NATURE 



[Fed. 4, 1886 



jasper, one side of which is left untouched, while the other is 

 all chipped away except a small central area ; most of them are 

 unfinished. The few implements found among the quartz chips 

 are very rough, and may be classed a* lance-heads. The smaller 

 pebbles of agate and carnelian seem to have been broVen up in 

 great numbers to obtain, out of the interior flakes, small articles 

 about the length of the thumb-nail, of two types, pointed and 

 rounded. 



There is one doubly-pointed arrowhead of jaspar carefully 

 finished like Fig. 299 in Evans's "Stone Implements." Also 

 several rough implements of larger size of impure basalt. Many 

 of the hammer-stones are very characteristic, and have been 

 much used. Others show the effect of attrition by sand, &c., as 

 in those from the Irish sand-hills. F. Archer 



Crosby, Liverpool, January 30 



IVatij/ Haifa, January 2, i8S6 

 Sir, — When serving in the Soudan last winter, in the occa- 

 sional walks I was able to lake in the Desert I kept a look out 

 for stone implements, but failed to find any until I reached 

 Abri, where I picked up on the beach a well-worked flake, but 

 much worn, of Egyptian jaspar. 



Shortly after my arrival here I found several scrapers in the 

 plain lying between the river and the hills, and more extended 

 search led me to further discoveries. The hills at Wady Haifa, 

 which are of sandstone capped with trap (?), are distant about a 

 mile and a half from the present banks of the river, but at a 

 bend of the Nile about eight miles below our camp the valley 

 narrows, and the cliffs rise almost perpendicularly from the 

 water's edge. To the south it widens to the extent of some six 

 ■ or eight miles between the hills on either bank. The whole of 

 the plain between the sandstone ridges is covered with a deposit 

 ■of Nile mud of unknown dspth, but on the right bank this is to 

 a great extent concealed by the sand and pebbles brought dow n 

 in past ages by the river. The ground is uneven, here and there 

 rising to mounds of hardened mud. There is, however, a 

 gradual though slight rise towards the hills. SoDn after my 

 arrival I picked up a number of flakes of quartz, .and found that 

 they were most numerous in a belt of dried mud about half a 

 mile distant from the river and a quarter of a mile in width, and 

 tracing this northward I found a mound, some acres in extent, 

 formed of mud and completely covered with sand and tons of chips 

 of quartz, and also of agate, onyx, carnelian, and other hard 

 stones. It was evidently the site of an ancient manufacto'y, 

 and on this spot, in the many visits I have since paid to it, I 

 have got numerous more or less well-fashioned specimens. 

 Stone hammers may be picked up by the dozen, and these are 

 made of many different minerals. The most interesting are 

 those formed of silicified wood, of w hich large blocks, curiously 

 polished by the action of the water and sand, are still lying on 

 the river's bank. Tracing the belt further, I have found, both 

 north and south of the camp for many miles, chips and hammers 

 more or less abundant, and little water-worn. I have reason to 

 think that the same is the case on the left bank. 



Rambles in the desert, and search among the debris brought 

 ■down by the Nile in former times were rewarded by the discovery 

 of many roughly-worked flakes, evidently of much earlier dale, 

 being very much water- worn. These were widely scattered over 

 the desert, being nowhere abundant. The highest point at 

 which I found them was on the summit of a gravel-covereil 

 mound about 50 feet above the present level of the river. 



A proof of the Nile having in former times flowed at a much 

 higher level than it does at present, is found in the fact that 

 valves of the peculiar Nile bivalve, .^Ei/ieria, may still be seen 

 attached to the rock close to the foot of the hills, and at an 

 elevation of some 30 feet above the present bank. As this shell 

 must necessarily have lived always under water, the rocks when 

 they are found must formerly have been part of the river-bed. 

 If then as now the difference in height between high and low 

 Nile amounted to 40 feet, it is evident that when the shells were 

 living the stream flowed 60 to 70 feet higher than it now does. 

 Whether the stream has receded or the land been elevated I am 

 unable to decide. 



It is stated in Murray's Handbook — I know not on what 

 authority — that there is an inscription at Sannek, 35 miles south 

 of Wady Haifa, which records that in the reign of Amenanhat 

 III. of the twelfth dynasty, the Nile at that place rose to a point 

 27 feet 3 inches higher than it does at the present time. If this 

 is the case and if the same were true as regards the rive^r at this 

 place, the implements and chips found in the belt previously 



mentioned are of a date subsequent to the reign of that king. 

