effect; and that the ocean flows all round the
earth. T he third w a y o f resolving this difficulty
is b y far the most specious, but most untrue.
F o r b y saying that the Nile flows from melted
snow, it says nothing, for this river flows from
L ib y a through the middle o f Ethiopia and discharges
itself into E g y p t ; how therefore, since it runs
from a v e ry hot to a colder region, can it flow
from snow? Many reasons will readily occur
to men o f go od understanding, to show the improbability
o f its flowing from snow. T h e first
and chief p ro o f is derived from the winds,
which blow hot from those regions: the second
is, that the country, destitute o f rain, is always
free from ice; but after snow has fallen, it must
o f necessity rain within five days; so that if
snow fell, it would also rain in these regions.
In the third place, the inhabitants become black
from the excessive heat: kites and swallows
continue there all the year; and the cranes, to
avoid the cold o f Scythia, migrate to these
parts as winter quarters: if then ever so little
snow fell in this country through which the
Nile flows, and from which it derives its source,
none o f these things would happen, as necessity
proves. But the person who speaks about the
ocean, since he has referred his account to some
obscure fable, produces no conviction at all, for
I do not know any river called the Ocean, but
suppose that Homer, or some other ancient
poet, having invented the name, introduced it
into poetry .”
Captain Burton the learned traveller has some
excellent paragraphs in his ‘Nile Basin,’ and remarks
on this topic in connection with Ptolemy:—
“ That early geographer placed his lake Nilus
a little to the south o f the Equator (about ten
degrees), and 50 E. long- from Alexandria— that
is, in 34° or 350 E. long, b y our mode o f reckoning.
He was led into an error in placing these
portions o f the interior, bearing, as he conceived,
from certain points in the east. Thus he
places Cape Aromatum (Cape As se r or Cape
ÎGuardafui) in 6° N. la t , which w e know to be
in i i ° 48' 50", being thus, say, 6° out o f its true
place. He places the la k e , the source o f the
■western branch o f the river, i° more to the
north and 8° more to the west than the one for
the eastern branch; subsequent inquiries may
show us that these great features o f Africa may
y e t turn out to be substantially correct.
“ W e cannot here enter into any disquisition
regarding the discrepancies that appear amongst
the v e ry ancient authors regarding these parts
o f Africa. W e notice only those that are consistent
and most valuable, and as bearing upon
the priority o f discovery and geographical knowledge.
The earliest period we hear o f E thiopia