64 Natural-Historical Collections. 



It is probable that it was only by the heliacal rising and setting of the princi. 

 pal stars, that the Egyptians thus approximately discovered the length of the 

 year ; for their means of observation were very imperfect, and it is not believed 

 that they had any other instrument than the gnomon for measuring the heights 

 of the sun. 



We might be induced to think that the Egyptians had made very little pro- 

 gress in general physics, if it be true that they considered fire as an animal which 

 devoured the bodies that were presented to it ; but perhaps this was only the vul- 

 gar opinion, and not that of the learned caste. 



The Egyptians had very correct ideas respecting several points of geology. 

 They had accurately observed the laws of alluvial deposition, and at the present 

 day we cannot more correctly account for the formation of the Delta than was 

 done in the time of Herodotus. They had discovered the existence of solids, not 

 only in the transported deposits, but in rocks. Thus it may be believed that 

 when Thales presented water to the Greeks as tlie first principle of all things, he 

 merely gave a new form to the theories of the Egyptian priests, who asserted that 

 the land had arisen from the waters. 



The properties of minerals were pretty correctly studied. The country afford- 

 ed every facility for this. The mountains which formed the walls of the valley 

 of the Nile, exposed, with all their native lustre, various species of rocks. 

 Egypt was in a manner a mineralogical cabinet ready open. The necessity 

 of passing through the small valleys which direct themselves towards the Red 

 Sea, gave rise to the discovery of other minerals, which did not occur in so great 

 masses. It was in one of them that the mine of emeralds was found which fur- 

 nished all those of antiquity. 



The manner in which the Egyptians wrought the fine stones, porphyry and 

 granite, shows that they had the use of very sharp instruments, and that they 

 therefore were very well acquainted with the art of tempering. It is true that 

 but little iron has been found in their tombs and cities ; but this depends upon 

 the circumstance that this metal is easily destroyed. Besides, there have been 

 found in them various other metals, among others bronze and gold of extrerrie 

 purity. We find that they knew all our enamels and porcelains, — that they could 

 form the most brilliant and solid colours, and even ultramarine ; in a word, that 

 in the chemical arts they were infinitely more advanced than the Greeks and Ro- 

 mans ever were. 



We have said that the habit of keeping sacred animals in the temples, had af- 

 forded opportunity to the Egyptians of studying the manners of these animals, 

 and of carefully observing their forms. They also represented them in sculpture 

 and painting with perfect accuracy. On their monuments we find more than fifty 

 species of animals so recognizable, that even when the figures are of small dimen- 

 sions, and merely given in outline, it is impossible not to know them. Thus we 

 distinguish in their sculptures the great antelope, the oryx, the giraffe, the long- 

 eared hare, the sparrow-hawk, the vulture, the Egyptian goose, the quail, tlie 

 lapwing, the ibis, &c. Gau, in his work on Egypt, gives a copy of a painting 

 which represents the triumph of an Egyptian monarch, and in it there are seen 

 the different vanquished nations presenting to the conqueror, animals peculiar to 

 their country. There are distinguished the hunting tiger, and an animal un- 

 known in Europe thirty years ago, the aspic, {Coluber haje,) the crocodile, &c. 

 Although in their representations the zoological characters may not have been ex- 

 pressed, yet the general appearance is so well given, that a naturalist can always 

 without difficulty make out the animal, even when the figures are of insects and 

 fishes. In a painting brought from Egypt by M. Caillaud, and which represents 

 people fishing, there occur more than twenty species of fishes. There are seen 

 siluri, cyprini, and other species of singular forms and peculiar to Egypt, all so 

 faithfully expressed that they may be recognized at first sight. 



It cannot be supposed that a people who engaged with so much success in the 

 observation of nature, confined themselves to the collection of facts, without try- 

 ing to connect them by theories, and ascending to principles. It is therefore to 



