127 
" ' ' • r ~^ ^ ?r 
the Mediterranean naturalist 
ing that the Delta was at that time part of the 
desert, when the Nile ran in a deep channel and 
perhaps more to the east than now, the fresh water 
deposits occurring at the Isthmus of Suez being 
probably of this period. 
A subsequent slight depression near the begin- 
ning of the historical period placed it in a position 
to receive and retain the mud. It has been calcu- 
lated that the Nile mud is deposited at the rate of 
nearly five inches in a hundred years. This will 
give a date of about 10,000 years for the growth of 
the Delta. 
The first period of human occupation is indicated 
by flint implements. That there was a stone age in 
Egypt appears to be now well established and 
recognised since 1869. Many implements have been 
found about Thebes, in the Oasis, and elsewhere. 
They consist of flakes, cores (usually one-sided 
only), hammers, arrow-heads, lances, scrapers, 
saws, heads of hatchets, <fcc. 
The Egyptians, as Herodotus tells us, continued 
to use flints for the purposes of mummification, <fec., 
though iron was of course in use. 
The numerous depressions and elevations of 
Egypt, as well as dislocated strata on the east and 
west side of the Nile, indicate the action of great 
forces, so that the fact of earthquakes having taken 
place is not surprising. The frightful havoc done 
to the temples in Upper Egypt can apparently 
only have been caused by earthquakes. 
The valley of the Nile was primarily determined 
by ridges of the old crystalline rocks on the east- 
which caused the flow of drainage to proceed 
northwards, and prevented a direct communication 
with the Red Sea. It was also influenced by the 
fractures and faults occurring in the elevation of 
the Eocene beds the west side of the Nile being 
a downthrow which produced lines of weakness 
along the course of the present valley. Much of the 
actual cutting of the valley must have been effected 
by the sea in times of pleistocene submergence. 
Many inland cliffs and “Wadys” were then formed 
together with the scattering of boulders from the 
eastern crystalline mountains over the Libyan 
desert as at Denderah. 
That the Nile, or perhaps a branch of it, once 
flowed eastwards appears to be probable from the 
existence of fresh water strata around Xsmailia, 
occupying the highest part immediately north of 
the town on the Isthmus of Suez, and extending a 
considerable distance east and west. They consist 
of a thin-bedded grey limestone in horizontal beds, 
resting on marls, sands, and clays, with gypsum 
and nodules of chalcedony. This formation would 
seem to imply the discharge of the Nile, or of a 
considerable branch of it, eastwards — not into a 
marine estuary, but into a saline lake. This may 
perhaps account for the identity of the Nile and 
Jordan fishes, the latter river having had some 
communication with this eastern branch of the 
Nile. 
The “Fungus Melitensis.” 
This plant ~was believed to be peculiar to 
the Maltese Islands only, a belief in which I also 
shared, and which I expressed to Dr. J. Murray 
during his late visit. Now, however, it has been 
shown that the above name is but a local synonym 
for u Cynomorium coecineurn L. arid that the plant 
has a much wider range than has hitherto been 
supposed a fact which led Prof. Carmel refer to it 
in the International Congress held at Florence in 
1874 as — “une des grandes raretes de la flore 
europeenne. Une plante que pas un botaniste peu- 
tetre sur cent n’a Foccasion de voir vivante.” 
But these facts do not detract from its interest, 
and a few details bearing upon it may not therefore 
be considered out of place in a journal that is de- 
voted to the Natural History of the Mediterranean 
and its islands. 
The misleading character of its popular name is 
now well known. It has no more right to he called 
“Melitensis, than it has to be called a fungus, 
although this is its pharmaceutical name in Linn. 
Materia Medica where in 1749 the plant, under 
the binomial nomenclature, received the name 
which it now bears. 
In the Maltese vernacular it is called “Gherk el 
general/ 5 or “Gherk signur,” which means. “The 
general’s root”, because the first known habitat was 
on the Hagra tal general , a detached rock situated 
at the north western extremity Oi Gozo, and which 
received the name of the “Fungus rock” in conse- 
quence of its presence. 
The medicinal virtues of the plant were fabu- 
lously exaggerated in former times, and have thus 
led to its being mentioned in nearly every work hat 
