The third opinion is by far the most plausible, yet the most erroneous of all. It has no more truth in it than the others. According to this, the Nile flows from where snows melt; but it flows from Libya through the midst of Ethiopia , and comes out into Egypt . How can it flow from snow, then, seeing that it comes from the hottest places to lands that are for the most part cooler? In fact, for a man who can reason about such things, the principal and strongest evidence that the river is unlikely to flow from snows is that the winds blowing from Libya and Ethiopia are hot. In the second place, the country is rainless and frostless; but after snow has fallen, it has to rain within five days ; so that if it snowed, it would rain in these lands. And thirdly, the men of the country are black because of the heat. Moreover, kites and swallows live there all year round, and cranes come every year to these places to winter there, flying from the wintry weather of Scythia . Now, were there but the least fall of snow in this country through which the Nile flows and where it rises, none of these things would happen, as necessity proves.