s6 Egypt is gradually augmented 



Period of Time, will, in a great Meafure, determine the Height 

 of the Land, at that Time. But this is not to be underftood 

 of extraordinary Inundations, fuch as wafh and carry away 

 the Mounds and Inclofures, and fometimes large Portions of 

 the Land itfelf; but of the ordinary and ufual Overflows; 

 fuch as are managed and conducted to the proper Wants and 

 Exigencies of the Country, Thefe, I fay, will verj nearly 

 afcertain the Height of the Land above the Bed of the River. 

 For, in the two Cafes already quoted from Herodotus (p. 5-1. 

 Not. I.) they both of them feem to be well circumftantiated and 

 (I had almoft faid) conclufive for this Hypothefis. For the Ap- 

 pellation of ToyAct;y'qT)v, {at Uaft) which is there afcribed to them 

 both, (to the Rifing of eight Cubits in Myrk\ Time, and to 

 that of fifteen, nine hundred Years afterwards,) will point out 

 to us the barely fufficient Quantity of Water that was necef- 

 fary at thofe refpeftive Times ; and confequently, that a lefs 

 Quantity, as being lower (we may fuppofe) than the Lands to 

 be refreflied, would not have been able to effeft it. 

 The Land go that if we could know, at prefent, what Height of Water 



has rifen 150 7 . 



Inches at ^f leafl was required for the Exigencies of the Country, parti- 

 theTimeof cularly near and below Geeza or Memphis, (the fuppofed 



Herodotus. n * n 1 • \ n ■% -x n r 1*1 -r \ 



Scene of thefe Alterations,) we fliould fo far likewife deter- 

 mine the Quantity of Soil, that has been accumulated, fince 

 the Time of Herodotm. In A.D. mdccxxi. when I was in 

 Egypt, the Nile rofe confiderably (and yet the Banks were not 

 full) after the Waj'aa ^llah or Standard of fixteen (i. e. 

 eighteen ' Cubits) was proclaimed, without laying the neigh- 

 bouring Plains under Water. We will fuppofe then that the 

 Addition of two Cubits more, making in all twenty, would 

 have been fufficient for this Purpofe. Now as the Cubits, by 

 which the Rifing of the Kile is, at this Time, computed, are 



I As they pubUpj, fajrs this Author, p. z^i. fuch an extraordinary Rife, as fifty Inches, about 

 the Time that they declare it is rifen fixteen Pikes, it is probable, that they keep private the real Rife 

 before that Time ; which may be a piece of Policy of the People not to pay their Rents if it does 

 not rife to 1 8. Pikes ; for unlefs it rifes fo high, they have but an indifferent Tear : and pofibly 

 when they declare that the Nile is 16. Pikes high it may be rifen to eighteen. And again, 

 p. 200. Eighteen Pikes is an indifferent Nile, twenty is midling, twenty two is a good Nile, be- 

 yond which it feldom rifes: and it is faid if it rifes above 24. Pikes, It is looked on as an Inunda- 

 tion, and is of bad Confequence, as the Water does not retire in Time to fow the Corn. But I can- 

 not find any certain Account when this hat happened. And again, p. 2'j;^. The jnanner of Com- 

 putation has been altered ; the highefi having been 18. Pikes, ti-'hereas now it is 24. *The Pillar 

 alfo feems to have been changed. Vid. Trav. p. 43<J. |iiO* XVIII. Cubits are recorded for 

 the Standard by P. Alpinus L. i. c. z. Hift. Nat. ^gypt. 



both 



