STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 167 



tound the lied of :in ancient river tar ont in the desert, near the oasis 

 wlierc once stood the famous temple of Jupiter Ammon. The Aral)s 

 called it "the river without any water." Belzoni, in tracinj.;- its hed, found 

 what was once an Island covered with immense petrified stumps. Some 

 distance from Cairo, but out in the desert, is now to be seen a petrified 

 forest. These and other evidences show that Es^ypt, and at least a great 

 part of the Sahara, were once covered with forests. Now, since a search 

 of the entire surface of the earth will not reveal such an anomaly as trees 

 without rain, therefore the inference is irresistilile that Ei^^ypt and the (jreat 

 .Sahara were not formerlv as now, rainless. .\s the trees have disap- 

 peared by human agency, man is responsible for the climatic changes 

 elFected. Egyptian culti\'ation in ancient times, we know, extended far 

 into regions now covereil with the sands of the desert. The cause of the 

 degradation (^f the climate, it is now admitted by the Egvptiaiis them- 

 selves, was that itefore the maivh of man down the valley of the Nile, 

 the ]")rimeval forests disappeared until not even a representative tree was 

 left. 



It is most true, that in Egypt civilization came dow n the vallev of 

 the Nile, but it is not the whole truth. Civilization in tlie past, like 

 many other benefits, has not been an unmixed blessing. Egyptian civil- 

 ization, like the Eastern civilization in Asia and Europe, and like the 

 Toltec and Aztec civilization on our own continent, left desolation in its 

 rear. 



The successive removals of the capitals of anc'ent Egypt, first at 

 Meroe, next at Thebes, and finally at Memphis, wei"e necessitated by the 

 utter desolation caused by the encroachments of the deserts that success- 

 ively overtook them. So overwhelming and complete was the triumph 

 of desolation, that the very sites of these capitals became mooted ques- 

 tions; and the exact localities of Aleroe and Memphis (both now in the 

 desert), have onl\ been determined b\- researches made w itliin the pres- 

 ent century. 



The most ancient traditions and Scripture place man's origin in 

 Eastern Asia, where lie \\as sunounded by an exuberant vegetation, and 

 consequently where the animal kingdom abounded in immense numbers, 

 and in innumerable forms. How long he lived upon the fruits of trees, 

 upon fish, the chase, and other bounties of nature, and how widely he 

 became dispersed before necessity forced terra-culture upon him, it were 

 futile to inquire, as neither tradition luir history informs us. Moses 

 informs us that, after the transgression, man was sent forth to till the 

 ground; and also that cherubim with a flaming swor({ were placed east, 

 whicii turned every way to guard the tree of life. The sending him forth 

 from the ganlen of lulen to till the ground, may dimly shadow forth the 

 great change in his physical condition when he ceased to be a beneficiary 

 on nature's bounty, and was doomed in the sweat of his face to eat his 

 bread all the days of his life. The Haming sword also mav ssmbolize 

 the scorching desert he had placed between himself and his last Eden, 

 since Ilagi Ismael describes a desert " as a place where the earth is of 

 fire, and the wind a fiame." Be this as it may, he turned his face to the 



