. HE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 72% 
ages. pafled between Egypt and Sennaar, muft have feen 
this river, and drunk of it; fo muft the travellers, in the 
beginning of this century, Poncet and M. du Roule. They 
were both at Elvah; and, pafling through the dreary deferts 
of Selima, they muft have gone along its fide, and croffed 
it, where it parted from the Nile in their journey to Sen- 
naar. Whereas we know they ne-er faw running water 
from the time they left the Nile at Siout in Egypt, till they 
fell in again with it at Mofcho, during which period they 
had nothing but well water, which they carried in {kins 
with them. | 
Tue diftri& of Elvah is the Oafis Magna and Oafis Parva 
of the ancients; large plentiful {prings breaking out in the 
middle of the burning fands, and running conftantly with- 
out diminution, have invited inhabitants to flock around 
them. Thefe conducting off the water that fpills over the 
fountain by trenches, the neighbouring lands have quickly 
produced a plentiful vegetation: gardens and verdure are 
fpread on every fide, large groves of palm tree have been 
planted, and the overflowings of every fountain have pro- 
duced a little paradife, like fo many beautiful and fruitful 
iflands amidft an immenfe ocean. 
Tue coaft of the Mediterranean, from the Cyrenaicum 
or Ptolemaid (that is, the coaft from Bengazi, or Derna, to 
Alexandria) is well known by the fhipping of every nation; 
but what pilot or paflenger ever faw this magnificent wa- 
tering-place in that defert coaft, where this branch of the 
Nile comes down into the Mediterranean? Befides, the au- 
thor of this fable betrays his ignorance in the very begin- 
AYi2 ning, 
