Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/689

 THE SOURCE OF THENILE. 66 5

The fun, having thus gathered fuch a quantity of va- pours as it were to a focus, now puts them in motion, and drawing them after it in its rapid progrefs northward, on the 7th of January, for two years together, feemed to have extended its power to the atmofphere of Gondar, when, for the firfl time, there appeared in the fky white, dappled, thin clouds, the fun being then diilant 34 from the zenith, with- out any one cloudy or dark fpeck having been feen for fe- veral months before. Advancing to the Line with increa- fed velocity, and defcribing larger fpirals, the fun brings on a few drops of rain at Gondar the ill of March, being then diftant 5 from the zenith ; thefe are greedily abforbed by the thirfty foil, and this feems to be the farthefl extent of the fun's influence, capable of caufmg rain, which then only falls in large drops, and lafts but a few minutes : the rainy fea- fon, however, begins moll ferioully upon its arrival at the zenith of every place, and thefe rains continue conllant and increafmg after he has palTed it, in his progrefs northward. Before this, green boughs and leaves appear floating in the Bahar el Abiad, and fhew that, in the latitude where it rifes, the rains are already abundant. The Galla, who inhabit, or have palled that river, give account of its fituation, which lies, as far as I could ever calculate, about 5 from the Line.-

In April, all the rivers- in Amhara, Begemder, and Lafla, firfl: difcoloured, and then beginning to fwell, join the Nile in the feveral parts of its courfe nearell them ; the river then, from the height of its angle of inclination, forces it- felf through the llagnant lake without mixing with it. In the. beginning of May, hundreds of llreams pour themfelves from Gojam, Damot, Maitfha, and Dembea, into the lake Tzana, which had become low by intenfe evaporation, but Vol. III. 4 P now