XI. In Arabia, at no great distance from Ægypt, there is a long but narrow bay, diverging from the Erythrean Sea*, which I shall more minutely

still continues to connect them with the continent, by the rubbish which that river deposits at its mouth, as I have had an opportunity of observing.-Wood on Homer.

The above note from Wood I have introduced principally with a view of refuting his gross mistake. Achelous is a river of Acarnania, and the Echinades close to that coast, and distant from Elis a considerable space. No descent of earth from Achelous could possibly join them to any thing but the main land; whereas Elis is in the Peloponnese.-T.

*It is a very common thing to confound the Red Sea and the Erythrean Sea. The appellation of Red Sea should be confined to the Arabian Gulph. The Erythrean Sea is that ocean which stretches from the Straits of Babelmandel to India. It was so called from some king, whose name was Erythras. Erythras in Greek signifies red, and this is all we know about it.-T.

Unfortunately, says Dr. Vincent, modern scepticism has destroyed the credit of King Erythras. It is now an opinion generally received, that the Red Sea is the Idumæan Sea, or Gulph of Arabia, taking its name from Edom or Esau, the Arabian Patriarch, and Edom signifies red. The Arabians were doubtless the first navigators of the Indian Ocean, and as they entered that sea by passing the Straits of Babelmandel, they carried the name of the Red Sea, from whence they commenced their course to the utmost extent of their discoveries. Hence the Indian Ocean received the title of Red, and the Greeks, who translated every thing rather than introduce a foreign word, made it the Erythrean Sea. Not contented, however, with this, they usually found a god, a hero, or a king, whose name or story must be connected with the derivation, and hence we have Erythras for the present purpose. See Vincent's Nearchus, p. 319.

nutely describe.

Its extreme length, from the

straits where it commences, to where it communicates with the main, will employ a bark with oars a voyage of forty days, but its breadth in the widest parts, may be sailed over in half a day. In this bay, the tide* daily ebbs and flows; and I conceive that Ægypt itself was a gulph formerly of similar appearance, and that, issuing from the Northern Ocean, it extended itself towards Æthiopia; in the same manner the Arabian one so described, rising in the south, flowed towards Syria; and that the two were only separated from each other by a small neck of land. If the Nile should by any means have an issue into the Arabian gulph, in the course of twenty thousand years might be totally choked up with earth brought there by the passage of the river. I am of opinion, that this might take place even within ten thousand years: why then might not a gulph

it

still

* According to Arrian, the army of Alexander was overpowered with astonishment at seeing the effects of the tide at the mouth of the Indus. This seems rather remarkable, as this passage of Herodotus proves that the ebb and flow of the tide was a phenomenon neither unknown nor unobserved. See on this subject Dr. Vincent on the Voyage of Nearchus, p. 149.

+ Herodotus reasons thus :-If the Nile were admitted to flow into the Arabian Gulph, the residuum of mud would fill it up in twenty, or even in ten, thousand years. If the whole of Ægypt, therefore, were once a gulph, it is not unlikely that it should have been choked up with mud, in the indefinite period of ages before his time. This is no argument that such a gulph ever existed.

still greater than this be choked up with mud, in the space of time which has passed before our age, by a stream so great and powerful as the Nile?

XII. All, therefore, that I heard from the natives concerning Egypt, was confirmed by my own observations. I remarked also, that this country gains upon the region which it joins; that shells 22 are found upon the mountains; and

22

that

Shells.]-It is very certain that shells are found upon the mountains of Egypt, but this by no means proves the existence of the Egyptian gulph. Shells also are found upon mountains much higher than those of Ægypt, in Europe, Asia, and America. This only proves that all those regions have in part been covered by the waters of the sea, some at one time and some at another. I say in part, because it is certain, from the observation of the most skilful naturalists, that the highest mountains have not been covered with water. These, in the times of such general inundations, appeared like so many islands.-Larcher.

That the deluge was not universal, but to be understood as confined to the inhabitants of Palestine, was the opinion of many ancient writers, and in particular of Josephus: see his second book against Apion, where he speaks of Berosus. In confirmation of the above opinion of Josephus, I have somewhere seen the following verse from Genesis adduced. "And the dove came in unto him in the evening, and lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off." This, it has been urged, could not possibly be a leaf of an olive-tree which, for so great a length of time had been immersed in water, and probably buried under mud and other substances. Was it not, say they, gathered from some tree in the more elevated parts of Asia, to which the inundation of Noah had

not

that an acrid matter" exudes from the soil, which has proved injurious even to the pyramids 24;

and

not extended. As to the circumstance of shells being frequently found on the summits of mountains, many naturalists are of opinion that this may have been produced by earthquakes, to which cause also the deluge has by some been ascribed. Our countryman, Woodward, considers this fact of shells being found on mountains, as an incontestible proof of a deluge; which opinion is contradicted by Linnæus, in his System of Nature, who says, that he could find no certain marks of a deluge any where; his words are, "Cataclysmi universalis certa rudera ego nondum attigi, quousque penetravi." In return, we have recently been informed by Sir William Jones, that in the oldest mythological books of Indostan there is a description of the deluge, nearly corresponding with that of the Scriptures. After all, it is my opinion, that the dove returning with an olive-leaf, pluckt off, was the strongest proof of the universality of the deluge; for hereby, "Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth." After the waters had covered the earth 150 days, "the tops of the mountains were seen;" a plain proof that they had been covered; and whether the waters were in a stagnated or a turbulent state, there can be no reason why the leaves of trees should not float on their surface either singly or adhering to branches.

23 Acrid matter.]-In every part of Egypt, on digging, a brackish water is found, containing natrum, marine salt, and a little nitre. Even when the gardens are overflowed for the sake of watering them, the surface of the ground, after the evaporation and absorption of the water, appears glazed over with salt.-Volney,

24 Injurious to the pyramids.]—Norden informs us, that the stones of the great pyramid on the north side are rotten; but he assigns no cause for this phenomenon.--T.

It appears from experiment, that the water of the Nile

x 3

leaves

and that the only mountain in Ægypt which produces sand is the one situate above Memphis. Neither does Ægypt possess the smallest resemblance to Arabia, on which it borders, nor to Libya and Syria, for the sea-coast of Arabia is possessed by Syrians. It has a black and crumbling soil, composed of such substances as the river in its course brings down from Ethiopia. The soil of Libya we know to be red and sandy; and the earth, both of Arabia and Syria, is strong and mixed with clay.

*

XIII. The information of the priests confirmed the account which I have already given of this country. In the reign of Moris, as soon as the river rose to eight cubits, all the lands above Memphis were overflowed; since which a period of about nine hundred years has elapsed; but at

present,

leaves a precipitation of nitre; and all travellers, of all ages, make mention of the nitrous quality of the atmosphere. To this cause Pococke and Savary agree in imputing those diseases of the eyes, so common and so fatal in Ægypt. Eight thousand blind people, according to this latter author, are decently maintained in the great mosque of Grand Cairo. It may seem a little remarkable, that of this quality and probable effect of the air, Herodotus should make no mention.-T.

*The soil or mud that is thus conveyed, buoyed up into the stream, is of an exceedingly light nature, and feels to the touch like what we commonly call an impalpable powder,-Shawe.