CATARACTS AND INUNDATIONS. 15 



The water is thick and muddy, especially when the river is swelled 

 J>y the heavy rains which constantly fall within the tropics in the be- 

 ginning of our sup.uner, and which are doubtless the principal cause 

 of its annually overflowing the low lauds of Eg\pt. The ancients, 

 who were not much acquainted with the climales in these latitudes, 

 were for the most part considerably perplexed when they endea- 

 voured to account for this annual deluge. Lucretius, however, has 

 assigned its cause with his usual accuracy and ingenuity in the fol- 

 lowing lines: Rer. Nat. vi. 1/12. 



Nilus in aestatem crescit, campisque redundaf, 

 Unicus in terris, /Egypti totius amuis : 

 Is rigat ygyptum medium per saepe calorem 

 Aut, quia sunt aestate aquilones ostia contra 

 . Anni tempore eo, qui Etesiae esse feruntur; 



Et, contra fluvium rlantes, remorantur ; et, undas- 

 Cogentes sursus, replent, coguntque manere. 

 Nam, dubio procul, hacc adverso ilabra feruntur 

 Fiumine, quae gelidis ab stellis axis 'auntur: 

 Ille ex jestifera parte \enit amnis, ah au ? lro 

 Inter nigra viruin percocto secla colore, 

 Exoriens penitus media ub rcgione diei." &c. 



The Nile now calls us, pride of EGYPT'S plains: 

 Sole stream on earth its boundaries that o'crflows 

 Punctual, and scatters plenty. When the year 

 Now glows with perfect summer, leaps its tide 

 Proud o'er the champaign ; for the north wind, now, 

 Th* ETESIAN breeze, against its mouth direct 

 Blows with perpetual winnow ; every sur.-o 

 Hence loiters slow, the total current swells, 

 And wave o'er wave its loftiest bank surmounts. 

 For that the fixt Monsoon that now prevails 

 Flows from the cold stars of the northern pole, 

 None e'er can doubt; while rolls the Nile adverse 

 Full from the south, from realms of torrid heat, 

 Haunts of the ETHlop-tnbes ; yet far beyond 

 First bubbling, distant, o'er the burning line. 



