7 2 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



Strabo* fays grew here, but without fuccefs. We may im- 

 agine, however, that there was fome fuch like thing ; be- 

 caufe oppofite to one of the divifions into which this large 

 ifland is broken, there is a village called Zeitoon, or the 

 Olive Tree. 



On the 15th of December, the weather being nearly calm, 

 wc left the north end of the ifland, or Heracleotic nome ; 

 our courfe was due fouth, the line of the river ; and three 

 miles farther we paffed Woodan, and a collection of vil- 

 lages, all going by that name, upon the eafl : to the weft, 

 or right, were fmall iflands, part of the ancient nome of 

 which I have already fpoken. 



The ground is all cultivated about this village, to the foot 

 of the mountains, which is not above four miles ; but it is 

 full eight on the weft, all overflowed and fown. The Nile 

 is here but fhallow, and narrow, not exceeding a quarter 

 of a mile broad, and three feet deep ; owing, I fuppofe, to 

 the refinance made by the ifland in the middle of the cur- 

 rent, and by a bend it makes, thus intercepting the fand 

 brought down by the ftream. 



The mountains here come down till within two miles of 

 rSuf el Woodan, for fo the village is called. We were told 

 there were fome ruins to the weftward of this, but only rub- 

 bifh, neither arch nor column ftanding. I fuppofe it is the 

 Aphroditopolis, or the city of Venus., which we are to. look 



for 



?* Strabo, lib. xvii. p. 936.. 



