NEWBOLD ON THE GEOLOGY OF EGYPT. 347 
where not increased by fluviatile deposition. With regard to the 
assertion that the islet of Pharos, which is now close to Alexandria, 
was a day’s sail distant from the coast of Egypt im the time of the 
Trojan war, I perfectly agree with Sir G. Wilkinson in thinking that 
Homer in the term Atyuzros alludes to the Nile. That Pharos was 
formerly at a greater distance from the main than at present, is a fact 
noticed by Lucan*, Strabo+, Ovid ft, and Pliny §. 
Sand Drifts.—The shores of Egypt, both on the Red Sea and the 
Mediterranean, a short distance inland, are in several localities studded 
with hills of drifted sand derived chiefly from the sand-banks thrown 
up by the sea. Similar hills are observed in many parts of the desert, 
particularly near the Mecca route from Cairo, and in the Libyan 
wastes west of the Nile, whence, at certain exposed points, blown by 
the north-west and westerly winds, they move easterly on the fertile 
valley of the Nile. 
The inference of M. de Luc of the recent origin of our continents 
from the fact of these sand-drifts having arrived only in modern 
times at the plains of the Nile has been justly questioned by Mr. 
Lyell ||, principally because M. de Luc has not demonstrated. that the 
whole continent of Africa was raised above the level of the sea at one 
period ; for unless this poimt was established, the region whence the 
sands began to move might have been the last addition made to Africa, 
and the commencement of the said flood might have been long posterior 
to the laying dry of the greater portion of that continent. M. de Luc 
supposed the desert on the western bank of the Nile to have been once a 
land remarkable for its fruitfulness, and overwhelmed in more modern 
times by sands transported thither by the western winds, so that 
now the oases alone remain as vestiges. This theory has been ably 
combated by Sir G. Wilkinson], from whom (while I concur with 
him so far that the sands only encroach where the accidental posi- 
tions of the hills and neighbouring ravines admit, and chiefly on 
deserted towns, where formerly the constant attentions of the inhabit- 
ants prevented their being encumbered by them,) I must differ, when 
he asserts that there is no increase of this encroachment, and that it 
has not curtailed on the whole the limits of the land formerly under 
cultivation. 7 
We must first consider the effects of the strong north-west and 
westerly winds that blow during nearly nme months of the year, con- 
stantly drifting sand towards Egypt from the great western deserts of 
Libya, and second, that since the time of the Pharaohs until the ac- 
cession of the present ruler, the artificial checks** opposed to these 
mroads have been gradually diminished, owmg to the wane of human 
industry, agriculture, and population. Both in Upper and Middle 
* Pharsal. x. 509. 
+ Lib. i. pp. 63 al. 37, et lib. xvii. p. 1140 al. 791. 
+ Met. lib. xv. pp. 287, 288. § Lib. ii. 85; xiii. 11. 
|| Principles of Geology, 4th edition, vol. iii. pp. 210, 211. 
{| Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, Ist series, vol. i. pp. 222, 223. 
** Such as the planting of thickly-branching trees, the bushy tamarisk, the 
Rak, or Cissus arborea, which by their roots and branches arrest the sand and 
collect it into a barrier. . 
