5^8 Egypt is gradually augmented 



Water, that would otherwife have been fufficient to refrefh 

 the Country, muft hereby have become too fcanty and defi- 

 cient ; and, without the Affiftance of Art, {'viz. by drawing up 

 the Water with Inftruments;) a Famine muft neceifarily have 

 followed. Or again, if thefe Canals were all or moft of them 

 choaked up, fo that the whole Body of Water reverted to the 

 main Stream ; the Confequence would ftill be worfe ; becaufa 

 the Riling would now be more than fufficient ; and, cccalion- 

 ing thereby too copious an Overflow, would leave behind it 

 too great a Stagnation of Water. Thefe Canals therefore and 

 their Outlets, appear to be incidental Occurrences only, adapt- 

 ed and accommodated, from Time to Time, to the Exigencies 

 and Demands of the Country ; without bearing any Relation at 

 all to the real and p/^z/zc^/Rifrng of the Nile \ or to the Altera- 

 tions that have been confequent thereupon. 

 ShcSlo ^-^y ^o/P^ therefore, in the Time of Myris, fliould require 

 from "'K'"'^ ^^ /e*^/? eight Cubits of Water to prepare it for Tillage ; and. 

 Height of nine hundred Years afterwards, fifteen, and at prefent twenty 

 or twenty two, and yet have always continued the fame, hy 

 lofmg, as this Author has maintained, in the Troduce of the 

 Crop what is annually gained by the Sediment ; or, hy the Bed 

 of the Channel rifmg in Troportion to the Banks ; or, hj the 

 fuppofed Analogy hetweett the River, the Canals, and their 

 Outlets', (none of which Propofitions are to be admitted with- 

 out further Proof,) cannot, I prefume, be accounted for, upon 

 any other Principle, either of Reafon or Experiment, than that 

 gradual Rifmg of the Soil, which T have all along been con- 

 tending for. 

 Periodical gy^ ^g h2C^Q not yct douc with this TfBTec^js l^yx.n-M?. as Hero- 

 caufe of uic ^^^^^ calls it*, whicli, like a good Husbandman, both waters 

 Overflow. ai;|(j nianures the Soil. For, the Occafion of it's annual Over- 

 flow, is ftill a further Point to be difputed. This ( Trav. p . 43 x. ) 

 I attributed, in general, to the extraordinary and periodical 

 Rains, that fall at thofe Times in Ethiopia, or perhaps further 

 to the Southward, where we are to look for the Sources and 

 Fountains of the Nile. For, the greateft Partof E/^io/?/^^ be- 

 ing a mountainous Country, it will thereby not only be pro- 

 ductive itfelf of copious Vapours, but highly conducive to the 

 condenfing and forming into Rain, fuch Clouds and Vapours, 



as 



