THE SOURCE OF THE NILE 665 
Tue fun, having thus gathered fuch a quantity of va- 
pours as it were to a focus, now puts them in motion, and 
drawing them after it in its rapid progrefs northward, on 
the 7th of January, for two years together, feemed to have 
extended its power to the atmofphere of Gondar, when, for 
the firft time, there appeared in the {ky white, dappled, thin 
clouds, the fun being then diftant 34° from the zenith, with- 
out any one cloudy or dark {peck having been feen for fe- 
veral months before. Advancing to the Line with increa~ 
fed velocity, and defcribing larger fpirals, the fun brings on 
a few drops of rain at Gondar the 1ft of March, being then 
diftant 5° from the zenith; thefe are greedily abforbed by 
the thirfty foil, and this feems to be the fartheft extent of the 
fun’s influence, capable of caufing rain, which then only falls 
in large drops, and lafts but a few minute$: the rainy fea- 
fon, however, begins moft ferioufly upon its arrival at the 
zenith of every place, and thefe rains continue conftant and 
increafing after he has paffed it, in his progrefs northward. | 
Before this, green boughs and leaves appear floating in the 
Bahar el Abiad, and fhew that, in the latitude where it rifes, 
the rains are already abundant. The Galla, who inhabit, or 
have paffed that river, give account of its fituation, which 
lies, as far as I could ever calculate, about 5° from the Line. 
Iw April, all the rivers in Amhara, Begemder, and Lafia, 
firft difcoloured, and then beginning to fwell, join the Nile 
in the feveral parts of its courfe neareft them. the river 
then, from the height of its angle of inclination, forces it- 
felf through the ftagnant lake without mixing with it. In 
the beginning. of May, hundreds of {treams pour themfelves 
from Gojam, Damort, Maittha, and. Dembea, into the lake 
Tzana, which had become low by intenfe evaporation, but 
J > 
Bort 4P | Bs 
