<586 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



account of thefe tranfactions, and we lhall be lefs inclined 

 to rely upon them, when I fhall mew, that the Nilometer 

 could be of no ufe in folving this queilion at all, either in 

 Herodotus's days, or any time fince, without a previous 

 knowledge of feveral other circumftances never yet taken 

 into the calculation, and of which Herodotus muil have 

 been ignorant. 



But let us grant that the Nile in Mseris's time rofe only 

 8 cubits, and in the days of Herodotus to 16, let us fee if, 

 at certain periods afterwards, it kept to any thing like that 

 proportion. Above 400 years after Herodotus, Strabo tra- 

 velled in Egypt ; he went through the whole country from 

 Alexandria to beyond Syene and the firfl cataract ; and as he 

 is an hiftorian whofe character is eflablifhed, both for ve- 

 racity and fagacity, we may receive what he fays as un- 

 exceptionable evidence, efpecially as he travelled in fuch 

 company as it is not probable the priefls could have refilled 

 him any thing. Now Strabo J fays, that, in his days, 8 cu- 

 bits were a minimum, or the Wafaa Ullab of the Nile's increafe ; 

 therefore, from Mceris's time to Strabo there is not an inch 

 difference in the minimum, and this includes the fpace of 1400 

 years. 



It may be faid, indeed, that the pafTage in Strabof imports, 

 that, in the time of Petronius, by a particular care of the 

 banks and califhes, the Nile at 8 peeks (or cubits) enabled 

 the Egyptians to pay their meery without hardllup ; but 

 this was by particular induflry, more than what had been 



in 



* Strabo, lib. xiii. p. 945. 1' Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 91J. 



