THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 701 



1 will not perplex the reader more with the different 

 meafnres of thefe peeks, between the Hafamean and great 

 peek of Kalkafendas, which is 18 inches, and the black peek, 

 a model of which Dr Bernard* has given us from an Arabic 

 MS. at Oxford, the difference is 10 inches. The firft being 

 18 inches equal to the Samian peek, the other 284- inches, 

 and from this difference we may judge, joined to the un- 

 certainties of the height and divifions of the Mikeas, how 

 impoffible it is for us to determine the increafe of 12 inches 

 in a hundred years.. 



As the generality of writers have fixed upon the Con- 

 ftantinople, or Stambouline p =ek, for the meafure of the Mi- 

 keas, in which choice they have erred, we will next feek 

 what is the meafure of the Stambouline peek, and whether 

 they have in this article been better informed. 



M. de Maillet, French conful at Cairo, fays, that this 

 peek is equal to 2 French feet, or very nearly 26 inches of 

 our meafure : and, to add to this another miftake, he ftates, 

 that by this peek the Mikeas is meafured ; and, for the 

 completing of the confufion, he adds, that the Nile muft 

 rife 48 French feet before it covers all their lands. What he 

 means by all their lands is to very little purpofe to inquire, 

 for he would probably have been drowned in his clofet in 

 which he made thefe computations, long before he had 

 feen the Nile at that height, or near it. 



Without, then, wandering longer in this extraordinary 

 confufion, which I have only ftated to fhew that a traveller 



4 may 



* Defcript. de l'Egypte, p. 60. 



