^8 Egypt is gradually augmented 



any at all : inafmuch as Thh, let it have been annually never 

 fo imall and inconiiderable, yet, in Procefs of Time, and, in 

 the Courfe of four thoufand Years, niuft have become vifible 

 and apparent. But notwithftanding the Want of that annual 

 Increafe and Addition to their Banks, which the Nile alone can 

 boaft of; (and, whereby it keeps up, as is pretended by this 

 Author, the Ballance hetwixt the Huantitj of Water and the 

 Capacity of the Channel that is to convey it\) nothing of this 

 Kind has been obferved in th^Dantibe, the Rhine, the Thame Sy 

 or any other noted River. Thefe have always continued the 

 fame ; their Channels ftill contain the fame Quantity of Water, 

 which they may originally be fuppofed to have done ; and, 

 except upon extraordinary Rains, and the Floods and Inunda- 

 tions confequent thereupon, are never known to be too full or 

 overcharged. Whereas had there been any gradual Additions 

 made, by thefe Means, to their Beds ; thefe very Beds muft 

 have been gradually filled up, and their Streams, confequently, 

 would have been gradually excluded ; and, being thus excluded 

 and thereby under no Confinement, they would long ago have 

 converted all their adjacent Plains into Lakes or Marfhes. 

 No Part of g^^ \^ \^ further ureed, by this Author, that, provided the 



the Soil car- o ^ j -> ■• j. 



ried ofF h^i^iiQ fhould lodge any con fid erable Quantity of Sediment upon 

 the Surface, a great Tart of it would he carried off annually 

 hy the Crop or Troduce of the Soil. Yet, it may be replied, 

 that if all of it be not carried off, that which remains, will ftiU 

 contribute, though in a fmaller Degree, to the fuppofed Aug- 

 mentation. By this Means indeed, the Operation will be flower, 

 though no lefs fure and certain, upon that Account. For the 

 precife Time, when this Augmentation is to be brought about, 

 is not difputed ; but whether fuch an Augmentation, at all, 

 will happen. And that there is and has been an Augmenta- 

 tion, which confequently may, and probably will continue, is 

 even acknowledged by this Author ' ; and, for a further Proof 

 of it, I refer to Trav. p. 438. Little Strefs therefore can be 

 laid upon this Objedlion, which does not deny the Fad, but 

 only retards the Progrefs of it. 



I Vid. p. 44. Not. I. 



By 



