130 
DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
This opinion is of great antiquity ; for Pliny, who 
frequently confounds eoncomitancy and causation, 
asserts, that the Nile inundates the lakes of Nitria, 
as the sea overflows a lake of salt water : but the 
nature of the phenomenon renders this solution 
improbable. The springs which supply these lakes 
originate in the eastern side of the valley towards 
the Nile ; but if they were derived by filtration 
from that river, the inundation of the natron lakes 
would correspond to that of the Nile. If these 
springs, however, originate in the desert, their over- 
flowing, as Sonnini suggests, may be attributed to 
the local rains, which fall after the inundation of 
the Nile, when the heat of the summer solstice is 
abated. The water of the lakes is tinged with the 
hue of blood by the natron, the incrustration of 
which, in some places, spreads over the chalky bot- 
tom. Around the borders of the lakes, the ground 
is impregnated with saline particles, and the sand 
in some places is covered, to a considerable distance 
from the w 7 ater, with a hardened layer of natron. 
The banks of the lakes are hollowed into small 
channels, through which rivulets descend, and, in 
the rainy season, carry down to the lake the earth 
of the declivity, impregnated with saline substances. 
The vegetables which grow in the vicinity of the 
lakes are chiefly the flat stemmed reed, and the 
tamarisk, with a few stunted palms, which, in that 
arid soil, run into barren bushes. The saline sub» 
