Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/686

 652 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER

the defert as quickly as poffible, and come to Axum, it mull have been then Summer, or near it ; and as it was neceflary his fleet mould return by the monfoon in October, fo it mufl have then rained continually, and the fun been perpendicu- lar to the country when he found the deep fnows in Sa- men, which is not very probable. The river Tacazze, more- over, which Ptolemy croffed, was really not paffable at that time, and no Abyffinian army did ever attempt it during a flood, though, without, fcruple at ail feafons they crofs the Nile when moll deep and rapid.

I remember that when I firft afcended Lamalmon, the higheft mountain of that ridge, running the whole length of the province of Samen, it was in the depth of winter ; the thermometer flood at 32", wind N. W. clear and cold, but attended with only hoar frofl, though at that height, and at that feafon ; the grafs fcarcely was difcoloured, and only felt crifp below my feet, with this fmall degree of freezing ; but this vanifhed into dew after a quarter of an hour's fun, nor did I ever fee any fign of congelation upon the water, however fhaded and ftagnant, upon the top of that, or any other hill. I have feen hail indeed lie for three hours in the forenoon upon the mountains of Amid Amid.

The opinion of Democritus was, that the overflowing of .the Nile was owing to the fun's attraction of fnowy vapour from the frozen mountains of the north, which being car- ried by the wind fouthward, and thawed by warmer cli- mates, fell down upon Ethiopia in deluges of rain : and the fame is advanced by Agatharcides of Cnidus in his Periplus •of the Red Sea. This opinion of Democritus, Diodorus at- tempts to refute, but we lliall not join him in his refutation, 4 becaufe