BOOK V. IX. 50-x. 52 



450, miles roiind, and 250 feet deep, an artificial sheet 

 of water, called the Lake of Moeris aftcr the king 

 who made it. Its site is 62 miles from Memphis, 

 the former citadel of the kings of Egypt, and from 

 Memphis it is 12 days' journey to the Oracle of 

 Ammon and 15 days' journey to the place where 

 the Nile divides and forms what we have called the 

 Delta. 



X. The sources from which the Nile rises have TUe yue. 

 not been ascertained, proceeding as it does through 

 scorching deserts for an enormously long distance 

 and only ha\ing been explored by unarmed investi- 

 gators, without the wars that have discovered all 

 other countries ; but so far as King Juba was able 

 to ascertain, it has its origin in a mountain of lower 

 Mauretania not far from the Ocean, and imme- 

 diately forms a stagnant lake called Nihdes. Fish 

 found in this lake are the alabeta, coracinus and 

 silurus ; also a crocodile was brought from it by 

 Juba to prove his theory, and placed as a votive 

 oifering in the temple of Isis at Caesarea, where it 

 is on view to-day. Moreover it has been observed 

 that the Nile rises in proportion to excessive falls of 

 snow or rain in Mauretania. Issuing from this lake 

 the river disdaias to flow through arid deserts of 

 sand, and for a distance of several days' journey it 

 hides underground, but afterwards it bursts out in 

 another larger lake in the territory of the Masacsyles 

 clan of Mauretania Caesariensis, and so to speak 

 makes a survey of the communities of mankind, 

 proving its identity by having the same fauna. 

 Sinking again into the sand of the desert it hides for 

 another space of 20 days' journey till it reaches the 

 nearest Ethiopians, and when it has once more 



257 



