General Faidherbe divides Africa into two distinct regions -- one
north of the Great Desert, where the inhabitants and the fauna and
flora have all alike certain characteristics in common with those
of Europe; and the other south of the Sahara, which was at one
time separated from that in the north by a vast inland sea. In this
southern region we are in Nigritia, or the Africa of the negroes,
where the inhabitants in their physical characteristics and in their
language, the mammals, and the plants, differ altogether from those
of the north. In one point, however, these two regions resemble each
other: in both we recognize a Stone age, which existed in Algeria
and in Egypt, as well as on the banks of the Senegal and at the
Cape of Good Hope. The valley of the Nile from Cairo to Assouan has
yielded a series of objects in flint, porphyry, and hornblendic rock,
retaining traces of human workmanship, and reminding us of similar
implements of European type. These objects,[36] says M. Arcelin,
are always found either beneath modern deposits or at the surface of
the upper plateaux at the highest point to which the river rises;
nothing has, however, been found in the alluvial deposits of the
Nile, in spite of the most persevering search. At the Prehistoric
Congress held at Stockholm, some worked flints were produced that
had been found in the Libyan Desert. This once inhabited district,
now without water or vegetation, can only be reached at the present
day with the greatest difficulty. Is not this yet another proof of the
great changes which have taken place since the advent of man? Lastly,
the Boulak Museum contains a whole series of stone weapons and
implements, showing in their workmanship a progressive development
similar to that we find in Europe. Many archaeologists are of opinion
that the worked flints found in the plains of Lower Egypt date from
Neolithic times. Those alone are Paleolithic which have been found