606 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
dufty and defert, the farms without tenants, the tenants 
without feed, the houfes perhaps fituated in the middle of 
the inundation, when, at a ftated time, this moft brilliant 
fign fhone forth to warn the mafter to procure a peafant 
for his field, the peafant to procure feed for his tenement, 
and the ftranger to remove his habitation from | a fituation 
foon deftined to be laid wholly under water. 
Notuine could be more natural hala the’ othngtetiid how 
the encreafe of the flood was thus connected with the ri- 
fing of the dog-ftar; many ufeful difcoveries were there- 
fore probably made in fearch after this, but the caufe of 
che inundation remained ftill undifcovered; at laft the ef- 
feéts being found regular, and the efficient ene infcrutable, 
no wonder if gratitude transferred to the ftar-a portion of 
refpect for the benefits they were perfuaded they received 
from its influence. Though thefe obfervations were fuch as 
concerned Egypt and Nubia alone, yet from Egypt they paf- 
fed as objects proper for inquiry, as problems of the great- 
eft confequence to philofophers, and as a ae worthy 
the attention of all that fludied nature. — 
A creat ftep towards the accounting for thefe phenome- 
na was believed to be the difcovery of the Nile’s fource, and 
this, as it was attended with very confiderable difficulties, 
was thought therefore to be a proper object of inveftigation, 
even by kings, who difcovered nations by conquering them, 
and by their power, revenue, and armies, removed moft of 
thofe obftacles which, fucceeding each others in detail, 
weary the diligence, overcome the courage, and baffle the 
endeavours of the moft intrepid and per fevering i avellers, 
3 Sesorrnie 
