688 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



that Herodotus fixes upon, as being fufficient to oblige the 

 payment in his days; and the other is 1 6, or a cubit more ; fa 

 that if the Nilometer proves any thing at all, it is this, that 

 preemptively the Nile has never increafed from Masris to 

 Perronius's, or in 1400 years, and certainly that, if it has not 

 diminifhed, it has not increafed for 700 years from Herodo- 

 tus to the emperor Julian. 



t 



Procopius, in his firft book, I think, fays, that 18 peeks 

 was too full a Nile, and occafioned dearth by its quantity. 

 But, in the middle of the 6th century, he tells* us it requi- 

 red 18 cubits for a minimum, by which Egypt was to pay 

 the meery; fo that in 100 years from Julian to Juftinian, the 

 minimum had increafed three cubits, which was 4I feet ; 

 not one foot in 100 years as the propofition bears ; and 

 this would prove too much, if it was true, but it is impofli- 

 ble. 



Thus far, then, we are at liberty to fay, that, as long as 

 Egypt was a Greek kingdom, no vifible alteration or in* 

 creafe of the foil can be fairly eftablilhed from hiftory or 

 infpeclion. 



* Procop. lib. iii. de Reb. Goth. 



CHAP. 



