, fays, that he 

 had palled the river Siris, and had entered the kingdom of 

 Samen, a country intolerable on account of cold and deep 

 £now. 



This account I think almoft incredible. Ptolemy parted 

 from Egypt, his fleet coafting along the Red Sea, oppofite to 

 his army, and carrying provifions for it ; we know, more- 

 over, the time his fliips failed, the beginning of June, when 

 the Nile was overflowed, and confequently of great utility to 

 his army on the firft part of his expedition, while he was 

 in Egypt and part of Nubia. Now fuppofing him to pafs 



the 



Paufanius Arcad. chap. xvii. 



