XII.] THE CAUCASIC PEOPLES. 479 



sustenance for themselves and their wretched flocks. A moister 

 climate must have prevailed, with springs and running waters, 

 and the extensive terraces flanking the mouths of the mountain 

 streams between Keneh and Kosseir, the well rolled pebbles, the 

 beds 15 or 16 feet thick of calc-sinter (incrustations of carbonate 

 of lime) in the now dry gorges of the Hammamat, undoubtedly 

 deposited by springs, all sho\v the former abundance of moisture 

 in quite recent geological times. The same conclusion results 

 from a study of the coral barrier-reefs skirting the shores of the 

 Red Sea, with gaps at intervals opposite the wadi mouths, where 

 the freshwater from the torrents prevented the polyps from build- 

 ing. We may therefore conclude that parts of the present wastes 

 were inhabitable, and this solves the question where that magni- 

 ficent Neolithic culture of the first dynasties originated, and whence 

 the early Pharaohs drew those countless hosts for which the narrow 

 Nile valley could never have afforded sustenance. Thus also are 

 explained the numerous ancient settlements, the extensive quarries 

 and mining operations, whose debris amid the now waterless up- 

 lands seem such an inexplicable puzzle. The more moist and tem- 

 perate climate may be connected with the Ice Age farther north, 

 as already suggested by Lepsius, who thought that to the glacial 

 epoch of Europe corresponded a genial climate with a sufficient 

 rainfall in the now overheated southern zones, and that in such 

 an environment alone could be found the conditions needed for 

 the development of a cultured people. 



In such a climate great progress was made, especially in the 

 New Stone Age, which, as shown by M. J. de Morgan 1 , New gtone 

 must have been of very long duration. It has yielded and Bronze 



r . i j r i Ages in Upper 



a profusion of every imaginary kind or implements Egypt also 

 adapted to all the wants and usages of daily life. indi & enous - 

 As elsewhere, this Age lingered on well into the Metal period, as 

 seen in a beautiful flint knife plated with gold on which are 

 carved animal figures. The flints come not only from ordinary 

 stations, but also from very old graves and dwellings, such as the 

 necropolis of El-Amrah, four or five miles from Abydos. Here 



1 Recherches des Origines de FEgypte: PAge de la Pierre et des Metaiix, 

 1896. 



