The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-08
H..

We cannot, Of course, attempt to follow
Prof. Breasted's narrative through its $50
quarto pages and. therefore,. after a glance
at what Is believed to have been the physical
conformation Of the country in prehistoric
times, confine ourselves to that part OF his
exposition which deals with newly dis
covered materials that throw Light upon
the interesting question, How did it happen
that at the beginning Of the first dynasty OF
kings of Upper and Lower Egypt we find
a highly organized monarchy. far ad-
yanced in the arts Of civilization 1t Is
lust this preliminary and indispensable part
OF a history Of ancient Egypt with which
the book before lis deals more extensively
and fruitfully than any of its predecessors.
1t L., Of course, the valley below the first
cataract OF the Nile which constituted
Egypt proper. The reason for the change,
which here gives the river q free course.
is the disappearance Of the sandstone sixty
eight miles below the cataract at Edfu,
where the Nummulitio linn estone, which
forms the northern desert plateau, offered
the stream an easier task in the erosion OF
it's bed. In the process of ages the river
had thus been enabled to produce a vast
canon or trench cut across the eastern
end Of the Sahara to the Northern Sea.
From cliff to cliff the valley varies in width,
from ten or twelve to some thirty-one miles.
The floor Of the canon is covered with black
a~lluvial deposits, through which the river
winds n%orthward. Through the alluvium
the Nile cleaves a deep channel, flowing
with a speed of about three miles an hour:
in normal width it only twice attains a maxi
mum Of 100 yards. On the west the Bahr
W. ..1.l ,~;nnr nhanpal gonna o00
miles long, leaves the main stream near
Slut and flows into the Fayum. In an
tiolity it flowed thence into a canal known
as the North which passed northward,
west of Memphis. and reached the sea near
the site Of the later Alexandria. A little
more than a hundred miles from the Mediter-
ranean the main stream entered the broad
triangle whose apex is at the south and
which the Greeks graphically called the
Delta" This was, of course, in prehistoric
ages a bay, which gradually has been silted
up by the d deposits Of the river. The stream
once divided at the apex OF this triangle
and reached the sea through seven mouths,
but In modern times there are only two
main branches struggling through the
| Delta and piercing the coast line on either
| side Of the middle. We scarcely need re-
mind the reader that the western branch
Is called the Rosetta mouth; the. eastern,
that Of Damietta.
Prof. Breasted points out that the de-
posits which AVE formed the Delta are
very deep. and have slowly risen over
the sites Of many ancient cities which once
aourished there. The old swamp s, which
must once have rendered the regions OF
the northern Delta a vast morass, have
gradually been filled UP, and the fringe
of marshes has been pushed further out.
In antiquity the sSamps undoubtedly
| occupied a much larger proportion Of the
| Delta thar they do now. Even in the
valley above the apex OF the triangle the
depth of the soil reaches from thirty-three
TO thirty-eight feet. The cultivable area
thus formed between the First Cataract
and the sea is less han $1,000 square miles
in extent, being roughly equal TO the area
Of the state Of Maryland, or about 10 per
cent. less than that Of Belgium. The cliffs
on either hand are US Tally but a few hundred
! feet in height, though here and there they
risa into what look by compariso IN like
mountains a thousand feet in altitude.
They arc. OF course, fiankei by the deserts
through which the Nile has cut its way.
On the west the Libyan Desert. or Sahara,
rolls in illimitable desolate hillocks Of sand,
gravel and, rock, at a general level OF from
$50 to a thousand feet above the Nile. Its
otherwise waterless expanss is broken only
by an irregular line Of oases or watered
depressions roughly parallel with the river,
and doubtless owing their springs and
wells to lateral inhltration Of the Nile
waters. The largest Of these Impressions
is situated 80 CLOSE to the Nile Valley that
the rock wall which once separated them
has broken down, producing the fertile
and extensive oasis known a. the Fayum,