338 NOETH-EAST AFEICA. 



plants are mainly of African origin, those of the oases, whether cultivated or 

 growing in the wild state, are mostly of European descent. Hence the inference 

 that these depressions were in direct contact with the west Mediterranean lands at 

 an epoch antecedent to their relations with Egypt properly so called. 



The greater the extent of the oases, the greater is naturally found to be the 

 variety of their flora. In that of Farafreh Ascherson collected ninety-one species, 

 more than double that number in Dakhel, and as many as two hundred in Khargeh. 

 But the widely diffused plantaga major, found both in Farafreh and Khargeh, is 

 unaccountably absent from the intervening oasis of Dakhel. In the Arabian 

 desert the characteristic plant on the slopes and uplands is the ratama, a species of 

 broom resembling that of the Canary Islands. The mugwort flourishes in all the 

 depressions and along the banks of the wadies ; in other respects the flora of this 

 steppe region is allied to that of Palestine. 



Fauna. 



Like its flora, the Egyptian fauna is more African than. European. If some 

 domestic animals have been associated with the ass, which is seen figured on the 

 ancient monuments of Egypt, the camel, the sheep and the horse, the latter a 

 " Turanian " variety introduced by the Hyksos, have reached the Nile Yalley from 

 Asia. Most of the wild beasts have disappeared from the region of the Lower 

 Nile, where they have retreated before the advance of human culture. The 

 monkeys, which are represented on the old bas-reliefs as associating familiarly with 

 man himself, are no longer found in Egypt. The lion and the leopard have also 

 moved southwards, while the hippopotamus and even the crocodile have retired to 

 the Nubian reaches of the Nile. None are now found farther north than Ombos. 



Hyaînas are still common on the skirts of the desert ; but of other wild animals 

 scarcely any have survived except the smaller species, such as the caracal, the 

 jackal, fox, "cut of the steppe," supposed to be the ancestor of our domestic cat, the 

 ferret, and the ichneumon, or " Pharaoh's rat." The fox-dog figured on the bas- 

 reliefs of the temples, and on the paintings of the sepulchral chambers, lives freely 

 in Egypt, venturing even as far as the skirts of the desert. The species of 

 greyhounds sculptured on the old monuments have also survived to the present 

 time. On the other hand the wild boar, although not represented on the ancient 

 bas-reliefs, now infests the reed thickets in the Lower Nile reo-ion. 



In the solitudes bordering on the arable land, antelopes descended from varieties 

 which the Egyptians had formerly tamed, are still numerous. They are here 

 represented by several spCcies, nearly all of which have adapted themselves to their 

 surroundings, assuming almost the identical colour of the ground now inhabited 

 by them. The mice and all other rodents, as well as the reptiles aud insects, have 

 also a grey or yellowish tint, causing them to be easily confused with the sands 

 and rocks of the wilderness. 



The Egyptian avifauna is very interesting, owing to its European species, such 

 as the stork and quail. These birds of passage cross the Mediterranean twice every 



