54 Antiquities. — Measurement of a Degree of Meridian^ 



ANTiaUITlES. 



A number of curious remains of antiquity arrived at 

 Portsmouth in one of the transports fn)m Egypt ; they are 

 the property of the carl of Cavan, and were put on board a 

 vessel to be conveyed to his lordship's seat at Fawley ; 

 amona; them are the followiiig : — A case containing mum- 

 mies 01 an antient Egyptian family, viz. a male, female, and 

 two children ; the male measures five feet nine inches in 

 heiffht ; and as the upper half of the body liad been stript of 

 the'linen swathes, the flesh, the nails of the tingers, and even 

 the features, can be seen very distinctly : the ar)ns are bent 

 upwards, crossing each other on the breast, the lingers of the 

 right hand touchinj^ the left shoulder, and the left hand 

 clenched as if holding something. The i'omale measures 

 fi.ve feet six inches in height, and the infant children about 

 twenty-two inches. Mammies of an ichneumon, a dog, 

 t\\'o hawks, two owls, and six ibises, some of them in co- 

 vered urns of red earthen ware; another complete mummy, 

 with the external case beautifully painted with hierogly- 

 phics ; a bust of Isis ; a large frog in gray granite ; a large 

 slab. of whitish granite, with hieroglyphics cut in has relief; 

 a broken sarcophagus in black granite, and many antioue 

 fragments of marble porphyries, jaspers, agates, and masses 

 of the various rocks of Upper Egvpt, which will be highly 

 interestint'^ to the mineralogist, as well as amusing to the an- 

 tiquarian ; a perteet sarcophagus of red granite ; its inside 

 dimensions are six feet six inches long, two feet four inche? 

 wide, and one foot six inches deep ; a large column of red 

 porphvry; also, a bowl of red granite, its outside dimensions 

 near- six feet ) it is cut out of the base of a Corinthian column ; 

 the mouldings are very perfect, and the whole height of the 

 eolumn must have been about 5 i feet* 



MEASirnEMEN-T OF A DHGUEE OF THE MERIDIAN. 



Astronomers long suspected that there waS an error in 

 the measurement of a degree of the earth, made in Laplanct 

 m 1736 by Maupcrtuis, Lemonnieii, Outhier, and Celsius, 

 because tiiat degree wjft greater than it ought to be accord- 

 incr .to all the other nieasurcments. M. Mclanderhiolm 

 has found means to repeat this measurement. He informs? 

 me in a letter tliat M. Svrnberg and three other astrono- 

 mers have found the degree to be 37209 toises in lat. QQ"* 

 2o', which makes 196 toises less than by the metfsurement 

 of the French astronomers, and gives for tl>c flattening of 

 the earth a 313th part. Tills agrees better with the other 

 comparisons, and shows us that the iigure of the earth is 

 Eot !>o irre<Tular as was supposed froiu the northern degree. 

 * JNI, Mcchain 



