6 7 g TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



fides, there is no country in the world, perhaps, but where 

 this trick may be played with impunity, except in Egypt, 

 for a realbn that I am about to explain. 



The extenfion of the land of Egypt northward, the d*i- 

 flance between it and Cyprus, and the fituation of Canopus, 

 all (hew, that no or veny little alteration has been made 

 thefe 3000 years. Dr Shaw, and the other writers, who are 

 advocates for what has been advanced by Hercdotus *, that 

 Egypt hath been produced b.y the Nile, have defcrted this 

 ground of maintaining then hi potheiis, and have recourfc 

 to the Nilometer to prove, that the foil has increafed in 

 height, and' that a greater quantity of water is neceflary 

 now to overflow the land of Egypt than was required in 

 the days of Homer. 



If the firft part of their affertion can be proved, I mail 

 make no fort of difficulty of giving up the other. But I 

 rather conceive, that none of thoie who have written upon 

 this fubjedr. hitherto, whatever degree of learning and in- 

 formation they may have pollened, have poiTelTed fufficient 

 data to explain this fubjecl: intelligibly. It feems, indeed, 

 to have remained with the Jonrce of the river, a iecret referved 

 for latter times. 



It will be necelTary for us firft to coniider what the 

 ufe of a Nilometer was, for what caufe it was made, and by 

 whom. 



2 It 



• Herod. Eut. left. 4, 5. Diod. Sic. lib. iii. p. 101. Ariil. Mtteorol. lib. i. cap. 14, 



