168 Mr. Robert Mond [May 22, 



could not be marked with a tin,iJ:er-nail. All varnishes, even 

 those employed bv the ancient Egyptians, have a tendency 

 to become brown. Some of the frescoes to which they have 

 been applied have suffered in consequence. Care is also being 

 taken when repairing a tomb to guard against the access of too 

 much light so as to try and preserve the pristine freshness of its 

 colours. As in spite of all these precautions, no absolute guarantee 

 can be assured for the indefinite preservatiori of these records for 

 posterity, a complete photographic survey of the scenes represented 

 in these tombs is now being made. In order to solve the difficulty 

 of obtaining a satisfactory set of negatives accurately to scale in 

 these dark narrow passages, Mr. Sanger Shepherd has constructed 

 to my design a camera supported on a lai-ge and extensible optical 

 bench, provided with electric lamps and hghted by a small portable 

 electric station Two native boys, whose training was kindly under- 

 taken by Professor Reisner of Harvard, have, under the super- 

 vision of my coadjutor and assistant, Mr. Ernest Mackay, who I am 

 pleased to say has been able to return from Egypt in time to assist 

 me this evening, produced the composite pictures you see before 

 you. The principle of this apparatus is very simple. The camera 

 is mounted on an adjustable table, w^hich sUdes up and down 

 a vertical tubular mast, adjustable as to length, and fixed to a heavy 

 casting provided with four grooved gun-metal rollers, running on 

 tubular rails ; these are also adjustable for length. The camera, 

 which is designed to take quarter plates, is provided with a lens 

 of sufficient depth of focus to require no adjusting for the irregu- 

 larities in the wall Siirface. An aluminium rod or pointer permits 

 the camera being focused automatically. The table also supports 

 two semitubular reflectors in which incandescent electric lamps are 

 symmetrically placed. The generating station consists of a small 

 petroleum motor of 2h H.P., connected with a belt to a small 

 dynamo, which is placed on a light bed-plate and provided with a 

 switchboard and resistances ; the whole arrangement, weighing about 

 two cwt., being easily transportable, ilfter some preliminary adjust- 

 ments, the apparatus is now working satisfactorily, and I am looking 

 forward at some subsequent date to be able to deposit the properly 

 catalogued collection of negatives in some public institution, so that 

 a permanent and authentic record may be preserved for the benefit 

 of future students. 



Although we have a few tombs of the sixth and the twelfth 

 dynasties, the great majority date from the eighteenth, and although 

 the nineteenth and twentieth are Avell represented, there are only a 

 few of a suljsequent date ; but, as was pointed out in the short 

 historical introduction, it is just this period which marked the 

 highest tide of Egyptian influence and culture both at home and 

 abroad, and hence information gathered from these tombs, partly of 



