$42 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
Srmonipes the Lefs flaid five years in Meroé; after him, 
Ariftocreon, Bion, and Bafilis*. It is not then probable that 
men of their character omitted to afcertain the fact whe- 
ther or not the place where they lived was an ifland. Dio- 
dorus Siculus has faid, that Meroé was in the form of a 
fhield, that is, in the figure of that triangular fhield called 
Scutum, pointed at the -bottom, and growing broader to- 
wards the top where it is fquare. Nothing can be more 
exact than this refemblance of the lower part of Atbara, that 
is, from Gerri to the Magiran, the part we fuppofe Diodorus 
was acquainted with, and it is fcarcely poflible that he could 
have fixed upon this refemblance without having feen fome 
figure of it delineated upon paper, 
As this muft fuppofe a more than ordinary knowledge in 
Diodorus, we fhall examine how the meafures he has given 
us of the ifland correfpond with the truth. He fays, that 
the ifland is 3000 ftadia long, and 1000 ftadia broad. Now 
taking 8 ftadia for a mile, we have 375 miles, and meafu- 
ring with the compafs from the river Falaty, where, as I have 
faid, Atbara becomes an ifland by the confluence of the ri- 
vers, | find that diftance to be 345 miles, of 60 miles to ade- 
gree, fo that without making any allowance for the difad- 
vantages of the country, it is impofflible at this day to have 
amore accurateeflimation. As for the breadth, it is fcarce- 
ly poflible to guefs at what part Diodorus means it was mea- 
fured, on account of the figure of the fhield, as I have al- 
ready obferved, as- conftantly varying. But fuppofe, as is 
moft probable, that the breadth of the ifland was referred to 
the 
* Plin, libe Vi. C. 30 
