94 mi. GRAN'I' 13 KY, 



history any mentiou of the Tiniversal flood, such as is 

 recorded in Greek history,^ they repHed that they had 

 records of several floods, no doubt referring to the sudden 

 giving way of cataract barricades. The first obstacle to 

 yield to the ever conquering water in the Prehistoric Period, 

 was the sandstone dyke at Silsilis, about 50 miles to the 

 north of Assouan. At this time the ancient Ethiopia, com- 

 mencing at Assouan, was in a great measure under water, 

 as the cataracts at Assouan and Semneh (near Wady Haifa) 

 had not yet been worn down, nor had they given way. 

 The same, no doubt, may be said of many of the other 

 cataracts that simply made the Nile Valley a series of lakes, 

 while at the same time there was a large inland sea Avhere 

 the Sahara is now. These vast sheets of water, under a 

 tropical sun must have made the neighbouring countries 

 quite rainy, and this amply accounts for the abundant 

 evidences we have that the Nile had a larger volume of 

 water then than it has now, and was fed by local rains, and 

 streams that rushed into it like so many Niagaras. (Petrie's 

 Ten ^Var.s Digfiing in K<jiipt.y 



Professor Saycc tells us {Ancient Knipires in the East) that 

 the wadies and cliffs of the Nile valley are waterworn and 

 covered with boulders and pebbles which bear witness to 

 the former existence of mountain torrents and a consider- 

 able rainfall ; and the discovery of palajolithic implements 

 near the little petrified forests and in other places, makes it 

 clear that the geographical and climatic changes the 

 country has undergone have taken place since it was first 

 inhabited by man. 



NOTES. 



> The depth of tlie Nile dei)()sit across tlie Delta in the latitude of 

 JZagazig was ascertained by means of a series of boi'ings in 1883 to be 

 between 30 and 40 feet ; and as authorities are agreed that the rate of 

 deposit is between 4^ and 5 inches in a century we thus tind that the con- 

 vulsion of Nature referred to in Fart A, must have taken j)Iace about the 

 time here stated. 



" In the whole of the Nile valley, from Edfu northward, the geological 

 formation is calcareous (Eocene) which the Nile has scooped out to the 

 depth of 200 feet. 



=* The flood of Deucalion and Pyrrha. 



■• On the subji^ct of the "Origin of the Nile Valley," see paper by 

 Professor E. Dull in Trans. Vidt. Jnst., vol. xxiv, p. 307. The j)eriod 

 I )f great rainfaJl refeired to by Dr. Grant Bey is known as the Phivial 

 period, which occurred at the close of the Pleistocene. — Ed. 



