ME.  HOENEE  ON  THE  ALLUVIAL  LAND  OE  EGYPT. 
75 
lowest  part  reached,  beyond  a reasonable  inference  in  each  case,  according  to  the  circum- 
stances of  the  particular  locahty.  But  they  have  supplied  a large  and  valuable  amount 
of  evidence,  showing  the  nature  and  alternations  of  the  soils  constituting  the  alluvial 
land ; and,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  researches  of  a similar  nature  made  by  the 
French  engineers  at  the  end  of  last  century,  a brief  account  of  which  I have  given  in 
the  Appendix,  p.  84  (Note  D),  they  afford  strong  presumptive  evidence  that  the  whole 
of  the  land  of  Eg)y)t  between  the  bounding  hills,  from  the  first  cataract  to  the  sea, 
extending  nearly  700  miles — that  land  which  is  associated  in  our  minds  with  all  that  is 
most  ancient  in  history  or  tradition — belongs  entirely  to  the  recent  geological  period. 
Remote  as  is  the  date  of  13,600  years  from  the  present  time  which  these  probings  of 
the  soil  appear  to  have  disclosed,  they  have  not  enabled  us  to  attain  the  hoped-for 
object  of  discovering  an  approximate  link  between  historical  and  geological  time.  No 
trace  of  an  extinct  organism  has  been  turned  up  to  take  the  formation  of  the  alluvial 
land  of  Egypt  beyond  that  modern  epoch  from  which,  in  our  artificial  systems,  we  are 
used  to  carry  back  our  geological  reckonings ; that  period,  which,  although  “ character- 
ized as  the  most  recent,  reaches  to  an  infinitely  higher  antiquity  than  any  contem- 
plated by  history  or  fable*.”  Evidence  might  possibly  be  found  in  the  valley,  by  well- 
directed  researches,  which  would  approximatively  determine  the  commencement  of  the 
recent  period  in  this  region,  but  all  experience  in  geological  inquiries  hitherto  would 
lead  us  to  expect  that  the  discovery  would  show  a vastly  remote  antiquity.  That  the 
valley  of  the  Nile  in  Egypt  was  formed  by  an  internal  movement  in  the  earth’s  crust, 
which  broke  up  horizontally  deposited  strata  and  produced  the  depression,  scarcely 
admits  of  a doubt ; and,  from  all  that  we  have  hitherto  discovered,  it  is  probable  that 
the  depression  was  partly  filled  up  by  sand,  blown  from  the  adjacent  high  lands,  before 
the  waters  of  the  Nile  were  directed  into  it,  and  that  these  sands  form  the  bed  on  which 
the  sediment  began  to  accumulate. 
Evidence  which  these  researches  would  seem  to  afford  of  a very  early  eocistence  of  Man  in 
Egypt. 
In  a large  majority  of  the  excavations  and  borings,  the  sediment  was  found  to  con- 
tain, at  various  depths  and  frequently  at  the  lowest,  small  fragments  of  burnt  brick  and 
of  potteiy.  In  the  lowest  part  of  the  boring  of  the  sediment  at  the  colossal  statue  in 
the  year  1854,  at  a depth  of  39  feet  from  the  surface  of  the  ground,  consisting  through- 
out of  true  Nile  sediment,  the  instrament  brought  up  a fragment  of  pottery,  now  in  my 
possession.  It  is  about  an  inch  square  and  a quarter  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  the  two 
surfaces  being  of  a brick-red  colour,  the  interior  dark  grey.  This  fragment,  having  been 
found  at  a depth  of  39  feet,  if  there  be  no  fallacy  in  my  reasoning,  must  be  held  to  be 
a record  of  the  existence  of  man  13,371  years  before  a.d.  1854,  reckoning  by  the  before- 
mentioned  rate  of  increase  in  that  locality,  of  3^  inches  in  a century;  11,517  years 
before  the  Christian  era,  and  7625  years  before  the  beginning  assigned  by  Lepsius  to 
* Eev.  Badex  Powell,  ‘ Christianity  without  .Tudaism,’  p.  57. 
