THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 66% 
grees of being vertical, it muft have been the very height 
of flood when the fun pafled over that country in April ; 
whereas its increafe is not difcerned till about June, when. 
the fun has left the zenith of all. Abyflinia, having then 
-paffed over Nubia, and is ftanding vertical to ghee, or as. 
far to the northward as it can procced.. 
Ir is not my meaning to maintain that there never was: 
fnow in Abyflinia, as climates have wonderfully changed. 
In Cefar’s time, the greateft rivers in the Gaul almoft.every 
year were frozen over for months, fothat armed nations, . 
with their families, cattle, and incumbrances, pafled regu- 
larly over them upon the ice without fear; an-event that: 
happens not now once in:a century. In Pruffia * alfo were 
found white bears,.an animal now:confined to the fevereft 
fnowy regions of the north; and, what. comes ftill nearer to 
the prefent fubject, in the infcription found in Abyffinia by 
€ofmas Indoplauttes, Prolomeus Evergetes, {peaking there, in 
the firft perfon, of his own conquefts. in Ethiopia, fays,that he 
had paffed the river Siris, and had entered the kingdom of 
Samen, a country intolerable.on. account. of cold and-deep « 
faow. . 
Turs account I think almoft incredible.. Ptolemy parted 
from Egypt, his fleet coafting along the Red Sea, oppofite to» 
his army, and carrying provifions for it; we know, more-.. 
over, the time his fhips failed, the beginning of June, when. 
the Nile was overflowed, and-confequently of great utility to 
his army on the firft part of his expedition, while he was 
in Egypt and part-of Nubia.. Now fuppofing him to pafs 
the 
* Panfanius Arcad, chap. xviix 
