The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1883-09-07
Unwritten History.

y
Unwritten History.
A flood of light would be thrown ON
the unwritten history of Egypt by
well-directed and careful re- examination
Of several points. For example, q sim
Gle line of borings carried across the
middle of the delta, down to the solid
rock, with careful record OF what is
found at successive depths; n fairly ex-
act survey of the petritied forests and
of the regions in which traces of the
ancient miocene sea shore occur; sur
vey of the Selisleh region, with deter
mination of the heights of the allMvial
terraces between this point and Semneh,
and an examination of the contents of
the natural caves which are said to oc-
cur in the limestone rocks about Cairo
and elsewhere, would certainly yield
results of great Importance.
But, although SO many details are
still vague and undetermined, the
broad facts of the unwritten history OF
Egypt are clear enough. The gulf of
Herodotus unquestionably existed and
has been filled up in the way he sug-
gested, but at u time so long anteced-
ent, at the furtherest date to which he
permitted his Imagination to carry him,
that, in relation to it, the historical
period, even of Egypt, sinks into insig-
niicance.
However, we moderns need not stop
at the time when the delta was q gulf
of the sea. The limestone rocks in
which it is excavated and which extend
east, west and south for hundreds of
miles, are full of the remains of marine
animals, and belong, the latest to the
eocene, the oldest to the cretaceous for
nations. The miocene gulf of the delta
was, in fact, only the remains of the
ocean which formerly extended from
Hindostan to Morocco, and at the bot
tom of which the accumulation of the
shell and skeletons of its denizens gave
rise to the ooze, which has since hard
ened into chalk and nummulitic lime
stone. And it is quite certain that the
whole of the area now occupied by
Egypt, north of Esneh, and probably all
that north of Assouan, was covered by
tolerably deep sea during the creta-
caous epoch. 1t is also certain that q
great extent of dry land existed in South
Africa at much earlier period. How
far it extended to the north is unknown;
but it may well have covered the area
now occupied by the great lakes, and
the basins of the White and Blue Niles;
and it is quite possible that these rivers
may have existed and may have poured
their waters into the northern ocean,
before the elevatory movement-possi-
bly, connected with the outpour of the
huge granite masses. of the Arabian
range and of Nubia-commenced, which
caused the calcareous mud covering it's
bottom to become the dry land of what
is now the southern moiety of Upper
Egypt, sometime toward the end of the
cretaceous epoch. Middle and North
ern Egypt remained under water during
the eocene, and Northern Egypt during
the commencement, at any rate, of the
miocene epoch; so that the process of ele-
walton seems to have taken effect from
south to north, at an extremely slow
rate. The northward drainage of equa-
torial catchment basin thus became cut
from the sea by constantly increasing
plain sloping to the north; and as the
plain gradually rose, the stream always
flowing north, scooped the long valley
of Nubia and Egypt, and probably
have long since been washed away. At
last probably in the middle of the
latter part of the miocene epoch) the ele-
vatory movement came to an end, and
the gulf of the delta began to be slowly
and steadily filled up with its compare
lively modern alluvium.
The fourth Problem of Herodotus-
the origin and the antiquity OF the
Egyptian peoples much more diff
cult than the other three.
According to Figari Bey's investiga-
tons, marine deposit, which probably
is of the same age as the miocene
beaches of Cairo and Memphis, forms
the floor of the delta. Above this. come
the layers of sand with gravel already
mentioned, as evidencing former
swifter flow of the river; then follow
beds of mud and sand; and only above
these, Mt three distinct levels, evidences
of human handiwork, the last and latest
of which belong to the age of Rene
sis III.
1t is eminently desirable that these
statements should be verified; for the
doubts which have been thrown, to some
extent justly, upon various attempts tc
Judge the age of the alluvium of the
Nile do not affect the proof OF the rela-
tive antiquity of the human occupation
of Egypt which such facts would afford
and it Is useless to speculate on the an
tiauitv Of the Egyptian race. or the con