544 CAPT. H. G. LYONS ON THE STKATIGRAPHT AND [NOV. 1 894, 



open, even if they have not been much deepened in these later times, 

 and within the past four years three cases have been brought to my 

 notice where torrents have rushed down the eastern valleys, leaving 

 marks which will remain for many years to come. 



Besides the geological evidence of the shell-beds and deposits of 

 Nile mud there is also historical evidence of the Nile having 

 reached a higher level in Nubia in ancient times than it does to- 

 day. On the rocks at Semna, 45 miles south of Wadi Haifa, 

 inscriptions of the Xllth Dynasty (about 2200 b.c.) speak of the 

 Nile flood having reached a point which is 27 feet above its present 

 flood-level. Opposite Wadi Haifa, close to the river-bank, are the 

 remains of a mud-brick temple built in the time of Usertesen I., 

 that is, rather before the Semna inscription, and this temple continued 

 in use down to the time of Ramses XIII. (about 1100 b.c). The 

 floor of this temple is 14 feet above present flood-level, and any 

 greater rise than this would flood the temple. In the time of 

 Thothmes II. and Thothmes III. (about 1600 b.c.) another temple 

 was built alongside the first, with a flight of steps leading to the 

 river, but they stop with a vertical face some 8 to 10 feet high at 

 a point 19t| feet above present low Nile and more than 7 feet below 

 present flood-level. 



At some time subsequent to 1100 b.c, when the temple of 

 Usertesen I. was no longer used, but had fallen into decay, the 

 vaulted mud-brick roof having fallen in, the temple site was flooded 

 to a height of 15| to 17 feet above present flood-level. Over the 

 drift-sand which had blown in there is a regularly-bedded, fine, 

 white sand, and on this is | to | an inch of the finest grey mud- 

 silt which has settled from the ponded-up water. On this silt, 

 which is sun- cracked and rain-pitted by an easterly shower, are 

 the carbonized remains of twigs and grasses, so that the flood 

 evidently came from the Nile and not from a heavy storm in the 

 neighbouring hills, which would have brought down stones, broken 

 pottery, etc. ; moreover, a rise in the ground behind the temple 

 would have deflected such a torrent to one side or the other. 

 Thus we have : — 

 2200 b.c A temple at Wadi Haifa, floor 14 feet above present 



flood-level. 

 2000 b.c High Nile level at Semna, 45 miles south, 27 feet 



above present flood-level. 

 1600 b.c Another temple floor about 17 feet above present 



flood-level, and a stairway ending in a perpendicular face at 



a point about 7 feet below present flood-level. 

 After 1100 b.c The northern temple is flooded, while the other, 



the Thothmian temple, at a slightly higher level, shows no* 



signs of it, except that at some time, perhaps then, the brick 



wall round it was doubled in thickness. 



Seeing that Wadi Haifa and the Second Cataract are situated on 

 the same series of folds as the wells of Shebb, etc., I would suggest 

 that these variations of the river were caused by earth-movements. 



