230 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



China while they were under its dominion. The precise lo- 

 cality of nephrite in Mantchooria is unknown, although it is 

 stated by some to have been on a mountain to the northwest 

 of that country. 1 (7, i., 1872, 16. 



EXPLORATIONS ABOUT JERUSALEM. 



The explorations about Jerusalem are bringing to light a 

 number of interesting objects, among them a fragment of a 

 basaltic slab with Phoenician letters upon it, and another con- 

 taining two large Phoenician inscriptions. A portion of this 

 exploration is in charge of Rev. H. B. Tristram, a gentleman 

 well known both in Europe and the United States as an or- 

 nithologist and traveler of great eminence. This gentleman, 

 with some companions, was recently taken prisoner by the 

 Arabs, and some 600 demanded and obtained for their re- 

 lease. 15 A, March 9, 1872, 310. 



THE TANIS STONE. 



A good deal of attention has been excited among Egyptol- 

 ogists by the comparatively recent discovery in excavations 

 made at Tanis, on the eastern or Pelusiac branch of the Nile, 

 of a trilingual stone, somewhat of the character of the cele- 

 brated Rosetta stone, but much more perfect, and believed 

 to be of about two hundred and fifty years greater antiquity. 

 This, which is now deposited in the Museum of Egyptian An- 

 tiquities at Cairo, is a perfect stela, about six feet high, two 

 and a half feet broad, and one foot thick, the summit being 

 arched. 



The inscriptions cover one entire face and most of one side; 

 hieroglyphics occupy about three fifths (the upper portion) 

 of the face, and the Greek version the remainder, while the 

 Demotic translation covers scarcely more than two thirds 

 (the upper part) of the left side. The letters are small, close- 

 ly crowded, and all perfect and sharply cut, the stone not 

 having been defaced in the slightest degree. In the extent 

 and perfection of the inscriptions, it is, therefore, much supe- 

 rior to the Rosetta stone. Casts of this have been recently 

 taken to supply the museums of London and Berlin, and a 

 third was obtained, through the instrumentality of the Rev. 

 Dr. Lansing, for Monmouth College, Illinois. At the request 

 of Dr. Lansing, and through the liberality of Dr. Wallace, 



