132 Observations on Sculptured Marks on 



the vast lapse of time that must be included between the beginning 

 and close of a geological period ; and, when they flow through 

 countries whose remote political history is known to us, they supply 

 a scale by which we may measure and estimate that lapse of time. 

 This is especially so in the case of the Nile. 



When so startling an hypothesis as that now referred to, viz., that 

 the entire bed of so vast a river as the Nile, for more than 250 

 miles, from Senme to Assuan, has been excavated, within historical 

 time, to a depth of 27 feet, is made by a person whose name carries 

 so much weight in one department of philosophical inquiry, the 

 statement involves such important geological considerations, that it 

 becomes the duty of the geologist to examine, and thoroughly test the 

 soundness of the explanation, in order that the authority of Pro- 

 fessor Lepsius, for the accuracy of the facts observed, may not be 

 too readily admitted as conclusive for the correctness of his theory of 

 the cause to which they owe their existence. That there has been 

 such an undoubting admission, appears from the following passage 

 in the work of one of the latest writers on Nubia : — 



'* The translation of the name of this town (Aswan) is * the opening ;* 

 and a great opening this once was, before the Nile had changed its cha- 

 racter in Ethiopia, and vvhen the more ancient races made this rock (at 

 the first cataract) their watch-tower on the frontier between Egypt and 

 the south. That the Nile has changed its character, south of the first 

 cataract, has been made clear by some recent examinations of the shores 

 and monuments of Nubia. Dr Lepsius has discovered water-marks so 

 high on the rocks and edifices, and so placed as to compel the conviction 

 that the bed of the Nile has sunk extraordinarily by some great natural 

 process, either of convulsion or wear. The apparent exaggerations of 

 some old writers about the cataracts at Syene may thus be in some mea- 

 sure accounted for. If there really was once a cataract here, instead of 

 the rapids of the present day, there is some excuse for the reports given 

 from hearsay by Cicero and Seneca. Cicero says, that ' the river throws 

 itself headlong from the loftiest mountains, so that those who live nearest 

 are deprived of the sense of hearing, from the greatness of the noise.' 

 Seneca's account is : ' When some people were stationed there by the Per- 

 sians, their ears were so stunned with the constant roar, that it was found 

 necessary to remove them to a more quiet place.' " * 



N'ote. — The learned author of an article on Egyptian Chronology 

 and History in the "Prospective Review" for May 1850, in refer- 

 ring to the contributions of Professor Lepsius to Egyptian history, 

 says, " He has discovered undescribed pyramids, equal in number to 

 those known before; has traced the Labyrinth, and ascertained its 

 founder. He has detected inscriptions on the banks of the Nile, 

 which show that its bed has subsided many feet in historic times ^ 

 9th June 1850. 



* Miss Martineau's Eastern Life, vol. i., p. 99. 



