678 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
fides, there is no country in el world, perhaps, but where 
this trick may be played with impunity, except in Baypt 
for a reafon that I am about to explain. 
Tue extenfion of the land of Egypt ‘northward, the di- 
ftance between it and Cyprus, and the fituation of Canopus, 
all fhew, that no or very little alteration has been made 
thefe 3000 years. Dr Shaw, and the other writers, who are 
advocates for what has been advanced by Herodorus *, that 
Egypt hath been produced by the Nile, have dédetied this 
ground of maintaining their hypothefis, and have recourfe 
to the Nilometer to prove, that the foil has increafed in 
height, and that a greater quantity of water is neceflary 
now to overflow the land of Egypt than was required in 
- the days of Homer. 
Ir the firft part of their affertion can be proved, I fhall 
make no fort of difficulry of giving up the other. But I 
rather conceive, that none of thofe who have written upon 
this fubject hitherto, whatever degree of learning ard in- 
formation they may have poflefied, have poffefled fufficient 
data to explain this fubject intelligibly. It feems, indeed, 
to have remained with the fource of the hls. a fecret refer ved 
for latter times. 
) 
Ir will be neceffary for us firft to confider what the 
ufe of a Nilometer was, tor what caufe it was made, and by 
whom. 
Ir 
* Herod. Eut. feat. 4,5. Diod. Sic. lib. iii. p. ror. - Arift. Meteorol. lib. i. cap. 14. 
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