lar valley under her ancient kings. At all events it is perfectly clear, that in the heroic age of Greece the word Egyptus was employed in reference to an ancient sovereign, to the land, and also to the river. The Nile, we may observe, was described, even among the descendants of Jacob, by the term Sichor, which also signifies black; and hence the Greeks called it Melas, and the Latins Niger, words which express the very same idea. But it is worthy of remark, as one of the many instances in which the perceptions of the ancients as to colour are not clearly comprehended in our days, that the modern name, used by the Arabs, denotes blue; the very tint, perhaps, which was indicated by Plutarch when he compared it to the organ of vision. The Greeks, indeed, who interpreted all languages on the principles recognised by their own, derived this epithet from an imaginary event, the reign of King Nileus. But this hypothesis is disproved by the familiar fact that the great Abyssinian branch is denominated by the inhabitants, in their vernacular tongue, the Bahr-elNil, the Blue River, or more commonly the Bahr-elAzrek, an appellation almost strictly synonymous. The stream itself, as if it were doomed for ever to share the obscurity which covers the ancient history of the land to which it ministers, still conceals its true sources from the eager curiosity of modern science. The question which was agitated in the age of the Ptolemies has not yet been solved; and although 2000 years have elapsed since Eratosthenes published his conjectures as to the origin of the principal branch, we possess not more satisfactory knowledge on that particular point than was enjoyed in his days by the philosophers of Alexandria. The repeated failures which had already attended the various attempts to discover its fountains, convinced the geographers of Greece and Rome that success was impossible, and that it was the will of the gods to conceal from all generations this great secret of nature. Homer, in language sufficiently ambiguous, describes it as a stream descending from heaven. Herodotus made inquiry in regard to its commencement, but soon saw reason to relinquish the attempt as altogether fruitless. Alexander the Great and Ptolemy Philadelphus engaged in the same undertaking, and despatched persons well qualified by their knowledge for the arduous task; but who, nevertheless, like the great father of history himself, travelled and inquired in vain. Pomponius Mela was doubtful whether it did not rise in the country of the Antipodes. Pliny traced it in imagination to a mountain in the Lower Mauritania, while Euthemenes was of opinion that it proceeded from the borders of the Atlantic, and penetrated through the heart of Africa, dividing it into two continents. Virgil appears to have favoured a conjecture, which has also found supporters at a later period, that the Nile proceeded from the East, and might be identified with one of the great rivers of Asia. Quaque pharetratae vicinia Persidis urget, Usque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis.-Georg. iv. 290. And where the stream from India's swarthy sons, SOTHEBY. B Lucan indulges in his usual mysticism, and appears satisfied that, by a decree of the fates, the glory of no nation will ever be increased by drawing aside the veil in which the Naiads of this mighty stream have been pleased to conceal themselves. The conceptions of Lucretius, the poet of physical nature, were perhaps more correct, although obviously founded upon a fortunate conjecture rather than derived from actual research. Ille ex æstiferâ parti venit amnis, ab Austro Exoriens penitus mediâ ab regione diei.-Lib. vi. 721. While rolls the Nile adverse Full from the South, from realms of torrid heat,- It is worthy of notice that the judgment formed by Herodotus in respect to the course of this celebrated river coincides, in a great degree, with the conclusions held by many modern authors. He remarks that, without including the section between Syene and the Mediterranean, the progress of the Nile is known to the extent of four months' journey, partly by land and partly by water; for it will be found on experience that no one can go in less time from Elephantiné to the country of the Automolians. There is no doubt, he adds, that the Nile rises in the west; but beyond the people just mentioned all is uncertainty, this portion of Africa being, from the excessive heat, a rude and uncultivated desert. The Nile, he elsewhere observes, certainly rises in Libya, which it divides; and if it be allowable to draw, from things which are well known, conclusions re specting those that are more obscure, it takes a similar course with the Danube. But of the fountains of the former river, washing, as it does the savage and uninhabitable wilds of Libya, no one can speak with precision.* From other circumstances mentioned in the second book of his history, there is little doubt that Herodotus believed the Niger and the Nile to be the same river, or, at least, that the water which was carried to the centre of the African continent by the one, was discharged into the sea through the mouths of the other. At the present moment there is no hypothesis in regard to these streams which rests on a better foundation. It is no longer disputed that the left branch, the Bahr-el-Abiad or White River, constitutes the principal body of the Nile, and that it flows towards Egypt from the west or south-west. Mr Browne was informed that it issues from a lofty ridge situated to the south of Darfûr, called in the language of the country Djibbel el Kumri, or Mountains of the Moon. But it is important to observe that the south winds are there the hottest and driest of any, and bring along with them thick clouds of dust. This shows that there is no high chain within a great distance in the direction now described; for the winds, before they can be possessed of such qualities, must sweep over a great extent of sandy desert. The source of the Bahr-el-Abiad cannot, therefore, be sought in the meridian of Darfûr, unless we consent to remove it far beyond the equator. Besides, Mr Jackson was informed that travellers have * Euterpe, 31, 33, 34. passed by water from Timbuctoo to Cairo,-a circumstance which, if true, proves either that the Niger and the Nile are the same, or that there must be intermediate streams, forming, between the two rivers just named, a communication resembling that which was found by Humboldt to connect the Orinoco with the Amazons. Nor is it a slight circumstance, in weighing the evidence on both sides of this question, to be reminded that the quantity of mud brought down by the Nile cannot be washed annually from the rocky channel of a mountain-torrent. This fact was employed by Bruce as the basis of his argument against those writers who ascribe the increase of the Delta to the depositions of the river, being founded on his personal observation of the Bahr-el-Azrek in its course through the greater part of Abyssinia. It is therefore certain that the White River cuts a passage through a considerable extent of rich soil before it approaches the granite range which bounds the western extremity of Nubia. The tropical rains collect on the table-lands of the interior, where they form immense sheets of water or temporary lakes. When these have reached a level high enough to overflow the boundaries of their basins, they suddenly send down into the rivers an enormous volume of fluid impregnated with the soft earth over which it has for some time stagnated. Hence the momentary pauses and sudden renewals in the rise of the Nile,-hence, too, the abundance of fertilizing slime, which is never found so copious in the waters of rivers which owe their increase solely to the direct influence of the rains.* * Malte Brun, vol. iv. p. 8. |