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6That this is the case, is evident from an inspection of the sources of rivers, as marked in geographical charts; as also from the descriptions of them, wherein we find that the largest, and greatest number are from the north. First, in India, the Ganges and Indus spring from Mount Caucasus: in Syria, the Tigris and Euphrates: in Asia, and especially in Pontus, the Borysthenes, Hypanis and Tanaïs: in Colchis, the Phasis: in France, the Rhône: in Belgium, the Rhine: southward of the Alps, the Timavus and Po: in Italy, the Tiber: in Maurusia, which we call Mauritania, the river Dyris, from Mount Atlas, which, rising in a northern region, proceeds westward to the lake Heptabolus, where, changing its name, it is called the Niger, and thence from the lake Heptabolus, flowing under barren mountains, it passes in a southern direction, and falls into the marsh Coloe, which encircles Meroe, a kingdom of the southern Ethiopians. From this marsh turning round near the rivers Astasoba, Astabora, and many others, it passes through mountains to the Cataract, and falling down towards the north it passes between Elephantis and Syene and the Thebaic Fields in Egypt, where it receives the appellation of the Nile.
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