THE HEDETERBANEAN SEA. 253 



and Seneca in no wise exaggerates in saying that to the Nile 

 Egypt owes not merely its fertility of soil, but the soil itself. 

 (Nat. Qucest. lib. iv.) Though somewhat beside our subject, 

 we could willingly descant on various other peculiarities of 

 this majestic river. Such are its singular parallelism to the 

 prolonged gulf of the Eed Sea; its flow of 1,200 miles 

 through Nubia and Egypt, without the addition of a single 

 stream to its waters, which thereby actually decrease in 

 volume as they descend to the sea ; the wonderful persis- 

 tence and uniformity of that vast periodical flood, which, 

 coming from unknown sources, has, for at least four thousand 

 years, preserved the same times of rise and fall ; the equal 

 steadiness of that old Etesian wind (the Etesia flabra) which 

 meets and stems the descending waters ; and, above all, the 

 mysterious problem, still unsolved, as to the origin and true 

 fountains of this great river. Recent research, approaching 

 within a short distance of the equator, has made it almost 

 certain that they are to be sought for near to, or even south 

 of this line. But whether in mountains of perpetual snow, 

 or in a lower, but still elevated region of lakes and 

 swamps, fed by the periodical rains of the tropics is a 

 question yet open to the enterprise of the traveller. Our 

 opinion tends strongly to the latter view. That the discovery 

 will be made within the next few years we hold to be certain, 

 seeing the zeal and new appliances directed towards it. The 

 man who accomplishes it will perpetuate his name to all 

 future time, even though he do but confirm that statement 

 of Ptolemy, to which modern discovery is every day lending 

 fresh weight. 



The number and magnitude of the Mediterranean rivers 

 has given rise to some curious enquiries suggested even 

 as early as the time of Dr. Halley as to the disposal of 

 the mighty volumes of water thus poured into the sea ; and 

 added to by the rains, averaging sixteen or seventeen inches 



