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



cent sides (the W. and the N.) are of great beauty; but the others 

 (on the E. and S.) have been much injured by wind and damp; 

 that is why I have represented them exactly as they occur." 



In 1743, Capt. Norden observed: "There are only two of the 

 faces which are well preserved; the two others are defaced, and the 

 hieroglyphs can hardly be seen by which they were anciently 

 covered. . . . The injury and effacement on two sides of a stone of 

 such hardness enable us to understand the great difference between 

 the climate of Alexandria and that of all the rest of Egypt; for it 

 has neither been fire nor the hand of violence which has injured 

 these stones. It is clearly evident that it has been only the injury 

 of Time which has eaten away some of the characters and has 

 effaced others, although incised to considerable depth.'" 



In the work of Mayer in 1801, it was remarked: "The sides 

 facing the N.W. and S.W. are best preserved, the hieroglyphics on 

 the other two sides being greatly defaced, especially toward the 

 lower part, large scales falling from the stone, notwithstanding its 

 hardness.'"' 



Lenormant, in 1841, concluded: "The obelisk, which has re- 

 mained erect, has suffered greatly from the saline and corrosive 

 dampness of the sea, principally on the N. and W. faces which front 

 the Mediterranean ; that which lies overturned is perhaps still more 

 worn than the other. "^ 



In 1842, Lepsius observed: "The two obelisks, of which the 

 one still standing is called Cleopatra's Needle, are very much de- 

 stroyed on the sides which are exposed to the weather, and in part 

 have become totally illegible."* 



It was remarked by Long : " Only two of the faces are in a state 

 of good preservation ; the other two, the E. and S sides, being so 

 much damaged by the moist atmosphere of Alexandria, that one 

 can hardly see the sculptures on them. The S. side has suffered 

 most of all."^ 



In 1864, Clark observed that these obelisks were "sadly out of 

 place amid the poverty and dampness of a sea-town. One of these 

 is fallen, and the other is wasting away in the unfriendly air."® 



In these quotations several careless references occur in naming 

 the sides, as those of the N.N.W. and W.S.W. (usually called the 



^ Norden, idem, I, 7. * Mayer, idem, 29. 



3 Lenormant, idem, 47. * Lepsius, Letters from Egypt, 42. 



6 Long, idem, 302. ^ Clark, idem, 31. 



