14 SPRINGS, RIVERS, CANALS, LAKES, 



The treasures these, hid from the bounded search 

 Of ancient knowledge ; whence, with annual pomp, 

 Rich king of floods ! o'erflows the swelling Nile. 

 From his two springs, in Gojam's sunny realm 

 Pure-welling out, he through the lucid lake 

 Of fair Dambea rolls his infant stream. 

 There, by the Naiads uurs'd, lie sports away 

 His playful youth, amid the fragrant isles, 

 That with unfading verdure smile around. 

 Ambitious, thence the manly river breaks ; 

 And gathering many a flood, and copious fed 

 With all Hie mellow'd treasures of the 



. * 



Winds in progressive majesty alon^ : 



Through splendid kingdoms now devolves his maze. 



Now wanders wild o'er solitary tracts 



Of life-deserted sand ; till, glad to quit 



The joyless desert, down the Nubian rocks 



From thund'ring steep to steep, he pours his urn. 



And Egypt joys beneath the spreading wave. 



Lobo, from \\hom Thomson has copied his description, informs 

 us in addition, that " Fifteen miles farther, in the land of Alata, it 

 rushes precipitately from the top of a high rock, and forms one of l.'ie 

 most beautiful water falls in the world. After this cataract the Nile 

 again collects its scattered stream among the rocks, which seem to be 

 disjointed in this place only to afford it a passage. They arc so near 

 each other, that in my time, says he, a bridge of beams, on \\hich the 

 whole Imperial army passed, was laid over them. Sultan Segned has 

 since buill here a bridge of one arch, to construct which he pro- 

 cured masons from India/' 



Egypt is generally divided into Lower, Middle, and Upper. The 

 greatest part of Lower Egypt is contained in a triangubr inland, 

 formed by the. Mediterranean sea and the two great branches of the 

 Nile, which dividing itself five or six miles below Old Cairo, one 

 part of it flows to the north-east, and falls into the sea at Dumietta, 

 the ancient Pelusium ; while the other branch runs toward the north- 

 west, and falls into the sea at Rosetto : hence this part of Kgvpt is 

 called " the Delta,** from the resemblance which it bears to the -,hape 

 of the Greek letter of this name, constituting a triangle. 



