Study of the New York Obelisk as a Decayed Boulder. 133 



more in the orig-inal position at An. The incorrect statement of 

 Gorringe as to the Alexandrian position of the foundation, and his 

 silence on the readjustment of the shaft, remain without explanation. 

 But in his fortunate accuracy in that readjustment, I can only con- 

 jecture that he may possibly have been guided by a knowledge of 

 the true orientation of a surviving companion of our Obelisk, the 

 one still on the site of An : if it shall be found, by more close obser- 

 vation than that recorded bv Niebuhr, that this reallv faces to the 

 present direction of the W.N.W side of the New York Obelisk, 

 W. 27° N. 



I have plotted, on the accompanying illustration (Fig. 1), the 



Fig. 1. 



Q//(htioti^7T~ 





positions which our roving monolith has successively occupied on 

 its three sites, always accompanied, until now, by its London fellow 

 t)n its left : viz., its positions at An and at New York, by the square 

 with dotted line and nick; its position at Alexandria, by the square 

 with broken line and nick; and, for comparison, its position at Alex- 

 andria, according to Gorringe, by the square with continuous line. 

 The interspaces, between the two obelisks and between them and 

 the shore, are contracted in the illustration, for convenience. 



It is much to be regretted that a satisfactory explanation of the 

 statement in question has probably been lost by the death of the 

 eminent engineer, in July, 1881, only five months after the comple- 

 tion of his great enterprise, in the successful transfer and re-erection 

 of the Obelisk. 



