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



care, it looks probable that certain projecting hieroglyphs may 

 have been subjected to some undesirable degree of strain. 



IV. New York. 



On its arrival at New York, the pedestal was directly landed 

 upon New York Island, but the shaft was first lauded on Staten 

 Island, September, 1880, then towed to the foot of West 96th 

 Street, again landed, and thence dragged around Central Park and 

 re erected on " Gray wacke Knoll," January 22, 1881. 



13. Position of the Obelisk at New York. 



The foundation of the monolith was laid upon the outcrop of the 

 vein of endogenous granite, already mentioned. Gorringe states: 

 " The earth having been removed from the top of the Knoll, the 

 surface of the granite was levelled and the cavities filled with 

 cement. A thin layer of this was then laid over the granite, and 

 the foundation was replaced exactly as it had stood in Alexandria, 

 each piece in the same relative position to the others and to the 

 points of the compass.'" 



In Plate XI of the same work, as already explained, he desig- 

 nates these points of the compass, for the angles, as N., E., S., and 

 W. Elsewhere, he refers to the four sides of the shaft, as facing 

 N., S., E., and W., taking those terms from Chabas and Brugsch, 

 who used them, it may be presumed, loosely, in a general way. 



On examination with a compass, however, I was surprised to find 

 that the sides do not now face N. 45° E. (N E.), S. 45° E. (S.E.), 

 etc., but respectively N. 27° E. (nearly N.N.E.), S. 63°E. (nearly 

 E.S.E.), etc. 



Gorringe's statement refers only to the foundation of the Obelisk, 

 but a reader would naturally infer that the shaft was also replaced 

 here "exactly as it had stood in Alexandria." However, I must 

 call your attention again to the tell-tale nick, now directed to about 

 N. 18° W., while at Alexandria it pointed to about S. 23° W. It 

 thus appears that, on its re-erection in New York, not only was the 

 whole foundation changed in position from that which it occupied on 

 its Alexandrian site, but that also the shaft was twisted nearly half 

 round to the right: so that both shaft and pedestal now stand once 



1 Gorringe, idem, 32. 



