6i8 Mr. mann’s Treat if e 
pliny (k) fays, with regard to the different mouths of 
the Po, Omnia ea flumina fojfafque primi a Sagi fecere 
Tbufci , egefo amnis impetu per tranfverfum in Atriano- 
rum Paludes , qua Septem Maria appellantur. Thefe 
feven lakes difcharged their waters into the fea by 
feven mouths, which pliny names in the fame place. 
All this was apparently done that the river might do 
lefs damage to the adjacent countries by its frequent in- 
undations. pliny adds, His fe Padus mifcet , ac per bac 
effundi'tur , plerifque , ut in TEgypto Nilus , quod vocant 
Delta. 
To thefe examples, drawn from ancient hiftory, might 
be added many modern ones, if the things in queftion 
had need of further proofs. Thus, both nature and the 
experience of a long feries of ages teach us, that the re- 
paration of a river into feveral beds, by new branches 
and mouths, is a means of diminifhing inundations in 
the inner part of the country ; but that this takes place 
only when there is a fufficient abundance of water in the 
river to fill the new beds and channels fo far as to prevent 
the velocity of the currents therein from being notably 
diminiflied from what they were before the divifion. 
(k) Hift. Nat. 1. Ill, cap. xvr* 
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