DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0155
140 TRAVELS IN UPPER
Nile and the lakes, which must be impossible.
The increase of these is in an inverse proportion
to that of the Nile ; and when the river begins to
overflow, the lakes diminish, so as to appear only
like little ponds, when the river has attained its
greatest height: on the contrary, the water
appears to return into them as the height of the
Nile decreases, and they inundate a long tract of
the valley, when the river is at its ebb.
Struck with this regular difference between the
periods at which the waters of the Nile, and those
of the lakes of natron, rise and fall, the Egyptians
imagine, that the river acts on the body of water in
the desert; as if this action, supposing it to exist,
would not have produced an opposite effect to that
which takes place; whereas in this case it is
obvious, that the overflow of the Nile and the
lakes, as well as their decrease, must have taken
place nearly at the same time. But if we consider,
that the augmentation of the Nile, occasioned by
the rains in Abyssinia, commences at the summer
solstice, the very time when the weather is hottest
and driest; and just as the river decreases, or
during the winter, the rains never fail to be copious
in the northern part of this country; we shall be
aware, that the season when the Nile increases
must be that in which the water spread over the
sand diminishes and dries up, and that local rains,
4 which
Nile and the lakes, which must be impossible.
The increase of these is in an inverse proportion
to that of the Nile ; and when the river begins to
overflow, the lakes diminish, so as to appear only
like little ponds, when the river has attained its
greatest height: on the contrary, the water
appears to return into them as the height of the
Nile decreases, and they inundate a long tract of
the valley, when the river is at its ebb.
Struck with this regular difference between the
periods at which the waters of the Nile, and those
of the lakes of natron, rise and fall, the Egyptians
imagine, that the river acts on the body of water in
the desert; as if this action, supposing it to exist,
would not have produced an opposite effect to that
which takes place; whereas in this case it is
obvious, that the overflow of the Nile and the
lakes, as well as their decrease, must have taken
place nearly at the same time. But if we consider,
that the augmentation of the Nile, occasioned by
the rains in Abyssinia, commences at the summer
solstice, the very time when the weather is hottest
and driest; and just as the river decreases, or
during the winter, the rains never fail to be copious
in the northern part of this country; we shall be
aware, that the season when the Nile increases
must be that in which the water spread over the
sand diminishes and dries up, and that local rains,
4 which