THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 723 



ages paHed between Egypt and Sennaar, muft have feen 

 this river, and drunk of it; fo muft the travellers, in the 

 beginning of this century, Poncet and M. du Roule. They 

 were both at Elvah ; and, paffing through the dreary deferts 

 of Sclima, they muft have gone along its fide, and croffed 

 it, where it parted from the Nile in their journey to Sen- 

 naar. Whereas we know they never faw running water 

 from the time they left the Nile at Siout in Egypt, till they 

 fell in again with it at Mofcho, during which period they 

 had nothing but well water, which they carried in fkins 

 with them. 



The diftrid of Elvah is the Oafis Magna and Oafis Parva 

 of the ancients; large' plentiful fprings breaking out in the 

 middle of the burning fands, and running conftantly with- 

 out diminution, have invited inhabitants to flock around 

 them. Thefe conduding^off the water that fpills over the 

 fountain by trenches, the neighbouring lands have quickly 

 produced a plentiful vegetation : gardens and verdure are 

 fpread on every fide, large groves of palm tree have been 

 planted, and the overflowings of every fountain have pro- 

 duced a little paradife, like fo many beautiful and fruitful 

 iflands amidil an immenfe ocean. 



The coaft of the Mediterranean, from the Cyrenaicum 

 or Ptolemaid (that is, the coaft from Bengazi, or Derna, to 

 Alexandria) is well known by the {hipping of every nation ; 

 but what pilot or paflenger ever faw this magnificent wa- 

 tering-place in that defert coaft, where this branch of the 

 Nile comes down into the Mediterranean ? Befides, the au- 

 thor of this fable betrays his ignorance in the very begin- 



4 Y 2 ningt 