 I have found some hammers and flakes in the plain not far from 

 the Nile, and very little above its present level. 



If any traveller is desirous of obtaining specimens from this 

 neighbourhood he will find a landmark in the British Military 

 Cemetery, from which point the strip of desert in which the 

 remains are most abundant may be traced north or south. The 

 mound of chips is about a mile to the north of the graveyard 

 overlooking an ancient water-course. S. Archer 



P.S. — Since writing the above I have found another small 

 mound with quartz ilakes only between the Nile and the 

 railway. 



Parallel Roads in Norway 

 Parallel roads in Norway, such as those described by Mr. 

 Hansen in your last number (p. 268), have already attracted the 

 attention of several British geologists. Robert Chambers, a 

 careful observer, saw and described them as long ago as 

 1849. His description, however {Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal, vol. xlviii. p. 71), seems to be unknown abroad, and 

 is not generally accessible anywhere. With your leave, there- 

 fore, I quote it entire. 



"The valley of the Laugen, for several miles down, contains 

 great masses of pure sand in the form of terraces and isolated 

 mounts. On one of the latter Dovre Church is situated. . . . 

 In this portion of the valley there is a terrace unlike the rest, in 

 as far as it is a narrow ledge of detrital matter, running con- 

 tinuously along the hill-side for fully fourteen miles, however 

 much more, while the terraces resting on the skirts of the hills 

 lower down are great projecting masses, seldom extending far on 

 one level. This remarkable terrace is most conspicuous on the 

 soulh-west side of the valley. It begins on that side at Oue, 

 between the Hougen and Tofte post-stations. It is there seen 

 truncating the prominent ancient delta of a side stream, called, 

 in Prof Munch's map, the Jondals Elv, several hundred feet 

 above the bottom of the valley. As we ascend the valley, it 

 becomes nearer to our eye, but this is only because we rise to it, 

 for, when examined with a correct instrument from its own ele- 

 vation on the opposite side, it is proved to be for a great way 

 truly horizontal. On the north-east side of the valley the corre- 

 sponding mark is a line composed of slight projecting banks of 

 water-laid sand. Though not continuous, this line is sufficient 

 to have determined that of a long mountain-path connecting a 

 series of farms. Beyond Lie post-station the road to Molde 

 passes along it, and it here affords positions for a close series of 

 hamlets, which make a conspicuous appearance in the map 

 above cited. I believe it is nearly, if not exactly, of the same 

 elevation with the little hof, called Dombaas, of which the 

 height is given by Prof Naumann as 2162 (English) feet. In its 

 relation to the lakes in the summit between the two valleys [i.e. 

 of Laugen and Rauma) it precisely resembles the lowest of the 

 Inverness-shire parallel roads, as exemplified in Glen Spean, 

 where advancing to the basin of Loch Laggan, between the 

 Spean and Spey valleys. The terrace in every other respect 

 bears a strong resemblance to the Inverness-shire roads, while in 

 some important respects, as already noted, it differs from other 

 terraces. I should much desire to see it obtain the attention of 

 local observers, by whom its internal constitution and other 

 features could be more particularly ascertained." 



I offer this extract the more readily that the observations 

 of the paper in which the passage occurs ("On Changes 

 in the Relative Level of Sea and Land in Scandinavia '') have 

 scarcely received the attention, among Norwegian geologists, to 

 which their care entitles them. Chambers further refers to the 

 same terrace, in a descriptive and popular way, in his " Tracings 

 in the North of Europe," a little volume reprinted (for distribu- 

 tion, fifty copies only) from Chambers'' s Journal in 1850. You 

 will perhaps allow me to add this short reference to the other. 



"In addition to the many sandy terraces at different and in- 

 determinate heights, I discovered one of a much more remark- 

 able character, passing along both sides of the valley for fully 

 twenty miles, always at one elevation, and specifically identical 

 as a terrace with the celebrated roads of Glenroy in Inverness- 

 shire. It first became visible at a place called Oue (pro- 

 nounced Ouya) on the west side of the valley, where it 

 truncates the ancient delta of a side stream far up the mountain- 

 side. It is seen thence passing along thr-ough the scraggy woods 

 without any inteiTuption, till, on our turning out of the valley, 

 we lose sight of it among the high grounds near Lasso Lake. 



