336 NORTH-EAST AFRICA. 



lived in a climate different from that of our days. Oscar Fraas goes even so far 

 as to assert positively that "the desert was not yet."* Such an assertion is 

 doubtless exaggerated ; but it is at the same time certain that water was formerly 

 far more abundant in the now arid valleys of the Libyan and' eastern uplands. In 

 many places the traces may still be observed of ancient cascades, which flowed 

 perennially in these now all but waterless regions. At that epoch the woodlands 

 still yielded sufficient timber to work the mines, which now lie idle for lack of 

 fuel. To bake their bread, the fellahîn use nothing but cakes of dung mixed 

 with mud and dried in the sun. 



But while the supposition of a considerable change in the Egyptian climate 

 since the dawn of history may be accepted as highly probable, the statements of 

 several travellers and meteorologists regarding certain climatic modifications, 

 supposed to have occurred since the beginning of the last century, cannot be 

 admitted as yet demonstrated. It is often asserted that the plantations of mul- 

 berries and other trees made by Mohammed Ali have directly tended to bring 

 about an increase of moisture, and the great progress in agriculture made during 

 the present generation is supposed to have had a like result. But these statements 

 rest entirely on personal impressions, which have not yet been confirmed by 

 systematic observations. 



It may also be questioned whether the local climate of the Isthmus of Suez has 

 really undergone any slight modification at all since the construction of the fresh- 

 water and marine canals. These works, however gigantic in the eyes of man, still 

 remain too insignificant, compared with the extent of the surrounding seas, to have 

 produced any appreciable change, except perhaps in the immediate vicinity of the 

 canal. They can scarcely have had any general influence in moderating the 

 extremes of heat and cold, rendering the atmosphere more humid, or increasing 

 the abundance and duration of the rainfall. 



Flora of Egypt. 



Few regions of the globe beyond the polar zones possess a flora so poor in 

 vegetable species as that of Egypt. The uniformity of its plains, the lack of 

 variety in the chemical composition of its soil, the absence of well-watered hills 

 and uplands, the monotonous character of the agriculture, everything tends to 

 produce this result. Thousands of years ago the peasantry had already destroyed 

 the forests, unless the tracts be regarded as such which are still partly covered 

 with the sunt {jcicacia Nilotica), the formerly sacred tree used by the Israelites to 

 build the Ark of the Covenant. So valuable is timber in Egypt that the boatmen 

 use cow-dung kneaded with clay and chopped straw instead of planks to deck their 

 barges. 



Taken as a whole, the Egyptian flora presents a mixture of European, Asiatic, 

 and African species. But the last mentioned are the most prevalent, at least 

 beyond the region of the delta. The characteristic aspect of the Egyptian land- 



• " Alls dem Orient." 



