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1. Approaching the source of the Nile 3. Another discovery of the source of the Nile
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James Bruce
4. Nile twisting and turning
After the Nile emerges, it evidently wiggles back and forth for half a dozen
miles.
Careful explorer that he is, Bruce counts twenty turns in five miles.
On page 580 he says "In this plain, the Nile winds more in the space of four
miles than, I believe, any river in the world."
And in the following short passage, he enumerates the twists and turns
again. In the same way, Bartram's crystal fountain throws up a stream that
"meanders six miles through green meadows."
In both authors, we certainly have a watercourse meandering for several
miles.
So when Coleridge says that the sacred river goes "five miles meandering
with a mazy motion," Lowes concludes "That is Bartram and Bruce in one." 372
Text
Makes so many sharp, unnatural windings, that it differs from any other
river I ever saw, making about twenty sharp angular peninsulas in the course
of five miles. Bruce, III p. 644. |
 Other sources
William Bartram |