662 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
the defert as quickly as poffible, and come to Axum, it muft 
have been then Summer, or near it; and as it was neceflary 
his fleet fhould return by the monfoon in October, fo it mut . 
have then rained continually, and the fun been perpendicu- 
lar to the country when he found the deep fnows in Sa- 
men, which is not very probable. The river Tacazzé, more- 
over, which Ptolemy croffed, was really not paflable at that 
timeé; and no Abyflinian army did ever attempt it during a 
flood, though, without, fcruple at all feafons they crofs the 
Nile when moft deep and rapid. 
I-nememser that when 7 firft afcended Lamalmon, the 
higheft mountain of that ridge, running the whole length 
of the province of Samen, it was in the depth of winter; 
the thermometer flood at 32°, wind N. W. clear and cold, 
but attended with only hoar froft, though at that height, and 
at that feafon; the grafs fcarcely was difcoloured, and only 
felt crifp below my feet, with this fmall degree ot freezing ; 
but this vanifhed into dew after a quarter of an hour’s fun, 
nor did I ever fee any fign of congelation upon the water, 
Aowever fhaded and ftagnant, upon the top of that, or any 
other hill. I have feen hail indeed lie for three hours 1n the 
forenoon upon the mountains of Amid Amid. 
Tue opinion of Democritus was, that the overflowing of 
the Nile was owing to the fun’s attraction of {nowy vapour 
from the frozen mountains of the north, which being-car- 
ried by the wind fouthward, and thawed by warmer cli- 
Mates, fell down upon-Echiopia in deluges of rain: and the 
fame is advanced by Agatharcides of Cnidus in his Periplus 
of the Red Sea. This opinion of Democritus, Diodorus at- 
tempts to refute, but we fhall not join him in his refutation, 
4 becaufe 
