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.  Undoubtedly where they were made, for the places where they lie are the actual ancient flint workshops, where the flints were chipped.  Everywhere around are innumerable flint chips and perfect weapons, burnt black and patinated by ages of sunlight.  We are taking one particular spot in the hills of Western Thebes as an example, but there are plenty of others, such as the Wadi esh-Shekh on the right bank of the Nile opposite Maghagha, whence Mr. H. Seton-Karr has brought back specimens of flint tools of all ages from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic periods.

The Palaeolithic flint workshops on the Theban hills have been visited of late years by Mr. Seton-Karr, by Prof.  Schweinfurth, Mr. Allen Sturge, and Dr. Blanckenhorn, by Mr. Portch, Mr. Ayrton, and Mr. Hall.  The weapons illustrated here were found by Messrs. Hall and Ayrton, and are now preserved in the British Museum.  Among these flints shown we notice two fine specimens of the pear-shaped type of St. Acheul, with curious adze-shaped implements of primitive type to left and right.  Below, to the right, is a very primitive instrument of Chellean type, being merely a sharpened pebble.  Above, to left and right, are two specimens of the curious half-moon-shaped instruments which are characteristic of the Theban flint field and are hardly known elsewhere.  All have the beautiful brown patina, which only ages of sunburn can give.  The “poignard” type to the left, at the bottom of the plate, is broken off short.

[Illustration:  008.jpg Palaeolithic Implements of the Quaternary Period.  From the desert plateau and slopes west of Thebes.]