THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 537 



though far diflant from Idumea. This is true, but when 

 we confider, as we fhall do in the courfe of this hiftory, that 

 the maflers of that fea were ftill the Edomites, who went 

 from the one fea directly in the fame voyage to the other* 

 we fhall not difpute the propriety of extending the name to 

 part of the Indian Ocean alfo. As for what fanciful people* 

 have faid of any rednefs in the fea itfelf, or .colour in the 

 bottom, the reader may affure himfelf all this is fiction, the 

 Red Sea being in colour nothing different from the Indian, 

 x>r any other Ocean. 



There is greater difficulty in afligning a -reafon for the 

 •Hebrew name, Yam Suph ; properly fo called, fay learned 

 authors, from the quantity of weeds in it. But I mufl con- 

 fefs, in contradiction to this, that I never in my life, (and I 

 have feen the whole extent of it) faw a weed of any fort in 

 it ; and, indeed, upon the flightefl confideration, it will oc- 

 cur to any one, that a narrow gulf, under the immediate 

 influence of monfoons, blowing from contrary points fix 

 months each year, would have too much agitation to pro- 

 duce fuch vegetables, feldom found, but in ftagnant waters, 

 and feldomer, if ever, found in fait ones. My opinion then 

 is, that it is from the j- large trees, or plants of white coral, 

 ipread every where over the bottom of the Red Sea, per- 

 fectly in imitation of plants on land, that the fea has ob- 

 tained this name. If not, I fairly confefs I have not any 

 other conjecture to make. 



No 



• * Jerome Lobo, the greateft liar of the Jefuits, ch. iv. p. 46. Englifh translation, 

 f I faw one of thefe, which, from a root nearly central, threw out ramifications in ■$, 

 -Jbztxly circular form, meafuring twenty-fix feet diameter every way. 



