DESCRIPTIONS OF EGYPT. 
177 
quiet station. * From these relations, we figure to 
ourselves the stupendous precipices of Niagara, the 
vast unbroken flood which agitates the air to a 
whirlwind in its fall, the thundering reverberation 
of the rocks, the white cloud of spray, and the pro- 
strate Indian adoring the awful divinity of the wa- 
ters. If ever these ideas were applicable to the 
waterfalls of the Nile, that period is long past. 
From the relation of Diodorus, however, who de- 
scribes the regurgitation of the river as inundating 
the plains of Nubia, it may be conjectured, that, 
in the lapse of time, through the constant attrition 
of so considerable. .a body of water, the fall of the 
river has been gradually rendered less precipitous, 
and the chasm of the rocks more considerable. 
About four miles beyond the cataract of the Nile, 
lies El-Heiff, the ancient Philae. In this isle, or 
rather rock of granite, which is only one hundred 
and fifty fathoms long and seventy broad, are con- 
centrated some of the most curious and picturesque 
remains of Egypt. Three entire temples, the ruins 
of a Roman fort, and the vestiges of two other 
temples, are here discernible. The plan of the 
temples is very irregular, probably from having 
been the work of different periods. The exterior 
part of the building is adorned with colossal sculp- 
tures, and the ornaments and capitals of the co- 
* Seneca? Nat. Quaest. lib. iv. c. 2. 
VOL. IT. M 
