660 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
fertile, the Delta, is under- the dominion: of variable vivastiner 
which Jaft long, from.one point, at no time, 
I sHaur, trefpafs upon my reader's patience, on this head, 
by no more than one additional obfervation. If the. Etefian | 
winds, by oppofing the ftream, occafioned the inundation, 
they could effect this no longer than they continued to. 
blow. Now, it-was an obfervation we made when on the. 
Nile, and it was almoft. without exception, that as often as . 
the Etefian winds blew throughout the day, the night was . 
either calm, or the -wind-blew gently from the fouth or eaft, . 
fo that it is morally impoffible the river could have over-. 
flowed at all, without.a.much more powerful and.con. 
flant agent than the Etefian winds :—~.. 
Zephyros quoque vana vetuftas : | 
Lhs adferipfit aquisy —.. Lucane. 
Vain, indeed! A philofopher of’the prefent age would be - 
thought mad who fhould:rely on a fyftem fo contrary to ; 
experiment and obfervation; though Thales, the propa-: 
gator of this now mentioned, was fo highly efteemed for- 
his knowledge. 
Tue next opinion quoted is that of Anaxagoras, who > 
attributes the inundation of the Nile to fnow melting in. 
Ethiopia; and this Diodorus contradicts, fora very fubftan- 
tial reafon, that there is no fnow in Ethiopia to melt. But 
fuppofing all the mountainous. part of Ethiopia north of 
the Line, that is all Abyflinia, were covered with fnow, then _ 
the inundation muft happen in other months, as it mutt 
begin in January, for: the. fun being then within few de- 
2.. grees 
