130 Observations on Sculptured Marks on 



in, by having been hollowed out, a process that would be hastened in 

 those parts of the hills where softer and earthy beds existed, and which 

 would be more easily washed away. But that, in historical times, within 

 a period of about 4000 years, so great an alteration should take place in 

 the harJest rocks, is a fact of the most remarkable kind, — one which may 

 afford ground for many other important considerations. 



' ' The elevation of the water-level at Semne must necessarily have af- 

 fected all the lands above ; and, it is to be presumed, that the level of the 

 province of Dongola was at one thue higher, as Semne cannot be the only 

 place in the long tract of cliffs where the bed of rock has been hollowed 

 out. It is to be conceived, therefore, that not only the widely-extended 

 tracts in Dongola, but those of all the higher country in Meroe, and as 

 far up as Fasogle, which, in the present day, are dry and barren on both 

 sides of the river, and are with difficulty irrigated by artificial contri- 

 vances, must then have presented a very different aspect, when the Nile 

 overflowed them, and yearly deposited its fertile mud to the limits of tho 

 sandy desert. 



" Lower Nubia also, between Wadi Haifa and Assuan, is now arid 

 almost throughout its whole extent. The present land of the valley, 

 which is only partly irrigated by water-wheels, is, on an average, from 6 

 to 12 feet higher than the level to which the Nile now rises ; and although 

 the rise at Semne might have no immediate influence upon it, yet what 

 has occurred there makes it more than probable, that at Assuan there was 

 formerly a very different level of the river, and that the cataracts there, 

 even in the historical period, have been considerably worn down. The 

 continued impoverishment of Nubia is a proof of this. I have no manner 

 of doubt that the land in this lower part of the valley, which, as already 

 stated, is at present about 10 feet above the highest rise of the Nile, was 

 inundated by it within historical time. Many marks are also met with 

 here, that leave no doubt regarding the condition of the Nile Valley ante- 

 cedent to history, when the river must have risen much higher; for it has 

 left an alluvial soil in almost all the considerable bays, at an average 

 height of 10 metres (32 feet 9 inches) above the present mean rise of the 

 river. That alluvial soil, since that period, has doubtless been consider- 

 ably diminished in extent by the action of rain. On the 17th of August 

 Hr. Erbkam and I measured the nearest alluvial hillock in the neighbour- 

 hood of Korusko, and found it 6 '91 metres (22 feet 7 inches) above the 

 general level of the valley, and 10*26 metres (33 feet 7 inches) above the 

 present mean rise of the river. That rise, which at Semne, on account 

 of the greater confinement of the stream between the rocks, varies as much 

 as 2*40 metres (7 feet 10 inches) in different years, varies at Korusko less 

 than 1 metre (3 feet 3 inches). 



" Near Abusimbel, on the west bank, I found the ground of the temple 

 6-50 metres (21 feet 2 inches) above the highest water-level. This temple, it 

 is weU known, was built under Rameses the Great, between 1388 and 1322 

 years before Christ. Near Ibrim there are, on the east bank, four grottoes 

 excavated in the vertical rock that bounds the river, which belong partly to 

 the 18th' and partly to the 19th dynasties ; the last, under Ramses the Great, 



