156 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



binny and the boulti. The binny I have defcribed in its pro^ 

 per place. 



After pafling the tomb-ftones without the gate,. we come 

 to a plain about five miles long, bordered on the left by 

 a hill of no confiderable height, and fandy like the plain, 

 upon which are fcen fome ruins, more modern than thofe 

 Egyptian buildings we have defcribed. They feem indeedi 

 to be a mixture of all kinds and ages. 



The diftance from the gate of the town to Termini, or 

 Marada, the fmall villages on the cataract, is exactly fix 

 Englifh miles. After the description already given of this 

 cataract in fome authors, a traveller has reafon to be fur- 

 prifed, when arrived on its banks, to find that veflels faiL 

 up the cataract, and confequently the fall cannot be fo vio- 

 lent as to deprive people of their hearing*.. 



The bed of the river, occupied by the water, was not 

 then half a mile broad. It is divided into a number of fmall 

 channels, by large blocks of granite, from thirty to forty 

 feet high. The current, confined for a long courfe between- 

 the rocky mountains cf Nubia, tries to expand itfelf with 

 great violence. Finding, in every part before it, oppofition 

 from the rocks of granite, and forced back by thefe, it meets 

 the oppofite currents. The chafing of the water againifr 

 thefe huge obftacles, the meeting of the contrary currents 

 one with another, creates fuch a violent ebullition, and. 



makes 



* Cicero de Sonanio Scipronis. 



