They have the appearance of dry watercourses, exactly what any mountain
burns would be were the water-supply suddenly cut off for ever, the
climate altered from rainy to eternal sun-glare, and every plant and
tree blasted, never to grow again. Acting on the supposition that this
idea was a correct one, most observers have concluded that the climate
of Egypt in remote periods was very different from the dry, rainless one
now obtaining. To provide the water for the wadi streams, heavy
rainfall and forests are desiderated. They were easily supplied, on the
hypothesis. Forests clothed the mountain plateaus, heavy rains fell, and
the water rushed down to the Nile, carving out the great watercourses
which remain to this day, bearing testimony to the truth. And the
flints, which the Palaeolithic inhabitants of the plateau-forests made
and used, still lie on the now treeless and sun-baked desert surface.
[Illustration: 007.jpg THE BED OF AN ANCIENT WATERCOURSE IN THE WADIYEN,
THEBES.]
This is certainly a very weak conclusion. In fact, it seriously damages
the whole argument, the water-courses to the contrary notwithstanding.
The palaeoliths are there. They can be picked up by any visitor. There
they lie, great flints of the Drift types, just like those found in the
gravel-beds of England and Belgium, on the desert surface where they
were made.
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