440 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1924 



the animals already mentioned as occurring in dynastic times, vvc 

 meet with others, such as the elephant,^^ the kudu {Strepiceros 

 kudu),^* the gerenuk gazelle {Lithocranius ivalleri),^^ a species of 

 Sus ^° (which is certainly not the wild boar, i. e., /Sus scrofa), and the 

 marabou stork {Leptoptilus a'umenifer).'^'^ From the nature and 

 habits of these mammals and birds it is evident that there must have 

 been a considerable rainfall in the Valley of the Nile north of Aswan 

 when they frequented Egypt. This evidence sanctions the conclu- 

 sion that a material change in the character of the climate of North- 

 eastern Africa, so far as its rainfall is concerned, has taken place 

 since predynastic days. The flora of the valley of the Lower Nile 

 also points to the same conclusion. Doctor Schweinfurth^^ has 

 drawn attention to the fact that many plants, now known in Egypt 

 only under cultivation, are found in the primeval swamps and forests 

 of tlie AVhite Nile. He not unreasonably draws the inference that in 

 ages long ago the entire Nile Valley exhibited a vegetation harmoniz- 

 ing in its character throughout much more than at present. The 

 papyrus swamps and reed marshes that lined the Lower Nile Valley 

 in pre-agricultural days have been changed into peaceful fields, in 

 which now grow the cereal grains, wheat and barley, and the other 

 crops that have made Egypt famous as an agricultural country. It 

 was the canalization of the valley, carried out by man, and the con- 

 sequent draining of the swamps and marshes that displaced the an- 

 cient flora from its northern seat, and made it, as at the present day, 

 only to be found hundreds of miles higher up the river. The land 

 of Egypt has, in fact, been drained by man ; each foot of ground has 

 been won by the sweat of his brow with difficulty from the swamp, 

 until at last the wild plants and animals which once possessed it have 

 been completely exterminated in it. The agricultural Eg^^pt of 

 modern times is as much a gift of man as it is of the Nile. 



I have dwelt at some length on the ancient fauna and flora because 

 1 want to bring out as clearly as I can two facts concerning the 

 Egypt of pre-agricultural days — the Egypt of the time before man 

 began to win the alluvial soil for the purposes of agriculture. (1) 

 The aspect of the Lower Nile must have been very different from 

 what it is now; it was a continuous line of papyrus swamps and 

 marshes inhabited by hippopotami, wild boars, crocodiles, and im- 

 mense flocks of wild fowl of all kinds; it was singularly destitute 

 of trees or plants that could be put to any useful purpose, and 

 timber trees were non-existent; its physical conditions resembled 



"Journal of Ejjyptlan Archaeology, Vol. V, p. 231, I'iate XXXIII. 

 " Petrie, Abydos I, Plate L. 



"> Lydekker, Brit. Mus., Guide to the Great Game Animals, 1913, Plate 39, and Figures 

 21, 22. 



'« Journal of Egj-ptian Archaeology, Vol. V, Plate XXXIII, p. 227. 

 " Schweinfurth, Heart of Africa, Vol. I. p. 69. 



