104 Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder. 



Through the rock in its vicinity small bunches of black hornblende 

 are scattered, but none on the sides of the cavity. It does not 

 therefore appear to be the result of weathering away and dropping 

 out of any hornblende-mass or of other ordinary products of decay ; 

 and its outlines do not conform to the natural cleavage of the stone. 

 Its peculiar shape, and its position — which is, I believe, exactly 

 half-way up the shaft, suggested the possibility that it may have 

 been an ancient artificial cut, perhaps a niche or shrine excavated 

 for the reception of a small golden image of some deity. If so, 

 whether this was done during the construction of the shaft at 

 Syene, or by Egyptian, Greek or Roman, at later date, at An, can 

 now be but a subject of conjecture. No corresponding cavity ap- 

 pears in photographs of other Egyptian obelisks, however, nor in 

 that of the fellow-obelisk now in London. 



5. Decay of granite at Syene. 



A general opinion has long prevailed that the climate of Syene 

 is one not only of extreme heat, but of unvarying aridity, and that 

 its rocks are consequently fresh and free from any but the most 

 superficial decay. 



Thus Jomard,^ in 1809, refers to Syene as "a place surrounded 

 on all sides by naked and browned rocks ; a burning sky, never 

 tempered by a drop of rain. Martial has characterized in a single 

 line this aridity and this sombre color of the ground : 



' Scis quoties Phario madeat Jove fusca Syene. '* 



If you break off a chip from these dark colored rocks, you are 

 surprised to see the rose-colored and brilliant tint which the frac- 

 ture has revealed. You wonder whether it is the action of the 

 air or that of the sun to which the surface owes its brown and deep 

 color. But what could an atmosphere of perpetual dryness pro- 

 duce on so hard a material ? And, as to the heat, one can hardh"- 

 attribute this effect to it, except on the supposition of a period of 

 prodigious length ; because the hieroglyphs inscribed on these rocks 

 for a long time are still of a quite bright rose-color." Elsewhere 

 he explains that the wedge-marks and hewn surfaces in the granite 

 quarries still retain the same bright color. Lefevre,^ in 1838, refers 

 to the more ancient syenite forming "cliffs resembling heaps of 



1 Jomard, op. cit., I, ch. ii, 61. * Epigramm, Bk. IX, epigr. 36. 



3 Lefevre, loc. cit., 144. 



