THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. Jos 
_ Mr Pococxe makes two very curious and fenfible remarks 
in point of fact, but of which he does not know the reafon, 
“ The Nile, he fays, in the beginning, turns red, and fome- 
times green; then the waters are unwholefome, He fuppofes 
that the fource of the Nile beginning to flow plentifully, 
the waters at firft bring away that green or red filth whigh 
may be about the lakes at its rife, or at the rife of thefe 
{mall rivers that flow into it, near its principal fource ; for, 
though there is fo little water in the Nile, when at lowetft, 
that there is hardly any current in many parts of it, yet 
it cannot be fuppofed that the water fhould ftagnate in 
the bed of the Nile, fo as to become green. Afterwards 
the water becomes very red and ftill more turbid, and then 
it begins to be wholefome *.”’ 
Tue true reafon of this appearance is from thofe immenfe 
marthes fpread over the country about Nareaand Caffa, where 
there is little level, and where the water accumulates, and is 
ftagnant, before it overflows into the river Abiad, which ri- 
fes there. The overflowing of thefe immenfe marfhes carry ' 
firft that difcoloured water into Egypt, then follows, in Abyf 
finia,the overflowing of the great lake Tzana, through which 
the Nile paffes, which, having been ftagnated and without 
rain for fix months, under a fcorching fun, joins its putrid 
waters with the firft. There are, moreover, very few rivers 
in Abyflinia that run after November, as they ftand in pro- 
digious pools below, in the country of the Shangalla, and 
afford drink for the elephant, and habitation and food for 
the hippopotamus. Thefe pools likewife throw off their 
ftagnant water into the Nile on receiving the firft rains; 
Vot. III. 4U at - 
- 
* Pococke, vol. i. p. 199. 200, 
